It is UK-centric to date the outbreak of the second world war from September of 1939 since Nazi expansionism had already led to brutal suffering elsewhere in Europe, but it was in September that my father, Ron, left Brown, Jenkinson & Co and set about volunteering for the armed services. He had long worn spectacles… Read More »
Only a fully paid up academic could and would equivocate between two alternative and equally arcane subtitles: ‘sociological autobiography’ versus ‘autobiographical sociology’. In fact both make sense. The first and favoured option emphasises autobiography while suggesting a narrative of a life-course shaped by the confluence of time and place, a structured if not structurally determined… Read More »
In some cultures the activities of academics and intellectuals are regarded as mutually exclusive. To enjoy the comfort and security of a university position is tantamount to throwing in the intellectual towel. It sets parameters, binds and tames: the interests of the individual over time become reconciled to, or at least commensurate with, the bureaucratic… Read More »
I have at various times and in various places advocated a form of engagement for change that I have called ‘permanent reform’. The basic idea is that if sufficient people can be mobilized around the righting of a number of incontrovertible wrongs, once mobilized they will up for more activism to secure more and yet… Read More »
When I was asked to write a few words on Georgie ‘Rose’ Kennington’s performance in St Michael’s Church I was apprehensive: after all I am no music critic! But I assented for two reasons. First, I had thoroughly enjoyed the evening’s programme; and second, if I know anything at all about music, then it’s about… Read More »
The final blog: from Beijing back to Epsom: Sunday 19 August We opted out of the group’s morning tour to the Summer Palace in favour of a wander under our own steam and an excursion to the Forbidden City. We kept to our plan, sort of. We found our way, circuitously, to Tiananmen Square, pausing… Read More »
Onwards via blog 5 to Beijing: Friday 17 August We felt we had been micro-waved and well browned by the time Eva knocked on our cabin door at 4am. Was our arrival in Beijing imminent? No. We were on schedule, but it was the use of toilet facilities that was urgent, unless visitors/invaders from other… Read More »
Already I have had feedback – including the tweeting of a link to a paper I had not been aware of – for which many thanks. There’s an issue of authorship here. It was never my intention to profit quietly from the suggestions, guidance or insights of colleagues. Multi-authorship maybe, or a novel form of… Read More »
Blog number four: from Irkutsk onwards: Tuesday 14 August Breakfast, ironically, was in the bar I had vacated about 1am, whence a minibus transported us back to Irkutsk Station. Eva seemed reluctant to talk over plans for the day. Maybe this reflected local uncertainty, but on the other hand … We had learned to be… Read More »
As the manuscript for our edited book on Café Society was dispatched to the publisher, the American branch of Palgrave Macmillan, I took the decision to write a paper arising out of four decades of personal café usage. The purpose would be twofold: (a) to reflect on the parameters of this varied and varying usage, as a… Read More »