In this new feature the Sociological Imagination invites short (2500 word max) contributions reflecting on any aspect of sociological craft. We use the term ‘craft’ in the broad sense conveyed by Richard Sennett: Craftsmanship names an enduring, basic human impulse, the desire to do a… Read More ›
Committing Sociology 
This will be a seminar series in 2013/2014 – watch this space!
Alienated and alienating writing (by alienated and alienating social scientists)
The problem for social scientists is that our jargon, like that of the natural scientists, is heavily biased towards nouns and noun phrases. Our big words are nearly always nouns, such as “re-ethnification”, “mediatisation”, “deindividuation” and all the other “isations”… Read More ›
Public Scholarship and Working With The Media
In this podcast from the LSE Impact Blog’s Social Science in the Public Sphere event, Tim Newburn talks about his involvement in the Reading the Riots project, which involved a collaboration with the Guardian to undertake research into the riots of August 2011 at a… Read More ›
The Sociology of Intellectual Faddishness or, Why it’s unfair to blame everything on Foucault
We’ve hosted an ongoing argument here about the nature of sociology. Having initially been rather rude, Max Parkin offered what I thought was a perfectly reasonable response which I thought I’d reproduce here because, leaving aside the needless unpleasantness, it’s turned into… Read More ›
Art, research and sociology’s promiscuity
I’ve just come back from two days talking, thinking and occasionally getting frustrated by the question of the relationship between art and social research. This is something I’ve been curious about for ages. Here are some reasons why: I think… Read More ›
Sociology – professional or pragmatic?
Once again I came away from the BSA Conference with the message that sociology was in crisis but at the same time at a moment of great opportunity if only it could sort out precisely what it is and what it’s for…. Read More ›
What are you doing tonight? I’m going out to commit some sociology…
In the wake of a foiled terrorist attack in Canada, recent comments have offered a fascinating insight into mindset of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper: Now is not the time to “commit sociology,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday in the wake of a foiled terrorist… Read More ›
Charles Wright Mills’ Sociological Imagination and why we fail to match it today
Charles Wright Mills’ body of work was substantial by any standards but for someone who died at the age of forty-five it was remarkable. The range and substance of Mills’ work is impressive but even more so is its originality,… Read More ›