Wednesday 16:00-16:30
Laurie Taylor discusses the latest social science research.
19 October 2005
Vets and Pets in Holland
The boundaries between pets and humans have become increasingly blurred, which has led to a failure by some pet owners to understand the biological needs of their animals. Problems may range from over-feeding an animal to refusing to accept that a pet's life is finite. Treatments like chemotherapy are being questioned by vets as a viable and ethical form of therapy for animals.
Dr Joanna Swabe asks if pet owners are 'loving their animals to death' and looks at the ways vets act as mediators in the intimate and deeply personal relationship between pet and person.
Public Sociology
What role does sociology have in public life? What is it for, who does it serve and how should it be carried out? A new paper by Dr. Geoff Mulgan, Director of the Young Foundation, addresses these questions and offers reflections on sociology's role in social change.
Geoff Mulgan and Dick Hobbs, Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics discuss sociology and public life and the importance of the discipline in influencing public policy.
Additional information:
Dr Joanna Swabe, Sociologist and anthrozoologist who is now an independent scholar and works in animal welfare
Animals in Person: Cultural Perspectives on Human-Animal Intimacies **
John Knight (Editor)
Publisher: Berg Publishers
ISBN: 1859737331
**Includes Joanna Swabe's essay: Loved to Death? Veterinary Visions of Pet-Keeping in Modern Dutch Society
Geoff Mulgan's lecture ' Observation, interpretation and activism: sociology's role in social change'
Date & time: Friday 21st October at 6pm
Venue: Brabourne Lecture Theatre, Keynes College, Canterbury campus, University of Kent
Professor Dick Hobbs, Professor of sociology with special reference to Criminology at the London School of Economics
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites
