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 ›
Archive for April 2013
Happiness and young people’s aspirations: freedom or constraint?
It’s strange (and slightly disturbing) to think that I’ve been researching young people’s educational and employment choices and aspirations for over a decade now – from my doctorate, that looked at gender and the choice to study maths, to this… Read More ›
The Rorty Discussion with Donald Davidson
In these videos two of the most influential American philosophers of the 20th century, Richard Rorty and Donald Davidson, discuss a range of pressing philosophical issues. One particularly interesting thing about this dialogue is how clearly it shows the degree… Read More ›
Valuing the BBC: A half day seminar at City University London, May 9th
City University London presents a half day seminar exploring the public value of the BBC. The seminar offers a range of perspectives on the BBC’s role in public life, discussing the BBC Trust, science reporting, research with the BBC and… Read More ›
Professor Steven Rose ‘Can Neuroscience Explain the Mind’
If you enjoyed this lecture then you’ll love the dialogue between Steven Rose and Richard Dawkins here.
Interested in Asexuality Studies? Everything you need to get started contained within
This is the outline for the special theme issue of Psychology & Sexuality which I edited with Kristina Gupta and Todd Morrison. It was published in March 2013. The editorial and the ‘virtual discussion’ are open access (i.e. freely available… Read More ›
The legacy of deindustrialisation has shaped the meaning of the urban landscape for young people in the West Midlands
This post by Anton Popov and Martin Price is based on the first full report of the MYPLACE project, whose work we have regularly featured on Sociological Imagination. For more information on the MYPLACE project, visit the project’s website HERE or the project’s blog HERE. You can… Read More ›
The best infographic ever? A briefing on intersectionality
A rather lovely infographic via Stavvers: Miriam Dobson has made this brilliant little infographic on intersectionality. Description beneath the image. If you liked it, you can find Miriam’s work here. Description: This is an infographic featuring text and descriptions TITLE:… Read More ›
Critical realism, interdisciplinarity and well-being
In the Social Theory & Health 2012 Annual Lecture Roy Bhaskar, founder of Critical Realism, gave a lecture on ‘Critical realism, interdisciplinarity and well-being’. Use the link below to access the podcast of the lecture: STH 2012 Annual Lecture: Roy Bhaskar While… Read More ›
CfParticipation: Summer Clinic Sociological Agency | 9 July – 8 August 2013 | LSBU
Call for Participation SUMMER CLINIC ON SOCIOLOGICAL AGENCY 9 JULY – 8 AUGUST 2013 LONDON SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY In we participated in an interdisciplinary reading group on the concept of agency at the University of Manchester. Out of this… Read More ›
Faulty practice in [insert name of science]
A fellow Ukrainian sociologist drew my attention to a recent article written by a Polish ornitologist. Tomasz Wesołowski works at the Laboratory of Forest Biology, Wrocław University and has nothing to do with sociology. However, he tackles an issue that threatens to undermine… Read More ›
If we want to understand digital dualism properly, we need to abandon the concept of ‘digital dualism’
In a recent post Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows, offered a really interesting critique of what has become an increasingly influential idea within the sociological blogosphere: digital dualism. He begins with what is probably the clearest summary of digital dualism I… Read More ›
New column! “Visual Sociology” call for reader submissions
For all professional and/or novice visual researchers out there: the Sociological Imagination is pleased to announce its new column dedicated to “Visual Research”. To celebrate its beginning, we are launching a continuous call for reader submissions. The call is open to all our… Read More ›
Where Do Neoliberals Go After the Market? Calculation, Computation and Crisis
Where Do Neoliberals Go After the Market? Calculation, computation and crisis A one-day conference organised by Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies, University of Warwick13th June 2013 10am-6.30pm Room S0.21 Neoliberalism is commonly identified as a belief in the self-regulating powers of markets,… Read More ›
Transformational
Illustration 1: “Transformational” Owton, 2012, Charcoal, 297x420mm, 130gsm, white cartridge paper Cross country; years and years running, Huuuuuge amounts of training, Puzzled; getting nowhere… slower and slower, Not occurring that I had undiagnosed asthma. Germany, in the street collapsed, Running… Read More ›
In defence of being alone
Via Meg Barker. If you like this one, you should also check this out. Andrea Dorfman and Tanya Davis are wonderful.
In retrospect it was never very likely I’d finish my PhD during a daily commute
Some thoughts prepared for the Sociologists Outside of Academia panel discussion at #BritSoc13 I felt slightly nervous about this panel prior to it because of the change that I’d undergone inbetween originally being invited and the actual BSA conference itself…. Read More ›
#britsoc13: BSA 2013 Review: Highlights, Lowlights, and Issues
From Weds 3 – Fri 6 last week the British Sociological Association Conference 2013 took place in the Grand Connaught Rooms in central London. It was my second BSA conference after last year in Leeds, and my first post-PhD, post-getting-a-Lectureship conference full-stop…. Read More ›
#britsoc13 : We do teach y’know
In one of Chomsky’s later books, I think it’s Failed States but I may have got that wrong, he includes a two page conclusion in which he starts ‘Some people accuse me of never providing solutions or recommendations…’ and proceeds to set… Read More ›
Astonishing Spoken Word Poem on Immigration
HT Liberal Conspiracy. Find out more about the slam poet on her website and her Twitter account.
Love
Dr Helen Owton is a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Northampton
While My Guitar Gently Types
Tired of typing emails, crouched over a keyboard? David Neevel’s new invention will resonate with you. It is an electric guitar which can type! This isn’t sociology, but it sure is imagination, of the highest rank. We at SI hope… Read More ›
Ring the alarm! The sound of crisis: from ‘language games’ to… ‘politricks’
(…continuing from last month’s post) I To suggest that language may appear as a problem for a country that is teetering on the edge of financial, moral and political collapse, could be easily mistaken for virtually inviting a debt-ridden population… Read More ›
#Britsoc13 and Sociology’s problem of shortsightedness
Two years ago in April it was a beautifully warm and sunny Spring. I was wearing sunglasses and sandals as I lazed in the sun on the grass in the LSE campus at my first attendance to the British Sociological conference. Back… Read More ›
Can academics manage without Twitter?
Following David Hill’s post about joining Twitter, I’ve been thinking again about joining Twitter. A few months I posted about Twitter. In that post I spoke about my concerns of constant connection and the work it seemed to require, amongst other things. I’m not… Read More ›
Visualising #BritSoc13 – some geeky post conference procrastination
create infographics with visual.ly
Every minute of every day: an experiment in real time research and digitally inscribed ethnography
Every minute of every day is a collaborative experiment in real-time ethnography between Goldsmiths College and Richard House Children’s Hospice (Newham) http://richardhouse.org.uk/about and St Joseph’s Hospice (Hackney)http://www.stjh.org.uk/About-stjosephshospice. The aim of our project is to capture something of the local areas and communities that… Read More ›