When are women happy on their own?

It is one of the last social faux pas: eating out alone, the cinema for one, or going to the theatre or a concert on your own. Yet flouting it is becoming more common. It is not unusual to find people enjoying a solitary drink or meal, or even escaping on holiday with just themselves for company. But a lone woman is often viewed differently to a man. The journalist Katherine Whitehorn and the writer Natasha Walters join Jenni to discuss their solitary pleasures, what women are comfortable doing on their own and how important is the choice.

Interesting discussion about a topic close to my heart. Very interesting point made that British women have only had the option of going to the pub alone for a short period of time and that in my countries women can’t go anywhere alone.

IFS – Where do you fit in?

I was shocked to discover how well-off in comparison to the rest of the UK, despite what I think of as a fairly low salary.

Blimey.

(Hello, I’m back. More to come soon!)

Session topics: Modernity, essay writing, education and inequality

Three things that I learned:

These are all about theories of inequality and education

1. Ivan Illich posits there is a “hidden curriculum” which consists of: custodial care, distribution of people among occupational roles, instruction in the dominant values, teaching of socially approved skills and knowledge, also that schooling inculcates ‘passive consumption’
2. Basil Bernstein’s main thesis is that children come to school with a “language code”, either “restricted” (used to direct language without abstract explanation – prevalent in the working class) or “elaborated” (where ideas are explained more fully – prevalent in middle class)
3. Pierre Bourdieu carries across his theory of “cultural reproduction” and “cultural capital” to education – schools reinforce variations in cultural values

One thing that I learned that I will be able to use in the future:

I am still unsure about: Is Bourdieu’s theory simply a synthesis of Bernstein and Illich?

Interesting issues: This stuff on inequality is so new – all of these writers published in the 1970s

Ideas for action:

• Finish research for USW essay and finalise topic (currently ‘Are British people free under New Labour?”
• Create essay plan
• Annotate research and formulate provisional thesis

Feedback from others:

What can be used in the Learning Review: Change in gear re: essay, feeling a lot more focussed.

This is going to mean so much more to me in a year or two…

Got to walk before I can run…

Gosh, it’s been three weeks since my last Politics class – I’d forgotten what everyone in my class looked like!

Date: 2 November 2009

Session topics: Anarchism

Three things that I learned:

1. According to Anarchists: the State is the root of all evil; there must be unity of means and ends;we can have order with law, society without state and civilisation without authority
2. Two main types of anarchist thinking: Individualist (Bukunin) and Collectivist (Kropotkin)
3. Anarchists hate Capitalism because it is a symptom of the State, not a cause (as opposed to Marxists who see it t’other way around)

One thing that I learned that I will be able to use in the future: Better technology has lead to a rise in Anarchism

I am still unsure about: Why we are more free without some sort of state than with one. Is Freedom an end into itself? Useful thoughts for my essay

Interesting issues: Opposition of Marxism and Anarchism, technology as an Anarchism-enabler

Ideas for action:

• include anarchistic ideas of the primacy of freedom in my essay
• Check out Ursula Le Guin – the Dispossessedd and Marx – The Civil War in France

Feedback from others:

What can be used in the Learning Review:Better note-taking

Working on it was an interesting experience as what seemed to be an easy exercise took me a lot of effort – not so much in the critical analysis (ie the content), but more the editing thereof, the getting it down in a coherent way. The breakthrough was as simple as focussing my mind, doing a little essay plan and then filling in the blanks with content. Elementary, but in a world of distractions (mmm,the shiny internet) it was surprisingly difficult to completely put everything else aside and spend whole single hours together focussed on the assignment.

I was quite happy with the end result, though it felt quite light – 1200 words isn’t very much once you get 200 – 400 words out of the way for the introduction and conclusion. I had to leave so much out and I was worried that I’d chosen to include the less important aspects of the article. You can read it here if you like.

Anyway I got 72% and nice comments. It was weird – I wasn’t sure how to react. To me, an Australian who hasn’t studied at uni in the UK before, 72% sounds like a very average mark*. I couldn’t make sense of it, I wanted to know what my classmates had got. I wanted to know where I ranked, how I was doing compared to them. And then I reminded myself that It’s Not A Competition. I still feel like I want to know. Must. Get. Over. It.

I start serious work on assignment numbers 2 and 3 tomorrow – two essays, one for each of my modules (Foundations of Politics and Understanding the Social World). I’m hoping they’ll dovetail nicely together as I’m allowed to choose my FoP essay from a list of 15 suggested topics, and to make up my own essay title for USW. Currently winning at the moment is the ‘What is Freedom?’ essay from the FoP pool, with an USW offshoot of ‘Are the British people free?’ Time to start that reading…

* It wasn’t till I got home that my flatmate tells me it’s equivalent to a First, which I understood a lot more clearly. Damn Oxbridge.

Session topics: Modernity, essay writing, return of first assignment

Three things that I learned:

1. That Modernity is an period, an era, not a conceptual framework. This also goes for Post-modern – which is post-1970 (or, some might argue post-1950) which is marked by the rise of challenges to Modernity
2. According to Bordieu, three concepts for describing how society replicates itself: Capital (one’s resources), Field (one’s mileux), Habitus (one’s actions within and responses to one’s field)
3. Types of capital according to Bordieu: Cultural, Social, Financial

One thing that I learned that I will be able to use in the future: the terminology I’m starting to pick up which will be essential for my future work eg ‘social agent\agency’, Bordieu’s bits above

I am still unsure about: Still getting my head around Modernity as a period and separating it from the concept is weird

Interesting issues: I’m starting to think about the science bit of social science, provides some very interesting food for thought

Ideas for action:

• Carry out the Internet Detective exercise as homework
• Do the IT Skills Audit in preparation for the last assignment (the learning review )
• Read ‘Theories of Schooling and Inequality and Cultural Capital
• Modernity homework

Feedback from others: Nice comments from tutor about first assignment

What can be used in the Learning Review: the actions above, the thoughts about social science as a science

Protest is part of the democratic process. It wasn’t the goodwill of politicians that led them to cancel developing countries’ debt, but the protests and campaigning of millions of ordinary people around the world. The political leaders were merely the rubber stamp in the democratic process. Thus any targeting and treatment of demonstrators (at the G20 for example) that creates a “chilling effect” – deterring those who may wish to exercise their right to protest – is profoundly undemocratic.

Word. Up.

Write a review of your learning experience since starting your course in October 2009. You should provide an overview of your progress, considering the challenges and successes you have experienced.

Oh. God. I want to learn about Social Science, not my learning style! Bleurgh!

Which resources (websites/ published texts/ professional standards documentation) have you used to help you determine, clarify or confirm your career/ study goals?

I don’t have any career or study goals bar getting my degree! I hate talking about this shit. Meh.

-remembers that lengthy post from a while back-

-takes deep breath and re-orients attitude-

I guess this blog’s going to come in handy, huh. And I guess I need to add a line to my Learning Journal, to wit: What can be used in the Learning Review?

-smiles through gritted teeth-