Sociological Research Online

This article draws upon research conducted amongst young British Pakistani men in Lancashire to explore how different boundaries of British Pakistani identity are being constructed. It focuses on the significance of employment within Pakistani men's inter and intra-ethnic peer group relations and the ways in which the social dynamics that underlie those relations provide the context for understanding the particular nature and form that ethnicity takes. It does this through the narratives of professional and non-professional men. The article has two aims, firstly it seeks to contribute to the literature on understanding ethnic identity by looking at boundaries as they manifest themselves and suggesting one way in which ethnicity can be understood within a specific social context. Secondly, in so doing it hopes to extend research focus on British Pakistanis away from conventional agendas.

This article draws on data from two major empirical studies of sleep to examine the use of audio diaries as an approach to researching sleep. Sleep has only recently emerged as a topic of interest to the sociologist, providing a valuable resource through which to examine the roles and relationships and gender inequalities which underpin everyday life. Yet accessing individual experiences of sleep is problematic. Considered a non-conscious activity, sleep takes place in most cases at night within the private domain of the home and is thus generally inaccessible to the social researcher and outside the conscious reality of the sleeper. In exploring the social aspects of sleep, we rely primarily on respondents’ interpretations of the sleep period given retrospectively in focus groups and in-depth interviews, distanced from the temporal, spatial and relational dimensions of the sleep event. This article also focuses on the use of audio diaries as a method designed to help bridge the gap between events in real time and retrospective accounts. We examine the narrative structure of audio diaries, discuss the principles and practice of using audio diaries in sleep research, illustrate the contribution of audio diary narratives to an understanding of the social context of sleep, and assess the use of audio diaries in social research. We conclude that, used in conjunction with other methods, audio diaries are an effective method of data collection, particularly for understanding experiences of intimate aspects of everyday life.

Recent discussion of social change implies that, for a number of reasons, to do with globalisation, shifts in family life styles and labour markets, more critical attitudes toward the authority of officials and experts and greater awareness of possibilities and options, social life is more strongly affected by a sense of uncertainty. It also implies that uncertainty is pervasive and not specifically linked to fears about specific contingencies. It is associated with an orientation towards self-direction and a rejection of tradition and conformity. This thesis has been widely discussed, but rarely tested using quantitative data. This paper uses data from a recent national survey carried out by the ESRC Social Contexts and Responses to Risk network to show that uncertainty and security concerns are strong, but are in fact linked to traditionalism and conformity rather than to a critical and reflexive awareness. A high value is attached to self-direction, but this is linked to privileged social status rather than attitudes of pervasive social uncertainty. In general the values posited by recent discussion seem to be associated more closely with immediate social position than with the society-wide impact of social change.

This article considers the idea of the ‘free’ gift, in particular relation to begging and the receipt of social security benefit and in reference to ethnographic research with the homeless in London and the South East of England. The article draws attention to the potential for both ‘dole money’ and spare change to signify, socially, in ways which wound. This is to recognise the Maussian connotations and moral framing to contemporary exchanges which mark out people as poor, even where the intention might be to give freely.

This essay is a response to the call for a discussion about future trends in sociology by focusing broadly on the sub-discipline of work and employment. In doing so the piece directly engages with earlier interventions made by John Scott (2005) and Gayle Letherby (2005) in Sociological Research Online. It examines the current state of the sociology of work by charting its foundation and subsequent development. It suggests that there is currently a problem in the area caused in part by intellectual trends and fragmentation. It argues that those sociologists working in the field need to engage collectively in a reflective process to refocus the subject combining elements from its ‘golden age’ as well as from more contemporary sources.