Raewyn Connell

Questions about masculinities – different ways of occupying the social position of a man - are by no means new. The Sumerian-Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh, four thousand years ago, told a story of two contrasting masculinities, the urbane royalty of Gilgamesh and the wild-man Enkidu. The great classic of Hellenic literature, the Iliad, told of the love between Patroclus the impulsive and inadequate comrade, and Achilles the bitter, efficient...

Myths and Realities Two great myths distort our picture of writing – one old, one new. The old myth views writing as simply a matter of genius and inspiration. Someone blessed with the gift sits down on a fine morning with pen in hand, the ghostly Muse whispers in his or her ear, and a brilliant text springs forth. No one understands how. All we can do is gasp in admiration, and hope the Muse will whisper in our ear, next time. The...

Raewyn Connell, an Australian sociologist, made her mark with research into class power, and the relation of class and gender in schooling. She rose to fame with her theory of the institutional basis of gender relations in Gender and Power (1987), and established herself as a global figure with her book, Masculinities (1995) which develops her oft-cited notion of hegemonic masculinity. Always interested in the history...

Ulrich Beck is an imaginative and original sociologist, and we are all in his debt for his splendid rethinking of European social dynamics in Risk Society. In the 1990s he, like a number of colleagues, discovered ‘globalization’ and so gave us World Risk Society and What is Globalization? He now offers this as an agenda for sociologists at large, under the title of ‘cosmopolitan’ sociology. It...