Self and Society - The Language of Social Science in Everyday Life

Date: Thu, 19 February 2026 ¡ 17:00 - 18:00
Cost: Free
Venue: South School, Examination Schools
Address: 75–81 High Street, Oxford, OX1 4BG, United Kingdom
Event page: https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/event/self-and-society

Self and Society

Focusing on the decades between the late 1940s and late 1970s, Peter Mandler explores how sociological thinking permeated everyday life during an era of affluence, permissiveness, and therapeutic culture. This lecture uncovers how ordinary people adopted new frameworks for understanding their place in society.

What to expect:

  • 🧠 The rise of the “sociological imagination”
  • 🌱 Post‑war social change and new forms of self‑understanding
  • 🏙️ How social science shaped everyday life in mid‑century Britain