1.6 Discursive practices Some of the thinking behind the claim that discourse is social action has now been unpacked. But what explains the order and pattern in this social action? One source of regularity is the discursive practices which people collectively draw on to organize their conduct. Take a look back again at Extract 1. Even this short piece of discourse reveals many complex layers of these practices. It reveals that there is such a thing as an interaction order to use a concept developed by
1.5.1 The co-production of meaning The third sense in which discourse is a social action refers to the origins of meanings. Meaning emerges from complex social and historical processes. It is conventional and normative. We have some idea what it signifies to say Prince Charles is a proud man because we are members of a speaking community and culture which has agreed associations for ‘proud man’. We draw on those to make sense. Meaning is also relational. Proud signifies as it does because of the existence of other t
1.4.1 Discourse involves work If discourse is doing something rather than doing nothing, what kinds of things are being done? We can see that Diana's account in Extract 1, like all accounts, constructs a version of social reality. When we talk we have open to us multiple possibilities for characterizing ourselves and events. Indeed, there are many ways Diana could have answered Bashir's first question in the extract above. Any one description competes with a range of alternatives and indeed some of these alternativ
4.1 The context and significance of the historical moments under consideration The two historical moments we are considering were not chosen arbitrarily; they are both significant times in the overall history of people seeking asylum in the UK. Some important relationships between them give us a starting point for looking at continuities and discontinuities in both policy and experience. Firstly, Lotte and Wolja were admitted to the UK under the 1905 Aliens Act. This was the first fully implemented legal attempt to control the entry of ‘foreigners’ into the UK
4 Review: misrecognition, disrespect and the politics of fear A recurring theme in discussions of poverty is the distinction between ‘the poor’ and ‘the non-poor’. Echoing nineteenth-century ideas of the ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor, or 1930s notions of ‘problem estates’, such distinctions continue to permeate representations of poor populations today and also often figure prominently in policy. Binary classifications such as those highlighted in Author(s):
3.1 The idea of problematic places Katrina offers us a rich case study through which we have begun to explore some of the concerns surroundng problem places or populations. In reflecting on the controversies that emerged in the aftermath of Katrina, we can see that for some commentators it was a ‘problem place’ long before the hurricane struck in 2005. The idea that different places can be seen as problematic is a recurring theme that emerges in the context of ongoing debates around poverty and inequality, and the relation
Introduction This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course DD208 Welfare, crime and society.
References Learning outcomes After studying this course, you should be able to: understand how arguments may be presented in the Social Sciences. Keep on learning There are more than 800 courses on OpenLearn for you t 5.2.1 Beyond the UK We have focused on crime in one society, in one period – the late twentieth-century UK. But crime is also becoming increasingly globalised. This is not simply to say that crime occurs throughout the world, which it certainly does. It is to highlight ways through which crime is becoming organised across borders. One example would be cross-border criminal gangs. The American-Italian Mafia is now in global competition with Eastern European and Russian Mafias who are in turn up against Ch Keep on learning There are more than 800 courses on OpenLearn for you to Conclusion This free course provided an introduction to studying sociology. It took you through a series of exercises designed to develop your approach to study and learning at a distance and helped to improve your confidence as an independent learner. 3 Making photographs that make demands: stories from the oil industry There are strong links between the audio files in Activity 2 and the series of photographs in Activity 1. The discussion on the audio 4.1 Switches I have just indicated that a processor is made up of millions of electronic components manufactured as one very complex circuit. The majority of these components act as switches that can exist in one of only two states, either on or off. The states of certain switches tell the processor what instructions to carry out. Also when a processor is running a program it is altering the state of other switches, switching them on and off many, many times a second. To represent more easily what i 3.3.1 Multisensory teaching for students Guyer et al. (1993) tested the effectiveness of the Wilson Reading System for improving spelling in higher education students with dyslexia. They compared this technique to a non-phonic approach that teaches visual memory techniques to help students to remember frequently misspelled words. A control group of students with dyslexia but who had specifically requested no intervention formed the control group. Both intervention groups were tutored in the given technique for two, one-hour sessions References 5 Celebrities and newsworthiness Celebrity has become one of the principal ways in which information is disseminated, including information about such apparently different fields as entertainment and politics. Even health advice is provided through stories about celebrities’ encounters with illness and their recoveries. For example, on the back of the announcement of Kylie Minogue's breast cancer treatment, the press were full of breast cancer reports and personal stories all of which began with a reference to Kylie. This 4 The celebrity persona and the celebrity text It has been emphasised that we can only know stars through media texts (Dyer, 1998) and this can be extended to seeing celebrities themselves as texts, though for celebrities of any longevity we would certainly have to consider them as large, complex and modulating ones. This section will look at how we might go about reading such a text. There is a distinction between the ‘real’ person and a persona presented in the public arena. One pervasive feature of the ‘large celebrity text’ is 1 The purpose, efficacy and regulation of CCTV John Muncie presents a series of opposing views about the purpose, efficacy and regulation of CCTV. The audio programme was recorded in 1994. Participants in the audio programme were: John Muncie Professor of Criminology at The Open University; Bob Patison Superintendent with the Newcastle Police force; Andrew Puddephat General Secretary of Liberty (civil rights organisation);
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