Finding a Fit for Life's Funcʃions
Psychological disorders, says the charitable. Craziness, says the uncharitable. An ‘alienative coalition’, says the sociologist Erving Goffman. Before you dismiss this as conspiracy talk, let’s look more closely at what he meant. ‘Coalition’ means an alliance of different parties, and ‘alienative’ refers to isolating someone. Goffman argues that a mental...
“上车睡觉, 下车尿尿.” This rhyming refrain is used to describe the ways of package tourists: Sleep on the bus; pee off the bus. Indeed, that was what I found myself doing when travelling overseas in my teenage years. And then my family started travelling free-and-easy. What easy?! But travelling need not be placed in...
You’d think sociologists are best-equipped to debunk stereotypes. Surprise then, this semester, when ALL 3 of my NUS Sociology lecturers, in cordial but resigned tones, levelled essentially the same accusation at us students: That we are in it for the degree. The most subtle instance came during a Social Thought lecture on...
