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This paper demonstrates the use of a game strategy in a large first year sociology class. Designed in the first instance to facilitate students' understanding of sociological concepts, the strategy also enables teachers to elicit reactions to the process which serve as teaching points about the theory and practice of social research. In this teaching method ideas about theoretical concepts and operational definitions are tackled in a manner which students find meaningful and enjoyable (and therefore memorable). The approach would be suitable for modification to other large group teaching situations.

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The commodification of the religious impulse finds its most overt expression in the New Age movement and its subculture neopaganism. This article examines discourses in the pagan community in an Australian state. Pagans, who have been characterized as individualist, eclectic, and diverse in their beliefs and practices, network through electronic mail discussion lists and chat forums as well as through local and national offline gatherings. We explore community building and boundary defining communications in these discourses. In particular, we examine interactions that reveal the mobilization of pagans' concern with authenticity in the context of late-capitalism, consumer lifestyles, and media representations of the "craft." Our analysis highlights a series of tensions in pagans' representations of and engagement with consumer culture which are evident in everyday pagan discourse. These notions of in/authenticity are captured by invoking the "fluffy bunny" sanction.