Michael Billig's guest appearances

Michael Billig

Social Science Bites

Laughter Research

Amish Heritage Foundation - Real Amish Podcast

Sam Friedman

Steven Pinker

Albert Nerenberg

Jo Boaler

Jonathan Haidt

David Spiegelhalter

Jim Scott

Angus Deaton

Michele Gelfand

Jennifer Lee

Jennifer Richeson

Mahzarin Banaji

Linda Woodhead

William Davies

Danny Dorling

OwlTail

“One of the values of the social sciences,” argues  Michael Billig, “is to investigate what people take for granted and to bring it to the surface.” In this Social Science Bites podcast, Billig, a professor of social science at Loughborough University since 1985, discusses a particular strain of something taken for granted, what he terms “banal nationalism.” That refers to the idea that much of what we would consider markers of the nationalistic impulse pass without notice, the “unwaved flags” we’d only notice if they disappeared. In his conversation with interviewer David Edmonds, Billig dives more deeply into one particular example of nationalism, the British royal family, and what the British themselves think about the royal  family and the place of the royals in British ideology.   Drawing on what he learned while supervising the qualitative surveys of average British citizens that formed the basis of his 1992 book Talking of the Royal Family, he suggests that the British people, while much less deferential to the royals than outsiders might think, tend to accept that the RF is a good thing and therefore sympathize with them – as long as the public perceives the family as publicly suffering from their privilege. As he tells Edmonds, it was while doing that project that he realized he in fact was writing about nationalism when he write that book, which started him down the road to his 1995 book, Banal Nationalism. Since then he’s addressed a number of other topics, including laughter, rock ‘n’ roll, and how to write badly – a topic that concludes the podcast. He also defends the role of social scientists – trained as a social psychologist he prefers to describe himself using the broader term by citing the ephemerality of the findings. “The idea that you may get eternal truths from social science is a bit of a mythology,” he insists. “This is why you always need social scientists.”

“One of the values of the social sciences,” argues <a href="http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/socialsciences/staff/academicandresearch/billig-michael.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Michael Billig</a>, “is to investigate what people take for granted and to bring it to the surface.” In this Social Science Bites podcast, Billig, a professor of social science at Loughborough University since 1985, discusses a particular strain of something taken for granted, what he terms “banal nationalism.” That refers to the idea that much of what we would consider markers of the nationalistic impulse pass without notice, the “unwaved flags” we’d only notice if they disappeared. In his conversation with interviewer David Edmonds, Billig dives more deeply into one particular example of nationalism, the British royal family, and what the British themselves think about the royal  family and the place of the royals in British ideology.   Drawing on what he learned while supervising the qualitative surveys of average British citizens that formed the basis of his 1992 book Talking of the Royal Family, he suggests that the British people, while much less deferential to the royals than outsiders might think, tend to accept that the RF is a good thing and therefore sympathize with them – as long as the public perceives the family as publicly suffering from their privilege. As he tells Edmonds, it was while doing that project that he realized he in fact was writing about nationalism when he write that book, which started him down the road to his 1995 book, Banal Nationalism. Since then he’s addressed a number of other topics, including laughter, rock ‘n’ roll, and how to write badly – a topic that concludes the podcast. He also defends the role of social scientists – trained as a social psychologist he prefers to describe himself using the broader term by citing the ephemerality of the findings. “The idea that you may get eternal truths from social science is a bit of a mythology,” he insists. “This is why you always need social scientists.”

Michael Billig on the Royal Family and Nationalism

 The main focus of my conversation with Prof. Billig was the topic of his book Laughter and Ridicule: Towards a Social Critique of Humour (Published in association with Theory, Culture &amp; Society) in which he explores the important role which ridicule and laughter play in shaping social behaviours. In his book, Michael takes a critical approach to the topics of laughter and humour and he questions the common assumptions which are made, in particular by popular and academic psychology.

The main focus of my conversation with Prof. Billig was the topic of his book Laughter and Ridicule: Towards a Social Critique of Humour (Published in association with Theory, Culture &amp; Society) in which he explores the important role which ridicule and laughter play in shaping social behaviours. In his book, Michael takes a critical approach to the topics of laughter and humour and he questions the common assumptions which are made, in particular by popular and academic psychology.

Ridicule & Laughter