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 and viewing“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 Gandini“Pretty Woman” – Garry Marshall [film director]“Marvel's Defenders of The Status Quo” – Pop Culture Detective

What does it mean to really listen in a society obsessed with spectacle? What’s hidden when powerful people claim to “hear” or “give voice” to others? And what’s at stake if we think that using fancy recording devices helps us to neatly capture “truth”?Les Back – author of “The Art of Listening” – tells Alexis and Rosie why listening to society is crucial, but cautions that there’s nothing inherently superior about the hearing sense. Rather, we must “re-tune our ears to society” and listen responsibly, with care, and in doubt.Plus: why should we think critically before accepting invitations to “trust our senses”? And why do so many sociologists also happen to be musicians?Guest: Les BackHosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu TruongExecutive Producer: Alice BlochSound Engineer: David CracklesMusic: Joe GardnerArtwork: Erin AnikerFind more about Uncommon Sense at The Sociological Review.Episode ResourcesLes, Rosie, Alexis and our producer Alice recommendedHak Baker’s song “Wobbles on Cobbles”John Cage’s composition “4′33″”The “Walls to Bridges” initiativeHari Kunzru’s novel “White Tears”From The Sociological Review“A Sociological Playlist” – Jack Halberstam“Listening to community: The aural dimensions of neighbouring” – Camilla Lewis“Loudly sing cuckoo: More-than-human seasonalities in Britain” – Andrew WhitehouseBy Les Back“The Art of Listening”“Tape Recorder 1”“Urban multiculture and xenophonophobia in London and Berlin” (co-authors: Agata Lisiak and Emma Jackson)“Trust Your Senses? War, Memory, and the Racist Nervous System”Further reading and viewing“Hustlers, Beats, and Others” – Ned Polsky“The Politics of Listening: Possibilities and Challenges for Democratic Life” – Leah Basel“The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches” – W. E. B. Du Bois“Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black” – bell hooks“White woman listen! Black feminism and the boundaries of sisterhood” – Hazel Carby“Presentation fever and podium affects” – Yasmin Gunaratnam“Ear Cleaning: Notes for an Experimental Music Course” – Murray SchaferAlso, have a look at the scholarly work of Paul Gilroy and Frantz Fanon, and the music of Evelyn Glennie.

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 Whiteness

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 Seresin

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 SummersAnd the work of Ayona Datta, Linda McDowell, Patricia Noxolo, Linda Peake, Tracey Skelton, Andrea Roberts and Gill Valentine

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 Talwar

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!

Too often, talk about security seems to belong to politicians and psychologists; to discussions about terrorism and defence, individual anxiety and insecurity. But how do sociologists think about it? And why care?Daria Krivonos – who works on migration, race and class in Central and Eastern Europe – tells Alexis and Rosie why security matters. What’s the impact of calling migration a “security threat”? How does the security of the privileged rely on the insecurity of the precarious? And, as Russia’s war in Ukraine continues, what would it mean to truly #StandwithUkraine – from ensuring better job security for its workers abroad, to cancelling its debt?Plus: pop culture pointers; from Kae Tempest’s “People’s Faces” to the movie “The Mauritanian” – and Alexis’ teenage passion for Rage Against the Machine.Guest: Daria KrivonosHosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu TruongExecutive Producer: Alice BlochSound Engineer: David CracklesMusic: Joe GardnerArtwork: Erin AnikerFind more about Uncommon Sense at The Sociological Review.Episode ResourcesDaria, Rosie and Alexis recommendedKae Tempest’s song “People’s Faces”Rage Against the Machine’s song “Without a Face”Kevin Macdonald’s movie “The Mauritanian”From The Sociological Review“Brexit On ‘Plague Island’: Fortifying The UK’s Borders In Times Of Crisis” – Michaela Benson and Nando Sigona“Organised State Abandonment: The meaning of Grenfell” – Brenna Bhandar“Food Insecurity: Upsetting ‘Apple Carts’ in Abstract and Tangible Markets” – Susan Marie MartinBy Daria Krivonos“The making of gendered ‘migrant workers’ in youth activation: The case of young Russian-speakers in Finland”“Ukrainian farm workers and Finland’s regular army of labour”“Who stands with Ukraine in the long term?”“Racial capitalism and the production of difference in Helsinki and Warsaw” (forthcoming)Further readings“The Death of Asylum” – Alison Mountz“What was the so-called ‘European Refugee Crisis’?” – Danish Refugee CouncilWorld Food Programme Yemen and Ethiopia statistics“In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All” – UN Secretary-General“Ukrainian Workers Flee ‘Modern Slavery’ Conditions on UK Farms” – Diane Taylor“Bordering” – Nira Yuval-Davis, Georgie Wemyss and Kathryn CassidyAnthony Giddens’ sociological work; including “Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age”

Think of intimacy and, pretty soon, you’ll probably think about sex. But, as sociologist Katherine Twamley explains, intimacy means much more than that: it’s woven through so many of our relationships – including with people whose names we might not even know. She tells Rosie and Alexis how an accidental trip to India got her thinking about the varied meanings of “love” across cultures and contexts, and reflects on whether, to quote the famous song, love and marriage really do “go together like a horse and carriage”.Plus: what could it mean to decolonise love? Why should we be wary of acts performed in the name of love? Will we ever live in a truly “contactless” world, and who wants that? And we get intimate with the artist Sophie Calle.Guest: Katherine TwamleyHosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu TruongExecutive Producer: Alice BlochSound Engineer: David CracklesMusic: Joe GardnerArtwork: Erin AnikerFind more about Uncommon Sense at The Sociological Review.Episode ResourcesKatherine, Rosie, Alexis and our producer Alice recommendedIan McEwan’s novel “Machines Like Me”Haruhiko Kawaguchi’s photographySophie Calle’s conceptual artAlex Thompson’s film “Saint Frances”From The Sociological Review“The Sociology of Love” – Julia CarterOn asexual people and intimacy – Matt Dawson, Liz McDonnell and Susie Scott On the phenomenon of self-marriage – Kinneret Lahad and Michal Karvel-ToviFurther readings“Love, Marriage and Intimacy Among Gujarati Indians” – Katherine Twamley“Families We Choose: Lesbians, Gays, Kinship” – Kath Weston“Intimate Labors: Cultures, Technologies, and the Politics of Care” – Eileen Boris and Rhacel Salazar Parreñas (editors)On Emotional Labour – Arlie Hochschild“Decolonising Families and Relationships” – British Sociological Association webinars“Liquid Love: On the Frailty of Human Bonds” – Zygmunt Bauman“Individualization: Institutionalized Individualism and Its Social and Political Consequences” – Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim and Ulrich BeckNandita Dutta’s research on South Asian beauty salons in London as diasporic sites of intimacyNick Crossley’s sociological workJessica Ringrose’s sociological workGreta Thunberg’s Twitter page (mentioned by Katherine as an intimacy example)James Baldwin’s novel “Giovanni’s Room”Sally Rooney’s novel “Normal People”

School should be about play, fulfilment and learning. But it is also a place of surveillance, discipline and discrimination. Activist scholar Remi Joseph-Salisbury has researched policing, racism and education in the UK. He tells Rosie and Alexis what happens when policing enters the classroom, its impact on students and teachers of colour, and the need for wholesale reform – including a truly anti-racist curriculum.Plus: how can we break the “school-to-prison” pipeline? What is Critical Race Theory and why has it prompted a backlash? What does it mean to really receive “an education”? And what’s the harm in the trope of the “inspirational super teacher”, as found in films from Sister Act to Dead Poets Society?This episode was recorded prior to news being made public of the experience of the pupil known as “Child Q”, reported in mid-March 2022. Remi has since written about this.Guest: Remi Joseph-SalisburyHosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu TruongExecutive Producer: Alice BlochSound Engineer: David CracklesMusic: Joe GardnerArtwork: Erin AnikerFind more about Uncommon Sense at The Sociological Review.Episode ResourcesRemi, Rosie and Alexis recommendedJohn Agard's poem  “Checking Out Me History”Steve McQueen's TV drama “Small Axe: Education”Laurie Nunn's TV series “Sex Education”Jesse Thistle's memoir “From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way”From The Sociological ReviewOn “Prevent”, a counter-extremism policy at UK universities Niyousha Bastani “Social Mixing in Urban Schools” Sumi Hollingworth“School-to-Prison Pipeline” Karen GrahamBy Remi Joseph-Salisbury“Race and Racism in English Secondary Schools”“Afro Hair: How Pupils Are Tackling Discriminatory Uniform Policies”On the demonisation of Critical Race TheoryFurther reading“Racism and Education: Coincidence or Conspiracy?” David Gillborn “Race, Gender and Educational Desire: Why Black Women Succeed and Fail” Heidi Mirza“Lammy Review” MP David Lammy“How the West Indian Child is Made Educationally Sub-normal in the British School System” Bernard CoardThe Halo Collective for a future without hair discriminationNo More Exclusions for racial justice in education

Home means something to everyone. More than just bricks and mortar, it’s about security and belonging, citizenship and exclusion. Michaela Benson has researched it all: from the UK’s self-build communities, to people seeking a new lifestyle abroad. She tells Alexis and Rosie about this and her own experience of home, including her mother’s relationship to her place of birth: Hong Kong.Plus, Kwame Lowe and Alice Grahame introduce us to the Rural Urban Synthesis Society in London. What does it take to build your own “Grand Design” and why would anyone want to do that? What happens when areas become known as “problem places” and what’s gentrification got to do with it? And who is to blame for the housing crisis?Guests: Michaela Benson, Kwame Lowe, Alice GrahameHosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu TruongExecutive Producer: Alice BlochSound Engineer: David CracklesMusic: Joe GardnerArtwork: Erin AnikerSpecial thanks to: Kirsteen Paton, Lisa Dikomitis, RUSSUncommon Sense sees our world afresh, through the eyes of sociologists. Brought to you by The Sociological Review, it’s a space for questioning taken-for-granted ideas about society – for imagining better ways of living together and confronting our shared crises. Hosted by Rosie Hancock in Sydney and Alexis Hieu Truong in Ottawa, featuring a different guest each month, Uncommon Sense insists that sociology is for everyone.Episode ResourcesMichaela, Rosie and Alexis recommend:“Fragile Monsters” (2021) by Catherine Menon“Unsheltered” (2018) by Barbara Kingsolver“Foundation” (1942) by Isaac AsimovFrom The Sociological Review:“Unhomely Homes: A visual study of Airbnb” (2020) by Kenneth Kajoranta and Anna PechurinaOn older New Zealanders and the role of home for feeling secure in an uncertain world (1998) by Ann Dupuis and David ThornsA critical review of the existing literature on “home” (2004) by Shelley MallettFurther readings:On being middle-class in contemporary London (2017) by Michaela Benson and Emma JacksonOn Brexit’s hidden costs for Britons living in the EU (2021) by Michaela BensonThe Rural Urban Synthesis Society (RUSS) Lewisham, London“Gentrification: A Working-Class Perspective” (2014) by Kirsteen Paton“Your Life Chances Affect Where You Live: A Critique of the ‘Cottage Industry’ of Neighbourhood Effects Research” (2013) by Tom Slater“Cyprus and Its Places of Desire: Cultures of Displacement Among Greek and Turkish Cypriot Refugees” (2012) edited by Lisa Dikomitis“Walters Way and Segal Close: The Architect Walter Segal and London's Self-Build Community” (2017) by Alice GrahameThe film “Minari” (2020) directed by Lee Isaac ChungChris Leslie’s work on demolition and regeneration in GlasgowRead our acknowledgement of the indigenous lands that both Rosie and Alexis work upon.Find more at The Sociological Review.

What does care really mean? For feminist sociologist Bev Skeggs, it should be at the heart of how we organise our society – from tax to health, to climate action. She talks to Alexis and Rosie about the costs of complacency, her own shocking experience of care (or lack of it) as her own parents faced the end of life, and why we have every right to expect the state to look after us. Care, she shows, is political: there’s no care without society; no society without care.Plus, Bev casts a sideways glance at “self-care” and explains why browsing a sociology textbook might just be better for you than a trip to a pricey spa. The team also discusses their recommendations for pop culture lessons in care – from Adrienne Rich to Robin Williams.Guest: Bev SkeggsHosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu TruongExecutive Producer: Alice BlochSound Engineer: David CracklesMusic: Joe GardnerArtwork: Erin AnikerSpecial thanks to: Kirsteen PatonUncommon Sense sees our world afresh, through the eyes of sociologists. Brought to you by The Sociological Review, it’s a space for questioning taken-for-granted ideas about society – for imagining better ways of living together and confronting our shared crises. Hosted by Rosie Hancock in Sydney and Alexis Hieu Truong in Ottawa, featuring a different guest each month, Uncommon Sense insists that sociology is for everyone.Episode ResourcesBev, Rosie and Alexis recommend:TV adaptations (various; 1993-2001; 2019) of Armistead Maupin’s “Tales of the City” novels (1974-2014)“Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution” (1976) by Adrienne RichThe movie “What Dreams May Come” (1998), dir. Vincent Ward, starring Robin WilliamsFrom The Sociological Review:“A Crisis in Humanity: What Everyone With Parents Is Likely to Face in the Future” (2017) by Bev SkeggsOn radical care (2020) by Dan Silver and Sarah Marie HallOn caring for plants during Covid-19 (2020) by Gavin MacleanOn care, activism and environmental justice in Chile (2017) by Manuel Tironi and Israel Rodríguez-GiraltOn love labour as a particular kind of care (2007) by Kathleen LynchFurther readings:“Formations of Class and Gender” (1997) by Bev Skeggs“Learning to Labour” (1977) by Paul Willis“The Care Manifesto” (2020) by The Care CollectiveThe Women’s Budget GroupSolidarity and Care During the Covid-19 Pandemic (2020), a public platform by The Sociological Review“Saving the Modern Soul: Therapy, Emotions, and the Culture of Self-Help” (2008) by Eva Illouz“Who Will Care for the Caretaker’s Daughter? Towards a Sociology of Happiness in the Era of Reflexive Modernity” (1997) by Eva Illouz“Growing Up Girl: Psychosocial Explorations of Gender and Class” (2001) by Valerie Walkerdine, Helen Lucey and June Melody“A Burst of Light” (1988) by Audre Lorde“Self-Help, Media Cultures and the Production of Female Psychopathology” (2004) by Lisa Blackman“It's Different for Girls: Gendering the Audience for Popular Music” (2000) by Diane RailtonFind more at The Sociological Review.

This is Uncommon Sense, the podcast that sees our world afresh, through the eyes of sociologists. Brought to you by The Sociological Review, it’s a space for questioning taken-for-granted ideas about society – for imagining better ways of living together and confronting our shared crises. Hosted by Rosie Hancock in Sydney and Alexis Hieu Truong in Ottawa, featuring a different guest each month, Uncommon Sense insists that sociology is for everyone.Hosts: Alexis Hieu Truong, Rosie HancockFeatured Guests: Bev Skeggs, Michaela BensonExecutive Producer: Alice BlochSound Engineer: David CracklesMusic: Joe GardnerArtwork: Erin Aniker