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    <title>Giddens Blog</title>
    <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/default.aspx</link>
    <description>Support and supplement the  cutting edge books from Polity on new technologies.</description>
    <language>en</language>
    <copyright>Copyright 2009. Polity</copyright>
    <pubDate>10/09/2010</pubDate>
    <ttl>60</ttl>
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      <title>The Sociologist, the Public and the Mass Media</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=67</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Some natural and social scientists seem to love the media, especially television. One of the most often seen is atheist and biologist Richard Dawkins who has fronted several TV series and is regularly seen on news programmes debating Darwinian evolutionary theory and religion. As Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University (1995-2008), Dawkins rose to prominence as a pu ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=67">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>31/08/2010</pubDate>
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      <title>Now Let’s talk about Shopping</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=66</link>
      <description><![CDATA[As August is traditionally the ‘silly season’, talk about shopping might seem just the thing. However, far from being silly, shopping, aka ‘consumer confidence’, is deadly serious. As the UK holds its breath waiting to know the scale of the cuts expected in the autumn, there is much comment on consumers also holding onto their purses and how, as a result, retail and travel firms are suffering. De ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=66">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>23/08/2010</pubDate>
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      <title>Time for Matadors to Hang Up the Cape?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=65</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In sixteenth-century Paris, crowds at festive occasions were often entertained by hanging a sack or basket containing 20 or so cats from a scaffold above a fire, then watching them struggle and cry as they burned alive. During the same period in England even royalty would be entertained by ‘baiting’. This involved tying a bear, bull, badger, horse or even an ape to a stake, then setting a series  ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=65">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>02/08/2010</pubDate>
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      <title>We Saw You Crying on the Telly...</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=64</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The football World Cup in South Africa ended yesterday, with early exits for the last Cup’s finalists France and Italy, quite a surprise and a shock to many. The Wimbledon tennis championships have signalled the start of summer. And the London 2012 Olympics will soon be upon us with all the excitement such a varied competition brings. The calendar of national and international sporting events hel ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=64">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>12/07/2010</pubDate>
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      <title>Veiled Threats to the French Republic?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=61</link>
      <description><![CDATA[I was in a shopping centre last week and my eye was drawn to the rules governing entry. Apparently the centre does not allow anything ‘which obscures the face’ including motorbike helmets, hoodies, baseball caps ‘with the peak turned to hide the face’ or anything else which makes faces less visible. Such rules are no doubt seen as reasonable anti-shoplifting and anti-terrorist measures. Of course ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=61">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>24/05/2010</pubDate>
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      <title>Election 2010 – what does it mean?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=59</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Two damaging wars, an economic crisis, a government that has served three terms in power, and an unpopular Prime Minister. If you wanted to create the circumstances for an opposition victory in the UK 2010 election you couldn’t do much better than this. Yet the Tories have been unable to win a clear victory in the way Labour did by a landslide in 1997 after 18 years of Conservative rule. In local ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=59">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>10/05/2010</pubDate>
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      <title>Does 'Change' work for you?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=56</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The outcome of the forthcoming British General Election on May 6th seemed a formality just 10 days ago. David Cameron’s Conservatives had been well ahead in the polls for a long time and looked a safe bet to gain a working majority. The only issue was how large that majority would be. The Labour Party was running well behind, with the Liberal Democrats even further adrift, whilst the backdrop of  ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=56">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>21/04/2010</pubDate>
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      <title>So where’s your wife, then?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=55</link>
      <description><![CDATA[It’s UK election time again and, yes, the media are still reproducing and circulating the same old entrenched ideas about the place of women in the political sphere. It hardly comes as a surprise, but that doesn’t make it any less depressing and the eagerness of political parties to play the game is dismal. Here’s Sarah Brown, dutiful and loving wife of the prime minister, posing for the cameras. ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=55">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>14/04/2010</pubDate>
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      <title>Are the Empire's Strikes Back?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=54</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In 1973, The Strawbs – an old-fashioned pop combo, a bit like today’s boybands but they played their own instruments and wrote their own songs (I know, it’s ridiculous) – released their now classic song, Part of the Union, which contained the following lyric: “So though I'm a working man, I can ruin the government's plans, / Though I'm not too hard / The sight of my card / Makes me some kind of s ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=54">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>31/03/2010</pubDate>
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      <title>Exploring Disability ten years on</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=53</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Ten years after the publication of the first edition of the groundbreaking Exploring Disability, the second edition has just been released. Here Colin Barnes (Professor of Disability Studies at the Universities of Leeds and Halmstad, Sweden) surveys the advances and continuing challenges facing the field over the last decade... A decade ago, a socio/political or ‘social model’ of disability – ins ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=53">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>29/03/2010</pubDate>
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      <title>A New Dawn for Social Policy after the Economic Crash?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=50</link>
      <description><![CDATA[For Bill Jordan (University of Plymouth), a leading scholar of social policy, the findings of the recent inquiry into standards at Stafford Hospital – described as ‘one of the worst NHS scandals in history’ – offer confirmation of what’s wrong with social policy and its current principles...My new book was written during the economic crash of 2008-9. It argues for a transformation of our collecti ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=50">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>01/03/2010</pubDate>
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      <title>New Wars - without end?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=48</link>
      <description><![CDATA[On 20th February, after lengthy and arduous talks, the Dutch coalition government collapsed, triggering a general election. The issue that created the crisis was not domestic politics, but whether Dutch troops should continue in Afghanistan beyond August this year. On the same day, Plaid Cymru’s Elfyn Llwyd, leader of the Welsh nationalists in the British Parliament, called for the withdrawal of  ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=48">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>22/02/2010</pubDate>
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      <title>How liberal are the new citizenship tests in Europe?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=45</link>
      <description><![CDATA[When one considers that citizenship tests in the United States are old hat, it’s astonishing that their recent introduction in Europe has raised such controversy, and that there is doubt about their ‘liberal’ credentials. How liberal are the new citizenship tests? (You can see the British version, ‘Life in the UK Test’, here.) To ask for competence in the host-society language and knowledge of th ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=45">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>11/02/2010</pubDate>
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      <title>New edition of 'Sociology: Introductory Readings'</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=43</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The 3rd edition of Anthony Giddens and Philip W. Sutton's Sociology: Introductory Readings is now available from Polity. Arranged in 10 broad thematic sections, each with thoughtful editorial introductions, the volume includes classic and contemporary readings, from Weber and Durkheim, to new sociological thinking about climate change, virtual communities, and war and terrorism in the 21st centur ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=43">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>03/02/2010</pubDate>
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      <title>Is Freedom of Search a Human Right?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=40</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Last week, Google, the company behind the world’s most popular search engine, announced that it is considering pulling out of China after discovering that the Gmail accounts of campaigners for human rights in China had been attacked [Google statement here: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html?]. Google said only two accounts had actually been accessed and very limited ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=40">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>22/01/2010</pubDate>
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      <title>Togo, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Failed Peace Processes</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=39</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Football is a global sport. It is watched by millions across the world and on every continent. The African Nations Cup has assumed even more significance as the global mobility of players brings many African players to the Premier League to be cheered from English terraces and become part of British popular culture. But football is also glocal, with its global dimensions mediated by local circums ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=39">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>18/01/2010</pubDate>
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      <title>Migration – problem or solution?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=35</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Luke Martell (Reader in Sociology at the University of Sussex) explores one of the factors involved in globalization and offers some alternative ways of viewing global migration. The current financial crisis and the Copenhagen summit on climate change have recently drawn increased attention to global interdependency. The anti-government uprisings in Iran and similar events elsewhere in the world  ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=35">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>11/01/2010</pubDate>
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      <title>If national identity is declining, does it matter?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=34</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In the first ‘ask an expert’ session of 2010, Steve Fenton (Professor of Sociology at the University of Bristol) writes about national identity in Britain. Is it endangered? Does it matter? And how can we address the controversy it has given rise to?The growth of supra-national organizations, of which the European Union is a key example, is said to have undermined nation-states and national ident ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=34">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>06/01/2010</pubDate>
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      <title>Can we afford good health?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=33</link>
      <description><![CDATA[As 2009 drew to a close, US President Barack Obama adopted a celebratory tone as the Senate finally passed his healthcare reform policy, aimed at making the system fairer [see President Obama’s healthcare reform plan here:http://www.healthreform.gov/obamaplan.html]. However, there are a few hurdles yet to clear. Republicans have already made clear they will fight against the bill becoming law and ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=33">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>04/01/2010</pubDate>
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      <title>Organ Donation: altruism or self-interest?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=32</link>
      <description><![CDATA[To coincide with the release of the second edition of Sociology for Nurses this month, Elaine Denny and Sarah Earle take a look at a controversial new organ transplant strategy announced in the scientific journal The Lancet. In most countries of the world where the transplantation of human organs takes place, there is a shortage of organ donors. Therefore people who need a kidney, heart, liver or ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=32">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>18/12/2009</pubDate>
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      <title>Health Care Reform: the Roles of Social Theory</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=31</link>
      <description><![CDATA[December sees the publication of two second editions: Patrick Baert & Filipe Carreira da Silva’s Social Theory in the Twentieth Century and Beyond, and Elaine Denny & Sarah Earle’s Sociology for Nurses. In the first of this month’s posts focussing on health-related issues, Filipe Carreira da Silva (Research Fellow at the University of Lisbon) writes about what social theory has to offer debates a ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=31">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>08/12/2009</pubDate>
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      <title>New Racists Breathing the Oxygen of Publicity?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=30</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In the UK we recently had a heated debate over a decision by the BBC to invite the MEP and leader of the British National Party, Nick Griffin, onto Question Time [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nft24]. The BBC argued that as the party won two seats in the 2009 European elections it was appropriate for Griffin to take part. The recording led to anti-fascist protests outside, several arrests an ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=30">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>25/11/2009</pubDate>
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      <title>Anti-Consumerism Now</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=16</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In our latest ‘ask an expert’ session,Kim Humphery (RMIT University, Melbourne) advocates balance and fresh thinking in the West’s discussions about consumerism and anti-consumerism.When we hear the term ‘western society’ it’s a sure bet that one of the things we think of is ‘consumer society’. The western world is the affluent world; the world of material abundance and endless shopping. Maybe th ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=16">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>09/11/2009</pubDate>
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      <title>What's this got to do with us?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=15</link>
      <description><![CDATA[On 29th September, a powerful earthquake in the Pacific Ocean produced a tsunami (a large wave) that led to the deaths of more than 170 people in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga, with many more injured. This was just the latest in a series of quakes in recent years including a 2006 earthquake in Northern Pakistan and the Kashmir region that killed more than 73,000 people, and another in the Sichu ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=15">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>30/10/2009</pubDate>
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      <title>Material Culture Not Consumer Culture</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=14</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In our second ‘ask an expert’ session, Daniel Miller (Professor of Anthropology at UCL) writes about the importance of studying ‘stuff’ to understanding human relationships, and what sociologists can learn from anthropology.I want to suggest that one of the main problems with the study of things in sociology is that it is almost inevitably subsumed under the study of consumption. As a result it’s ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=14">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>26/10/2009</pubDate>
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      <title>Advancing Knowledge by Asking Questions: an illustration from award-winning research</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=13</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In the first of our ‘ask an expert’ sessions, Norman Blaikie (formerly RMIT University Melbourne, and University of Science, Malaysia) writes about the importance of questions in research as demonstrated by 3 recent Nobel laureates, and answers a couple of your questions... All research is about solving puzzles, both intellectual and practical. And puzzles entail questions. So the starting point  ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=13">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>13/10/2009</pubDate>
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      <title>All Aboard for a New Age of Thrift?</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=12</link>
      <description><![CDATA[There is a nice cartoon of a father and son looking down the family driveway towards a large, modern house with two cars parked in front of a double garage and a huge plasma TV screen visible through the front bay window. Father has an arm around his son’s shoulders and proudly declares, ‘One day son, all of this … will be mine’. The punchline works (well, I like it anyway) because it draws on th ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=12">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>02/10/2009</pubDate>
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      <title>Welcome!</title>
      <link>http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=11</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Welcome to the Giddens Sociology blog!This website has been created to support and supplement the new sixth edition of Sociology. This blog will offer regular commentaries on the relevance of sociological thinking to current events and issues, as well as posts from experts in various fields of sociology. It also aims to provide a new space online where those with an interest in our social world c ...<a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/giddens6/blog/post.aspx?id=11">more</a>]]></description>
      <pubDate>01/10/2009</pubDate>
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