This article develops quiet neurodivergence as a way of naming how some neurodivergent people appear to cope in education, work and civic life while absorbing hidden costs in masking, energy use and burnout. Drawing on neurodiversity, spoon theory, stigma and camouflaging research, and critical disability studies, it argues that quiet neurodivergence is produced by neuronormative institutions and patterned by class, race, gender and access to diagnosis.

Durkheim never saw a social media pile-on, but he worried about what holds societies together and how they draw moral boundaries. This article introduces his ideas on social facts, solidarity, crime and anomie, and uses them to analyse contemporary “culture wars” over statues, values and offence – and to show where his framework now needs updating.

Weber wrote about files and offices, not welfare portals, tickets and AI chatbots. Yet his ideas on rationalisation, bureaucracy and legal-rational authority still help make sense of why “the system” feels both neutral and overwhelming. This article introduces Weber for undergraduates and tests his relevance against contemporary forms of algorithmic power.

Watching Trading Places as a Christmas comfort film, it is hard not to see a ready-made sociological case study. The Dukes’ “experiment” looks like a simple nature-versus-nurture wager, but the life swap really turns on class, race and access to capital. This article uses Bourdieu’s framework to show how the film exposes—and then neatly smooths over—the myth of meritocracy.

Marx wrote about factories and nineteenth-century class conflict, not delivery apps or algorithmic ratings. So how far can his ideas take us today? This article introduces Marx’s core concepts and tests them against platform capitalism and the gig economy, showing what still works, what does not, and where later theorists extend his framework.

What if the rules that govern school life aren’t neutral? This article explores how symbolic violence—subtle norms and expectations—rewards middle-class students while sidelining others.

Discover how social capital works through the ideas of Bourdieu, Putnam, and Coleman. This guide explains how networks, trust, and power shape education, democracy, and social inequality in contemporary society.

Bourdieu’s concept of capital—economic, cultural, social, and symbolic—reveals how privilege is passed on and class boundaries maintained. This article explains each type of capital, critiques the theory, and shows its relevance in today’s educational inequalities.

A clear, student-friendly exploration of reflexivity in sociology, explaining how researchers’ positions, perspectives, and power relations shape knowledge production — and why acknowledging this makes research more rigorous, not more biased.

Many sociology students confuse methodology with method—but understanding the difference is essential for credible, coherent research. This guide explains both terms, shows how they connect to ontology and epistemology, and offers practical tips and examples for designing robust sociological studies.

Reflecting on The Truman Show, this article examines how spectatorship shapes ethical disengagement in contemporary society. From reality television to educational surveillance and smartphone culture, it explores the blurred boundaries between observation, performance, and complicity.

This essay critiques a Times article that blames academics for enabling 'woke ideology' in higher education. While acknowledging the real issue of intolerance toward dissent, it highlights the article’s reliance on caricature, selective evidence, and polemic rather than balanced analysis.

This guide explains how deductive, inductive, and abductive reasoning function in sociological research, offering clear examples, practical applications, and advice for integrating these approaches to produce rigorous, insightful studies.

Dutch philosopher Gert Biesta critiques how education has shifted from ethical formation to outcome-focused learning. His concept of subjectification offers a compelling vision for educators seeking a more human-centred, democratic practice.

This article explores how generative AI systems reinforce class-based linguistic hierarchies by privileging elaborated codes aligned with middle-class norms, drawing on Bernstein’s theory of language and sociological critiques of educational inequality.

An in-depth sociological analysis of the UK higher education sector in 2025, exploring the paradox of rising student demand amid widespread institutional financial instability, graduate precarity, and market-driven reform.

Doctoral progress reviews are framed as supportive and developmental. Yet for candidates pursuing reflexive, critical, or non-linear research, they often become spaces of misrecognition—where methodological ambiguity is pathologised, and intellectual risk is penalised. This article interrogates how audit logics, shaped by structures like the REF, reframe scholarly inquiry as compliance. It argues for a higher education culture that values complexity, temporal nuance, and epistemic diversity over bureaucratic legibility.

A beginner’s guide to critical realism in sociology. Learn about layered reality, structure and agency, emergence, and reflexivity, with real-world examples for first-year sociology students.

Explore how digital media, educational trends, and ideological conformity are eroding critical thinking. This article examines the sociological roots of this decline and argues for the urgent revival of independent thought as a civic responsibility.

Credentialism has transformed education into a race for qualifications. This article critiques its impact and champions experiential learning for real equity.

Exploring how Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of capital, habitus, fields, and symbolic violence reveal the hidden barriers faced by neurodivergent people.

How does social class shape taste? This article explores Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital, Goffman’s impression management, and contemporary critiques of taste hierarchies, gatekeeping, and cultural gentrification.

Workplace introductions are a bureaucratic ritual we all suffer through. From Goffman’s performance theory to Foucault’s power structures, this humorous sociological analysis explores why the dreaded “go around the table” exercise exists—and why we will never escape it.

Has the modern world outgrown Weber’s iron cage, Marx’s alienation, and Orwell’s surveillance state—only to enter a new form of control? In an era where tech monopolies act as digital landlords, individuals no longer own but rent, their lives dictated by algorithmic oversight and data extraction. Is this progress, or have we simply traded one system of domination for another?