Summary
Stigma - Laurie Taylor explores the origins and meaning of Erving Goffman's famous sociological concept and the ways it's being re-cast by social scientists in the 21st century. He's joined by Graham Scambler, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at University College, London, Lisa Morris, Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Birmingham and Joanna Latimer, Professor of Sociology at the University of York.
Producer: Jayne Egerton.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of |
| 0:07.0 | Happiness Podcast. |
| 0:08.0 | For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want |
| 0:14.4 | to share that science with you. |
| 0:16.1 | And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley. |
| 0:19.4 | I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that |
| 0:25.5 | calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:31.6 | I'm aging gracefully. Find out how. |
| 0:36.0 | You know, one of the least discussed aspects of growing old even older than 64 is the |
| 0:48.1 | amount of effort you have to put into maintaining that nothing of the sort is occurring. I mean you don't ask for the sounds |
| 0:54.0 | be turned up on the television because it's inaudible but because those |
| 0:57.1 | dreadful self-regarding actors are mumbling again and you don't run for the 55 |
| 1:01.9 | bus because as everyone knows well there'll be another one along in a moment. |
| 1:06.0 | You also have to keep a much closer check on all those parts of your body that you could ignore in earlier days. |
| 1:12.0 | As the writer John Mortimer once remarked that he was forever deterred from attending an orgy |
| 1:16.4 | because of the prospect of having to hold his stomach in for so long. |
| 1:20.8 | Well, years ago, I can't hardly believe it was really back in 1963, but it was the American |
| 1:25.9 | sociologist Irving Goffman described such ways of avoiding public opprobrium as passing. But Gothman's great conceptual move was to point out |
| 1:35.7 | that all of us, not just the elderly or the poorly cited or the disfigured or the |
| 1:39.6 | mildly obese, all of us were involved to some extent or other, in managing our identity, in |
| 1:44.3 | asserting our utter normality. All of us are in the title of his celebrated study |
| 1:49.4 | Managing Stigma. But in this program I want to look at two rather dramatic examples of |
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