DIRECTORY
of women’s studies at Duke
University, Durham, North
Carolina. Her best-known work is
Becoming Undone (2011),
in which she outlines a feminist
theory of postmodern Darwinism.
See also: Michel Foucault 52–55;
302–03 ■ Julia Kristeva 337TARIQ MODOOD
1952–Tariq Modood was born in Karachi,
Pakistan, but raised in the UK.
After studies at Durham and
Swansea universities, in 1997 he
became founding director of the
Centre for Study of Ethnicity and
Citizenship at the University of
Bristol, UK. Also a professor of
sociology, politics, and public policy
at Bristol, he is an expert on racism,
multiculturalism, and secularism.
He argues that contemporary
Muslim assertiveness is inspired
by identity politics, rather than
theological demands. Modood
is the cofounding editor of the
international journal Ethnicities.
See also: Stuart Hall 200–01 ■
Bryan S. Turner 338HARTMUT ROSA
1965–German sociologist Hartmut Rosa
is best known for his theory of
“social acceleration,” the title of his
2013 book. The theory suggests
that not only is society accelerating
in three ways (technological
innovation, societal change, and
the pace of life), it also has zones of
deceleration, in which large groups
of people may be left behind. He
also claims that the world is at a
point of “frenetic standstill” where
nothing remains as it is, whilenothing essential actually changes.
Rosa is professor of general and
theoretical sociology at Friedrich
Schiller University, Jena, Germany.
See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Max
Weber 38–45 ■ Jürgen Habermas
286–87TOM SHAKESPEARE
1966–Tom Shakespeare studied at the
University of Cambridge before
spending five years working for the
World Health Organization (WHO)
in Geneva, Switzerland. A medical
sociologist who is disabled himself,
he is an important voice in the
sociology of difference. He is
interested in the ethical aspects
of genetics and disability studies,
particularly in the areas of sexual
politics and human rights. Now a
lecturer in medical sociology at the
University of East Anglia, UK, he
claims that people “are disabled
by society and by their bodies.”
See also: G.H. Mead 176–77 ■
Erving Goffman 190–95 ■ Howard
S. Becker 280–85BEVERLEY SKEGGS
Beverley Skeggs studied sociology
at the universities of York and
Keele, before becoming Director
of women’s studies at Lancaster
University (with Celia Lury). In
Formations of Class & Gender
(1997), she argues that class should
feature prominently in theories
of gender, identity, and power.
Skeggs is a professor of sociology
at Goldsmiths College, London.
See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■
Pierre Bourdieu 76–79 ■ Ann
Oakley 318–19credited with the creation of a new
paradigm, in which institutions
(including the state) are seen
as structuring political life and
embodying ideas, and therefore
open to causal analysis. Her 1992
book, Protecting Soldiers and
Mothers: The Political Origins
of Social Policy in the United
States, won five major awards.
See also: Max Weber 38–45 ■
David McCrone 163 ■ Arjun
Appadurai 166–69
ANGELA MCROBBIE
1951–
Cultural theorist Angela McRobbie
is a professor at Goldsmiths
College, London, UK. She claims
that in the 1990s there was a
backlash against feminism, despite
a general consensus that gender
equality had been achieved. In
her 2009 book, The Aftermath of
Feminism, she draws on the work of
Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens
to argue “female individualization”
is a post-feminist masquerade that
reinforces masculine hegemony.
See also: Anthony Giddens
14 8 – 49 ■ Stuart Hall 200–01 ■
Beverley Skeggs 339
ELIZABETH GROSZ
1952–
Cultural and feminist theorist
Elizabeth Grosz was born in
Sydney, Australia, where she
studied philosophy. Influenced by
post-structuralist thinkers such
as French philosopher Jacques
Derrida, her work focuses on
gender studies (particularly sexual
difference), female sexuality, and
the nature of time from a feminist
perspective. She is professor
339