Wednesday 16:00-16:30 Laurie Taylor discusses the latest social science research.
08 October 2008 repeat 12 Oct
DURKHEIM and FINANCIAL COLLAPSE In his book Suicide, French sociologist Emile Durkheim discussed the nature and the consequences of economic crisis. Steven Lukes, Professor of Sociology at New York University, debates Durkheim’s contention that the prospects created by economic disaster, like the current financial crisis, leads to an increase in misery and suicide.
OBESITY Nowadays obesity is spoken in terms of an epidemic, and according to some scientists in the United States, to stay thin one should eat sensibly, exercise, but also wash their hands. Like SARS, or bird flu or even bubonic plague, obesity is treated as a contagion and evidence is produced to support the assertion. But is this disease model of obesity, and talk of the ‘Global Obesity Epidemic’ just the latest in a long line of strategies for shifting responsibility for being over weight away from individuals? And is being fat always a bad thing anyway? Sander L. Gilman is the author of a new book about attitudes towards fat. He joins Laurie Taylor and social anthropologist Henrietta Moore to discuss the cultural history of obesity.
Additional information:
Professor Steven Lukes Professor of Sociology, New York University Suicide Emile Durkheim Publisher: Routledge; 2 edition ISBN-10: 0415278317 ISBN-13: 978-0415278317
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life Emile Durkheim Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks ISBN-10: 0199540128 ISBN-13: 978-0199540129
Emile Durkheim: His Life and Work Steven Lukes Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd ISBN-10: 0140550933 ISBN-13: 978-0140550931
Moral Relativism: Big Ideas/Small Books Steven Lukes Publisher: Profile Books Ltd (5 Feb 2009) ISBN-10: 1846680093 ISBN-13: 978-1846680090
Professor Sander L. Gilman Distinguished Professor of the Liberal Arts and Sciences and Professor of Psychiatry at Emory University
Fat: A Cultural History of Obesity Publisher: Polity Press ISBN-10: 0745644414 ISBN-13: 978-0745644417
Henrietta Moore William Wise Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Culture & Globalization Programme at LSE, and editor of Cultural Politics In A Global Age.
Cultural Politics in a Global Age: Uncertainty, Solidarity, and Innovation by David Held (Author, Editor), Henrietta L. Moore (Editor) Publisher: Oneworld Publications ISBN-10: 1851685502 ISBN-13: 978-1851685509
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