Network Summer 2020 Final Layout 1

Network Recording the working lives of sociologists for over 40 years Issue 135, Summer 2020 Behind the mask: sociology during lockdown Also in this issue: n A report into race and ethnicity in British sociology n Gary Younge talks about his move into academia n Events are held during annual conference week n BSA calls for a new deal for university funding Contents 3 News Features Opinion 4 Male PhD graduates more 12 We run four pages on 34 Elisa Pieri tells us about likely to find permanent a report on race and the books that have jobs than female equivalents ethnicity in sociology influenced her work 5 Soas staff to be cut amid 16 A series of online events 36 We review books on the financial crisis during were held during the BSA violence, racial capitalism pandemic annual conference week and think tanks 7 Women sociology students 32 Our regular feature looks at 42 Author and columnist Gary ‘not more anxious about sociological news from Younge tells us about his quant methods’ than men around the world switch to academia 8 Sociologists set up new 38 A-level sociology is 10 45 Appreciations of Professors website to tell stories of years older than previously Morgan, Marsland, the Covid-19 pandemic thought, says our feature Veit-Wilson, Goudsblom 9 BSA calls for extra funding in a ‘new deal’ for higher Summer 20204 education funding Main feature: 10 Youth group event tackles the effects of Covid-19 on We take a look at research the world of sociology during the coronavirus lockdown 11 Emotions group runs its annual symposium on See page 18 Twitter this year graphic: adapted stock imagery BSA Trustees: Editorial Team: Production/Enquiries: Jason Arday Judith Mudd [email protected] Tel: 07964 023392 Aminu Musa Audu Tony Trueman John Bone (Chair) Network is published three times a year: Sarah Cant Spring Mark Doidge Note: where not stated, copyright Summer Autumn Stevi Jackson of photographs generally lies with the researchers featured in the Janice McLaughlin article, their institutions or the BSA Available online to members: Cathy Pope www.britsoc.co.uk Chrissie Rogers Louise Ryan Longer versions of some Network Network: articles can be seen at: Richard Waller ©2020 BSA Publications Ltd www.britsoc.co.uk/members-area/network Chris Yuill ISSN: 1742-1616 (login needed) Disclaimer: Please note that the views expressed in Network and any enclosures or advertisements are not necessarily those of BSA Publications Limited or the British Sociological Association (BSA). While every care is taken to provide accurate information, neither the BSA, the Trustees, the Editors, nor the contributors undertake any liability for any error or omission. BSA Publications Ltd is a subsidiary of the British Sociological Association, registered in England and Wales, Company Number: 01245771. The British Sociological Association was founded in 1951. It is a Registered Charity (no. 1080235) and a Company Limited by Guarantee (no. 3890729). 4 Department news Male graduates more likely to find permanent jobs than female peers University of Essex: Men with PhDs are more graduates in our sample were employed in likely to be in a permanent job than their either a fixed-term or a temporary contract female counterparts research shows, but this seven to nine years after earning their inequality disappears among social science degree, although the proportion of female graduates. graduates with a permanent position was Over four-fifths of men in work seven to significantly lower than that of male nine years after their doctorate had graduates. In aggregate terms, female permanent jobs, compared with three- doctoral graduates are significantly less likely quarters of women, says a study by sociologist to obtain a permanent position compared to Dr Nitzan Peri-Rotem. The others were their male peers. either in fixed-term or temporary roles. “Female doctoral graduates are also Dr Peri-Rotem used data from the UK concentrated in fields that offer relatively Doctoral Impact and Career Tracking Survey fewer employment opportunities outside from 2013 to explore the career trajectories academia, especially humanities, social of 466 female and 684 male doctoral sciences and life sciences, which means they students who had graduated up to nine years have more limited career options compared before. to their male peers, and these options may Six months after graduation, 51% of male be further restricted when seeking part-time graduates surveyed who were in work were or flexible work.” employed in a permanent position, More than half of the graduates were compared with 41% of female graduates. working in the higher education sector, This gap increased to 74% and 61% either in teaching (33%), research (13%), or Dr Nitzan Peri-Rotem respectively three years after graduation. other roles (6%). At seven to nine years after graduation, the than biological sciences graduates (76% and The study, published in the journal Social gender gap had slightly decreased, so that 61% for men and women respectively), Sciences, says there should be greater 82% of men and 75% of women who were in biomedical sciences (80% and 70%) and arts incentives through tax benefits or other work were in permanent employment at that and humanities graduates (79% and 74%), forms of state support to organisations in time. but lower than physical science and order to promote equal gender However, at seven to nine years after engineering graduates (85% and 84% for representation. graduation men and women social science men and women). It also recommends that universities graduates in work were equally likely to be in Dr Peri-Rotem, of the University of Exeter, should be encouraged to expand the supply a permanent job, at a rate of 82%, higher said: “As this study shows, one in five doctoral of permanent positions available. Youth justice book wins award ‘Feminism ignores Dr Alexandra Cox, of the University of women of colour’ Essex, has been given a prestigious award for her new book on the youth justice University of Sussex: A new book by system in America. Professor Alison Phipps argues that there are Trapped in a Vice, which explores the lives deep-rooted problems within mainstream of young people in New York’s justice feminism, which she says is dominated by system, won the Critical Criminology Book privileged white women. Award from the American Society of Me, Not You: The Trouble with Mainstream Criminology. Feminism says that the #MeToo movement, Dr Cox carried out three years of despite its beginnings as a project by the qualitative research inside five residential black feminist Tarana Burke, has ignored facilities in New York state, interviewing 39 marginalised voices and women of colour. young people and 70 staff. “Mainstream feminism is broken,” said “The system aims to treat or change Professor Phipps. “We saw that too clearly young people, but within a punitive context, when #MeToo reached the media and which is a fundamentally contradictory highlighted the voices and experiences of aim,” said Dr Cox, who worked in New York privileged – and mainly – white women. City’s justice system representing teenagers “We saw the spotlight resting on charged with crimes as a sentencing Hollywood actors and other high-profile advocate before moving into academia. professionals. While their experiences were Dr Alexandra Cox She said that the system should “stop often harrowing, the question remains: sending so many young people into custody more tax dollars on health and social care, where in the public debate were the voices of and start bolstering the opportunities that and less of that money on punishment”. the other women? The cleaners, the garment exist for them in their communities. She has given talks about the book at and agricultural workers, the teachers and Additionally, we can focus on the universities and in community-based nurses? Where, more than anything, were redistribution of resources so we spend settings. the voices of women of colour?” Network Magazine of the British Sociological Association, Summer 2020 Department news 5 Soas staff to be cut because of ‘financial crisis’ during pandemic A third or a half of staff posts in the Depart- and Universities UK, which represents 137 ment of Anthropology and Sociology at UK institutions, projected that the university Soas are likely to be cut, The Guardian sector as a whole would lose nearly £800 reports. million income in the year 2019–20. The newspaper says that the college is in The Times Higher magazine reports that the midst of a “financial crisis hastened by casualised staff in three departments at the coronavirus pandemic”. Goldsmiths have started a marking boycott Soas’s auditors have warned that the over plans not to extend nearly 500 fixed- impact of the virus outbreak on student term contracts in the wake of the recruitment meant “a material uncertainty coronavirus crisis, a move they say will exists that may cast significant doubt on the disproportionately affect BAME and female school’s ability to continue as a going academics at the institution. concern” over the next 12 months. Goldsmiths’ senior management team has The Guardian reports that senior said it is planning to let 472 casual contracts academics were ordered to identify staff expire this summer, along with 309 hourly- cuts, as Soas models a 50 per cent drop in paid associate lecturers and graduate new international students. trainee tutors. “Soas’s highly regarded international Graduates at Soas Casual staff in three departments – development department – ranked eighth anthropology, art, and media and culture – in the world – is said to be among the identifying as anthropologists. have begun a marking boycott in response hardest hit, while the anthropology and The story comes as US universities impose to the proposed cuts, demanding that sociology department is likely to lose a widespread hiring freeze.

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