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This book helps academics to become players rather than pawns in the process of change. To do so it raises issues that might inform thinking about - and therefore reactions to - academics' experiences of their changing roles in changing universities. In universities, the tradition is to change. The author looks at the big picture of change in higher education, and in academics' work and work environments. The focus is on the emergent educational role of academics, and the relationship between academics and their institutions. In these times, the strategy of working harder will not work. Unlike books written about how universities might be better managed, this book explores issues of self-interested self-management for academics. It suggests new ways of thinking about the nature and future of academic work, particularly in terms of the relationship between academic and institutional values, priorities and practices.
What do biologists want? How will we know when we have 'made sense' of life? Explanations in the biological sciences are provisional and partial, judged by criteria as heterogenous as their subject matter. This text accounts for this diversity.
This book helps academics to become players rather than pawns in the process of change. To do so it raises issues that might inform thinking about - and therefore reactions to - academics' experiences of their changing roles in changing universities. In universities, the tradition is to change. The author looks at the big picture of change in higher education, and in academics' work and work environments. The focus is on the emergent educational role of academics, and the relationship between academics and their institutions. In these times, the strategy of working harder will not work. Unlike books written about how universities might be better managed, this book explores issues of self-interested self-management for academics. It suggests new ways of thinking about the nature and future of academic work, particularly in terms of the relationship between academic and institutional values, priorities and practices. Making Sense of Academic Life makes fascinating reading for all those interested in the evolving roles of academics and especially for academics themselves, aspiring academics, and academic managers.
What is reality and how do we make sense of it in everyday life? Why do some realities seem more real than others, and what of seemingly contradictory and multiple realities? This book considers reality as we represent, perceive and experience it. It suggests that the realities we take as ‘real’ are the result of real-time, situated practices that draw on and draw together many things - technologies and objects, people, gestures, meanings and media. Examining these practices illuminates reality (or rather our sense of it) as always ‘virtually real’, that is simplified and artfully produced. This examination also shows us how the sense of reality that we make is nonetheless real in its consequences. Making Sense of Reality offers students and educators a guide to analysing social life. It develops a performance-based perspective (‘doing things with’) that highlights the ever-revised dimension of realities and links this perspective to a focus on object-relations and an ecological model of culture-in-action.
This accessible, introductory text explains the importance of studying 'everyday life' in the social sciences. Susie Scott examines such varied topics as leisure, eating and drinking, the idea of home, and time and schedules in order to show how societies are created and reproduced by the apparently mundane 'micro' level practices of everyday life. Each chapter is organized around three main themes: 'rituals and routines', 'social order', and 'challenging the taken-for-granted', with intriguing examples and illustrations. Theoretical approaches from ethnomethodology, Symbolic Interactionism and social psychology are introduced and applied to real-life situations, and there is clear emphasis on empirical research findings throughout. Social order depends on individuals following norms and rules which are so familiar as to appear natural; yet, as Scott encourages the reader to discover, these are always open to question and investigation. This user-friendly book will appeal to undergraduate students across the social sciences, including the sociology of everyday life, the sociology of emotions, social psychology and cultural studies, and will reveal the fascinating significance our everyday habits hold.
This volume demystifies science studies and bridges the divide between social theory and the sociology of science.
How did political power function in the communist regimes of Central and Eastern Europe after 1945? Making Sense of Dictatorship addresses this question with a particular focus on the acquiescent behavior of the majority of the population until, at the end of the 1980s, their rejection of state socialism and its authoritarian world. The authors refer to the concept of Sinnwelt, the way in which groups and individuals made sense of the world around them. The essays focus on the dynamics of everyday life and the extent to which the relationship between citizens and the state was collaborative or antagonistic. Each chapter addresses a different aspect of life in this period, including modernization, consumption and leisure, and the everyday experiences of “ordinary people,” single mothers, or those adopting alternative lifestyles. Empirically rich and conceptually original, the essays in this volume suggest new ways to understand how people make sense of everyday life under dictatorial regimes.
Since the discovery of the structure of DNA and the birth of the genetic age, a powerful vocabulary has emerged to express science’s growing command over the matter of life. Armed with knowledge of the code that governs all living things, biology and biotechnology are poised to edit, even rewrite, the texts of life to correct nature’s mistakes. Yet, how far should the capacity to manipulate what life is at the molecular level authorize science to define what life is for? This book looks at flash points in law, politics, ethics, and culture to argue that science’s promises of perfectibility have gone too far. Science may have editorial control over the material elements of life, but it does not supersede the languages of sense-making that have helped define human values across millennia: the meanings of autonomy, integrity, and privacy; the bonds of kinship, family, and society; and the place of humans in nature.
Peter Kreeft observes that our world is full of billions of normal lives which have touched by apparently pointless and random suffering. He then records the results of his own wrestling match with God as he struggles to make sense out of this pain.
`This book is a very worthwhile read for teachers, student teachers and teacher educators. It would be encouraging if politically based policy makers were to digest its contents also′ - Citizenship, Social and Economics Education `I recommend this book as an enjoyable, thought provoking and politically important read′ - Widenining Participation and Lifelong Learning `This important book challenges current educational policies in England in a style, for the most part, easily accessible to a wide audience. Geoff Whitty′s assertions are supported by a wide variety of research findings and this is a book that should be of considerable interest to student of sociology and to all member of the teaching profession′ - Mark Pepper, Equals `The particular strength of this book is Geoff Whitty′s grasp on and insights into the politics of education... he is able to bring to bear an authoritative perspective which is unrivaled in the United Kingdom. there is no other current book which compares in terms of the breadth and depth of this′ - Professor Stephen Ball, Institute of Education, University of London `This book represents a "struggle" by the director of the London Institute of Education, one of our foremost centres of teacher training and research in education, to understand what lies behind the education policies of recent governments. It is tempting to conclude that if a leading educational sociologist such as Geoff Whitty, who happens also to be brother of the former general secretary of the Labour party, has difficulty with this, there can be little hope for the rest of us. But now, at least, we have this personal odyssey to guide us′ - Bob Doe, Times Educational Supplement This book aims to make sense of the changes in education policy over the past decade, using the resources of the sociology and politics of education. The author shows that wider sociological perspectives can help us to appreciate both the limits and the possibilities of educational change. Geoff Whitty illustrates this through studies of curriculum innovation, school choice, teacher professionalism and school improvement. He considers how far education policy can be used to foster social inclusion and social justice and the book concludes with an assessment of New Labour education policy in these terms. The book deals with education policy in England and Wales, as well as making comparisons with contemporary education policy in other countries. This book is relevant to students of education at masters and doctoral levels, students of social policy, and policy-makers.