Hello and welcome to this new blog: A Sociologist's Paradise!
Introductions are seemingly always clunky and awkward so I guess that this one will be no different. Blogs have never been my speciality. I've had a few, all of which are currently lying untouched and abandoned. Hopefully this one, being created with a clear purpose, will be more successful.
A short potted history about me to begin:
- I'm Leah, I'm 21. I like music, reading and geocaching.
- I was originally born in Bristol but now live in Cardiff most of the year!
- I graduated in July 2016 with a First Class Honours degree in BScEcon Sociology from Cardiff University.
- I have now returned as a Master's student to Cardiff University studying MSc Social Science Research Methods on a Social Policy pathway - they just cannot seem to get rid of me! This year is the first part of my ESRC 1+3 Studentship (basically another name for a scholarship) provided through the Wales Doctoral Training Centre (DTC). As I have just embarked on the '1' part of this 4 year journey, I will, hopefully, gain my PhD in 2020 when I'm 25 years old.
My Research Interests:
As this is an attempt at an academic(ish)-type blog, I thought I would outline some of the broad areas which interest me in terms of fields for my own original social research.
As this is an attempt at an academic(ish)-type blog, I thought I would outline some of the broad areas which interest me in terms of fields for my own original social research.
- Inequality: be it gender, class, ethnic, geographical or educational, inequality is an area of great interest for me. As a left-wing student, albeit from a relatively privileged, middle-class background, I have become increasingly aware of the sheer levels of inequality which constitute and dominate society today. Yes, I'm one of those who buys into the 99% vs the 1% argument, although, in my opinion, it would probably be more accurate to denote it the 99.9% versus the 0.1%.
- Poverty and Social Exclusion: 22% of the UK population is in relative poverty where their household income post-tax falls below 60% of the national median and this percentage is rising all the time. Poverty is clearly a significant problem in UK today which, for a country ranked 5th in the world GDP rankings, is rather shocking. It is therefore an important area of study within the social sciences and one which should, in my opinion, dominate social policy.
- Social Theory: despite my Master's mainly concerning social policy and social research, I am still of the opinion that all our research within the social sciences should be grounded in theory. The theories with which I most agree are largely Marxist theory, symbolic interactionism, and feminism. I am also interested in the works of Herbert Marcuse and Zygmunt Bauman. The substantive representation of women and critical actor/critical mass theories are also of significant interest regarding my PhD proposal - I'll do a separate post concerning this soon!
Anyway, enough of introductions. Welcome to my blog...hopefully this one is more successful than those in the past!
Just thought I'd add a recent picture of me so you can put a face to the writing!
Leah
