Halloween is coming and suddenly the streets will be full of ghosts and ghouls and witches and zombies. We will watch scary films. We will scare each other. We will go trick or treating. It is a time when suddenly it is fun to be scared! Why? When we are scared, our bodies prepare themselves […]

The Riots – Can Direct Action Ever Be A Good Thing? Direct Action from a Sociological Point of View In the last few blogs, we have talked about the riots from a sociological (and psychological) point of view. Direct action is a form of political activity that takes place outside the normal political processes. Direct […]

In the light of the recent UK riots, one of Oxford Open Learning’s tutors considers the impact of social networks on the riots. The “Social Network” Riots: Sociological and Psychological Views on the Involvement of Social Networking in Last Month’s Riots We commented in the last blog looking at the riots from a sociological angle […]

In the light of the recent UK riots, one of Oxford Open Learning’s tutors considers events from a sociological perspective. The Riots – A Sociological Perspective In the previous psychology blog promted by the recent riots in UK cities we looked at some reasons that have been given for why people who wouldn’t be expected […]

In the light of the recent UK riots, one of Oxford Open Learning’s tutors considers events from a psychological perspective. The Riots – A Psychological Perspective People who riot are different people aren’t they? Not everyone will riot?  There is a suggestion that individuals who you would not expect to riot can get dragged into […]

This new series of blogs on education in GCSE Sociology builds on the ideas in the previous series, Key concepts in education. The first blog looks at the structure of the education system. The Structure of The Education System Both the A level and GCSE Sociology courses cover education, but the type and quantity of information covered […]

The 4th blog in our GCSE and A Level Sociology series on Key concepts in education looks at two diferent approaches to education. Marxist and functionalist approaches We have already talked about some of the other key concepts in education in sociology, but now we will consider two of the important approaches to education – the […]

Here is the 3rd blog in our series looking at education in GCSE and A Level Sociology which examines some more key concepts. Key Concepts in Sociology continued Social Class This is a group of people who share similar occupations, wealth and income in terms of their economic position. Hierarchy A hierarchy is like a […]

The second blog in our GCSE and A Level series on education in Sociology looks at some key concepts. Key Concepts in Sociology Before we go further into considering education, let’s look at some of the key concepts – Official Curriculum This is the formal teaching of an educational establishment, where students learn their lessons in […]

Here is the first in a new series of blogs looking at education in GCSE and A Level Sociology. Key concepts in education 1: Introduction to education Education is covered in both the GCSE and A level syllabus for Sociology. This blog will introduce what we mean by education – there will be separate blogs covering […]