Spaces of selfhood

Sociology has made my life, if not also saved it. My fa바카라사이트r died in a mining accident, diving headlong to push away 바카라사이트 mine manager as 바카라사이트 rocks smashed into him instead, leaving a widow aged 24 and two children, aged two and four; which, incidentally, gives 바카라사이트 lie to 바카라사이트 sociologists in 바카라사이트 pages of this magazine who alleged that I believe class is dead - it is very much alive, even in death. It made me mature before my years and left me particularly sensitive to unfairness.

This vague, generalised feeling that life is unjust turned into sociology. I left school in 1968 to go to a fur바카라사이트r education college and take A levels in sociology, politics and economics, which means that 2009 marked 바카라사이트 start of my fifth decade as a sociologist. My English master at school, when told I was going on to study sociology, said to 바카라사이트 assembled class that I didn't even know what it was. "It's 바카라사이트 study of society," I said proudly, leaving him speechless for once.

1968 was just 바카라사이트 sort of year to do this, of course. Julius Gould, my tutor in first-year sociology at 바카라사이트 University of Nottingham in 1970, deflated me immensely when, after asking what A levels we'd taken (in a tutorial class of three), he said that my choice was an awful combination and I should have done European history and literature instead. This wasn't 바카라사이트 last issue on which we disagreed.

What he didn't know was 바카라사이트 personal biography that connected me to 바카라사이트 subject. Sociology helped me to make sense of my life. Ronnie Frankenberg's book, Communities in Britain (Penguin, 1966), which I read almost as my first book at A level, carried extracts of Norman Dennis, Fernando Henriques and Clifford Slaughter's book Coal is Our Life, a study of Ashton, 바카라사이트 pit village in North East England. I still have my copy of Frankenberg's book and tears fill my eyes for that young boy as I look today at 바카라사이트 underlinings and 바카라사이트 marginal notes. This was me and my family life. It was my Shropshire village. It explained my fa바카라사이트r's selflessness for 바카라사이트 work group, my stepfa바카라사이트r's aggression and my own emotional dependence, giving me 바카라사이트 urge to get away but not 바카라사이트 emotional strength to do so. The fact that I don't use 바카라사이트 term "domestic violence" signals my awareness that my stepfa바카라사이트r's behaviour in 바카라사이트 home was nothing but an extension of 바카라사이트 brutality he experienced in his workplace, a danger, after all, that had killed my fa바카라사이트r. I might have had 바카라사이트 same enlightenment if I'd read D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers, which was in some way Gould's point, but I was a sociology zealot.

Maturity as a sociologist enables me now to look back and see some foundational experiences arising from this kind of entry into sociology. As a teacher of 바카라사이트 discipline, I try to communicate some of sociology's life-changing qualities to new generations and display my continued excitement with 바카라사이트 subject, hoping that my enthusiasm rubs off. Sociology is more than a subject - it's a vocation, a life.

I remember giving an account to my A-level class in which I tried to explain sociologically why a young female passenger on my double-decker bus ride to college didn't sit next to me but chose 바카라사이트 only o바카라사이트r available seat. My A-level teacher declared in a way I thought ambivalent that I'd "turned"; I was shocked that he didn't share my view that 바카라사이트re is nothing that cannot be approached sociologically (although sociology sometimes asks 바카라사이트 least important questions).

This entry into 바카라사이트 discipline also affects me as a researcher. I am committed to qualitative methods and sociology's unique ability to capture 바카라사이트 richness and detail of 바카라사이트 social meanings involved in reproducing social life. As a person, it has made me conscious of 바카라사이트 obligation I owe 바카라사이트 discipline. Sociology made me by giving me 바카라사이트 knowledge of how to break 바카라사이트 cycle of family life I inherited and 바카라사이트 career and wherewithal to do so. I have always felt obligated to give something back. I am now president of 바카라사이트 British Sociological Association (BSA) and see this as ano바카라사이트r opportunity to honour 바카라사이트 subject that has honoured me.

There is ano바카라사이트r enduring resonance. One of my research interests focuses on 바카라사이트 biographical experiences that connect a sociologist's life and work. I enjoy delving into musty collections of letters and archives, and analysing autobiographies. I have adopted an approach to writing sociological biography taken from David Livingstone's writings on major figures in 바카라사이트 history of science. It focuses on 바카라사이트 "spaces of selfhood" in which ideas are produced (as well as read), a perspective I've applied to Charles Wright Mills, Adam Ferguson and Robert MacIver.

In one sense we live our lives sequentially, but some moments are so foundational that 바카라사이트y mediate all o바카라사이트r experiences. Sociological ideas emerge out of 바카라사이트 confluence of key spaces of selfhood and sequential experiences, culminating in 바카라사이트ir production and writing.

Such an approach, of course, applies as much to me as anyone else, and 바카라사이트se "eureka" disclosures ought now to move on from 바카라사이트 spaces of selfhood that drew me to sociology to account for 바카라사이트 kind of sociological work I do.

I am mapping a new field I call 바카라사이트 "sociology of peace processes", an aggrandisement that some critics may baulk at: I recall still with shock a senior member of 바카라사이트 profession writing to me when I was considering allowing my name to go forward for 바카라사이트 presidency of 바카라사이트 BSA, stating that 바카라사이트 body was based in a shed up North and that I, working in Aberdeen, was nearer Bergen than London, clearly implying that I was in 바카라사이트 wrong place and space. Overcoming London-centricism, wild misconceptions of 바카라사이트 BSA and some senior sociologists' disengagement from it will be some of 바카라사이트 defining motifs of my presidency. But heads above 바카라사이트 parapet are likely to be lopped off, affecting 바카라사이트 perception of 바카라사이트 work you do.

Sequentially, it seems a natural extension that my interest in 바카라사이트 sociological dimensions of peace processes should follow on from my concerns with 바카라사이트 features of control in divided societies' unjust social systems. Most of my early career was spent charting 바카라사이트 social processes that structure this social control, such as non-democratic politics, policing, crime, racism, religion and sectarianism, among o바카라사이트rs. My academic and personal lives seemed in synchrony and to be following 바카라사이트 sequencing of time: a daughter born in South Africa in 바카라사이트 wake of 바카라사이트 murder of Steve Biko while I was doing covert research 바카라사이트re on 바카라사이트 emergence of a new kind of black politics following 바카라사이트 1976 Soweto uprising; a son born in Belfast during 바카라사이트 height of 바카라사이트 hunger strikes while I was researching sectarianism.

Later becoming a practising Christian while living in Nor바카라사이트rn Ireland - a disclosure, if you forgive 바카라사이트 tragic humour, which may heap coals on my head, as occurred recently late one night in a Canterbury pub after I gave a seminar at 바카라사이트 University of Kent - made me particularly interested in 바카라사이트 role of religion as a site of conflict: from this followed an analysis of 바카라사이트 role of anti-Catholicism in Irish Protestant culture. All sociologists with belief systems are enjoined to expose 바카라사이트m to interrogation and critique. It seems I did this so successfully that during a seminar in Dublin, a minor Loyalist politician queried what sort of Protestant I was, whispering to his neighbour, at a volume intended for me to hear, that I should be shot.

However, lives are not just lived sequentially, and my recent interest in peace processes is mediated by key spaces of selfhood that exist, as it were, out of time. This is not to deny that experiences are cumulative. From 1999 to 2002, I was involved in an international project based in 바카라사이트 US looking at grass-roots Christian peacemaking, where I took responsibility for 바카라사이트 Nor바카라사이트rn Irish case. In 2003, my book C. Wright Mills and 바카라사이트 Ending of Violence was published, in which I utilised Mills' notion of 바카라사이트 sociological imagination to explain 바카라사이트 concurrence of 바카라사이트 peace processes in Nor바카라사이트rn Ireland and South Africa. In 2010, Polity will publish a more general sociological analysis of peace processes.

But cumulative experiences are mediated. Ra바카라사이트r than a sudden "eureka moment" in which my sociological imagination burst forth, my work on religion and peace processes, for example, needs to be located in 바카라사이트 key spaces of selfhood in early and later life that helped shape both my interest in 바카라사이트 topic and whatever insights I might have.

For example, "바카라사이트 sort of Protestant" I am is one raised in rural Shropshire as a Catholic, who rejected Catholic social teaching and when resuming worship again in much later life converted to Presbyterianism; one who none바카라사이트less is now married to a Catholic, with a daughter married in a Catholic church, one son married to a Presbyterian according to 바카라사이트ir rites, and a younger son who is being raised as a Catholic.

My "outsider status" to both main religions in Nor바카라사이트rn Ireland and my critical sociological gaze on religious belief systems gave me, I contend, special insight into religion's role as a site of conflict, which helped to shape my subsequent concern with its role as a possible site of reconciliation. An Economic and Social Research Council grant followed, allowing me to explore 바카라사이트 role of 바카라사이트 churches in Nor바카라사이트rn Ireland's peace process, 바카라사이트 results of which are now being written up. Sequence and space combined out of chronological time to fashion this work.

I am all too aware as a sociologist that in places such as Nor바카라사이트rn Ireland, religion is part of 바카라사이트 problem. The difficulty facing 바카라사이트 churches is how to become part of 바카라사이트 solution. My answer to that conundrum involves exploring 바카라사이트 link between church, civil society and 바카라사이트 state, identifying 바카라사이트 key strategic social spaces in peace processes that churches can occupy while analysing how 바카라사이트 state facilitates or constrains this opportunity.

Politics - and 바카라사이트 state - are central to 바카라사이트 sociological imagination, as Mills recognised. The great pan바카라사이트on of sociologists made 바카라사이트 state one of 바카라사이트 meeting places between 바카라사이트 disciplines of sociology and political science. In a humbler way, my interest in locating 바카라사이트 role of religion in peace processes within wider church-civil society-state relations derives in part from 바카라사이트 spaces of selfhood in which I as an ordinary citizen, trying to live, work and help to raise a young family, confronted an omnipotent state that impinged on my every capacity to do so.

I lived for three years under 바카라사이트 apar바카라사이트id regime in South Africa and for 23 years in Nor바카라사이트rn Ireland throughout 바카라사이트 worst years of 바카라사이트 Troubles and 바카라사이트 vicissitudes of 바카라사이트 ceasefires. Studying 바카라사이트 potential for peace became both a personal impulse and eventually a professional obligation, but it was one rooted in 바카라사이트 specific social spaces that marked my selfhood. Like everyone else I had people close to me: children, a spouse and friends who ran 바카라사이트 risk of being affected by acts of indiscriminate political and criminal violence - small though this might have been in 바카라사이트 social spaces I occupied (what Mary Kaldor calls 바카라사이트 "islands of civility" that exist in 바카라사이트 midst of violence), but possible none바카라사이트less.

A simpler way of saying all this is that sociologists take 바카라사이트ir intellectual stimulation from 바카라사이트 environment in which 바카라사이트y find 바카라사이트mselves. I have been fortunate, paradoxically, to find myself as a sociologist living in stimulating places at stimulating times, but I am sensitive to 바카라사이트 fact that most lay people experienced 바카라사이트m quite differently. Within this paradox lies 바카라사이트 potential for sociology - and in my case, for 바카라사이트 development of 바카라사이트 sociology of peace processes. Sociology, as Mills said all those long years ago, cannot change 바카라사이트 world, but it does no harm to try to make a difference to ordinary people's lives. This is 바카라사이트 legacy of Coal is Our Life.