Telefantasy Tower Blocks: Space, Place and Social Realism Shake-ups in Misfits

Space, Place, and Realism

John Hill has described the ways in which male-centered narratives of British “working-class films” of the 1980s and 1990s mobilize the idea of the working-class community as “a metaphor for the state of the nation.” Writing on films of the same era by women directors, Charlotte Brunsdon deems it more difficult to see these films as “representations of the nation.” There are, she writes, “real ...

Realism and Social Science

Vibration Platforms May 'Shake Up' Warm-Ups for Softball Players

Newswise — How can softball players increase their bat speed without taking a swing? Thirty seconds of wholebody vibration (WBV) on a special vibration platform has the same effect on bat speed as the standard "dry swings" warm-up, reports a study in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, official research journal of the National Strength and Conditioning Association. The journal is...

Making a Place for Space: Spatial Thinking in Social Science.

New technologies and multilevel data sets that include geographic identifiers have heightened sociologists' interest in spatial analysis. I review several of the key concepts, measures, and methods that are brought into play in this work, and offer examples of their application in a variety of substantive fields. I argue that the most effective use of the new tools requires greater emphasis on ...

The medicalisation of shyness: from social misfits to social fitness.

Shyness has become an 'unhealthy' state of mind for individuals living in contemporary Western societies. Insofar as its behavioural 'symptoms' imply a failure to achieve certain cultural values, such as assertiveness, self-expression and loquacious vocality, shyness is increasingly defined as a problem for which people can, and should, be treated. This paper first critically discusses the idea...