A Critical Look back

               For my final blog I would like to indulge on a somewhat critical reflection on my own blog, and in deed the whole ‘Doing social research’ module, a Module which I have found quite a bit difficult in.  So firstly I’m going to criticises my own blog. Prior to starting this module I was toying with my writing a more personal blog, as a way of reflecting on my life and humouring my ego. However after having being required to write one for an assignment it think I will have to wait a while for the mental scars to fade before I can embark on that particular endeavour. The first issue I encountered, and may I add one that did not fade with time, knowing what subjects were appropriated to write about, an issue on which I am still not the wiser. Whilst the issues I have focused on are things that have had an effect on me during the time of writing them, and I hope I have developed upon them with a sociological train of thought, I am aware that they are painfully low in academic backing. However I would like to clarify that this is because the topics I have chosen to write about have had very little academic attention. This is challenge of finding appropriate things to write about was not helped by the ambiguity of the advice that was offered from the modal itself, although the biggest problem I admit was the scattered nature of my mind.  

                Although overall I am in some way proud of my blog, despite the probable number of spelling, grammatical and structural mistakes, it have been beneficial to me in a way as writing down my thoughts on particular issues has allowed me to give a better structure to them and even develop them. Although another difficulty I encounter with them is not knowing how they were going to be marked, as this made it difficult to know what to include, and what to leave out. But on the bright side at least that has allowed for pieces of writing that have been more of a reflection on myself, and as far as I can see shows more signs of how I have developed within the module.

                As for the wider context of the module, I have found it hard at times to concentrate during lecture, although the sessions where this has been a problem are usually the ones which are two hours in length and have been dedicated to teaching us how to use twitter, a service which I have used in the past and thought it was useless, and still deem it as so. However I do understand that these sessions may have been useful for the less tech-savvy members of the group, although I do feel two hours is a bit long for such a topic. I think the most useful aspects of the module for me have been the seminars, as this has allowed for input from our lecturer which have been guided and added to by the students, resulting in a more productive session. Overall I feel that I have not developed as much as I could have throughout this module, with my knowledge not being much more than it was from A-level research method, although again I do recognise that this may be the first time some people had been properly introduced to research methods.

                As for the group poster, whilst at first I was extremely sceptical towards it (as I have previously stated) I feel like this has been the part of the module which has allowed me to develop the most. This is for two reasons, firstly despite my hatred for group work, it has been highly beneficial working with other people as it has allowed me to observe different ways of achieving our findings, through means which perhaps would not have been my first choice, such as the focus group we carried out. Secondly it has allowed me to put research methods, which until previously existed purely in the realm of theory. This has allowed me to understand the pros and cons of them in a better light.  Also through carrying out the focus group it has allowed me to develop my understanding of the ethical implications of research, and gain more appreciation of them through having to consider them myself.

                To finish I would just like to make in known  that my writing in this blog is not aimed at the lectures teaching this module, I have tried to make that clear when writing this blog, but I felt the need to make sure this was clear. I personally think that any problems with this module is born from focusing it on ‘doing social research’, when we are not allowed to carry out real social research. Furthermore research methods are a particularly dry subject within the academic field of sociology, and that given the problem I have found with it, the whole experience could have been a lot worse.  

Presenting our Finished Project.

              Perhaps the only thing I hate more than group work within the context of my studies is that of presenting. I think this is more down to the fact that I have to have a structure to my thinking and I over obsess with trying to stick to a script, which Is a gain something that my thinking process doesn’t take well too.  However it is a skill I have developed on greatly since starting my first year at UCLan, through assignments and generally pushing myself into situations through which I am forced to speak publicly. I think the main obstacle for me this time, in terms of presenting the poster, was that I had to do it as part of a group as this meant I not only had to work to my script but I have to fit my script in with theirs. However the whole process I feel ran with only minor hiccups, such as when I got halfway through the conclusion and realised I hadn’t took a breath since starting it.

                As for dividing up the poster, to form the scripts for each member of the group, it was again an easy process as each member had no problems taking any part of it, so we just decided between which parts made the most sense for each individual to speak about. Although perhaps the biggest factor which made this process so easy, was the poster its self. As a group we put quite a bit of thought into the poster, especially in regards to which the layout and what information appeared under which section.  This was made more effective by the way in which we kept each other up to date with all the work we had done throughout the project, meaning that when it came to speaking on the poster, any of us would have been able to speak on any section of the poster with equal understanding.  In addition to this, having one theory running throughout the presentation, In this case Faludi’s (1992) back lash theory, proved to be beneficial as it allowed for me to become more familiar with the material from our focus group, and media content analysis, as it gave me something to apply it too.

                Overall I was generally happy with the presentation of our poster, as I think it was well it was structured well, with and was clear to the reader, as it contained all the relevant information, but was not overflowing with text. On top of this I thought that the design was eye-catching, but at the same time did not distract the reader from the academic content. The presentation my group gave I have very little criticism of, as the other two members of my groups gave their speeches brilliantly, Although on my part I feel I could have done with taking a bit more time, to allow me to speak more clearly and remember the importance of breathing.

My Experiences of Working in a Group

              Whenever the words ‘group project’ are mentioned, I must admit that my initial reactions are not positive.  This is not due to me having any problems functioning in a group, but it’s the uncertainty that is involved when working within a group, relying  on other peoples input to get a half decent grade, takes a lot of the control out of my hands , which is not a situation I enjoy being in. Part of this is due to finding appropriate times, in which all members of the group are free to meet for long enough to make the meeting productive and lay out a plan that works. This becomes more of a problem towards the end of the semester which is when we had to carry out the assignment, as everyone is already in lectures at different times, add to that other assignments and commitments and the window of time in which they are free becomes a very short and rare gap. As well as this there are problem in finding a topic which everyone is interested in and then taking it in a direc6tion that everyone is happy with. Also are the issues that arise if one person demands to take certain parts of the project, whilst other individuals insist on doing less than the rest of the group. These issues are often the downfall of a group assignment, and ultimately lead to the decent into chaos.

                However this in a very rare occasion was not the case in my group. Part of this may be because we were free to choose the group that we worked in, meaning we could select people that we already had some form of knowledge about, thus knowing their strengths and weaknesses. But in fact our group worked very well together. The selection of the topic involved no great debate, we simply had an informal discussion where we all decided we wanted to do something that was extremely relevant to our university, but also worked in the wider schemes of society.

Whilst we did have the usual problems regarding time, or more accurately the lack of it, we all fought to make it work, even if it did mean going out of our way, with some members commuting just to work on our posters. Due to us all making sure we had a decent amount of time to talk and not just 10 minutes during a lecture change, our plan of action just seemed to fall into place, with tasks being fairly divided to who we felt would carry it out best, this even extended to each member helping the others in cases of where they encountered any problems.

Although toward the end we were extremely short on time due to each member having exams of other assignments due at different times making it extremely hard to meet up and create the actual poster. We pulled together, to create a poster that we are all justly proud of. Even though the poster was put together last minute it did not lose any of the quality from what we originally attended it to have, as everyone just did what the needed to do with no conflict.

Overall, whilst I still maintain that this was a rare occurrence, in term of how easy working in this group was, it was sort of enjoyable in a strange way. As a result I now feel slightly less cautions about working in a group, although I still don’t view it as an ideal situation I no longer look on it in complete distain. I just hope our final mark represents the group effort that was put into it.   

The Role of Music in Society, And the Relationship between Artist and Fans.

One thing that soon becomes apparent to anyone who knows me that I am very passionate about music, sometimes to an obsessive degree.  I believe that this is a completely justified attitude for a number of reasons, as I think that music plays a large role in the lives of the individuals who engage in it. This is for a number of reasons; firstly a great deal of music holds the power to change our mood and general outlook. We all, whether we admit to it or not, have particular music we listen to when we feel down which cheers us up, of song we play when we are in a good mood as they mirror and enhance our feelings at that time. This I believe as can be put down to the way in which it reminds us that we are not alone, and that others share our feelings and ideology. But perhaps the greatest reason that I have for why music is so important in life is that it grants a platform to those who would not get their points across otherwise.

                I really enjoy live music, and go to quite a lot of gigs. There is one thing that is key to moving any gig from simply being good, to being great, and that is the having a strong connection with the crowd. However the last two artists who I had the pleasure to see live, created an extremely strong link with the crowed through utilising a shared ideology, by talking about issues which have affected many of us. ‘Funeral For a Friend’ did this extremely well when introducing their song ‘history’, which they described as  being about standing up for your rights and the rights of others, creating a strong connecting amongst their audience by talking about growing up during in a troubled time in wales , where a poverty was a huge problem. This speech resulted in a large applause, which felt strange to take place a gig.

                The other artist who saw live recently, was Kate Nash. Despite being recently dropped by her label, due to her second album, which featured indie pop music, selling poorly. This she claimed opened up the opportunity to record an album that addressed issues that she felt actually needed to be addressed within society.  These themes varied, one issue that resonated with the audience such as having friends who just aren’t good for them, offering the advice that if you only look out for yourself, you will become a more caring person. It is attitudes like this which are also reflected in her song ‘Fri-end’, that can be seen to create a shared ideology with her fans. However she did focus on issues on that were more relevant to sociological, this being the fact that women are less likely to succeed in the music industry, an issue that she is attempting to attack head on. One way in which she stated she was aiming to do this was through visiting secondary schools  and helping start up clubs which offered girls the opportunity to learn to play instruments, as well as giving them the chance to compose and preform their own music, in an attempt to change the current sexist attitudes in the music industry.

                Overall, I believe that music is a powerful force, and that there are many opportunities for research to be carried out in this field, whether it is aimed at the structure of the music industry or the ideology that artists put across. One writer who I consider to be influential in this area is Francis Steward (2012), who talks about ‘implicit religion’ in the context of ‘straight edge punk’ , I see  his idea, that music can take on some of the characteristics of religion, in terms of the way its followers place their belief in it and see it as a constant feature of their life, can be expanded upon to create a more accurate picture of the role music plays in our society.

My Observations: Politics at Uclan and Attitudes towards It.

We often tend to assume that sociological research is the product of things that we set out to observe, and that the observations we make in everyday life, have little value in the grand scheme of things, apart from inspiring us to take up a certain topic as the bases of our interest. However this is a misconceived idea,  as we are a part of society and constantly engaging in social research whether we are aware of it, or not. Every activity we take part in offers us a chance to make an observation, and create hypothesis regarding social phenomenon. The example I would like to use for this is that of my experiences of student politics at UCLan, and what I have learnt from this.  

During my past two years at UCLan, I have worked on two campaign teams during the Student Union Elections, and experience which has led me to question how open UCLan’s student population is towards politics of any kind.  Both of the candidates I have campaigned for (One running for SU president and one for Education Officer), have both been politically active candidates, and each taken a very different approach in their campaign approach. The first candidate, when running for president, focused mainly on making potential voters aware of his policies, whilst his campaign material was quite bland and failed to get candidates to remember him.  The second, who ran for Education officer, whilst also making his policies heard, ran a campaign in which he adopted the character of ‘Maurice Moss’ from the ‘IT crowed’, a well-known character within popular culture, which gave voters something to remember, It was this difference in approach overall which lead to the second candidate beating other candidates to the role by a considerable amount, whilst the former candidate failed to make the final two contenders within his category.

                This I believe opens up a bigger question, being ‘are student elections at UCLan nothing more than a popularity contest’.  When the candidate I was supporting won the role of Education Officer, it came as a surprise to most, as throughout the campaign he had been considered as something of an underdog. However other candidates, perhaps most noticeable is one individual who ran for an open council position but didn’t show his face during the campaigning week until halfway through the final day, and still gained his position by a considerable amount, simply because he was already well known to the student population. In addition to this many other winning candidates had been widely predicted, due to some candidates forming a slate prior to the elections and the majority of them gaining their desired position.

                Actively campaigning amongst the student population also allowed me to see other signs that students were not interested in the political side of the elections.  When talking to potential voters, a few common themes emerged, these being the firstly many had no idea of what the elections were and consequently voted for the first person who spoke to them. Secondly that they voted for people who they know, regardless of how well they knew them, often this extended to individuals voting for candidates because they were a friend of a friend. Another factor which was impossible to miss was that an overwhelming percentage of the population refused to engage with the elections in any form.

                However I believe that the issues I have highlighted here go further than just a lack of knowledge about SU elections and student politics, but instead is a product of a generation in which the majority is generally disenchanted with politics. I base this on a few factors, the first of which is that being an active member of the Labour Society for the past two years, and being the Vice-Chair of the society next year I have noticed that it is a very difficult task to get students at UCLan to participate in anything political, this being reflected in the low amount of members our society managed to gain during the last freshers fair.  I believe this to be the result of the government’s attitudes towards students over the past few years, which has not only ignored them, but has actively punished them, with the tripling of tuition fees being the most noticeable example.

                   To conclude it is my opinion that the student population at UCLan need to be educated in the importance of politics, particularly the role the SU elections has on their time at UCLan. This is vital as the individuals who elected in have the power to make change and this power would be amplified if a higher present of the student population stood behind it. This applied to the greater scheme of things as well, as if student want to get a better deal, it is important that they become viewed as a population which the government see as deserving their time, as this will lead them to create policies which enhance the student experience in order to win their vote.

 

 

What Blogs Have to Say Regarding the Female Archetypes.

             In 2012 songwriter and performer Marina Diamandis, better known as ‘Marina and the Diamonds’, released her album ‘Electra Heart’. One concept which is heavily focused upon in 'Electra Heart' is that of female 'Archetypes', which Diamandis puts forth as the idea that there are several models from which all female 'identities' are copied or on which they are based. Through the ‘Electra Heart’ album and surrounding projects Diamandis provides several examples of such ‘archetypes’ for female identities, examples of which may be more historically based such as ideas of 'the housewife' and 'the beauty queen', whilst others take on more modernised characteristics such as ‘the Teen Idle’. These 'archetypes' appear to be a product of society which are deeply rooted within the structure of society and are maintained through the way in which we are socialised along with our interaction with others. It is Marina’s opinion that a women’s personality is a product of different archetypes in combination with each other. Apart from the album Marina delivers her Ideas on the archetypes through the usage of pictures and videos, through a blog like page on her website.

                However whilst it may be the work of ‘Marina and the Diamonds’ that first interested me in the concept of ‘archetypes’, there are many interesting blogs that may be found on the subject, such blogs provide an easy way to research such a concept. In addition to this the use of blogs allows the input from opinions which may be significant, but would be unpublished otherwise. One such blog is can be found at http://incipientideas.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/femme-fatales-tomboys-and-other-female-archetypes-why-they-matter-and-why-they-dont/. This particular Blog entry is based around a conversation the writer took part in with her creative writing group, regarding the role of ‘female archetypes’ in literature.  The questions that the writer aims to outline in this blog are how archetypes are utilised to make a character ‘Sloppy’/likeable/believable? This article features two concepts that where touched on by Diamandis. The first being the idea that the female personality is a combination different archetypes, in the context of this article it is claimed that this combining of archetypes is of great importance when creating a likeable or relatable character. Secondly is a continuation of the idea that different archetypes are present in different eras, however the writer of this blog extends this idea by proposing that whilst different archetypes are created within society, they also change their meaning in that they are interpreted differently.   

                Hopefully through this examination of ideas surrounding the ‘female archetypes’, I have highlighted the usefulness of blogs in sociological research. The provide us with opinions of writers who may not have a chance to be published, resulting in us expanding our own definition and ideology surrounding a concept, resulting in a further understanding of what direction any further research should aim to go. And whilst there are discussions regarding whether or not it is ethical for researchers to utilise blogs, it would be my conclusion that they have willingly submitted their thoughts onto a public domain and that as long as they are generally treated with anonymity, nd given credit when due, that no issues should arise.

Autoethnographical Writing Concerning Eating Habits

It is often pointed out to me when eating out with friends just how selective I can be when it comes to food. This may be true, but when it comes to foods I refuse to eat, it often has very little to do with the actual taste of it. For example the only meats that I will happily eat are; Chicken, Beef Pork, Lamb and Turkey. In addition to my selective tastes I will also only eat certain parts of an animal, avoiding any organs such as the Liver. Any other animal that I am offered, I will flatly refuse. I find it difficult to even be in the presence of those eating such animals, that as far as I am concerned are not meant to be food. For example I recently refused to go with my brother and his friends for a meal to celebrate his 18^th birthday, simply because they had chosen to go to an Australian restaurant, simply for the fact that it sold Kangaroo meat, which the thought of eating I refuse to entertain.

I believe that there are two main factors that contribute to my attitudes towards which animals I will or will not eat. The first factor is if there is a possibility that I will encounter this animal face-to-face, for example it is unlikely that I will encounter a live chicken in my everyday life, but there is quite a chance that I may encounter an animal such as a duck or rabbit, and so I would refuse to eat them. The second factor that I believe to influence these eating habits, is if the meat in question is commonly available in restaurants or supermarkets, continuing with the example of Kangaroo meat, it is not a common option and as a result is not something I would even remotely consider trying.

My Areas of Interest and Module expectations

After studying Sociology for three and a half years now (two years of A-level, and currently into the second year of my degree), I have developed particular interests in a variety of area of social life. The most prominent of these interests are the studies of Religion, Media, Sexuality and other sites of Social in equality, such as Gender, Ethnicity and Class. In addition to this I also study criminology alongside sociology, as I find crime to be an extremely interesting social phenomenon.

After having a teacher at A-level who placed a great emphasis on research methods, I am looking forward to expanding my knowledge through looking at new areas within the subject and expanding my understanding topics I have previously covered. One thing that I am excited about during this module is the assessments, well as excited as one can be about such things. But the methods of examination in this module are different from anything that I have encountered so far in my degree or outside of it, and I feel that this will allow me to adapt to a new challenge instead of battling through another dull essay.