I once saw it as mark of intellectual distinction to use foreign words, words such as Weltanschauung, Verstehen, Habitus or more familiar loan words such as zeitgeist and telos in social research. What put paid to this was an essay by George Orwell on politics and English language - this can be found in many… Continue reading George Orwell and the language of social research
cross over books
When a student I remember reading a series of articles written by Richard Boston on best selling ‘cross over’ books*. Boston was primarily known as writer on beer but also an iconoclastic commentator on a range of subjects and here he was branching out to talk about four books which had reached out beyond their… Continue reading cross over books
Not knowing what we don’t know
Every now and then the Guardian newspaper publishes an extract from the Secret Footballer http://www.theguardian.com/football/series/the-secret-footballer offering some anecdotes and insight, from someone who played at the highest level, on what makes professional footballers ‘tick’ and what the fans get out of the game. In talking about the fans the Secret Footballer commented recently that it… Continue reading Not knowing what we don’t know
in praise of praise
As I come to later, I was taken back a little by a Sutton Trust report on ‘what makes great teaching’ . [The Sutton Trust is linked here [http://www.suttontrust.com] and the report itself is at http://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/What-makes-great-teaching-FINAL-4.11.14.pdf%5D . The report says many sensible things about support for learning and the critical importance of feedback. However tucked… Continue reading in praise of praise
understanding slaktivism
I have recently been researching the idea of online community and came across the concept of slacktivism; as Choi and Park* explain (they are looking at the use of social media in a protest movement in South Korea) online slacktivism is about soothing participants without contributing to any political or social impact. An example that… Continue reading understanding slaktivism
Michael Hammond 