DAN WOODMAN
Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Melbourne and President of both the Australian Sociological Association and the Council of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences.
What I’m reading…
- Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture by Douglas Coupland.
This book wasn’t the first reference to Generation X but it popularised the term and gave it much of its current meaning. - Woodman, D (2020) ‘Generational Change and Intergenerational Relationships in the Context of the Asset Economy’, Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory.
Now this article is getting a bit niche, but if you do want to delve into the academic debates about the sociology of generations in the particularly inaccessible language of social theory, this article is hot off the presses.
What I’m cooking…
Golden Syrup Dumplings – the time at home and challenging conditions has me hankering for the treats my grandma used to make, from another era of economic upheaval.
What I’m listening to…
- If I’ve finished all the episodes of Seriously Social, and I’m after some more social science in bite-sized portions, I go for Social Science Bites podcast. Great for a brain snack between Zoom meetings and supervising Year 1 school work.
- Victor A Lopez-Carmen’s TED Talk ‘The Power of Intergenerational Intelligence’. A young Indigenous scholar from North America providing a compelling introduction to thinking in terms of intergenerational equity and with ‘intergenerational intelligence’.
What I’m watching…
The movie Boyhood by Richard Linklater. Linklater’s movies explore time, age, generation and period. His films are also a winner if you are into Ethan Hawke.
On my COVID-19 playlist…
- The obvious song in My Generation, but to mix it up, here is Patty Smith’s version of it.
- I’m also listening to Rum, Sodomy and the Lash by the Pogues. Just because it’s my favourite. It does link back to the topic of sociology of the life course or generations. The foundational work on generations within sociology emerged in the aftermath of WW1 and the impact on the generation most caught up in the fighting. This album ends with a haunting cover for Eric Bogle’s The Band Played Waltzing Matilda.
Tune in to S1E5 of Seriously Social ‘Generation COVID’ with Dan Woodman and podcast host Ginger Gorman.