Uncommon Sense

AUDIO CONTENT WARNING: description of extreme racist violenceIn 1993, Black British teenager Stephen Lawrence was murdered in a racist attack that sparked a long fight for justice and led the UK to ask questions of itself and its institutions. Three decades on – with The Runnymede Trust’s Shabna Begum, and Suresh Grover of The Monitoring Group – Karis Campion of the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre hosts this special episode to ask: who are we now? What happened to anti-racist solidarity and how can it progress?Karis and guests reflect on the fragmentation of “political blackness”, “monitoring” as a radical act inspired by The Black Panther Party, and the importance of showing systemic racism while doing justice to individual lives. Plus: what does social media offer to anti-racism when the internet provides fertile ground for prejudice? And what are the costs of fighting for change in an unjust world?A collaboration between the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre and The Sociological Review.Guests: Suresh Grover, Shabna BegumHost: Karis CampionExecutive Producer: Alice BlochSound Engineer: David CracklesMusic: Joe GardnerArtwork: Erin AnikerFind more about Uncommon Sense at The Sociological Review.Episode ResourcesFrom Karis, Shabna and SureshKaris’ work at The Stephen Lawrence Research CentreShabna’s book “From Sylhet to Spitalfields”Suresh in conversation with Paul GilroyFurther reading“Abolition Geography” – Ruth Wilson Gilmore“Another Day in the Death of America” – Gary Younge“Here to Stay, Here to Fight” – Paul Field, et al. (eds)“I Write What I Like” – Steve Biko“Policing the Crisis” – Stuart Hall, et al.“Race and Resistance” – Ambalavaner Sivanandan“The Uses of Anger” – Audre LordeOnlineOver-policed and under-protected: the road to Safer Schools – The Runnymede TrustThe Baroness Casey Review (this episode was recorded prior to this publication)The Black Panther Party – US National ArchivesThe Stephen Lawrence Inquiry – Sir William MacphersonThe Monitoring GroupThe Runnymede TrustThe Stephen Lawrence Centre ArchiveFind out more about Quddus Ali and the cases of Michael Menson, Ricky Reel, Rolan Adams and Rohit Duggal, as well as the activist Claudia JonSupport our work. Make a one-off or regular donation to help fund future episodes of Uncommon Sense: donorbox.org/uncommon-sense

What does Eurovision have to do with the Coronation? In this episode swap, the team at Who do we think we are? is talking about what we learn about “Global Britain” and its imagined community by looking at how migrants understand major cultural events.Elena Zambelli explains what social scientists mean when they talk about the imagined community. Laura Clancy, sociologist of the royal family, joins us to talk about the missing voices in conversations about the future of the British monarchy. Co-hosts Nando Sigona and Michaela Benson reflect on what British citizens living abroad, EU citizens and others who have made the UK their homes told them about how they understand Britain and their place within it following Brexit. What does hearing from them about the monarchy, the Commonwealth Games and Eurovision make visible about the new borders of political membership and symbolic boundaries of belonging?In this episode we cover:The imagined communityThe monarchy and the myth of the British nationEurovision, the Commonwealth Games and Royal EventsActive listening questions:What imagined community, or imagined communities, do you feel that you belong to?  Are there public events during which you do or could celebrate your belonging to this or these communities? Which ones? Who do you think is excluded from this imagined community and how? And what does this tell us about the symbolic boundaries of this community?Find more about:What EU citizens in the UK and British citizens in the EU think about the monarchy in Elena and Catherine’s article in The Sociological Review MagazineThe concept of imagined community in Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities and the critique offered by Partha Chatterjee’s The Nation and its FragmentsLaura’s sociology of the royal family in her book Running the family firm and the Surviving Society podcast miniseries The Global Power of the British MonarchyOur podcast picks for this episode are:Academic Aunties on “Harry and Meghan”The Allusionist on EurovisionConversations with IRiS on Political DemographyFollow Who do we think we are? on all major podcasting platforms, and on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.Get all the latest updates from the MIGZEN research project on Twitter and Instagram.Support our work. Make a one-off or regular donation to help fund future episodes of Uncommon Sense: donorbox.org/uncommon-sense

“Follow”? “Block”? “Accept”? Anthropologist Ilana Gershon joins us to reflect on breakups in both our intimate and working lives. She tells Alexis and Rosie how hearing her students’ surprising stories of using new media – supposedly a tool for connection – to end romantic entanglements led to her 2010 book “The Breakup 2.0”. She also shares insights from studying hiring in corporate America and describes how, in the febrile “new economy”, the very nature of networking and how we understand our careers have been transformed.Ilana also celebrates Marilyn Strathern’s influential article “Cutting the Network” for challenging our assumptions about endless and easy connection. She responds to the work of sociologists Richard Sennett and Mark Granovetter, and highlights Teri Silvio’s theory of “animation” as a fruitful way of thinking about our online selves.Plus: Rosie, Alexis and Ilana share their pop culture picks on this month’s theme, from the hit TV show “Severance” to the phenomenon of “shitposting” on Linkedin.Guest: Ilana GershonHosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu TruongExecutive Producer: Alice BlochSound Engineer: David CracklesMusic: Joe GardnerArtwork: Erin AnikerFind more about Uncommon Sense at The Sociological Review.Episode ResourcesIlana, Rosie, Alexis and our producer Alice recommendedDan Erickson’s TV series “Severance”“shitposting” on Linkedin, as discussed by Bethan Kapur for VICEThe Quebec reality TV show “Occupation Double”Halle Butler’s novel “The New Me”From The Sociological Review“A Sociological Playlist” – Meg-John Barker and Justin Hancock“The Sociology of Love” – Julia Carter“Becoming Ourselves Online: Disabled Transgender Existence In/Through Digital Social Life” – Christian J. Harrison“The Politics of Digital Peace, Play, and Privacy during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Between Digital Engagement, Enclaves, and Entitlement” – Francesca SobandeFrom Uncommon Sense: “Intimacy, with Katherine Twamley”By Ilana Gershon“The Breakup 2.0: Disconnecting over New Media”“The Breakup 2.1: The ten-year update”“Un-Friend My Heart: Facebook, Promiscuity, and Heartbreak in a Neoliberal Age”“Down and Out in the New Economy: How People Find (or Don’t Find) Work Today”“Neoliberal Agency”Further reading“Puppets, Gods, and Brands: Theorizing the Age of Animation from Taiwan” – Teri Silvio“Forms of Talk” – Erving Goffman“The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism” – Richard Sennett“The Digital Lives of Black Women in Britain” – Francesca Sobande“The Strength of Weak Ties” – Mark S. GranovetterSupport our work. Make a one-off or regular donation to help fund future episodes of Uncommon Sense: donorbox.org/uncommon-sense

What makes “good” taste? Who decides? And what’s it got to do with inequality? Sociologist Irmak Karademir Hazir grew up watching women in her parents’ clothing boutique. She explains how her fascination for taste emerged from that and why talking about things like fashion, film and music is far from trivial – it’s how we distinguish ourselves from others; how we’re recognised, or dismissed.Irmak tells Rosie and Alexis how sociologists such as Pierre Bourdieu have theorised “distinction”, showing how “highbrow” taste is decided by those with money and other kinds of capital. They also discuss the idea of the “cultural omnivore” and ask: Is what looks like broad consumption – of everything from opera to grime – just elitism in disguise?Plus: Why are Marvel blockbusters Irmak’s “guilty pleasure”? Why is “symbolic violence” as scary as it sounds? And do we have a moral duty to be honest about our tastes?Guest: Irmak Karademir HazirHosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu TruongExecutive Producer: Alice BlochSound Engineer: David CracklesMusic: Joe GardnerArtwork: Erin AnikerFind more about Uncommon Sense at The Sociological Review.Production Note: This episode was recorded shortly before the devastating earthquake in southern and central Turkey and northern and western Syria.Episode ResourcesIrmak, Rosie, Alexis and our producer Alice recommendedThe movies of the “Marvel Cinematic Universe”John Waters’ film “Hairspray”Agnès Jaoui’s film “Le Goût des autres” (The Taste of Others)The BBC documentary series “Signs of the Times”From The Sociological Review“Feminism After Bourdieu” – Lisa Adkins and Bev Skeggs [special issue editors]“Aesthetic labour, class and taste: Mobility aspirations of middle-class women working in luxury-retail” – Bryan Boyle and Kobe De Keere“Taste the Joy: Food, Family, Women and Social Media” – Smriti SinghBy Irmak Karademir Hazir“Cultural Omnivorousness”“How (not) to feed young children: A class-cultural analysis of food parenting practices”“Do Omnivores Perform Class Distinction? A Qualitative Inspection of Culinary Tastes, Boundaries and Cultural Tolerance” (co-author: Nihal Simay Yalvaç)“Exploring patterns of children’s cultural participation: parental cultural capitals and their transmission” (co-authors: Adrian Leguina and Francisco Azpitarte)Further reading“Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste” – Pierre Bourdieu “Formations of Class & Gender: Becoming Respectable” – Bev Skeggs“Reading ‘Race’ in Bourdieu? Examining Black Cultural Capital Among Black Caribbean Youth in South London” – Derron Wallace“Stuart Hall: Selected Writings” – Catherine Hall and Bill Schwarz [book series editors]“Cultural omnivores or culturally homeless? Exploring the shifting cultural identities of the upwardly mobile” – Sam Friedman“‘Anything But Heavy Metal’: Symbolic Exclusion and Musical Dislikes” – Bethany Bryson“The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” – Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer“Follow the algorithm: An exploratory investigation of music on YouTube” – Massimo Airoldi, Davide Beraldo and Alessandro GandiniSupport our work. Make a one-off or regular donation to help fund future episodes of Uncommon Sense: donorbox.org/uncommon-sense

Les Back, a sociologist and author of "The Art of Listening," dives deep into the complexities of sound and listening in society. He discusses how a focus on listening can challenge visual-centric narratives and highlights the link between music and sociology. The conversation examines the hidden biases in everyday interactions and the impacts of cultural appropriation in music. Back emphasizes the necessity of a critical approach to our senses and the importance of inclusive communication in addressing social inequalities.

In this supposedly “post-colonial” age, the idea of the native continues to be distorted and deployed, whether in Narendra Modi’s India or calls for “British jobs for British workers”. How and why has this word – so powerful in the age of empire – lived on into the 21st century? Who gains? And how has it gone from being a term applied to those ruled over by colonisers, to a label chosen by people promoting their own interests against others?Nandita Sharma joins Alexis and Rosie to discuss all this and more, including the exclusionary logic at the heart of the post-colonial nation state. We further ask: how can true decolonisation occur if the very idea of the nation state still features colonial logic? Does it make the idea of decolonising the “national” curriculum an oxymoron?Also, Nandita exposes the assumptions revealed by researchers’ fears of “going native”, and reflects on the idea of a borderless world. Plus: a celebration of Manuela Zechner’s “Remembering Europe”.Guest: Nandita SharmaHosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu TruongExecutive Producer: Alice BlochSound Engineer: David CracklesMusic: Joe GardnerArtwork: Erin AnikerFind more about Uncommon Sense at The Sociological Review.Episode ResourcesNandita, Rosie, Alexis and our producer Alice recommendedManuela Zechner’s film-essay “Remembering Europe”Nakkiah Lui’s playwriting workSnotty Nose Rez Kids’ songs’ lyricsCathy Park Hong’s book “Minor Feelings”Daša Drndić’s book “Canzone Di Guerra”From The Sociological Review“Migrant NHS nurses as ‘tolerated’ citizens in post-Brexit Britain” – Georgia Spiliopoulos and Stephen Timmons“Securitized Citizens: Islamophobia, Racism and the 7/7 London Bombings” – Yasmin Hussain and Paul Bagguley“State containment and closure of gendered possibilities among a millennial generation: On not knowing Muslim young men” – Mairtin Mac an Ghaill and Chris HaywoodDecolonising Methodologies, 20 Years On: The Sociological Review Annual Lecture – Linda Tuhiwai SmithBy Nandita Sharma“Home Rule: National Sovereignty and the Separation of Natives and Migrants”“Against National Sovereignty: The Postcolonial New World Order and the Containment of Decolonization”“No Borders As a Practical Political Project” (co-editors: Bridget Anderson and Cynthia Wright)Further readings“Racism, Class and the Racialized Outsider” – Satnam Virdee“Return of a Native: Learning from the Land” – Vron Ware“Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire” – Akala“Us and Them? The Dangerous Politics of Immigration Control” – Bridget Anderson“Neo-colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism” – Kwame Nkrumah “Decolonization is not a metaphor” – Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang“Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples” – Linda Tuhiwai SmithFrederick Cooper’s work on how people fought against subordination in the French empireGurminder Bhambra’s work on Decolonizing WhitenessSupport our work. Make a one-off or regular donation to help fund future episodes of Uncommon Sense: donorbox.org/uncommon-sense

Emojis! Feminism! Rage! Sociologist Billy Holzberg joins us to talk about emotion. Why is it dismissed as an obstacle to progress and clear thinking – and to whose benefit? How can we let anger into politics without sanctioning far-right violence? And why are some of us freer than others to play with emotional abjection? Billy reflects on all this and more with Alexis and Rosie, celebrating thinkers from Sara Ahmed to Karl Marx, W.E.B. Du Bois to Yasmin Gunaratnam.Billy also reflects on queerness, childhood and shame; the emotional precarity of TV’s Fleabag; the playfulness of emojis; and the desperate but subversive power of the hunger striker. Plus: a welcome clarification of the slippery line between affect and emotion.Guest: Billy HolzbergHosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu TruongExecutive Producer: Alice BlochSound Engineer: David CracklesMusic: Joe GardnerArtwork: Erin AnikerFind more about Uncommon Sense at The Sociological Review.Episode ResourcesBilly, Rosie, Alexis and our producer Alice recommendedJim Hubbard’s documentary “United in Anger: A history of ACT UP”The idea of thinking sociologically with EmojisRobert Munsch and Sheila McGraw’s children’s book “Love You Forever”Lesley Jamison’s essay collection “The Empathy Exams”From The Sociological Review“Everyone shows emotions everywhere but class photos” – Laura Harris“‘Serenity Now!’ Emotion management and solidarity in the workplace” – Jordan McKenzie, et al.“Diane Abbott, misogynoir and the politics of Black British feminism’s anticolonial imperatives: ‘In Britain too, it’s as if we don’t exist’” – Lisa Amanda PalmerBy Billy Holzberg“The Multiple Lives of Affect: A Case Study of Commercial Surrogacy”“‘Wir schaffen das’: Hope and hospitality beyond the humanitarian border”“The affective life of heterosexuality: heteropessimism and postfeminism in Fleabag” (co-author: Aura Lehtonen)Further readings“The Cultural Politics of Emotion” – Sara Ahmed“Death and the Migrant: Bodies, Borders and Care” – Yasmin Gunaratnam“Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844” – Karl Marx “Postcolonial Melancholia” – Paul Gilroy“The Souls of Black Folk” – W.E.B. Du BoisThe work of psychologist Paul Ekman“The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism” – Audre Lorde“The Politics of Compassion: Immigration and Asylum Policy” – Ala Sirriyeh“Affective Relations: The Transnational Politics of Empathy” – Carolyn Pedwell“The Spiritualization of Politics and the Technologies of Resistant Body: Conceptualizing Hunger Striking Subjectivity” – Ashjan Ajour“On Heteropessimism” – Asa SeresinSupport our work. Make a one-off or regular donation to help fund future episodes of Uncommon Sense: donorbox.org/uncommon-sense

Lonely? Mean? Hostile? Cities get a bad rap. But why? Romit Chowdhury has lived in cities worldwide; from Kolkata to Rotterdam. He tells Alexis and Rosie about the wonder of urban “enchantment” found in a stranger’s smile, our changing ideas of the “urban”, and why anonymity is not always in fact the enemy of civility and friendship in the city.Plus: how did “walking the city” emerge as a revolutionary research method? And why is Romit so fascinated with public transport – from exploring auto-rickshaw drivers’ masculinity in Kolkata, to studying sexual violence on the busy trains of Tokyo.Romit, Alexis and Rosie also share their tips for thinking differently about urban life – from Japanese film to novels that explode norms about bodies in the city.Guest: Romit ChowdhuryHosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu TruongExecutive Producer: Alice BlochSound Engineer: David CracklesMusic: Joe GardnerArtwork: Erin AnikerFind more about Uncommon Sense at The Sociological Review.Episode ResourcesRomit, Rosie, Alexis and our producer Alice recommendedClaudia Piñeiro’s novel “Elena Knows”N. K. Jemisin’s book “The City We Became”Shinya Tsukamoto’s filmographyTeju Cole’s novel “Every Day is For the Thief”From The Sociological Review“Karachi” – Shama Dossa“Whose City Now?” – Ray Forrest“Trash Talk: Unpicking the deadlock around urban waste and regeneration” – Francisco Calafate-Faria“Rising with the Rooster: How urban chickens are relaxing the pace of life” – Catherine OliverBy Romit Chowdhury“Sexual assault on public transport: Crowds, nation, and violence in the urban commons”“The social life of transport infrastructures: Masculinities and everyday mobilities in Kolkata”“Density as urban affect: The enchantment of Tokyo’s crowds”Further readings“Dangerous Liaisons – Women and Men: Risk and Reputation in Mumbai” – Shilpa Phadke“For Space” – Doreen Massey“The Metropolis and Mental Life” – Georg Simmel“The Arcades Project” – Walter Benjamin “Delhi Crime” (TV series) – Richie Mehta“The Country and the City” – Raymond Williams“Why Women of Colour in Geography?” – Audrey Kobayashi“‘Delhi is a hopeful place for me!’: young middle-class women reclaiming the Indian city” – Syeda Jenifa Zahan“The Way They Blow the Horn: Caribbean Dollar Cabs and Subaltern Mobilities” – Asha Best“Black in Place: The Spatial Aesthetics of Race in a Post-Chocolate City” – Brandi Thompson SummersSupport our work. Make a one-off or regular donation to help fund future episodes of Uncommon Sense: donorbox.org/uncommon-sense

We each have a body, but every body’s story is unique. In this intimate conversation, sociologist Charlotte Bates tells Alexis and Rosie why studying bodies – and how we talk about them – matters in a society where some are privileged over others, and why ableism harms us all.Charlotte talks about her co-authored work on wild swimming, arguing that despite its commodification, it holds subversive power. She also considers how the unwell body collides with the demands of capitalist life – revealing just how absurd it can be. Plus: what “wellness” fails to capture – and why health is not a lifestyle choice.Guest: Charlotte BatesHosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu TruongExecutive Producer: Alice BlochSound Engineer: David CracklesMusic: Joe GardnerArtwork: Erin AnikerFind more about Uncommon Sense at The Sociological Review.Episode ResourcesCharlotte, Rosie, Alexis and our producer Alice recommendedNina Mingya Powles’ book “Small Bodies of Water”Andy Jackson’s poem “The Change Room”Viktoria Modesta’s song “Prototype”Mark O’Connell’s book “To Be A Machine”From The Sociological Review“Making Visible: Chronic Illness and the Academy” – Anna Ruddock“Race and Disability in the Academy” – Moya Bailey“Embodying Sociology” [Supplement Issue]By Charlotte Bates“Vital Bodies: Living with Illness”“Conviviality, disability and design in the city”Research on wild swimming with Kate Moles – including this article and this forthcoming publication.Further readings“Beyond the Periphery of the Skin” – Silvia Federici“Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s” – Donna Haraway“Moving Beyond Pain” – bell hooks“On Being Ill” – Virginia Woolf“Believing Your Pain as Radical Self-Care” – Jameisha Prescod (in this publication)“Wellness Culture is Ableism in Sheep’s Clothing” – Lucy Pasha-RobinsonThe Polluted Leisure Project – Clifton Evers and James DavollThe Moving Oceans project“Illness: The Cry of the Flesh” – Havi Carel Alexandre Baril’s scholarly work“Everybody Needs Beauty: In Search of the Nature Cure” – Samantha Walton“Why climate justice is impossible without racial justice” – Georgia WhitakerOn maternal mortality – Divya TalwarSupport our work. Make a one-off or regular donation to help fund future episodes of Uncommon Sense: donorbox.org/uncommon-sense

EDUCATORS! STUDENTS! LISTENERS! We want to hear from you ...We’re taking a short summer break, and will be back in September ready and refreshed for the new term, and with a new episode for you!So, while Rosie and Alexis have some well-earned time-outs – and catch up on reading for forthcoming shows on things like cities, emotion and noise – we have a request: Could you use just a few of those spare 45 minutes this month to share some of your thoughts with us? To be precise, we'd like to know how we can help you ...If you're an educator – at whatever level – we'd like to know, do you use podcasts in your teaching? If so, how? And which ones? Maybe you've even asked your students to make their own? And if you don't use them, then why not? What gets in the way of that? And how could Uncommon Sense do more to help you to promote and explain the sociological imagination?And if you're a student or a researcher, we want to know what Uncommon Sense has done for you so far? Has it made you think about how you explain your work to non-academic friends? Maybe even that most challenging of audiences, your parents!?And if you're neither of the above, you're still very much part of the Uncommon Sense community! We want to know what keeps you listening? And whether we've prompted you to "see the world afresh through the eyes of sociologists"? That's what we promise at the top of pretty much every episode ...Share your thoughts with us by email, by Instagram, and on Twitter. You can also read all about using podcasts in the classroom from The Sociological Review's podcast lead Professor Michaela Benson.And recommend us to friends, family and more. It's easy to subscribe – look us up in whatever app you use and tap "follow"!We'll be back in September – See you soon!Support our work. Make a one-off or regular donation to help fund future episodes of Uncommon Sense: donorbox.org/uncommon-sense