﻿<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rss version="2.0">
  <channel>
    <title>Giddens Blog</title>
    <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/default.aspx</link>
    <description>Support and supplement the  cutting edge books from Polity on new technologies.</description>
    <language>en</language>
    <copyright>Copyright 2009. Polity</copyright>
    <pubDate>20/05/2013</pubDate>
    <ttl>60</ttl>
    <item>
      <title>Panic on the Streets of London: Hang the DJ?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=109</link>
      <description><![CDATA[‘Instead of giving up their wealth to control their deficit, the burden has been put on the masses. There are pressures in crisis and it's evident that people would protest in such a situation.’ No, not Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, but, ironically, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad’s verdict on August’s urban unrest in English cities. No doubt, he’d also watched events unfold on live tele ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=109">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>26/08/2011</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>"Pearls Before Swine": The Wikileaks Principle</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=105</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Forget the Internet and digital age; July 2011 was dominated by an old tabloid newspaper, the News of the World. In case you missed it, James Murdoch announced the paper would close on 7th July after 168 years in print. One private investigator and the paper’s royal editor were jailed in 2007 for illegally hacking into the mobile phone messages of members of the royal family. Large sums were also ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=105">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>04/08/2011</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Will You Still Need Me When I'm 64... 66... 68?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=104</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Good news – on average, we’re all living longer and we’re staying fit and healthy for longer too. Bad news – as we are all living longer, we’ll have to retire later and the state pension age is rising for both men and women. If you work in the private sector, you’ll probably be paying more for a poorer pension and if you work in the public sector, you’ll have to pay more for longer and get a poor ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=104">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>06/07/2011</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Tweets Gone Sour? Gossip, Social Media and the Law</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=101</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Here are two recent cases involving the new forms of social media – those Internet-based media (Facebook, Delicious, YouTube) that facilitate conversation and networking with content provided by the users. In the first case, a married, world-famous British football player allegedly has a seven-month-long affair with a former Big Brother housemate. The affair ends and the player takes out an injun ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=101">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>06/06/2011</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>2001 – 2011: Decade of Global Terrorism</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=94</link>
      <description><![CDATA[2001 witnessed the event now known simply as ‘9/11’, when hijacked commercial flights were flown by al-Qaeda suicide terrorists into the World Trade Center in New York and The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, killing some 3,000 people. Osama bin Laden, leader and figurehead of al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility on behalf of the group. In 2011 the USA finally tracked down and killed bin Laden in Abb ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=94">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>10/05/2011</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Energy Security in Vulnerable Societies</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=86</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The huge (magnitude 9.0) Tohoku earthquake in Japan and the resulting tsunami on 11th March was the latest in a recent series of such ‘natural disasters’, from China (2008) and Pakistan (2008) to Indonesia (2004) and New Zealand (2011). The Japanese disaster has killed at least 10,000 people and injured 2,775, with another 17,500 still missing. Around 250,000 people have moved to temporary shelte ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=86">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>29/03/2011</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Revolution in the Age of Austerity</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=85</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled Tunisia on 14th January 2011 after mass protests and demonstrations calling for his immediate resignation and demanding freedom and jobs. In Egypt, President of thirty years Hosni Mubarak was forced from office on 11th February after protests in Cairo and other cities, leaving the military in temporary control. Muammar Gaddafi, leader of Libya since ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=85">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>03/03/2011</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>When is a young adult not an adult?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=81</link>
      <description><![CDATA[If you ask people ‘what is adulthood?’, they initially look at you as if you are asking a self evident question or have lost the plot. However, when they do respond, you soon find out people have pretty diverse ideas. The apparently simplest answer is the chronological one – you’re an adult when you reach eighteen years of age; but are you? You might be able to vote, legally drink alcohol in a pu ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=81">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>02/02/2011</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>From Welfare State to the Big Society?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=80</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Today I watched a TV show called Saints and Scroungers (BBC), which looks at cases of ‘benefit scroungers’ who claim benefits to which they are not entitled, and ‘saints’ who haven’t claimed benefits they’re entitled to until someone else points it out. The show includes people claiming disability and incapacity benefits who are video-recorded lugging huge wardrobes into and out of removal vans o ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=80">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>26/01/2011</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>1968 / 2010: Student Movements in Context</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=78</link>
      <description><![CDATA[British students are revolting – and that’s not a judgement on their appearance. In recent weeks, windows at Conservative Party campaign headquarters were smashed and the building occupied, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall have been ‘attacked’ in their royal car, students staged sit-in protests in university buildings and more than 150 students were arrested in London during a large dem ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=78">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>21/12/2010</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>How Long Does a (Royal) Marriage Last?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=77</link>
      <description><![CDATA[According to the view expressed by the Bishop of Willesden on his Facebook page, about seven years, at least for Prince William and Kate Middleton, who will be getting married on 29th April next year. Leaving aside the bishop’s other idea that there should be ‘a party in Calais for all good republicans who can’t stand the nauseating tosh that surrounds this event’, is his assessment that marriage ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=77">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>02/12/2010</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Why gender and sexuality still matter so much</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=74</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Very recently in the USA, a student at Rutgers University committed suicide after a video of him having sex with another man was posted on the internet. I do not want to speculate on the motivations of either Tyler Clementi or his tormentors, but many of my students took part in the day against bullying on October 20, 2010, joining many others who wore purple to signify their opposition to homoph ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=74">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>04/11/2010</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Multicultural Prospects in the Age of Migration</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=73</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Multiculturalism is an utter failure and ethnically diverse groups do not enjoy living side by side. At least that’s the assessment of the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, expressed in a speech to the youth wing of her own party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) earlier this month. Merkel argued that when Germany encouraged foreign workers into the country to tackle labour shortages in the e ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=73">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>28/10/2010</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>What's Wrong with the Ivory Tower?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=70</link>
      <description><![CDATA[A beaming Rebecca slowly opens the envelope and a broad smile appears on her face as she announces her A-level results. “Oh my God, three A stars and two A’s, I can’t believe it!”, she gasps before dashing off to hug her mother and friends. Revealing exam results live on TV news has become a summer ritual, a public rite of passage representing the experience of young people who now have an expect ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=70">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>01/10/2010</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Sociologist, the Public and the Mass Media</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=67</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Some natural and social scientists seem to love the media, especially television. One of the most often seen is atheist and biologist Richard Dawkins who has fronted several TV series and is regularly seen on news programmes debating Darwinian evolutionary theory and religion. As Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University (1995-2008), Dawkins rose to prominence as a pu ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=67">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>31/08/2010</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Now Let’s talk about Shopping</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=66</link>
      <description><![CDATA[As August is traditionally the ‘silly season’, talk about shopping might seem just the thing. However, far from being silly, shopping, aka ‘consumer confidence’, is deadly serious. As the UK holds its breath waiting to know the scale of the cuts expected in the autumn, there is much comment on consumers also holding onto their purses and how, as a result, retail and travel firms are suffering. De ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=66">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>23/08/2010</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Time for Matadors to Hang Up the Cape?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=65</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In sixteenth-century Paris, crowds at festive occasions were often entertained by hanging a sack or basket containing 20 or so cats from a scaffold above a fire, then watching them struggle and cry as they burned alive. During the same period in England even royalty would be entertained by ‘baiting’. This involved tying a bear, bull, badger, horse or even an ape to a stake, then setting a series  ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=65">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>02/08/2010</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>We Saw You Crying on the Telly...</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=64</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The football World Cup in South Africa ended yesterday, with early exits for the last Cup’s finalists France and Italy, quite a surprise and a shock to many. The Wimbledon tennis championships have signalled the start of summer. And the London 2012 Olympics will soon be upon us with all the excitement such a varied competition brings. The calendar of national and international sporting events hel ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=64">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>12/07/2010</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Election 2010 – what does it mean?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=59</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Two damaging wars, an economic crisis, a government that has served three terms in power, and an unpopular Prime Minister. If you wanted to create the circumstances for an opposition victory in the UK 2010 election you couldn’t do much better than this. Yet the Tories have been unable to win a clear victory in the way Labour did by a landslide in 1997 after 18 years of Conservative rule. In local ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=59">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>10/05/2010</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Does 'Change' work for you?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=56</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The outcome of the forthcoming British General Election on May 6th seemed a formality just 10 days ago. David Cameron’s Conservatives had been well ahead in the polls for a long time and looked a safe bet to gain a working majority. The only issue was how large that majority would be. The Labour Party was running well behind, with the Liberal Democrats even further adrift, whilst the backdrop of  ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=56">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>21/04/2010</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>So where’s your wife, then?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=55</link>
      <description><![CDATA[It’s UK election time again and, yes, the media are still reproducing and circulating the same old entrenched ideas about the place of women in the political sphere. It hardly comes as a surprise, but that doesn’t make it any less depressing and the eagerness of political parties to play the game is dismal. Here’s Sarah Brown, dutiful and loving wife of the prime minister, posing for the cameras. ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=55">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>14/04/2010</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Are the Empire's Strikes Back?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=54</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In 1973, The Strawbs – an old-fashioned pop combo, a bit like today’s boybands but they played their own instruments and wrote their own songs (I know, it’s ridiculous) – released their now classic song, Part of the Union, which contained the following lyric: “So though I'm a working man, I can ruin the government's plans, / Though I'm not too hard / The sight of my card / Makes me some kind of s ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=54">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>31/03/2010</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Exploring Disability ten years on</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=53</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Ten years after the publication of the first edition of the groundbreaking Exploring Disability, the second edition has just been released. Here Colin Barnes (Professor of Disability Studies at the Universities of Leeds and Halmstad, Sweden) surveys the advances and continuing challenges facing the field over the last decade... A decade ago, a socio/political or ‘social model’ of disability – ins ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=53">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>29/03/2010</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>A New Dawn for Social Policy after the Economic Crash?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=50</link>
      <description><![CDATA[For Bill Jordan (University of Plymouth), a leading scholar of social policy, the findings of the recent inquiry into standards at Stafford Hospital – described as ‘one of the worst NHS scandals in history’ – offer confirmation of what’s wrong with social policy and its current principles...My new book was written during the economic crash of 2008-9. It argues for a transformation of our collecti ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=50">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>01/03/2010</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>New Wars - without end?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=48</link>
      <description><![CDATA[On 20th February, after lengthy and arduous talks, the Dutch coalition government collapsed, triggering a general election. The issue that created the crisis was not domestic politics, but whether Dutch troops should continue in Afghanistan beyond August this year. On the same day, Plaid Cymru’s Elfyn Llwyd, leader of the Welsh nationalists in the British Parliament, called for the withdrawal of  ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=48">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>22/02/2010</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>How liberal are the new citizenship tests in Europe?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=45</link>
      <description><![CDATA[When one considers that citizenship tests in the United States are old hat, it’s astonishing that their recent introduction in Europe has raised such controversy, and that there is doubt about their ‘liberal’ credentials. How liberal are the new citizenship tests? (You can see the British version, ‘Life in the UK Test’, here.) To ask for competence in the host-society language and knowledge of th ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=45">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>11/02/2010</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>New edition of 'Sociology: Introductory Readings'</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=43</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The 3rd edition of Anthony Giddens and Philip W. Sutton's Sociology: Introductory Readings is now available from Polity. Arranged in 10 broad thematic sections, each with thoughtful editorial introductions, the volume includes classic and contemporary readings, from Weber and Durkheim, to new sociological thinking about climate change, virtual communities, and war and terrorism in the 21st centur ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=43">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>03/02/2010</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Is Freedom of Search a Human Right?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=40</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Last week, Google, the company behind the world’s most popular search engine, announced that it is considering pulling out of China after discovering that the Gmail accounts of campaigners for human rights in China had been attacked [Google statement here: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html?]. Google said only two accounts had actually been accessed and very limited ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=40">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>22/01/2010</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Togo, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Failed Peace Processes</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=39</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Football is a global sport. It is watched by millions across the world and on every continent. The African Nations Cup has assumed even more significance as the global mobility of players brings many African players to the Premier League to be cheered from English terraces and become part of British popular culture. But football is also glocal, with its global dimensions mediated by local circums ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=39">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>18/01/2010</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Migration – problem or solution?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=35</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Luke Martell (Reader in Sociology at the University of Sussex) explores one of the factors involved in globalization and offers some alternative ways of viewing global migration. The current financial crisis and the Copenhagen summit on climate change have recently drawn increased attention to global interdependency. The anti-government uprisings in Iran and similar events elsewhere in the world  ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=35">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>11/01/2010</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>If national identity is declining, does it matter?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=34</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In the first ‘ask an expert’ session of 2010, Steve Fenton (Professor of Sociology at the University of Bristol) writes about national identity in Britain. Is it endangered? Does it matter? And how can we address the controversy it has given rise to?The growth of supra-national organizations, of which the European Union is a key example, is said to have undermined nation-states and national ident ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=34">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>06/01/2010</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Can we afford good health?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=33</link>
      <description><![CDATA[As 2009 drew to a close, US President Barack Obama adopted a celebratory tone as the Senate finally passed his healthcare reform policy, aimed at making the system fairer [see President Obama’s healthcare reform plan here:http://www.healthreform.gov/obamaplan.html]. However, there are a few hurdles yet to clear. Republicans have already made clear they will fight against the bill becoming law and ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=33">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>04/01/2010</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Organ Donation: altruism or self-interest?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=32</link>
      <description><![CDATA[To coincide with the release of the second edition of Sociology for Nurses this month, Elaine Denny and Sarah Earle take a look at a controversial new organ transplant strategy announced in the scientific journal The Lancet. In most countries of the world where the transplantation of human organs takes place, there is a shortage of organ donors. Therefore people who need a kidney, heart, liver or ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=32">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>18/12/2009</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Health Care Reform: the Roles of Social Theory</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=31</link>
      <description><![CDATA[December sees the publication of two second editions: Patrick Baert & Filipe Carreira da Silva’s Social Theory in the Twentieth Century and Beyond, and Elaine Denny & Sarah Earle’s Sociology for Nurses. In the first of this month’s posts focussing on health-related issues, Filipe Carreira da Silva (Research Fellow at the University of Lisbon) writes about what social theory has to offer debates a ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=31">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>08/12/2009</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>New Racists Breathing the Oxygen of Publicity?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=30</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In the UK we recently had a heated debate over a decision by the BBC to invite the MEP and leader of the British National Party, Nick Griffin, onto Question Time [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nft24]. The BBC argued that as the party won two seats in the 2009 European elections it was appropriate for Griffin to take part. The recording led to anti-fascist protests outside, several arrests an ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=30">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>25/11/2009</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Anti-Consumerism Now</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=16</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In our latest ‘ask an expert’ session,Kim Humphery (RMIT University, Melbourne) advocates balance and fresh thinking in the West’s discussions about consumerism and anti-consumerism.When we hear the term ‘western society’ it’s a sure bet that one of the things we think of is ‘consumer society’. The western world is the affluent world; the world of material abundance and endless shopping. Maybe th ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=16">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>09/11/2009</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>What's this got to do with us?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=15</link>
      <description><![CDATA[On 29th September, a powerful earthquake in the Pacific Ocean produced a tsunami (a large wave) that led to the deaths of more than 170 people in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga, with many more injured. This was just the latest in a series of quakes in recent years including a 2006 earthquake in Northern Pakistan and the Kashmir region that killed more than 73,000 people, and another in the Sichu ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=15">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>30/10/2009</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Material Culture Not Consumer Culture</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=14</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In our second ‘ask an expert’ session, Daniel Miller (Professor of Anthropology at UCL) writes about the importance of studying ‘stuff’ to understanding human relationships, and what sociologists can learn from anthropology.I want to suggest that one of the main problems with the study of things in sociology is that it is almost inevitably subsumed under the study of consumption. As a result it’s ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=14">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>26/10/2009</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Advancing Knowledge by Asking Questions: an illustration from award-winning research</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=13</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In the first of our ‘ask an expert’ sessions, Norman Blaikie (formerly RMIT University Melbourne, and University of Science, Malaysia) writes about the importance of questions in research as demonstrated by 3 recent Nobel laureates, and answers a couple of your questions... All research is about solving puzzles, both intellectual and practical. And puzzles entail questions. So the starting point  ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=13">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>13/10/2009</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>All Aboard for a New Age of Thrift?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=12</link>
      <description><![CDATA[There is a nice cartoon of a father and son looking down the family driveway towards a large, modern house with two cars parked in front of a double garage and a huge plasma TV screen visible through the front bay window. Father has an arm around his son’s shoulders and proudly declares, ‘One day son, all of this … will be mine’. The punchline works (well, I like it anyway) because it draws on th ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=12">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>02/10/2009</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Welcome!</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=11</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Welcome to the Giddens Sociology blog!This website has been created to support and supplement the new sixth edition of Sociology. This blog will offer regular commentaries on the relevance of sociological thinking to current events and issues, as well as posts from experts in various fields of sociology. It also aims to provide a new space online where those with an interest in our social world c ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=11">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>01/10/2009</pubDate>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>