Programme full

Friday 17 April 2015 15:15 - 16:45
PAPER SESSION 8
specific study to make a wider contribution to thinking about vision as a sensory register through with which to evoke
respectful and mutual understanding in the co-constituent making of relationships.
We begin by considering the positive value placed on visibility – particularly in the field of social care but also more
widely. This positive disposition belongs to a longstanding tradition in which sight and seeing are aligned with
certainty, clarity and understanding. This position has purchase in the context of the research on which we report. Yet
our interviewees also report the experience of seeing and being seen as something unwelcome; both superficial and
at the same time exposing. We argue that to be seen in this way can be, paradoxically, to disappear. We seek to
explain these seeming contradictions, directing attention to a second tradition that positions the visual register less
charitably – as a register of authority, examination, distance and objectivity. Drawing on the work of writers attentive to
the visual register, in particular reference to relationships across a boundary of inequality and the work of craft, our
paper seeks to reconcile these opposed positions.
Lessons from ‘Elsewhere’: Translating Political Escapism into Action in Israel-Palestine and Beyond
Natanel, K.
(School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London)
Building upon twelve months of ethnographic research conducted in Israel-Palestine during 2010-2011, this paper
asks how modes of political avoidance and sensations of political disenchantment might be transformed into a
collective will to action. As previously published in Journal of International Women's Studies, research among Jewish
Israelis living in West Jerusalem and Tel Aviv reveals how the construction of 'small worlds' or 'elsewheres' may
preclude action on broader scales in a context of conflict and sustained political violence. Here, the pursuit of 'the
good life' entails a turning inward to smaller spheres of investment where actions are understood to be meaningful,
experienced as effective, and accompanied by a sense of reciprocity. In providing a sense of relief of escape from
politics – understood and experienced as beyond the reach of individual influence – these realms nonetheless
possess significant political effect, as actions taken within sustain political stasis without.
This paper then thinks forward, appraising what academics and political actors might learn from a society in stasis,
where progression toward peace, security and stability seems attainable only on an immediate level and pits the
pursuit of an individual 'good life' against the construction of a wider 'good society.' Motivated by the belief that
lessons learned from 'elsewhere' in Israel-Palestine resonate across borders, this paper opens a discussion about
political engagement and action, highlighting how seeming apathy might yield sites of intervention and routes to
transformation.
Frontiers 2
W525, HAMISH WOOD BUILDING
The Media and Me
Hadley, R.
(Keele University)
The BSA sees the importance in informing, and educating, the public about the interesting, relevant, and authoritative
work that sociologists are producing. This presentation will describe my experience of dealing with print and radio
media following my presentation at the BSA Conference, London, 2013. I will describe the process of working through
the press release stage to being interviewed for the print media and for radio and my reaction to those situations. I will
also present the key factors that influence journalists in their selection of sources.
Researching the Good Society: Studying Values Using Qualitative Methods
Bednarek-Gilland, A.
(Social Sciences Institute of the Evangelical Church in Germany)
Amidst rapid social change, it is important that sociologists form ideas, even utopian ones, on what the Good Society
of the future might look like. It is also extremely important to inquire into lay imaginations about this society. With his
2011 book 'Why Things Matter to People', Andrew Sayer presented a serious and persuasive argument for why we
should inquire into lay people's normativities. This includes inquiries into lay persons' values, especially so in times of
crisis and social transformation.
In this paper and drawing on Sayer's and others' conceptual work, I would like to make the case for studying values
with the use of qualitative methods. For this, neither conceptual nor methodological tools exist to date. Yet, as we
BSA Annual Conference 2015 294
Glasgow Caledonian University