This will be a seminar series in 2013/2014 – watch this space!
Four lessons offered by Ann Oakley in her Father and Daughter: Patriarchy, Gender and Social Science. This is a wonderful, thought-provoking and deeply human series of essays on the unfolding of her life in relationship to her father Richard Titmuss, the… Read More ›
A couple of months ago, I decided to put Sociological Imagination on hiatus after a contributing author posted something which left me unwilling to run a group blog without a proper editorial process. Since then I’ve been wondering what, if… Read More ›
In Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest, Zeynep Tufekci discusses the emergence of curatorial journalism and contrasts its function with that of traditional journalism. From pg 41: Traditional journalism tries to solve a problem of scarcity:… Read More ›
What does public sociology have to say about sociologists who are ‘merchants of doubt’? This is the question I’m slightly obsessing over after discovering that Peter Berger, famous for his work on social construction and the sociology of religion, worked… Read More ›
Wednesday, 20th September 2017, Duurham University Keynotes: Professor Peter Fleming (City University London), Dr Ana Cecilia Dinerstein (University of Bath) The way power operates in contemporary societies is changing and critical reflection and action is as relevant now as ever…. Read More ›
by Karen Cooper, Louise Oliver, Mananya Podee & Joanna Thurston (Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Bournemouth University, UK) Supervisor’s Notes: Three postgrad students whom I supervise had varying degrees of difficulties with their Transfer Vivas, and particularly with defending… Read More ›
Earlier this month I co-organised an event exploring how graphic novels can be used to communicate research. My interest in research communication and love of the medium had long left me fascinated by this possibility, something which I began to explore… Read More ›
I’ve always been a big supporter of bursaries to ‘English’ (understood as a transitive verb) the dissertations of students for whom English is a second language. These students often have interesting things to say and deserve to have their ideas… Read More ›
Help us forge UK applied sociology by Nick Fox and Marguerite Regan For the past 18 months, the British Sociological Association (BSA) group Sociologists outside Academia (SOA) has been focusing on the potential for careers working as applied or practical… Read More ›
I thought this was a lovely description on pg 8 of Sherry Turkle’s Reclaiming the Conversation: When things go right, the social scientist’s interview becomes an open, easy exchange. This often happens after trust has been established, when the researcher’s notebook… Read More ›
I serve on the editorial board of several journals. In one such journal, the custom is to circulate all the articles that passed the external review process so that the board can officially give its approval for publication. We get… Read More ›
by Nick Fox and Marguerite Regan For the past 18 months, the British Sociological Association (BSA) group Sociologists outside Academia (SOA) has been focusing on the potential for careers working as applied or practical sociologists, beyond the traditional remits of… Read More ›
At a recent symposium I saw Ben Williamson give an excellent lecture about the rapidly developing field of educational data science and how it is reshaping educational practice. Some of the material is summarised here for those interested. It was a really… Read More ›
by Deborah Talbot Conservative politics are everywhere, but what is it, and what are they really like? In the cities, you don’t notice conservatism. It’s there, for sure, but is pretty quiet about itself. Political parties of a more left… Read More ›
From the Public sociology and the role of the researcher: engagement, communication and academic activism postgraduate conference a couple of weeks ago:
I originally wrote the following in October 2012, just after the European Union was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union makes the most sense when you consider the front-runners, which included Julian… Read More ›
In her wonderful Lower Ed, Tressie Cottom describes how her public profile led to her being in contact with someone who was enormously relevant to her ongoing research. From pg 103: Aaron found me through my public writing and blogging… Read More ›
by Giovanni Picker The Central European University (CEU) is an English-speaking, postgraduate private university in Budapest, Hungary, specialising in the humanities and social sciences. It was established in 1991 by, among others, George Soros, its most important donor. The university… Read More ›
A really interesting discussion here from Patrick Dunleavy: There are also now some very specific and increasingly influential methods for re-aggregating and re-understanding what whole literatures tell us. ‘Systematic review’ is an especially key approach now across the social sciences,… Read More ›
Teach-in on Violence in Universities in India In Solidarity with Delhi University Room 227, Mudd Building, Columbia University Sunday, March 5, 2017 3:00 – 4:30 PM On February 22, the teachers and students of Ramjas College in Delhi University were… Read More ›
by Robert Hollands When I recently mentioned to some friends that I was going to Geneva, Switzerland to conduct some sociological research into alternative cultural spaces, most shook their heads in disbelief. ‘All I think of when I hear the… Read More ›
January seems to bring out the social theorist in me. My last direct contribution to this topic was around this time last year, when a conversation with a graduate student at Warwick inspired me to propose a guide to reading… Read More ›
Well, this is not breaking news. The occupation of the Social Science Faculty of the HU-Berlin started last Wednesday, 18 January, but I only found out about it today. Although I work in an institute which is part of the… Read More ›
The meaning of ‘public sociology’ is not always self-evident and the enthusiasm of the impulse expressed through the term can cloud its meaning yet further. We need to be clear about what we are doing and why. This clarity can… Read More ›
It can seem obvious that there’s some relationship between social media and public sociology. After all, these are platforms which offer free, instantaneous and immediate access to audiences ranging from the tens of millions to the billions. However unpacking the relationship… Read More ›
by Yusef Bakkali Life as an academic can be a lonely and alienating calling at the best of times; lots of time spent inside one’s own head reflecting on a world playing out someplace beyond the indiscernible turrets and bulwarks… Read More ›
There’s a pervasive idea that social critique must be slow, necessitating withdrawl from the world in order to carefully pierce through the veil of appearances. There’s a kernel of truth in this, in so far as that hasty analysis risks… Read More ›
Fidel Castro was one of the political giants of the 20th century. Indeed, he was a ‘Great Man’ of politics. However, the greatness of politicians can be easily lost if we look at their careers from where they end rather… Read More ›
While this phrase summons up images for me of C. Wright Mills in a pirate costume, it’s important to be clear about the sense of ‘pirate’ invoked. As Gary Hall puts it in his Pirate Philosophy, the etymology predates our… Read More ›
Three facts are striking about the US presidential election: Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, though she lost the Electoral College, which decides the presidency. Voter turnout was much lower than initially expected, and this meant that especially Black voters… Read More ›