This chapter captures something of the changing social, economic and political contexts in which our pioneers researched. This is a generation that published most of their work between the 1950s and 1980s; but often lived during the 1930s onwards. Our earliest pioneer was the anthropologist Raymond Firth, and he is a prime example of working under colonial conditions. The chapter then moves on to the time of the Second World War, the post-war reconstruction, and the creation of the welfare state. Here Peter Townsend serves as a key exemplar. There is a discussion of the spirit of 1968, the emerging feminist revolution (e.g., Ann Oakley) and the growth of cultural studies (e.g., Stuart Hall), migration and Thatcherism. The chapter ends with more recent times: a discussion of how much of this work can feed into contemporary debates of transnationalism and intersectionality.

This chapter recalls the intriguing set of interviews with twentieth-century social researchers that are available for further reading, listening to and scrutiny. It examines how empirical social research was conducted and given shape in mid-twentieth-century Britain. The chapter aims to put on record the fascinating stories of some earlier creative researchers working in intriguing new ways before they become forgotten. The chapter also seeks to understand better how research happens in practice and to bring together a wider account of how social research was starting to emerge, the puzzles it faced, the institutions it was building. History, and even more sociology, always speaks to a wider story than a single life can hope to achieve. In that sense, the chapter demonstrates some of the very problems our researchers discuss. Ultimately, the chapter analyzes the emergence of a very grounded theory and account of the creative research practice. It then demonstrates the research methods and the elements of the research's fuller account.

The opening voices (voices 5) to the chapter are those of two very early fieldworkers — Raymond Firth's Voyage to Tikopia, and W.W. Williams observations of the English Village, Gosforth. They introduce the newness and engagement with such research: they were two of our earliest pioneers. Overall, the chapter aims to capture the excitement of creating and shaping an early research methodology. It starts with a very short history of fieldwork, highlighting just how much it has changed; and then examines the ways in which some pioneers made their first forays into method, facing new problems and helping gradually to shape modern methodology. Prominent in this was the development of community studies and the rise of the interview as a method.

This chapter focuses on the age-old debate in the social sciences about the primacy of methods and the relationship of our pioneers to one of the main ideological battles blighting disciplines such as sociology. Every researcher makes a conscious decision to adopt a qualitative or quantitative method in their social enquiry, or sometimes to even mix them both, and it would have been extremely unusual for the pioneers not to engage sometimes with the oppressive responsibility to pick a 'side'. The chapter explores the extremes in this debate, as well as less-entrenched positions that advocate a middle-ground approach.

In 1967, Howard S. Becker gave a widely discussed and polemical presidential address entitled "Whose Side Are We On?" Here he introduced the idea of the hierarchy of credibility. Briefly reviewing the article, I suggest a little of how the world has moved on since then. The core of my analysis links symbolic interactionism to ideas of narrative power, narrative inequality, and narrative othering, sketching out a frame of generic forms of narrative power: domination, exclusion, negotiation, and resistance. I stress the dynamics of the subordinated standpoint and narrative othering. Drawing from a wide range of empirical examples where these processes are featured, I suggest many of us tacitly work with such ideas in our studies. I end by returning to Becker's question-Whose side are we on?-and answer: the side of humanity. Just what we mean by humanity raises contentious value claims, especially in these posthuman times. But understanding our humanities and the value challenge they pose provides the necessary prerequisite for answering Becker's question. From this, political action can flow, and a politics of humanity can be cultivated.

Wilhelm Reich was a controversial theorist of the early and mid‐twentieth century who attempted to wed the ideas of Freud and Marx through a radical theory of the “sexual revolution” (a term he coined in the 1920s). His Marxism led him to the Communist Party in Austria, and to being a member of the Psychoanalytic Society. These organizations were at mutual odds, and Reich was soon expelled from both.

Research Article| February 01 2017 On the Infinitude of Life Stories: Still Puzzling Queer Tales After All These Years Ken Plummer Ken Plummer Ken Plummer is emeritus professor in the Sociology Department at the University of Essex, where he taught between 1975 and 2005. He was the founding editor of the journal Sexualities and has researched and published widely in the fields of Critical Humanism, Narrative and Critical Sexualities Studies. His most recent works include: Cosmopolitan Sexualities (2015, Polity Press); Sociology: The Basics, 2nd ed. (2016, Routledge); “Afterword: Liberating Generations: Continuities and Change in the Radical Queer Western Era” in David Paternotte and Manon Tremblay, eds., Ashgate Companion to Lesbian and Gay Activism (2015, Ashgate); “A Manifesto for Social Stories” in Liz Stanley ed. Documents of Life for the 21st Century (2013, Ashgate); “A Manifesto for Critical Humanism in Sociology” in Daniel Nehring, ed., Sociology: A Text and Reader (2013, Routledge); and “My Multiple Sick Bodies: Symbolic Interaction, Auto/ethnography and the Sick Body” in Bryan S. Turner, ed. Routledge Handbook of the Body (2012, Routledge). He is currently writing a book on Narrative Power for Polity Press. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking (2017) 4 (1): 189–197. https://doi.org/10.14321/qed.4.1.0189 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Ken Plummer; On the Infinitude of Life Stories: Still Puzzling Queer Tales After All These Years. QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking 1 February 2017; 4 (1): 189–197. doi: https://doi.org/10.14321/qed.4.1.0189 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveMichigan State University PressQED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. © 2017 Michigan State University2017 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal Issue Section: Forum You do not currently have access to this content.

AbstractThere is a long history of sex markets but contemporary capitalism has generated a wider and more intensive array. In this entry critical theories are discussed and eight basic market types are briefly described:selling relationships(e.g., “mail order brides”);selling emotions(e.g., sex therapy);selling “things” like drugs (e.g., viagra and sex toys);selling representations(e.g., the major global industry of pornography);selling marketing(e.g., advertising);selling bodies(e.g., table dancing/lap dancing, sex tourism);selling people(e.g., sex trafficking); andselling life itself(e.g., gamete donation, surrogacy, and adoption). Sex markets, sex work, and prostitution have thus become more diversified than ever before with a wider range of services.

A lively, accessible and comprehensive introduction to the diverse ways of thinking about social life, Sociology: The Basics (second edition) examines: The scope, history and purpose of sociology. Ways of understanding society and ‘the social’. The state of the world we live in today. Suffering and social inequalities. Key tools for researching and thinking about society. The impact of the digital world and new technologies. The values and the role of sociology in making a better world for all. The reader is encouraged to think critically about the structures, meanings, histories and cultures found in the rapidly changing world we live in. With tasks to stimulate the sociological mind and suggestions for further reading both within the text and on an accompanying website, this book is essential reading for all those studying sociology and those with an interest in how the modern world works.