Christie Davies

Christie Davies, whose full name is John Christopher Hughes Davies, is a sociology professor at the University of Reading, UK. He has held the postion from 1990 to present (2007). He specialises in the sociology of morality and the sociology of humour. A biographical note states that after complaeting a Master of Arts and a Ph. D. at Cambridge, Christie "was a radio producer on the BBC Third Programme before becoming a lecturer in Sociology at the University of Leeds and later moving to Reading."

Tobacco industry associations
In a 1994 document in the files of British American Tobacco (BAT) Dr. Davies was listed as an "Associate" of Associates for Research in the Science of Enjoyment (ARISE), a tobacco industry-funded front group.

Dr. Davies participated in an ARISE workshop in Brussels, Belgium on 22-24 September, 1993 titled "Comparative Substance Use and Quality of Life." The workshop attempted to group tobacco smoking with comparatively harmless activities like eating chocoloate and drinking tea. A Philip Morris document describing the workshop states that it aimed to "examine the contribution of everyday pleasures, like eating chocolate, smoking, drinking tea, coffee and alcohol to quality life." The document states that Dr. Davies "describe[d] the role of coffee, tea, alcohol, smoking etc. in sociability as fundamental central facilitators of social interactions in which role their stimulant (or retaxant?) properties are essential."

Dr. Davies was listed in a document in the files of BAT as an "academic contact." The document praises him as "one of the most senior and well respected right-wing sociologists in the UK...A radical free marketeer he carries sound ideological baggage when it comes issues of risk and personal freedom."

Publications

 * Wrongful Imprisonment (1973); co-author;
 * Permissive Britain (1975)
 * Censorship and Obscenity (1978), co-editor
 * Ethnic Humor Around the World: a Comparative Analysis (1990 and 1997)
 * Jokes and their Relation to Society (1998)
 * The Corporation under Siege (1998), co-author
 * The Mirth of Nations (2002)
 * Etuniku Joku (2003), co-author
 * The Strange Death of Moral Britain (2004).

Contact Details
Website: http://www.spirs.reading.ac.uk/Sociology/sociobiogs/Davies.html

Positions Held

 * FOREST, advisory council
 * Social Affairs Unit, advisory council
 * Libertarian Alliance, advisory council