Dave Harris & Colleagues:
Essays, Papers and Courses

Joint editors: A. Harris, M Rapsomanikis

Copyright (C) 2005 by Dacian B of Blackfire Design www.blackfire-design.com]

Files on: Adorno, Althusser, Baudrillard, Bond, Bourdieu, crime and deviancy, class, critical theory, culture, Disney, Durkheim, distance education, drugs, education, educational technology, ethnography, feminism, functionalism, figurationalism, Freud, gender, Garfinkel, Giddens, gramscianism, Habermas, heritage, history, identity, ideology, leisure, marxism, McDonaldization, media, modernity, Mulvey, New Age, philosophy, pornography, postfordism, postmodernity, poststructuralism, qualitative and quantitative methods,'race', realism, shopping, social mobility, social theory, video violence, women, Weber, Willis, youth -- and more. Scroll down below or use the search box (check your spelling against mine!).

Adorno -- some notes on key texts including Dialectic of the Enlightenment
Althusser and ideology - a critical reading guide to his famous essay on ISAs
assessment - a menu page leading to a collection of files on assessment practices
approaches to James Bond movies - three main approaches outlined (including Eco)
NEW!! audio files -- talks and discussions in MP3 format. DIY podcasting!
avant-garde cinema - a short course at level 3 

Balls magazine -- brilliant and engaging teaching materials for sport and PE
Bernstein on children’s language - early work on language, class and underachievement (graphics)
body language - a preliminary rant and unfair mickey-take
Bourdieu on the sociology of  'taste'  - short discussion of the basics, then applied to film
Bowles & Gintis on schooling in the USA  - a critical discussion of this famous piece on 'reproduction'
Bowles and Gintis -- latest - the study upgraded with reference to 2002 US data

children and the media - an undergrad course, spanning ed.studies and media studies
children and the media -- notes - substantial notes for the course (now as separate files)
cities and their pleasures - reading the city, on the background to 'theming' etc
commercial & 'experimental' cinema  - introduction to connections between these two
crime and deviancy- large collection discussing subculture theories, labelling theory, social disorganisation, marxist approaches. See also multimedia introduction (RLO)
Critical analysis -- short notes on a collection of approaches
Cultural Studies in Educational Context - conference paper discussing effects of university organisation on radical courses

 
deep and surface learning - outline with (slightly unusual) sociological criticisms
Disney theme parks - longish theoretical summary and commentary pro and con
Disney visitors - empirical research on Disney visitors and their pleasures (with D Moore)
distance education & social inequality - part 1. Discusses UK Open University and 'open-ness'
distance ed and course design - part 2 of above, on techniques of course design

educational achievement and teacher expectations - 'new sociology of education', labelling theoryand teacher expectations as a factor in underachievement
NEW!!education and the knowledge economy -- a debate and some recent research
education and leisure - leisure theory applied to UK higher education
ed tech & new tech  - possible implications of the Web as teaching device
education and underachievement - critical review of 3 early British studies of 'class'  (Fraser, Douglas, Plowden) (graphics)
education policy and sociological models - debates about moving towards a meritocratic education system in the UK (tripartite to comprehensive)
educational history - a critical sequence ranging from early 1800s (monitorialism), through to deschooling and 'the end of the university'. Linked to works of Bentham with crits by Marx and Foucault
ed tech and 'critical theory'  - paper for a BSA conference -- illustrates both and discusses critically
NEW!! education studies -- files on a number of topics
'escape' in leisure studies - outline based on the work of C Rojek
 face-to-face teaching  - critical reflections from my 'learning log' charting my own practice
Freud and  film theory -  intro, metapsychology and work on dreams applied to films
 

Gadamer -- the basic outline and some of the more famous claims and assertions
gender and education - outline of gender factors in underachievement
Godard for  beginners  - the Great Man's 'style' and politics, and a few films reviewed
Gramsci -- basics applied to education -  on  the ambiguous legacy of another Great Man
guests' page - largely student essays and dissertations

Hegel (on Reason, the dialectic etc) - guide to Taylor's account (mainly for sociologists)
Heritage Industry-- a discussion -  critical discussion of the pros and cons

Latour -- a quick review of his Science in Action (Actor-Network Theory approach)
Leisure policy and the State - a menu page leading to files on semi-deviant leisure
 
Marx on commodity fetishism  - quick intro to the main points
Marx on surplus value - very basic and quick (530 words!!)
Marx and Weber on stratification - an answer to an emailed question
Marxist controversies: politics -  old favourites summarised -- Miliband vs Poulantzas on the capitalist state; Laclau and Mouffe versus Geras and Townshend on 'post-Marxism' . See also 'race' and class.
Mcdonaldization -  the basics, Weber background, then applied to the Mcdonaldization of the university. NEW RLO (multimedia) file on Macdonaldization with a talk and some additional reading.
moral relativism? - case studies too, including mourning of Diana episode
Mulvey -- classic work on the 'male gaze' with follow-ups. My most visited file!
music videos  - early debates, marxist v pomo analyses

Open University (UK) -- extracts from my first book (now out of print) on the UKOU. Still the best sociological critique I know. History of the OU too.

 Paper World - essays and asides on the wild'n'wacky world of modern educational management
Positivist Dispute -- the great debates about positivism in social science between critical theory (Adorno, Habermas) and critical rationalism (Popper, Albert and Pilot)
pleasures in Bond movies - brief intro to theories (eg Freud) then examples
postfordism and since - discussion with examples, mostly from 'New Times' group
postmodernism -- basics  - crits of  'foundationalism' as main example. Written as a dialogue

 
quantitative methods - collects together good examples of quants in use
qualitative methods - collects together good examples of quals. in use
questions and answers - emailed questions and my replies-- constantly updated

''race' and sociological  theory - early piece, reviews classics in UK context
'race' and social class -- a more recent commentary with links to summaries of specific articles
'realism in cinema  - reviews classic debates (MacCabe,Williams etc)
research methods - a course utilising online resources (draft)
NEW research methods database - an expandable database
NEW Re-usable Learning Objects (RLOs), designed by Ian Gilhespy and Dave Harris on a variety of subjects (some are specified elsewhere in this list)


shopping: profits and pleasures - summary of classic CultStuds pieces
social class in the UK- recent data on social class inequalities and basic arguments, including implications for sports policy
social mobility studies -- this is an RLO that introduces and guides you through the great debates on social mobility that have raged since 1980. It links with many of the files below.
social mobility studies (British and classic) -  summarises and illustrates 'Oxford Studies' NB tables are rendered as (quite large) graphics which may take several minutes to download
social mobility studies (British and more recent) - summarises the great debate between Saunders and his critics about whether the data show that Britain is now a meritocracy
social mobility (Hopper)--dated but horribly relevant functionalist study of mobility and anxiety
social mobility and women --classic debates about this topic (Goldthorpe, Stanworth, Payne, Abbott)
social immobility in Britain? -- debate about whether mobility has stopped or declined in Britain in the 2000s
social mobility and ethnic minorities -- in England and Wales. Complex analysis also considers the interaction of gender and social class.
social theory/sociology - my notes on some classic and central sociology texts.  More than 100 sets. Based on my Social Theory book. Authors include Adorno, Becker, Bourdieu, Buitler, Foucault, Fraser, Garfinkel, Giddens, Goffman, Habermas, Hall, Mulvey, Willis
sociology of leisure-  reviews of recent journal articles (more than 100 at present) in this fascinating field. Based on my ‘Key Concepts’ book. Includes material relating to authenticity, bodies, ethnography, figurationalism, gender, identity, heritage, Maccannell, McDonaldization, pornography, youth cultures
sociology of religion - on 'founding parents', bits on secularisation etc
NEW!! study skills -- some additional material (including RLOs) to complement our new book
 

television and violence - a classic empirical study (by W Belson) reviewed. Careful methods.
 

video games and violence - a famous (old but good) experimental study reviewed (Anderson and Ford)
video games and violence 2- an updated (2000) extension of the study above (Anderson and Dill)

work and leisure in higher education -- a paper at the BSA Annual Conference, Cardiff, 2009

Colleagues' papers

A Fisher's page -- recent critical pieces on methodology and primary schooling
I. Gilhespy's pages - discussions on management and arts/leisure policy
S.Gillen's pages - pieces on leisure and tourism
Dr Paul Grosch's pages - pieces on philosophy and its applications
Dr Robert Guyver's pages - papers on history teaching/history concepts. Robert has his own site here
Dr J Haynes and K Murris - a dialogue on philosophising with children
Dr Jon Ord -- contributions to debates about youth work and education
Tom Nashe -- on the theatre and history
Dr Alan Munton's pages - critical work on Orwell and Wyndham Lewis, psychiatry and modernism, surrealist poetry and other topics
Dr Will Large's pages - introductions to key philosophical thinkers
Dr Vanessa Parffrey's pages - discussion papers on schools, leadership and spirituality
N.Sherriff's pages -- material in leisure, sport and tourism
L Spowart's pages -- material on methods from a current researcher in Sport and Leisure
Dr Paul Sutton's pages - critical sociological and historical analysis using Foucaultian approaches
Prof A Thatcher's pages -- ('applied') theology

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Note that some files lead to whole collections of additional material -- try the guests' pages for a large collection of student work in leisure studies, media, and sociology

Try the ones for social theory and the sociology of leisure which lead to large lists of notes, reviews and reading guides referring to recent journal articles and classic texts.