How to Make Out in Graduate Sociology: One Observer's View

The establishment of new graduate sociology programs and the rapid expansion of such programs in general have created a deficit of peer socialization as to the latent, unwritten "requirements" of successfully attaining the Ph.D. The present paper seeks partially to correct this deficit through explicating a number of existing but unwritten requirements of success in graduate sociology. The explication focuses upon six informal aspects of the graduate experience that affect student success and it'makes recommendations on how to manage each aspect: 1) being conscious that one should early decide his personal "data style" and substantive interests; 2) performing early a sizing up of the faculty in terms of their congruence with one and in terms of their national repute as well as developing relations with congruent faculty; 3) knowing the factors professors employ in sizing up students; 4) realizing that accomplished papers are the key to graduate success, and knowing how to manage one's papers; 5) recognizing the relative unimportance of formal examinations; and 6) knowing how to choose and manage one's doctoral thesis topic and committee.http://web.ku.edu/~starjrn

Notes on Naturalism in Sociology

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/50808/1/23.pd

How to Make Out in Graduate School: One Observer's View

The establishment of new graduate sociology programs and the rapid expansion of such programs in general have created a deficit of peer socialization as to the latent, unwritten "requirements" of successfully attaining the Ph.D. The present paper seeks partially to correct this deficit through explicating a number of existing but unwritten requirements ofsuccess in graduate sociology. The explication focuses upon six informal aspects of the graduate experience that affect student success and it makes recommendations on how to manage each aspect: 1) being conscious that one should earty decide his personal "data style" and substantive interests; 2) performing early a sizing up of the faculty in terms of their congruence with one and in terms of their national repute, as well as developing relations with congruent facul!}; 3) knowing the factors professors employ in sizing up students; 4) realiiing that accomplished papers are the key to graduate success, and knowing how to manage one's papers; 5) recognizing the relative unimportance of formal examinations; and 6) knowing how to chose and manage one's doctoral thesis topic and committee

Situational Man: Notes on Emphases in the Analysis of Action

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/50811/1/26.pd

NOTES ON NATURALISM IN SOCIOLOGY

http://web.ku.edu/~starjrn

The New Segregation: A Perspective on Age Categories and Social Conflict

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/50816/1/31.pd

Seeing the way: visual sociology and the distance runner's perspective

Employing visual and autoethnographic data from a two‐year research project on distance runners, this article seeks to examine the activity of seeing in relation to the activity of distance running. One of its methodological aims is to develop the linkage between visual and autoethnographic data in combining an observation‐based narrative and sociological analysis with photographs. This combination aims to convey to the reader not only some of the specific subcultural knowledge and particular ways of seeing, but also something of the runner's embodied feelings and experience of momentum en route. Via the combination of narrative and photographs we seek a more effective way of communicating just how distance runners see and experience their training terrain. The importance of subjecting mundane everyday practices to detailed sociological analysis has been highlighted by many sociologists, including those of an ethnomethodological perspective. Indeed, without the competence of social actors in accomplishing these mundane, routine understandings and practices, it is argued, there would in fact be no social order

'Working out’ identity: distance runners and the management of disrupted identity

This article contributes fresh perspectives to the empirical literature on the sociology of the body, and of leisure and identity, by analysing the impact of long-term injury on the identities of two amateur but serious middle/long-distance runners. Employing a symbolic interactionist framework,and utilising data derived from a collaborative autoethnographic project, it explores the role of ‘identity work’ in providing continuity of identity during the liminality of long-term injury and rehabilitation, which poses a fundamental challenge to athletic identity. Specifically, the analysis applies Snow and Anderson’s (1995) and Perinbanayagam’s (2000) theoretical conceptualisations in order to examine the various forms of identity work undertaken by the injured participants, along the dimensions of materialistic, associative and vocabularic identifications. Such identity work was found to be crucial in sustaining a credible sporting identity in the face of disruption to the running self, and in generating momentum towards the goal of restitution to full running fitness and reengagement with a cherished form of leisure. KEYWORDS: identity work, symbolic interactionism, distance running, disrupted identit

The organizational embeddedness of social capital: a comparative case study of two voluntary organisations

Social capital is a popular, but contested concept. It draws attention to the way in which social relations and constructed forms of social organization can produce outcomes on individual and collective levels. However, it is often founded on individualistic, rational-choice models of human behavior that neglect its embeddedness. I explore the embeddedness of social capital through a comparative case study of two voluntary sport organizations in the UK. Through close analysis of in-depth interviews and longitudinal observation, I look at the processes of social capital development and at how socio-organizational context and identity shape these processes

The lived neighbourhood : understanding how people with dementia engage with their local environment

In this paper, we report progress on “Neighborhoods: our people, our places” an international study about how people living with dementia interact with their neighborhoods. The ideas of social health and citizenship are drawn upon to contextualize the data and make a case for recognizing and understanding the strengths and agency of people with dementia. In particular, we address the lived experience of the environment as a route to better understanding the capabilities, capacities, and competencies of people living with dementia. In doing this, our aim is to demonstrate the contribution of social engagement and environmental support to social health. The study aims to “map” local spaces and networks across three field sites (Manchester, Central Scotland and Linkoping, Sweden). It employs a mix of qualitative and participatory approaches that include mobile and visual methods intended to create knowledge that will inform the design and piloting of a neighborhood-based intervention. Our research shows that the neighborhood plays an active role in the lives of people with dementia, setting limits, and constraints but also offering significant opportunities, encompassing forms of help and support as yet rarely discussed in the field of dementia studies. The paper presents new and distinctive insights into the relationship between neighborhoods and everyday life for people with dementia that have important implications for the debate on social health and policy concerning dementia friendly communities. We end by reflecting on the messages for policy and practice that are beginning to emerge from this on-going study