Uncommon Sense

What gets centred and what gets framed as marginal? Who decides? And what are the consequences? UN expert, feminist scholar and social historian Rhoda Reddock – Professor Emerita at The University of the West Indies – joins us from Trinidad and Tobago to discuss the theme of margins, reflecting on the importance of radical Caribbean thought, the contested meaning of the “global south” and the evolution and significance of Caribbean feminism from the 70s to today.As a member of the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Rhoda shares her reflections of moving between Switzerland and Trinidad and Tobago for her work. She also gives advice to scholars striving to make an impact – and to those questioning the necessity of moving to the “global north”. Why, Rhoda asks, does scholarship from the “global south” too often get perceived as regionally specific, while the “north” remains regarded as the centre of sociological thought? And how, Rosie and Alexis ask, has the Caribbean typically been regarded – or indeed, dismissed – by the discipline?Plus: Rhoda also shines a spotlight on Trinidadian-American scholar Oliver C. Cox, author of “Caste, Class and Race”, whose work was a precursor to Wallerstein’s “World Systems Theory” and also to women’s studies today. A fascinating discussion, also featuring celebration of thinkers including CLR James and Walter Rodney, author of “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa”.Guest: Rhoda ReddockHosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu TruongExecutive Producer: Alice BlochSound Engineer: David CracklesMusic: Joe GardnerArtwork: Erin AnikerFind more about Uncommon SenseEpisode ResourcesBy Rhoda ReddockRadical Caribbean Social ThoughtWomen and Slavery in the Caribbean“Conceptualizing ‘Difference’ in Caribbean Feminist Theory” in New Caribbean ThoughtRhoda’s online profileFrom the Sociological Review FoundationEuropeans, with Manuela  Boatcă – Uncommon Sense podcast episodeGlobal Sociology – online magazine essay collectionDecolonising Methodologies, 20 Years On: The Sociological Review Annual Lecture – Linda Tuhiwai SmithFurther resourcesThe UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)“North-South: A Programme for Survival” – Willy Brandt“Southern Theory: The global dynamics of knowledge in social science” – Raewyn Connell“How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” – Walter Rodney“Caste, Class and Race: A Study in Social Dynamics” – Oliver C. CoxSupport our work. Make a one-off or regular donation to help fund future episodes of Uncommon Sense: donorbox.org/uncommon-sense

Kirsteen Paton, an insightful author focused on community and class, shares her knowledge on the multifaceted nature of community. She discusses how true membership requires active engagement rather than mere presence. Kirsteen examines the evolution of sociological thoughts on community from traditional concepts to modern complexities shaped by global issues like gentrification. Personal experiences from Liverpool and Glasgow highlight the interconnectedness of local and global communities, while she also reflects on historical narratives and the need for solidarity in social struggles.

Grazia Ting Deng, an anthropologist known for her research on Chinese-run coffee bars in Italy, shares insights on the paradox of 'Chinese Espresso.' She dives into how Chinese baristas have taken charge of these traditionally Italian spaces since 2008, not by changing but by preserving culture. Grazia discusses the dynamics of cultural integration, the convivial feel of coffee bars, and how these settings become sites of social interaction amidst challenges. She also touches on the resilience of cultural identity in a politically charged environment.

What does it mean to make things? Why are some people valorised as “makers”, while others are rendered invisible? And what duty do sociologists have as makers of knowledge and narratives? The “sewing cycling sociologist” Kat Jungnickel joins Uncommon Sense to discuss all this and more; including her years of research celebrating historic female cyclists as radical inventors, makers and hackers, responding to barriers to their freedom of movement and raising crucial questions about power and space.Rosie (no stranger to DIY) and Alexis (a lifelong fan of taking things apart) ask Kat: what exactly is “Science and Technology Studies” (STS) and what’s the idea of the “black box” all about? How are the factory workers who make “our” clothes regarded in academia and beyond? Aren’t we all “makers” now, feeding our “smart” devices? And what can we learn from “Do It Together” (DIT) communities, like those Kat studied for her doctoral work in Australia, where she met people building their own wi-fi networks? Are they performing radical resistance to capitalism, or simply dealing with its downsides?Plus: Kat celebrates the work of thinkers who inspire her, including Saidiya Hartman. Hartman’s “Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments”, Kat suggests, invites us to interrogate and remake established narratives, and to make space for those previously dismissed and denied a voice. Also discussed: John Urry, John Law, Angela McRobbie, Donna Haraway, Bruno Latour and more.Production Note: This episode was recorded before Kat Jungnickel's home institution of Goldsmiths, University of London announced organisational restructuring, which includes plans to make more than 50% of academic staff in the Department of Sociology redundant.Guest: Kat JungnickelHosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu TruongExecutive Producer: Alice BlochSound Engineer: David CracklesMusic: Joe GardnerArtwork: Erin AnikerFind more about Uncommon SenseEpisode ResourcesBy Kat JungnickelBikes and Bloomers and the project’s open-source sewing patternsPolitics of PatentsMaking Things to make Sense of ThingsMaking WiFiKat’s websiteFrom The Sociological ReviewWords failed us: Repairing sociology’s haunted past means finding new language to write about the social world – Gala Rexer“The Promises of Practice” – Christopher Gad, Casper Bruun Jensen“Fixing the future? How architects make time in buildings for later life care” – Siân M. Beynon-Jones, et al.Further reading“Science in Action” – Bruno Latour“Staying with the Trouble” – Donna Haraway“Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments” – Saidiya Hartman“A Social History of American Technology” (2nd edition) – Ruth Schwartz Cowan, Matthew H. HerschSupport our work. Make a one-off or regular donation to help fund future episodes of Uncommon Sense: donorbox.org/uncommon-sense

Hannah Proctor discusses the history of burnout, tracing its roots to 1960s countercultural movements. She explores gender, class, and race dynamics in burnout discussions, challenges in caring for caregivers, and the impact of power dynamics. Reference to psychiatrist Frantz Fanon's work and the importance of systemic reform for a less burnout world are highlighted.

What does privilege look like today? How do the advantaged perform “ease”? And why do some of us feel at home in elite spaces, while others feel awkward? Princeton sociologist Shamus Khan joins Uncommon Sense to reflect on elites, entitlement and more. Reminding us that “poor people are not why there’s inequality; rich people are why there’s inequality”, he highlights the importance of studying elites for studying inequality, as the gap between the two grows.Being the author of Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St Paul’s School (2011), Shamus tells Rosie and Alexis about how the way elites justify and see their position has shifted – and how a disability studies perspective helps us to cast a critical eye on the “ease” with which the few seem to nimbly navigate elite institutions. What seems like some of us “have it” and others “just don’t” is, suggests Shamus, socially produced – and what appears to be a “flat” and open world, ripe for the bold to seize, is really far more complex.Plus: why might people who share the same knowledge be valued differently when that knowledge is held in different – racialised, minoritised – bodies? Also: why TV shows and movies about elites don’t stop at Saltburn, Succession and The Kardashians?Guest: Shamus KhanHosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu TruongExecutive Producer: Alice BlochSound Engineer: David CracklesMusic: Joe GardnerArtwork: Erin AnikerFind more about Uncommon SenseEpisode ResourcesFrom The Sociological ReviewSpatial Delight: Space Invaders – N. Puwar, A. LisiakUncommon Sense: Taste – I. Karademir Hazir, R. Hancock, A. H. Truong‘Talent-spotting’ or ‘social magic’? Inequality, cultural sorting and constructions of the ideal graduate in elite professions – N. Ingram, K. AllenBy Shamus KhanPrivilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's SchoolSaying Meritocracy and Doing Privilege (co-authored with Colin Jerolmack)How Cultural Capital Emerged in Gilded Age America (co-authored with Fabien Accominotti, Adam Storer)Further reading“Flexible Citizenship” – A. Ong“Space Invaders” – N. Puwar“Learning to Labour” – P. Willis“Understanding audience segmentation” – R. Peterson“Reality Television and Class” – B. Skeggs, H. Wood“‘Oh goodness, I am watching reality TV’: How methods make class in audience research” – B. Skeggs, N. Thumim, H. Wood“Capital in the 21st Century” – T. PikettyRead more about  Shey O’Brien, Fabien Acconomoti, Pierre Bourdieu and Frantz Fanon.Support our work. Make a one-off or regular donation to help fund future episodes of Uncommon Sense: donorbox.org/uncommon-sense

What are rules for? What's at stake if we assume that they're neutral? And if we want rules to be progressive, does it matter who makes them? Socio-legal scholar Swethaa Ballakrishnen joins Uncommon Sense to reflect on this and more, highlighting the value of studying law not just in theory but in action, and drawing on a career spanning law and academia in India and the USA.As the author of "Accidental Feminism", which explores unintended parity in the Indian legal profession, Swethaa talks to Rosie and Alexis about intention and whether it is always needed for positive outcomes. We also ask: in a society characterised as “post-truth”, does anyone even care about rules anymore? Plus, Swethaa dissects the trope of “neutrality” – firmly embedded in legal discourse, from the idea of “blind justice” to the notion of equality before the law. There are dangers, they explain, to assuming that law is neutral, particularly given that it is often those in power who get to make and extend the rules – something critical race scholars have long been aware of.Swethaa also fills us in on their recent interest in the TV show "Ted Lasso" and considers pop culture that speaks to our theme, including the series "Made in Heaven" and "Extraordinary Attorney Woo", plus a short film by Arun Falara.Guest: Swethaa BallakrishnenHosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu TruongExecutive Producer: Alice BlochSound Engineer: David CracklesMusic: Joe GardnerArtwork: Erin AnikerFind more about Uncommon Sense at The Sociological Review.Episode ResourcesFrom The Sociological ReviewSocio-legal Implications for Digital Environmental Activism – Audrey Verma et al.The Moral Rhetoric of a Civilized Society – Susanna MenisDepoliticisation, hybridisation and dual processes of stigmatisation – Shaoying ZhangBy Swethaa BallakrishnenAccidental FeminismLaw School as Straight SpaceGender Regimes and the Politics of Privacy (co-authored with Kalpana Kannabiran)“At Odds with Everything Around Me” in Out of Place (forthcoming)“Of Queerness, Rights, and Utopic Possibilities” (interview) – part of Queering the (Court)RoomFurther reading, viewing and listening“Lawyers and the Construction of Transnational Justice” – Yves Dezalay, Bryant Garth (eds)“Criminal Behavior as an Expression of Identity and a Form of Resistance” – Kathryne Young“The Language of Law School” – Elizabeth MertzTV series: “Extraordinary Attorney Woo”, “Ted Lasso”, “Made in Heaven”“Sunday” (short film)– Arun FularaUncommon Sense: Performance, with Kareem KhubchandaniSupport our work. Make a one-off or regular donation to help fund future episodes of Uncommon Sense: donorbox.org/uncommon-sense

What exactly is spirituality? How does it relate to religion? Are both misunderstood? And what stands beyond and behind the idea that it has all simply been commodified to be about wellness, big business and celebrity? Andrew Singleton joins Uncommon Sense to reflect on this and more, including his experience researching young people’s spiritual practices in Australia, and time spent in Papua New Guinea.Andrew describes how what has been called the “spiritual turn” emerged through the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s and led to today’s “spiritual marketplace”. We ask whether the young people of today’s Generation Z are more open-minded than their elders – and whether, across the Global North and Global South, people are meeting a need for betterment in the “here and now” through spirituality, but also religion.Plus: what did Marx really mean when he described religion as the “opium of the people” – and how has that quote taken on a (rather cynical) life of its own? Also, from reactions to the bestselling Eat, Pray, Love to the historical condemnation of female fortune tellers, why do our definitions and dismissals of spirituality seem to be so deeply gendered?Guest: Andrew SingletonHosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu TruongExecutive Producer: Alice BlochSound Engineer: David CracklesMusic: Joe GardnerArtwork: Erin AnikerFind more about Uncommon Sense at The Sociological Review.Episode ResourcesFrom The Sociological ReviewThe spiritual turn and the disenchantment of the world: Max Weber, Peter Berger and the religion–science conflict – Galen Watts, Dick HoutmanThe “Belief” issue of The Sociological Review Magazine (May 2022)Capitalising on faith? An intergenerational study of social and religious capital among Baby Boomers and Millennials in Britain – Stuart Fox, et al.By Andrew SingletonFreedoms, Faiths and Futures: Teenage Australians on Religion, Sexuality and Diversity (co-authored with M.L. Rasmussen, A. Halafoff, G. Bouma)Religion, Culture and Society: A Global ApproachThe Spirit of Generation Y: Young People’s Spirituality in a Changing Australia (co-authored with M. Mason, R. Webber)Further reading and listening“Selling Yoga” and “Peace Love Yoga” – Andrea Jain“Selling Spirituality” – Jeremy Carrette, Richard King“Selling (Con)spirituality and COVID-19 in Australia” – Anna Halafoff, et al.“Women's Work: The Professionalisation and Policing of Fortune-Telling in Australia” – Alana Piper“Science and Power in the Nineteenth-Century Tasman World” – Alexandra Roginski“The Dream” podcast – Jane MarieRead more on the life and work of Gary Bauma, as well as about Karl Marx and Michel Foucault.Support our work. Make a one-off or regular donation to help fund future episodes of Uncommon Sense: donorbox.org/uncommon-sense

Anxiety is part of contemporary life, yet rarely seen as anything other than personal and intimately psychological. Cultural Studies scholar Nicky Falkof joins us to discuss her work on fear and anxiety in South Africa, and how such negative emotions are often collective and collectively constructed – and relate deeply to our identities. Indeed, as Nicky tells us, if you ask yourself what or whom you’re scared of, you quickly face the question of who you think you are. Hear about Nicky’s teenage engagement in goth culture as South Africa approached the end of apartheid, and how it led her to think critically about fear and social change. Plus, she explains why that country, and Johannesburg in particular – as explored in her new book “Worrier State” – is seen as such a fascinating site for studying anxiety. With Rosie and Alexis, she also reflects on the architecture of fear – and why some people are unjustly expected to live in fear while others feel entitled to fight it.We also take on the trope of reflexivity, as Nicky considers how being truly reflexive requires not just introspection and soul-searching but meaningful practical action. With reflection on thinkers from Zygmunt Bauman to Jacob Dlamini and from Sara Ahmed to Sigmund Freud. Plus: what can the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles possibly teach us about anxiety?Guest: Nicky FalkofHosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu TruongExecutive Producer: Alice BlochSound Engineer: David CracklesMusic: Joe GardnerArtwork: Erin AnikerFind more about Uncommon Sense at The Sociological Review.Episode ResourcesFrom The Sociological Review‘Under attack’: Responsibility, crisis and survival anxiety amongst manager-academics in UK universities – Vik LovedayDecolonising and re-theorising the meaning of democracy: A South African perspective – Heidi Brooks, Trevor Ngwane, Carin RuncimanSocial class, symbolic domination, and Angst: The example of the Norwegian social space – Andreas Schmitz, Magne Flemmen, Lennart RosenlundBy Nicky FalkofWorrier State: Risk, anxiety and moral panic in South AfricaThe End of Whiteness: Satanism and family murder in South AfricaFind out more on Nicky’s websiteFurther reading“The Cultural Politics of Emotion” – Sara Ahmed“Gender Trouble” – Judith Butler“Liquid Fear” – Zygmunt Bauman“Female Fear Factory” – Pumla Dineo Gqola“Native Nostalgia” – Jacob DlaminiRead more about Sigmund Freud, and the work of Johnny Steinberg.Support our work. Make a one-off or regular donation to help fund future episodes of Uncommon Sense: donorbox.org/uncommon-sense

Jo Littler reflects on the origin and mainstream adoption of meritocracy, discussing how elites use it to maintain an illusion of fairness. The podcast explores the impact of the financial crash, the rise of non-work and assertive feminism, and the trope of escape in achieving success. It also critiques the valorization of upper middle-class culture and suggests alternative ways to reduce social inequality. Recommended books and movies challenge the idea of individual failure and explore community wealth building.