Social Science Research Group
The Social Science Research Group (formerly the Sociological Research Group) has been renamed to indicate that its scope, although mainly sociological, includes other social science disciplines, including psychology, education, demography and economics. The purpose of the group is to bring together members of the Faculty interested and engaged in theoretically significant social research which is empirically grounded. The unifying theoretical theme of the SSRG's research is the provision of an integrated account of the social relations of inequality and the processes by which inequality is transmitted and reproduced
The SSRG has two major offshoots:
First, The Individual and Labour Market Reading Group (ILM), directed by Dr Brendan Burchell, continues to thrive and has an active program of meetings and social gatherings for both staff and graduate students.
Second, the new ESRC Research Priority Network on Gender Equality (GeNet), directed by Dr Jackie Scott, runs from 2004-2009. It spans eight British Universities (including Cambridge, LSE, Institute of Education, City, Open University, York, Essex and Oxford). The Network aims to move forward the theoretical understanding and empirical knowledge of gender inequalities in production and reproduction.
The origins of the Sociological Research Group were closely bound up with the seminal work on stratification that led to the development of the "Cambridge Scale". Further developments of the Cambridge Scale (CAMSIS) are ongoing and the CAMSIS project (now based at Cardiff University) is an internationally comparative assessment of the structures of social interaction and stratification across a number of countries. Like virtually all other stratification measures, CAMSIS uses occupational groups as its basic units. Unlike other classification schemes, however, the scale can be used in ways that are gender-specific and appropriate for other groupings, such as ethnicity or for those not in paid employment.
The original director of the Sociological Research Group, Bob Blackburn, although now retired, is still extremely research active and continues to serve as SSRG Treasurer.
Publications of SSRG members and further details of SSRG activities can be found in the Departmental Annual Report.
A list of Working Papers for the Cambridge Studies in Social Research series follows:
Cambridge Studies in Social Research No. 10
Cambridge Studies in Social Research No. 11
Cambridge Studies in Social Research No. 12
Cambridge Studies in Social Research No. 13
Cambridge Studies in Social Research No. 14
For additional information, please contact The Department of Sociology , Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RQ. Tel: (+44) 1223-334520; Fax: (+44) 1223-334550; email: enquiries@sociology.cam.ac.uk.
