Universities fail the poor

Since 2006, universities and colleges in the UK have been allowed to charge "top-up" fees – currently just over £3,000 a year – on the condition that they boost the proportion of their applicants who have been in care, come from low-income families or have disabilities.

But Cambridge, Bristol, Exeter, Durham and University College London are among 23 institutions that admit making insufficient progress in widening their mix of applicants in 2009-10.

In the case of Cambridge, only 12.6% of students in 2009-10 came from homes where the annual income is less than £25,000.

Read more here.

USA fails hispanic students

A White House report published in April states that less than 50% of Latino children are enrolled in pre-school; just 50% earn their high school diploma on time and, those who do are only half as likely as their peers to be prepared for college. Just 13% have a degree.


Latino parents feel that they can do little to help their children: they feel excluded and don't always speak the language.


But in the near future, Latino's will make up the majority of US citizens. They are the taxpayers, innovators and business leaders of tomorrow. If they fail, democracy fails.


Watch a video and listen to children talk about their situation here.

We don't need no education!

Functionalists argue that school provides us with the skills and knowledge necessary to 'fit in' to society and to play a useful role within it. They argue that school sorts and selects and helps match people to jobs.

Marxists, on the other hand, believe that school is there to ensure that we conform. School exists to control our behaviour and channel our energy:

• The official curriculum gives us the information we need to do jobs that create wealth for the elite.
• The hidden curriculum teaches us to obey, to divide up our day in unnatural but convenient time periods, to turn up on time, to accept boredom and to accept gender roles.

• Is the message from Pink Floyd a Functionalist or a Marxist one?
• Do you agree with their message?

 

Troy Davis

"For those about to take my life, may God have mercy on your souls. May God bless your souls.

"All I can ask... is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth. I ask my family and friends to continue to fight this fight."  

With these words, Troy Davis settled back into his chair and received an injection of a lethal coctail of drugs. He was was pronounced dead at 23:08 in the state of Georgia (04:08 Thursday, our time), 15 minutes after the lethal injection began. 


A black man convicted of having killed a white policeman in the deep south of the USA on the basis of partial evidence and retracted confessions, Davis could have been the main character of a novel written about racism fifty years ago. But his death is real. You can read more about the case here. 


What is your opinion about the death penalty and death row? Is the ultimate negative sanction effective?

Millions will lose all their money...

This video is causing waves. A broker from the UK says what everyone has been thinking, but has been afraid to put into words.

How do you feel about what he says and how he says it?

Does he deserve the criticism that he has received?

&

How will society react if what he says is true?

Bull fighting

La naturaleza nos devolverá el golpe No entiendo, por muchas justificaciones injustificables que me den, cómo ninguna fuerza política hace nada por evitar lo sucedido en Tordesillas, en las “fiestas” del Toro de la Vega. No entiendo cómo algo así puede ser declarado Fiesta de interés turístico y Espectáculo taurino. Cada vez me sorprende más la maldad humana, ni entiendo cómo puede alguien sentirse como un héroe por provocar la muerte humillante de un animal de esa forma, que ni siquiera es por subsistencia, sino por placer de matar. Si estas personas se siente héroes por lo que hacen, para mí son cobardes y no tienen sangre en las venas, al no sentir ni un mínimo sentimiento de culpa por lo que hacen. Como este hecho, muchísimos más como la “fiesta” de los toros en sí, matanzas de focas… y un largísimo etcétera. El pensamiento que provoca estos hechos nos lleva a la autodestrucción, que es el de creer que somos superiores al resto de la naturaleza, que somos dueños del mundo y por eso nos atribuimos el “derecho” a contaminarlo todo, provocar incendios, matar, en definitiva… destruir. De hecho, el cambio climático es sólo nuestra maldita culpa. ¡A ver cuando nos enteramos!, que no somos diferentes de los animales ni de las plantas, el mundo también pertenece a ellos y tienen derecho a ser respetados. La naturaleza, más temprano que tarde, nos devolverá el golpe por todo lo que hacemos con ella, esto es irreversible y será entonces cuando pensemos: ¡No somos nadie!

20minutos.es- Carta de Madrid

Should we as sociologists remain detatched and objective about popular culture, including festivals that cause harm or pain or division? Or should we be pro-active and judge them? Should we be ready to criticise and possibly even complain?

Hunger in Barcelona

El hambre en Catalunya se triplica y afecta a 1,5 millones de ciudadanos

El Banc dels Aliments atiende a 45.000 barceloneses en agosto por la crisis

The above was the headline in La Vanguardia on 15 September 2011. Why not read about it and leave your comments here (in English!).

Riots in the UK

There were a series of violent riots across England during August 2011.

Fired by cuts, rising unemployment and poverty, these riots shocked the British people - and led to a great deal of analysis by sociologists.

To read about the riots, try here, or a Google search.

To find out who rioted and why in more detail, look at the BBC's special site.

For example, what percentage of those arrested were women? Which areas did the rioters come from?