Anybody out there?

I guess I'm as intellectually lazy as the next fellow. From time to time you get into conversation with somebody from another discipline and  you can see they are trying to figure out what kind of beast you are. Often on these occasions, if the conversation turns to my department, I resort to a rather crude  heuristic and explain that in the UK there are departments like mine and then there are the other lot, the "body sociology" departments and usually go on to say that we don't have much to say to each other. This strategy works, at least in the sense that my conversation partner normally either nods knowingly or just walks off.

Sometimes I've wondered what I would do if I was called out and asked to give some actual examples of "body sociology". I can't say it has given me sleepless nights, but there was a bit of a chink in my armour there. Well now I can relax, because the esteemed British Sociological Association flagship journal Sociology has come to the rescue by publishing just the thing I need.  And there is a bonus because, as I learn, the sociology of bodies is now firmly connected to the sociology of names and identities. Science just grows and grows every day! You can read the abstract here. The rest is pay walled but I think the abstract tells you  all you need to know.

If you feel gloomy after that, here's Satchmo to cheer you up with, yes, you guessed it: I ain't got nobody.