What can you do with Sociology/Psychology/Cultural Studies/Social Anthropology post-grad qualification

[onebatmother]

Apart from pat self on back?

I am thinking of retraining but no idea about jobs. Those are the things I'm considering studying - what REAL ACTUAL JOBS might I get with a postgrad MA/PHD in them?

I mean ones that pay money. Any money. But must be money.

Thanks dearies.

lol at 'dead would'. I've got that kind of ineffectual drive.

Do you think they just washed less? Do you think we just stick stuff in the wash because it's been worn, rather than being dirty per se?

"Has the private sector not shown itself to share such ineptitudes and massively inflated salaries lately, OBM?"

Yup. Wasn't saying I liked them, either.

And actually, I do think that public sector ineptitude is not simply a political stereotype. Can't tell you how long I shut up about own experiences bcs didn't wish to undermine own political affiliation - but the bottom line is that, in London and particularly the poorest London boroughs, public sector is a byword for rip-off. And it's the demos whose being ripped.

Yes, the washing machine point is a very good one I think. Also vacuum cleaners. It's like all this MNH stuff I looked into for the G20 - it's recognised in development studies that if a village has a bore-hole nearby, girls who would otherwise be spending hours fetching water suddenly have some time free in which to go to school.

Dishwasher tablets: '3-in1', '4-in-1', '5-in-1'

Capitalism is scheduled to end at the point at which dishwasher tablet functionality is saturated.

FFS! What's wrong with me?!

Ok, I've had a couple of glasses of wine, I'm tired, I'm not wearing my glasses. I'm not an idiot really I'm not

Fucking civil service will employ anyone nowadays...

I'm going to bed.

Bumper, not bcs I laughed at 'dead would' I hope? 'Dead would' is very funny, a typo well worth making.

Bumper - re overinflated salaries. I have had, in the past 5 years, at least 4 friends who earn over 40K for flexitime 35 hours a week, 6 weeks holiday, no special quals (not even BA), no 'stress' that couldn't be sorted out with 2 hours per week work in the evenings.

Most of them were doing some kind of service audit.

Well, ok, not simply a stereotype - but public sector is a very wide label, and includes a huge variety of organisations - I include HE, NHS, etc. And much of the bureaucracy is because we have to be accountable - fuck knows that gets mismanaged all the time, but there is much much more regulation - see FoI for one.

Private companies ripping people off I guess is more open to choice than public sector - they just do it to different people.

I put an apostrofly into a post today. Was dead ashamed. Also repeated my 'protestors' mistake x1000 - have a real mental block about it.

God, I'm obv quite cross tonight.

It's the functional response of 0 when 10x=rock 10y=hardplace

Well there's nothing to stop you using your judgment re confected need.

Don't they pay people quite a lot to try to stop people using their judgement over confected need? I think that ties in to my scientific illiteracy point earlier - they tap in to fears where possible.

I wonder what the dishwasher tablets under communism would be like?

Judgement - yes, but don't you think that marketing/advertising goes out of its way to knock people down in order to 'help' them back up? So in that sense it does prey on vulnerable people - those who (for whatever reason) are more likely to take themselves at others' estimation. And none of us is completely immune from it. How many advertising images and/or messages do we see/hear in a day? It's got to be in the hundreds. I think it's a bit optimistic to expect brisk common sense to win out.

'I wonder what the dishwasher tablets under communism would be like?' - I dunno, but they'd probably only be available every other Tuesday.

lolol lenin.

Just one colour, with no powertabs/balls. Possibly a stamped logo. Or slogan about the clean dishes empowering the masses.

Lenin re: behest. I see your point. But it wasnt' at the user's behest, I don't think. Most of these systems are self-reproducing, aren't they? They're designed to ensure that the designer isn't out of a job next year.

And actually I'm talking shite and just using that erm.. symbolically. Most of them did normal jobs, they just had no idea that the rest of the world isn't 'exhausted' after a 7 hour day of normal office work

Habbs -

"Private companies ripping people off I guess is more open to choice than public sector ."

I think that's it.

Kinell - this pupa/butterfly business is revelatory for me! I discover that beneath my dull workaday liberal exterior, I'm actually...

Swedes!

I have no objections to capitalism as a tool for shifting stuff about. What I don't like is when it stands in for an ethical system in which the market is believed to produce the optimum solution to all problems by giving people what they "want", because we've lost the ability to decide what's good or bad in any other way.

Yes about the dishwasher tablets. Men's razorblades the same.

Regarding the salaries - surely the biggest difference in recent years has not been between the public and private sectors but between the financial and other sectors. (And this seems like the logical conclusion of the unfettered free market, that those who manipulate money for a living will naturally end up accumulating a great deal of it for themselves.)

Well, except that if you're a farmer supplying Tesco?asda etc your choice is limited. And if your transport options are limited and high street shops fucked over by out of town supermarkets then also your options are limited, etc etc. I don't think there's much of a moral high ground in yer average private sector org. in that sense.

Don't worry threadie, I really do have to go to bed. Though I would love to stay and defend the public sector, at least it's something I can speak about with some authority.

I work in a massive organisation Onebat and it is certainly a minority earning over 40k, and they have been there a long time.

As Habbibu said there is a lot of regulation, and there has to be, as in the public sector you are damned if you do and damned if you don't. Take any number of suspected terrorist incidents. If the security services or special branch go tearing into a place on a raid and don't find anything conclusive they get slated. Yet when something like the July bombs happen it's the intelligence agencies that get criticised. I heard some twat bloke on Radio 4 the other day basically accusing the government of making up the threat of terrorism. For what reason I don't know, but billions is spend in fight against terrorism and it's not just to prop up the economy.

Social service are slammed on here all the time for being too interfering, jumping to conclusions, but when Haringey happens they are villified. Most people don't go into the public sector for money (hah!), or thanks, they do it because it feels better than working to persuade heavily indebted, blinkered consumers to part with their hard earned money to pour into shareholders and executives pockets.