Re: sociology helppppppp pretty please x
'Britain is an increasingly secular society' meaning the country is becoming less of a community and instead is breaking off into seperate groups.
In my view the reason for this starts with the family. The family has changed from being large and extended - to smaller 'nuclear' units - i.e. mum, dad and kids and not mum dad kids G'mas etc all living together.
In the 60s people used to know their neighbours and be in one anothers lives o a day to day basis - i.e watching one anothers kids - nowadays people dont know thier neighbours and use childminders etc. That is not only due to the death of the extended family (as no mums/G'mas about to care for others kids etc) but also due to more women entering the workplace and there are less stay at home mums who are in a position to watch kids and have a natter over the garden fence so its also related to changes in work and the changes in the division of labour.
Its also related to religion, religion per se can be secular, i.e. they stick to their own groups outside of the church/mosque/synagogue as their religion is what they identify themselves with and so they hang out with people who have the same beliefs.
Its basically about people breaking away from the norms that used to uphold British society and instead smaller groups make up society now.
So you need to look at the work of functionalists to better understand old school family stuff. Marxists and feminists for the changes in the division of labour (Abbott and Wallce were fab feminist sociologists back in the day and the book is old now but gold!) and all three to discuss religion.
Use up to date examples to illustrate your points so research news items about religon and secularisation (theres loads about that atm) and also stats about women in work and geographic/socio-economic differences and link these in. An example would be the north/south divide where up North there tends to be families still living closer and so providing support for onenaother whereas in the 'affluent' south its all a bit more 'all for himself' and people tend to keep themselves to themselves and are suspiscous of friendly neighbours. This is of course a generalisation.
Its not neccessarily about the breakdown of society but the morphing of society - the changes - its about multiculturalism, acceptance of differences and still maintaining some kind of 'larger' society that the smaller groups - together - make up. So make the point that despite society becoming more secular if people accepeted the differences and were not fearful of change and do not judge via stereotypes then the old and golden days of community and support are still there and are still achievable. Also that this community is now more interesting and diverse as each different groups brings its own perpective with it.
Hope that helps.
__________________
StudentMidwife.NET Founder & Director
What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?
(George Eliot, 1860)
Last edited by TallPoppy; 05-Jun-2008 at 13:21.
|