Reading Greta Thunberg’s No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference

I found and bought this book at a Christmas market stall in York. The market stall owner was very passionate about climate change activism and kindly encouraged me to join a march. His passion mirrored Greta Thunberg’s within No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference.  

The book is made up of speeches, in chronological order, at various climate rallies and marches. During this pandemic, I feel there has been a normalisation of being able to access information no matter where you are in the world. Something which has made me realise just how ‘isolated’ I have been outside of this pandemic. My geographical location does not allow for a yoga class in a trendy London studio but now I have the pick of “pay what you can” yoga classes on Instagram. I digress. What is interesting about this book is, it feels like a, current, common way of disseminating information but through the old media of print, rather than social media. This works to the advantage of Thunberg. Instead of watching these past speeches on YouTube, I focused on what is being said without my thoughts wandering: thinking about Thunberg’s Swedish accent which makes me think about how education outside of the UK focuses on the importance of being multilingual; or thinking about what clothes she is wearing and, as she is a climate activist, wondering where she got these clothes from as she must be heavily against fast fashion. Maybe it is just me, and my sociological imagination, which seems to wander, but reading her speeches as a book helped me focus on what she was so passionate about: the impact of climate change.

The book starts with a speech in 2017. Thunberg states that ‘we’ only have 3 years to reverse the growth in greenhouse gas emissions. Now, 3 years later in 2020, there is speculation that the earth is showing short term recovery from human damage as a result of our quarantining. How much of this is fact and how much has been exaggerated in order for us to feel better about our damage to the environment?

Greta wants the reader to be alarmed at the rate of climate change and what this can mean for human existence in 11, 30 and 60 years. She states that it is too late to make world leaders care about climate change and focuses upon the power the lies with ‘the people’ to put pressure on companies, our own employers and government to change their ways to reverse climate change. It is interesting that Greta implicitly refers to the diffusion of responsibility, which has been explored within psychological studies. Greta states that if everyone is guilty then no one is to blame, however, she states “the bigger your carbon footprint, the bigger your moral duty. The bigger your platform, the bigger your responsibility”.

A deeper look at Greta’s word choice may reveal her ontological and epistemological perspective. Greta states, that as homo sapiens we are animals, she questions “how can animals harm their environment and not care about it?” Similarly, when writing about this book, I have used the terms, human, existence, earth, environment and referred to the future of these. These terms could demonstrate Greta’s ontological perspective as aligning with objectivism: the world is an external reality which is suffering from human harm. However, when thinking about this, could it be possible that as humans shape this world we are actively changing and constructing this reality? If so, this could align instead with constructionism. Greta does want us to unite behind science which subscribes to a positivist epistemology and is linked to the objectivist ontology. Or, perhaps, I am thinking too much into this and letting my indicative MA Social Research reading seep into my thoughts on this book.  

The book does not explicitly refer to lifestyle changes needed to meet environmental targets but Greta does refer to the paradox of capitalism. Greta states that we cannot escape this crisis by buying and building things, the crisis came about because of excessive buying and building of things. This makes me think of all the caring capitalist acts during times of sadness. For instance, the t-shirts with “be kind” after the news of Caroline Flack’s suicide. Although these did donate 100% of profits to charity, what some neglect is exactly this: profits. If you buy a t-shirt for £10, and it costs £2 to make this, then sure the charity is getting £8, but what about the cost to the environment of what it took to make these. Is the material sustainable? Is the t-shirt in itself a form of fast fashion that will not withstand the test of time and ultimately contribute towards the growing land fill of clothes? The same came be said about the surprising cheap “save the bees” t-shirts I’ve been seeing on social media advertisements.

Greta mentions a variety of environmental problems we are facing due to our past and current actions which provides a shock value to her speeches with the intention of ‘waking up’ the reader to the realities of climate change. Indeed, when Greta mentions the acidification of oceans, I paused to think of the news stories surrounding the ‘toxic lake’ in Siberia where instagrammers flocked to take pictures due to its unusually bright turquoise colour. However, the reason for this unusual colour was due to its toxicity. Certain influencers who had jumped or dived into the lake ‘for the gram’ developed skin rashes. The juxtaposition of the ‘beauty’ of the lake and instagrammers using this as the perfect backdrop for their photo’s highlights Greta’s points exactly.  

Overall, I would recommend this book. The name of the book is appropriate as it’s a relatively quick read (of only 67ish small pages) and makes the reader think about climate change and the impact we are having on our environment. Although, as you can see it has made me pause to think and go off on a tangent at times so maybe your read will be quicker than mine.

Covid-19 [un]productivity: exploring ideas of motivation through micro and macro social theory

You will have seen posts on social media surrounding productivity during this pandemic. Some will be encouraging you to be productive and others will be telling you not to listen to the encouragers. It was when I first heard somebody talk about motivation during Covid-19 on YouTube, that I was inspired to explore this idea. They said something along the lines of:

“you need to do something because you want to do it at the time but also you need to think about your future and how what you do now will meet your goals”

At the moment, I am re-reading Mouzelis’ (2008) Modern and Postmodern Social Theorising: Bridging the Divide. In the first chapter, the author discusses social theories and how they criticise each other. So, when I heard the above quote I started thinking about how micro and macro social theories can relate to this idea of motivation.

Macro sociology

Macro social theory studies the collective phenomena within society: class struggles, impacts of institutions such as the Church, media and the family. The classic theories of Functionalism and Marxism are examples of this macro sociology. To these, the social world exists as structures and institutions which shape our lives and how we act.

“…but also you need to think about your future and how what you do now will meet your goals”

The second aspect of the quotation above states that motivation should come from thinking about your future and how it will help meet your goals. This could be interpreted as referring to institutions of work and even the family and what they require in order to successfully participate within these. For instance, completing CPD now in order to yield the required experience for a job promotion and be able to afford a big family house.

Macro social theory has been criticised for its emphasis on structure informing the roles of individuals. Macro social theory, on its own, does not account for free will and portrays individuals as passive products of these overarching structures.

Micro sociology

Micro social theories developed in the 1960s and 1970s and include symbolic interactionism and ethnomethodology. These social theories see individuals (labelled as actors) as the producers of social life, rather than passive products of structure.  To these, the social world exists because actors are constantly reproducing and transcending practices.

“you need to do something because you want to do it…”

The first part of motivation, contained within this quote, is that you should want to do something because of the mere act of doing. This directly relates to micro sociology as the act itself is the motivation and is contained outside of any previous engagement with the ‘something’ that is being done. The focus is upon the practice in the present.

Micro social theory, of course, has also been critiqued. Whilst, it does account for what micro social theory lacks, it overstates agents. Micro social theorists refuse to combine their ‘social’ focus on action with ‘system’ perspectives which take structure and institutions into consideration. By doing this, micro social theory produces trivial and obvious conclusions on action.

Indeed, if we took only the first part of this quote into consideration, of course motivation involves wanting to do something. What would be the point in life if we did not enjoy doing the act we are doing? However, once we factor in societal experiences of poverty, racism, sexism and requirements of specific institutions: our motivations may not always be driven by ‘what we enjoy at the present’; otherwise, we would not get anything done, some acts, whilst enjoyable, can be at some points, tiring and even boring (my experience of referencing whilst at university: I enjoyed university but I had to reference in order to get my degree!)

Overall, the quote perfectly sums up the need for both social theories. How these theories are aligned is another subject, one which I look forward to re-reading about in the coming chapters of Mouzelis’ (2008) Modern and Postmodern Social Theorising: Bridging the Divide.

AJ and the Queen: exploring ideas of gender

Warning: AJ and the Queen spoilers

GLAAD publish a report every year which forecasts the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or queer (LGBTQ) characters that are expected to be scripted on primetime programming in the television season. In 2019/20, 90 out of 879 (10.2%) series are expected to involve regular characters who identify as LGBTQ. GLAAD state that this is the highest percentage of LGBTQ regular characters they have counted since they started forecasting 24 years ago. Similarly, this is an increase from last years 8.8%. In fact, GLAAD called upon networks to ensure that 10% of characters in primetime series were LGBTQ by 2020 which shows that networks have achieved and slightly exceeded this. 

AJ and the Queen, a Netflix original, is one of these series in which the two protagonists AJ and Robert both demonstrate that they identify as LGBTQ. Robert, stage name Ruby Red, is a drag queen who states on the programme that he is a gay man but adopts she/her pronouns when in drag. Robert/Ruby’s genders are straightforward and binary. However, AJ seems to not fit into the binary view of gender. We begin the programme believing that AJ is a “little boy” who wears a hat, a white vest and hustles people for money to live. Later, AJ’s hat is knocked off and Robert is surprised by AJ’s long curly hair which leads him to exclaim that she is, in fact, a girl. AJ adamantly tells Robert that she is not a girl and does not want to be a girl. As a result, Robert assumes that AJ wants to identify as a boy. However, AJ later refutes this and claims that she never said she wanted to be a boy, but rather she just didn’t want to be a girl. Although Robert is a member of the LGBTQ+ community, this could have been used by the show’s writers to juxtapose the conflicting generational views of gender between Robert’s and AJ’s age group.  his binary ideas of gender display a juxtaposition between Robert’s generation and AJ’s age group.

Moving away from the main characters, the relationship between gender and body is explored within other side characters. For example, in one episode AJ and Robert meet a lady owns a garage with her husband: she keeps the books and the husband fixes the vehicles. We find out that when she was younger, she entered wet t-shirt contests and won every single one due to her “beautiful boobs”. However, she then reveals that she had a double mastectomy and no longer has these “beautiful boobs”. Later, AJ gives the lady Robert’s fake 'boobs' which he uses to win a wet t-shirt contest whilst in drag as Ruby and appears to be ‘passing’ [a term used to describe an individual looking fully like the gender they are dressed up as] as a woman. The lady rejects these boobs and says that she feels just as beautiful, as womanly and like herself without them. They are given to the lady’s husband as he appears to miss them more than she does.

Since finishing AJ and the Queen, and sadly having recently heard the news that they are not renewing the programme for a second series, I have started watching more programmes with LGBTQ main characters. I’m currently on episode 1 of Pose, set in the late 1980s, which already seems to centre around the repression of the LGBTQ community in New York, the ball culture, and the impact of HIV. Perhaps this will make for another blog post exploring gender, health and even cities.

Storms, snow and rescue cats: the sociological experience of losing power

I started writing this when I was at my parents last year and we suffered from a loss of power due to a storm. However, following storm Ciara, Dennis and Jorge, I returned to this piece of writing to reflect on how sociology can explain my experiences with the weather (and my parents’ cat).

It is cold. You cannot see the outside world because the rain is coming down so heavily. It is all a blur. “Oh no, there’s no satellite signal again!” my dad shouts in rage. Although it has now been determined that the culprit is our newly rescued cat who is pulling the cable out of the sky box. But it feels like one of those rare days of power loss or heavy snow fall: when you cannot watch television, use the internet and/or are essentially stuck in your house due to the weather. Although there is that classic panic, which has generated multiple memes, of have we got enough milk and bread?! I do find the feelings very satisfying.

One of the very first theorists you learn about in Sociology is Durkheim. One of his concepts which has always stuck with me is that of anomie and the resulting normlessness. As you may be aware, anomie is a feeling an individual, social group or society experiences when their normal behaviour, values and/or standards breakdown. For example, during the stormy weather, I cannot access the internet and watch/stream programmes or films. Due to my lack of hobbies, this is predominantly what I do in my free time when I am at home and, as such, I experience anomie.

Sociologists such as Durkheim and Merton frame anomie as a negative experience within their writing. However, I feel that it is more complex than this and includes a whole spectrum of positive, negative, and mixed emotions.

The negative emotions

Of course, storms, snow, newly rescued cats etc. can make you anxious, a known negative emotion: will our fence get blown over? Will a trampoline blow into my car and cause damage like I’ve seen happen on social media? Will my newly rescued cat get into my ham sandwich again and leave me without lunch for work? Will I be able to get to work tomorrow in my normal time or will my route be flooded and cause traffic? This weather [and cat] produces fear of the unknown and could be seen as a fear of future anomie.

The mixed emotions

Loss of power can feel both liberating and frustrating. For example, during a power outage I decided I would bake because it is a hobby I really enjoy but do not do often. However, I soon remembered that I could not Google the ratio of flour to butter nor could I even put my baking in the oven because, of course, the power was out.

The positive emotions

Before I discuss the positive emotions, I experience, I want to recognise that I am speaking from a position of privilege. Although the weather we endure in the UK can cause travel delays, destruction of homes and businesses, I am fortunate that my home has not been flooded, my belongings have not been destroyed and my car has not been hit by flying objects. Geographically speaking, I am also extremely lucky that the UK does not suffer from monsoons, hurricanes, tornados and other life-threatening weather. The positive emotions I feel during our storms are those of comfort due to the fact I have not faced life altering events due to the weather.

The positive emotions I feel during a storm are nostalgic for a time in which I have never even lived within. During a power outage, my mum would often say “this is what it was like in the olden days” whilst she lit candles and would tell me about how, before she was even born, one man was responsible for lighting oil lights in the streets. Many sociologists have discussed the sociology of nostalgia. Indeed, Davis’s 1979 book Yearning for Yesterday discusses how anxiety driven situations can invoke a desire for the past, the simpler times. However, what is interesting about a power outage is that the “old times of candles for light” is my current reality. What makes this emotion a positive one is that I know this power outage will pass at some point.

Since these storms, I’ve been thinking about power relations and nostalgia, something I want to write about in the future.

The Social Class Series: Karl Marx

Social class is a central concept within the study of Sociology. It is one of the first forms of inequality one reads about when taking an introductory course in the subject. This series will look at different conceptualisations of social class given by the most popular social theorists writing on the subject. This first post explains and discusses the work of Karl Marx.

Karl Marx was interested in historical materialism: how the economic base of society shapes the classed living conditions of social groups throughout history. These historical societal structures are referred to as modes of production. For example, feudalism and the lived conditions of nobility and peasantry as well as the capitalist and the consumer within capitalism. Marx wrote about how an individual’s relation to the modes of production affects their living conditions. In particular, within the Communist Manifesto, Marx discusses two classes that are in direct opposition to each other: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

The bourgeoisie are the middle/upper class, those who own the means of production (e.g. factory owners). The proletariat are the working class, those who have to sell their labour to survive within society (e.g. the factory workers). Within these classes there are sub-classes. Within the bourgeoisie there is the haute (upper), moyenne (middle) and petite (petty) bourgeoisie. Within the proletariat Marx distinguishes between the proletariat as workers with a salary and the lumpenproletariat, those who can be described as residing within the underclass and the poorest within society e.g. vagabonds and sex workers.

As one can see, Marx’s conceptualisation of class is dependent upon one’s financial position as he emphasizes the economic base of society, that is resources and production which creates societal goods for exchange, as shaping one’s social class and their experience within the superstructure. The superstructure refers to societal institutions such as the family, politics, culture, religion and education. Due to the emphasis on the economic base, Marx does not credit other factors which could conceptualise one’s class. Similarly, it is difficult to ascertain how relatable the theory is to society now since the industrial revolution in which Marx was writing. Of course, it is possible to apply his account to our capitalist mode of production but what about other aspects of society. Would we still categorise sex workers as part of the underclass when so many students are engaging in this work to pay for their way through university?

I like it when it rains: consuming, creating and nature’s seasons

This past year I have not written for abbyelsociology once. Well, I’ve tried to write down ideas and titles when they come. But I have not sat down and written prose for a year and I’ve just been reflecting on the writing processes for creators. During this year I have consumed a lot: YouTube videos, journal articles, advice from my master’s dissertation supervisor, some more YouTube videos, Instagram posts, Facebook group posts about MLMs, wedding nightmare stories, how to DIY furniture (even though I have not and have no plans to DIY any furniture), TED talks etc. The things I have created in the past year include: a master’s dissertation, an unsuccessful proposal, a successful proposal, Instagram posts, a home for our newly built house (cheesy I know), a wedding, a schedule for travelling Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington and Vancouver. But the one thing I haven’t done is create a blog post.

Now it is October and it has turned colder and it is raining [more frequently than it is in the summer], the outside is quieter with people staying indoors. I recently read a post by Evanna Lynch in which she documented her struggles with wanting to create all the time. She quoted somebody else in the way they mentioned that our creative processes are like seasons. Like nature, we cannot be in full bloom all year round. We need the autumn to reap in our creations from summer. We need the winter to rest and prepare. We need the spring to slowly begin to bloom. And we need the summer to complete our blooming and see it at its height. For me, although I have been in spring and summer for the projects, I mentioned above that I have created this past year. In terms of this blog, I feel as though I have been at the end of autumn/the beginning of winter for the past year and I am now slowly coming out of winter and into spring with this blog post. So, when I say I like it when it rains, what I mean is I like that I am ready to create again for this blog.

So, this post has been very unlike me in terms of the content and writing style. But I wanted to write something to acknowledge the fact that it has been a year and introduce the new layout and banner for this blog [a photo I took from the gum wall in Seattle, Washington]. I will be back to the sociological analysis in my next post. Perhaps, I will sociologically analyse this very post?

The commodification of Autumn: are Millennials passive consumers?

"Seasons are not a trend, they’re a part of a fragile eco system that we need to focus on preserving, not Instagramming” - Sirena Bergman (2018) on the impact of Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte.

If you follow me on Instagram, you will see that on the first day of Autumn, I created my bullet journal set up for the season. Doodling and writing in “autumnal” colours made me reflect upon the commodification of the season. Commodities are things that are seen as useful or hold a particular value. Autumn can be seen as a production of commodities, conceptualised by Marx as commodification. For instance, Bergman (2018) writes that just like any other millennial, Bergman finds satisfaction in “stomping around in a pile of leaves”, wearing woolly scarves, eating a variety of pumpkin based foods and partaking in Halloween. Indeed, when I reflect upon my own Autumn bucket list, I too have found satisfaction in autumnal activities such as pumpkin picking, watching Harry Potter, wearing plum toned lipsticks and mustard coloured clothing items. However, Marx’s conceptualisation of commodification refers to a process in which the capitalist companies such as Starbucks, MAC makeup and clothing brands deceive their customers into buying these products for their financial gain. The issue I have with this is that it disregards the reflexivity that consumers have to think about their role in the commodification of Autumn.

Although Bergman writes about their favourite autumnal activities, Bergman is still aware of their involvement in the commodification of Autumn. Focusing upon the Pumpkin Spice Latte, Bergman discusses the impact that this capitalist product is having upon the environment and how, ironically, it could affect the Autumn season the most. My own reflection via this blog post, without getting too meta, as well as Bergman’s article highlights the reflexivity consumers can hold upon their involvement within the season. 

Therefore, although it can be theorised that Autumn has undergone commodification, it is important not to view these consumers as “cultural dopes”. Just like my previous blog post surrounding #doitforthegram, interaction with capitalist consumer culture is more than passive consumption.

Reference: Bergman (2018) Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/starbucks-pumpkin-spiced-latte-environment-autumn-millennials-instagram-a8515706.html