The first thing to ask whenever Facebook (or indeed any other business) releases a new product or service is what’s in it for them. In the case of Facebook’s new ‘Graph Search’, as in most things Facebook, the answer’s pretty… Read More ›
Archive for January 2013
What gender equality? Family and careers in high-skill jobs
Let’s take the example of historians. How equal are their career paths of women and men historians, our fellow social scientists (humanities scholars)? According to Alexis Coe, writer and journalist based in San Francisco, being married helps professors, but only… Read More ›
Immigration in the UK
The survey shown in the above picture shows that a large percentage of the British population is worried about immigrants coming into the country. But is it really that much of a problem? Read about the multicultural success of Slough… Read More ›
Sociology of … outer space?
I started this post as a one-sentence note about a future field called “sociology of space”. The idea came while I was reading this BBC article on some of the problems encountered the crew of a spaceship going to Mars. The article… Read More ›
Academic blogging – both/and rather than either/or
How do you feel about academic blogging? If you are reading this then, chances are, you feel reasonably well inclined towards it. However if you are an academic blogger then you will undoubtedly be aware that many people are not so well… Read More ›
The Politics of Football
“The Politics of Football” on Bundlr
The internet of things
The Internet of Things (says Wikipedia) is a concept which describes “a system of uniquely identifiable objects (things) and their virtual representations in an Internet-like structure”. The term was coined by Adam Baumgarten in 1999. But how can it be made real? Here is a video… Read More ›
How does scientific advice work in government? How SHOULD it work?
Geoff Mulgan: Future directions for scientific advice in Whitehall from Nesta UK on Vimeo.
The sociology of intimate tourism: Paula Bialski
Have you even been couchsurfing? Met new friends whilst travelling? Used a travel-share website? Sleeping on a friend’s – or acquaintance’s – floor while visiting a new place? If you’ve done it, chances are, a sociologist somewhere has studied it… Read More ›
Rethinking sociological craft in an age of austerity – an interview with Les Back
In this interview I talk to Les Back about the opportunities for sociology in a time of crisis. He argues that there has never been a greater opportunity to rethink the craft of sociology than there is at present. He’ll be speaking… Read More ›
Digital Sociologist #2: Les Back from @SociologyGold
In this podcast Mark Carrigan talks to Les Back from Goldsmiths about his Academic Diary project. So what is the Academic Diary? How did the idea for the project come about? What did the process of crafting it entail? Was the experience… Read More ›
Making the familiar strange
In this video, Dalton Conley discusses the C.W.Mills’ idea that a successful sociologist makes the familiar strange.
What is Digital Sociology?
Though it is a hugely exciting trend, the growth of digital research methods risks becoming a narrow specialism. It is crucial that we don’t fall into the digital dualist trap of assuming that ‘online’ and ‘offline’ constitute distinct realities, as doing so… Read More ›
Social Theory Postgrad Seminars @SocioWarwick
The Social Theory Centre Postgraduate Seminars will take place in the odd weeks of the second term of in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick. This series is particularly designed for postgraduate students interested in all aspects… Read More ›
Interested in Digital Sociology?
The British Sociological Association’s new Digital Sociology group aims: To identify and disseminate best practice in the use of digital tools by sociologists. To develop and promote specifically sociological modes of inquiry into digital media use. To develop and promote… Read More ›
Digital Sociologist #1: @ProfSteveFuller
In the first of this series for the BSA Digital Sociology group, Steve Fuller (Auguste Comte Chair in Social Epistemology at the University of Warwick) talks about his experience of using Twitter. If you have ideas of how profile sociologists… Read More ›
How to write articles and essays
Essay writing time? Journal article due for submission? In this article in his “Half an Hour” blog, Stephen Downes gives excellent advice on quick and efficient writing. Needless to say, each essay is different, as are the styles of writing in… Read More ›
Susan Cain: The power of introverts
If you enjoy her talk, you’ll LOVE her book. We certainly did.
Sociological Imagination and UK Riots
“Sociological Imagination and UK Riots” on Bundlr
Reading the Riots
In this podcast, recorded for the LSE Impact project, I spoke to Tim Newburn from LSE about the Reading the Riots project. This was a rather astonishing collaboration he undertook with the Guardian newspaper, carrying out a large scale research project into the… Read More ›
No one wants to know how… science is made
Two days ago, a postdoctoral researcher in neuroscience who tweets as dr leigh, started a new hashtag: #overlyhonestscience. The result? A mountain of somewhat tongue-in-cheek confessions by researchers whose methodology didn’t work out quite as planned. Read a selection here… and… Read More ›
Why do people believe what they believe?
I’ve always been fascinated by the question of why people hold the political beliefs they do. In part this is because of how badly most people handle this question. From across the political spectrum, there is a pervasive tendency to explain away the… Read More ›
How do I teach policy analysis?
One thing I write with reasonable regularity on student essay feedback is “don’t just describe,analyse”. This applies most often to work addressing a particular sociological theory, set of literature, or policy area. With this in mind, I put together the… Read More ›
Academia 2.0
“Academia 2.0” on Bundlr
Follow SI on Facebook and Twitter
This is a reminder that the Sociological Imagination has a presence on facebook. Please do add us as a friend and feel free to get in contact. We’re always open to ideas and suggestions so please don’t hesitate if there’s… Read More ›
Visualising deβt
Ever wondered how much money Greece owes, and who lent the money? Here is a helpful visualisation.
Academic integrity for the new year
Happy New Year 2013 to all of our readers! Thanks for stopping by to read and comment. We hope to continue being fun and useful to you in this new year! We thought we should start the year by mentioning… Read More ›