The LSE Department of Sociology aims to provide a teaching and learning environment in which students are encouraged to think critically and independently. Browse the latest blog posts written by our students here.
GalleryA TED Talk: Internet Memes as Prosumption Objects and Prospective Photographs
Drawing on material and consumer culture studies, Valerie Ng explores memes and their place in everyday life.
With the way memes are deployed on social media, discussion threads and personal conversations, it can be hard to see them as anything other than “insignificant embodiments of silliness and whimsicality” (Shifman 2014). Yet, as memes steadily entrench themselves in both virtual […]
GalleryThe Impact of Brexit on the Changing Nature of Immigration Enforcement for European Citizens
As the arguments continue over how, when or whether to implement Brexit, MSc student Edward Mohr looks at what research can tell us about its current and potential impact on immigration from EU countries.
According to a recent article by the BBC, the level of net-migration from within the EU has continued to decline since the Brexit referendum from a […]
GalleryFootball or Women’s football – what’s the catch for women playing sport at LSE?
LSE Sociology research student and footballer Marion Lieutaud and her team-mate Eponine Howarth (Department of Law undergraduate) say we should call time on the sexism which is still a part of the culture in LSE team sports.
2018-2019 has been an incredibly successful season for women playing football and futsal (indoor 5-aside version of football) at the London School of […]
GalleryWhite saviours and regressive progressivism: How identity politics ruthlessly undermines good causes
In the run-up to Red Nose Day BSc Sociology student Jason Reed gives his take on whether Comic Relief fundraiser Stacey Dooley deserved criticism for posting a picture of herself with a Ugandan child.
This Friday (15 March) is Red Nose Day 2019. For over three decades, Comic Relief has loyally graced our screens once a year, delighting British audiences […]
Gallery“Please do not touch”: what the Hoa Hakananai’a controversy tells us about museums and why more sociologists should study them.
MSc Sociology student Lucy Smith reflects on a visit to the British Museum and the implications of the protests over the display of Easter Island moai statue Hoa Hakananai’a.
In his 1992 paper ‘Where Are the Missing Masses? The Sociology of a Few Mundane Artifacts’, Bruno Latour observed how sociology suffers from a theoretical deficit. Scholars have, in his view, […]
GalleryWorld Cup 2018: be relieved football didn’t come home, we all know it’s better off elsewhere
“Everyone seems to know the score, they’ve seen it all before.” The prevailing image of English football supporters as ‘hooligans’ failed to budge during the 2018 World Cup. But then, we know the score, right? We’ve seen this all before. Here, Lucy Smith considers the pervasiveness of class power in relation to ‘the beautiful game’.
Image Credit: (Alex McGibbon CCBY-NC-ND2.0)
When a plethora of Three Lions memes […]
GalleryA sociology of home?
Housing is dominated by economic and political logics, raising fundamental questions about what, and whom, housing is for. But the need for a home is universal. In this post, Tom Brookes considers what a sociology of home could look like.
Image Credit: (freestocks.org CC0 1.0)
One year ago, I returned to the UK for the first time in eighteen months. In my mind rang […]
GalleryThe importance of praxis: class, social mobility and “Sociology as a Martial Art” – Part II
Inspired by the LSE Library’s latest exhibition on Beveridge and the welfare state, student Lucy Smith organised a visit to the LSE for her A-Level teacher and his pupils from Drapers’ Academy, Romford. Their thoughts about the visit, studying sociology and the class system – written in their own words – are detailed in this post. Find out how the visit came about […]
The importance of praxis: class, social mobility and “Sociology as a Martial Art” – Part I
Inspired by the LSE Library’s latest exhibition on Beveridge and the welfare state, student Lucy Smith organised a visit to the LSE for her A-Level teacher and his pupils from Drapers’ Academy, Romford. Her post underlines the importance of praxis and reminds “all of us who say ‘sociology’ to actually do sociology”.
Firstly, I’d like to thank Tom Brookes for a fascinating blog post which inspired […]
GalleryThe Wire as sociology
In this post, Tom Brookes considers ‘The Wire’ as a sociological cultural object in its production, form and content, and consumption.
Ten years ago this month, HBO broadcast the final episode of The Wire (2002-2008). It had not been plain sailing. Since its inception, The Wire had weathered low viewing figures and regular threats of cancellation. However, by its conclusion, and throughout the subsequent […]
