Wednesday 16:00-16:30
Laurie Taylor discusses the latest social science research.
12 April 2006
CULTURE
What is culture? Many people - including historians and anthropologists - have a view of what culture is, and although their definitions are invariably all different, they generally proceed from the working hypothesis that culture is fixed.
In his new book Cultures Merging: A Historical and Economic Critique of Culture, Professor Eric L. Jones identifies "a real need to establish the origin, nature and limits of culture's influence" and explains why in his view culture, far from being immutable, is constantly shaped by economics. ABSTINENCE AND PERSONAL IDENTITY
Labels like vegan, virgin, or non-smoker get thrown around to identify forms of abstinence, but for many abstainers such labels are also proud declarations of who they are.
Laurie Taylor is joined by Jamie L. Mullaney Assistant Professor of Sociology at Goucher College, Baltimore and author of a new book called Everyone Is Not Doing It: Abstinence and Personal Identity.
They discuss why the act of not doing something plays such a crucial role in the formation of our personal identities. They also explore how people come to the decision to deny themselves something, how perceptions of abstinence can change and the links that unite abstainers.
Additional information:
Professor Eric L. Jones, Professorial Fellow at Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne; Emeritus Professor at La Trobe University; and Visiting Professor at Exeter University.
Cultures Merging: A Historical and Economic Critique of Culture
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691117373
Professor Jamie L. Mullaney, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Goucher College, Baltimore
Everyone Is Not Doing It: Abstinence and Personal Identity
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226547574
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