Editorial

The following pieces of writing by current students have emerged from a third year module within the sociology degree provision – Contemporary Society and Social Futures. As a collection they have been so innovative, critical and engaging that we thought that they should have a wider readership than just the module tutors. So we’ve put them together into this publication which celebrates the critical observations that our students have been making! Still, whilst many papers were interesting and stimulating, we could only select some of work produced. So in what follows, we present 14 ‘Critical Reflections’ from the module. Students were asked to apply key theories and concepts covered on the module in order to develop a critical commentary on the nature of contemporary society, or particular aspects of it. The work was produced in the first semester of the 2012-13 academic year.</p

Preface

Sociology has long had the potential to have a transformative impact on the way we learn about the world around us. As a Lecturer in Sociology, I have had the pleasure in seeing many social science students 'grow' intellectually as they become more actively engaged with studying, understanding and motivated to change the society in which they live. Undergraduate students here at Leeds Metropolitan University have the potential to be more than simply the 'consumers' of a higher educational product. Indeed, what the academic staff in the Social Science group are committed to, is providing genuine, exciting opportunities for students to be the 'producers' of new knowledge. We want the students we work with to be active, motivated individuals who are able to employ their own 'sociological' imagination in examining the social problems and challenges that surround them.</p

Making Sense of Lived Experience in a Network Society

This paper focuses on Manuel Castells’ (2006) idea of a network society that emerged alongside increasingly complex and interconnected marketspace, and its potentially transformative effect on the future development of global community. Castells’ ideas will be put it in historical context and possible psychological undercurrents of the main characteristics of networking phenomenon will be traced back to the 19th century.</p

Travelling Through Airports

The paper outlines the hypothesis that the homogenisation of airports around the world can arguably be seen as a result of globalisation. Globalisation, ‘the growing interdependence between different peoples, regions, and countries in the world’ (Giddens, 2009) or ‘increased global connectedness’ (Held, 2004) is a fundamental element of contemporary society. In addition, advancements in information and communications technology, including the wide availability of long-haul travel has enabled transnational corporations to ‘stretch across national borders, influencing global production processes and the international distribution of labour’ (Giddens, 2009, p126).</p

Stranger’s Identity Explored through Contemporary Art Practice: In-Between Mongolia and the UK

The PhD research explored the identities of ‘Stranger’ (Schutz, 1944), ‘Stranger-artist’ and ‘Stranger-Mongolian’ through adopting a semi-autobiographical approach in which I use a variety of practice-based research methodologies in order to produce original art projects and artworks. I used ‘experiential perspective’ (Stevens, 1996) as the main paradigm in inquiring the negotiation process of a necessary adjustment to a different culture, language and society in conjunction with the popular debate of ‘loosing and searching for identity’ (Trinh, 1988).  In particular, the research is concerned with the previously untouched subject of a modern Mongolian national identity, its artistic representation and re-identification in the UK, through practice-based contemporary art methodologies. Drawing on examples from the recent political history of Mongolia and mainstream media, combined with first-hand personal experiences of the realities of national, racial, cultural stereotyping, the research has contested the existing stereotype of Mongolness. Important to this has been the inclusion and intertwining of familial and personal narratives in defining ‘Stranger-Mongolian’ identity, and how these experiences have become continually manifested while undertaking four research trips back and forth to Mongolia. I probed the terms Nicolas Bourriaud’s terms ‘cultural nomad’ and ‘reification’ in relation to Non-Western artists’ practices. As part of this I have also reflected upon the not widely known and studied art medium of Mongolian traditional painting or Mongol Zurag and the impact it had on my art practice.  The research employed various combinations of methodologies including photography, performances, documentations, installations, videos, interviews and personal narratives, two of which I termed as ‘auto-photo-performance’ and 'photo-performance'. The site-specific and spatial qualities of the research were the prepositions to all of the art projects and artworks produced.  The final PhD submission consists of 3 parts: Part 1, Contextual Document; Part 2, Art Projects & Artworks and Part 3, DVD.</p