2.2 A society frightened by crime? We do not have to look too far to find someone saying that the UK is a society gripped by rising levels of crime, anti-social behaviour and incivility; or that disorder threatens social stability. The criminologist Robert Reiner suggests that ‘in the last 40 years, we have got used to thinking of crime, like the weather and pop music, as something that is always getting worse’ (Reiner, 1996, p. 3). So who is telling this story? Most of us will have heard older family members and fri
Learning outcomes On completion of this unit, you should be able to: give a definition of crime (in terms of society); state the steps and factors that lead from a crime to conviction; illustrate how society views crime ‘with fear and fascination’; give examples of the relationship between crime rates and the evidence to support these claims.
Introduction ‘Tough on the causes of crime.’ A famous phrase, but what is crime? This unit examines how we as a ‘society’ define crime. You will look at the fear that is generated within communities and what evidence is available to support claims that are made about crime rates. This material is from our archive and is an adapted extract from Introducing the social sciences (DD100) which is no longer taught by The Open University. If you want to study formally with us, you may wish t
Acknowledgements Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this unit: The content ackno
3.2 Summary Modern sport is characterised by stories and heroes. There is enormous interest in the lives of sports celebrities, who become the heroes of the sports stories that the media present. Sports stars may be more ‘real’ than film stars because they actually do what they are famous for (i.e. they really perform athletic feats, they don’t act out parts).
1.1 They think it's all over They think it's all over … it is now! (Kenneth Wolstenholme, 1966) This is one of those iconic sporting media moments. It happened a long time ago, when Geoff Hurst's third goal in the dying seconds of extra time clinched England's 4–2 win over Germany in the 1966 football World Cup final. People who were not even born, let alone at Wembley or watching the game on television, still reco
Learning outcomes By the end of this unit you should be able to: explore the relationship between sport and the media and understand that this is a social relationship; understand how sport is part of wider cultural relations and, especially of popular culture; look at how the media create sporting heroes through the stories they tell.
Introduction The media play a huge part in sport; we find out what's happening, how our team is doing and it creates great sporting moments and sports celebrities and stars. This unit looks at the role played by the media in sport and how this has changed with the development of internet and satellite TV. Who calls the shots – athletes, teams or the media moguls? How do social scientists explain this relationship between sport and the media? This material is from our archive and is an adapted extr
3.2 Technology and costs in the short run Advertising leaflets are dropping through letter boxes around the UK, as we are writing this chapter, from cable suppliers trying to attract new customers for their services. They promise to provide a telephone line, a bundle of television channels, an Internet connection, home shopping and movies-on-demand, all at a ‘bargain price’. These leaflets raise some interesting questions. How does expanding output of cable services by selling to new customers make it possible to offer them for s
References 5 Conclusion This chapter has enabled you to think about the essential role of technological change in determining economy-wide growth and the growth of firms and industries. We have seen that many issues surrounding the new economy are really issues around the dynamics of technological change: rapid increases in productivity, the emergence of many small firms, new products and new processes, and so on. The main lesson of the unit has been to provide a historical perspective to the introduction of new tec 2.1 Industrial revolutions and technological change In this section I shall look at the way that technological innovations in previous eras, such as the invention of electricity in the early 1900s, radically affected the way society organised production and at how these changes spurred general economic growth. In many instances, the changes were so large that they defined an entire period, just as the rise of information technologies has led some to call the current era the ‘information age’. The way that technological change can fun Learning outcomes After studying this unit you should be able to: understand the relationship between technological change and industrial revolutions; appreciate the pervasive effect that new technologies can have on the economy and, in particular, on productivity; understand how industry dynamics can be analysed using the ‘industrial life cycle’ model; use data and historical examples to support economic arguments. Introduction This unit takes one aspect of the debate concerning the new economy – innovation in the form of the introduction of information and communication technologies – and places it in the historical context of industrial revolutions. Is the new economy really new or ‘just another’ industrial revolution? This unit is an adapted extract from the course Economics and economic change ( Learning outcomes On completion of this unit, you should be able to: identify criteria to evaluate the politics of racial violence. Introduction The material presented here focuses on the politics of racial violence in Britain. The material is an audio file, originally 30 minutes in length, and examines the issues around this subject. It was recorded in 1995. This material is from our archive and is an adapted extract from Crime, order and social control (D315) which is no longer taught by The Open University. If you want to study formally with us, you may wish to explore other courses we offer in this Author(s): Learning outcomes On completion of this unit, you should be able to: identify criteria to evaluate whether prison works. Learning outcomes After studying this unit you should be able: define social construction and social constructionism. Acknowledgements The content acknowledged below is Proprietary (see terms and conditions). This content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence This extract is taken from D218: Social policy: welfare, power and diversity, produced by the BBC on behalf of the Open University. Learning outcomes After studying this unit you should be able: identify the value and best way of note taking.
