This insightful reflection on academic strikebreaking captures something very important about the contemporary politics of higher education: The disavowal at work here is stunning in its mundanity, the fact that it went unremarked as it was stated. ‘The union should adopt different… Read More ›
Archive for December 2013
The Sociology of Awkwardness
What is awkwardness? It’s something we recognise. It’s something which is everywhere. Yet when we do think about it, it’s often seen as something trivial and mundane, representing an interruption of decorum or a warp in the texture of micro-social interaction. It’s… Read More ›
There are no Digital Humanities
Thanks to Daniel Allington for linking to this fascinating piece by Gary Hall: While ideas of this kind appear just that little bit too neat and symmetrical to be entirely convincing, this so-called ‘scientific turn’ in the humanities has been attributed by some to… Read More ›
Nikolas Rose: What is Mental Illness Today? Five Hard Questions
Professor Rose is one of our leading contemporary social scientists. Currently he is Professor of Sociology and Head of the Department of Social Science, Health and Medicine at King’s College, London. In the talk, Professor Rose characterises the ‘territory’ of… Read More ›
Digital Sociology Down Under
In November, the 2013 annual conference of The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) was the first conference in Australia to host streams on digital sociology. It was the Associations’ 50 year anniversary and simultaneously the inauguration of digital sociology down under…. Read More ›
Digital Sociology at #BritSoc14
Plenary: The Social Life of Digital Methods Deborah Lupton, Evelyn Ruppert, Noortje Marres, Mike Savage and Emma Uprichard Friday 25 April :30-15:00 As an inaugural conference session for the BSA Digital Sociology study group, we propose a round table… Read More ›
Our Most Popular Posts of 2013
In the absence of anything else we can think of to post on christmas day, here’s our most popular posts of the year: Charles Wright Mills’ Sociological Imagination and why we fail to match it today 36 reasons why you… Read More ›
CfP: Digital Sociology PhD/ECR Workshop
Are you a PhD student or Early Career Researcher doing work in digital sociology? The BSA Digital Sociology Group has organised a PhD/ECR Workshop where a limited number of participants can get feedback on their work from peers and established… Read More ›
CfP: An Invitation to Digital Public Sociology
What does ‘public sociology’ entail in a world of facebook, twitter, youtube, slideshare, soundcloud, pinterest and wordpress? What affordances and constraints do these tools entail for the task of “taking knowledge back to those from whom it came, making public issues out… Read More ›
The Self-Talk of Intellectuals
With regard to self-concept, my claim in the Rorty book is certainly not that, as sociologists of ideas, we should somehow let intellectuals tell their own stories. As I’ve noted above, the accounts intellectuals give of their own lives are… Read More ›
Research as Fiction: “The Return of Rufus Stone” by Kip Jones
A four-year research project at Bournemouth University, “Gay and Pleasant Land?—a study about positioning, ageing and gay life in rural South West England and Wales”, took place as part of the Research Councils UK-funded New Dynamics of Ageing Programme on… Read More ›
Racial Pornographics: A Special Issue of Porn Studies
Racial Pornographics: A Special Issue of Porn Studies Edited by Mireille Miller-Young, PhD Associate Professor of Feminist Studies, UC Santa Barbara Contact: This special issue of Porn Studies will promote a discussion about race in the study of pornography. Race… Read More ›
BSA Early Career Theorists Symposium – Call for Abstracts
BSA: Early Career Theorists’ Symposium 6th June, 2014, held at the London School of Economics Call for Abstracts The Early Career Theorists’ Symposium is a special one-day symposium for up-and-coming theorists, organized on behalf of the British Sociological Association’s Theory Study Group…. Read More ›
Re-thinking research repertoires: foregrounding sound
On the final afternoon of an intense, three day sociology conference for the NYLON research network (PhD students and faculty from New York, Berlin and London), the two authors ran a workshop on sound and listening. This was something of… Read More ›
Call for Guest Editors: Developments In Teaching Social Research Methods
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY CALL FOR GUEST EDITOR/S PROPOSAL FOR SPECIAL ISSUE ON DEVELOPMENTS IN TEACHING SOCIAL RESEARCH METHODS There have been a number of recent initiatives in teaching social research methods, both quantitative and qualitative. In part… Read More ›
The sociology of the quiet zone: norms and public transport
An interesting story went viral earlier this month which has left me thinking about the issue of normativity for the first time in a while. I have no way to know the accuracy of the reports but that’s irrelevant. If it turns… Read More ›
‘Patent Trolls’, Intellectual Property and Technological Innovation
Over the summer the BBC website had an interesting feature looking at the ‘patent trolls’ who proactively buy patents with the sole intention of suing people for their infringement. The introduction of these ‘non-practicing entities’ into the patent system is something novel,… Read More ›
The Sociology of Thinking
Richard Swedberg begins his paper Thinking and Sociology by recognising that there may be “good reasons” why these two things are rarely discussed together. Though “all of us think” and “we all know the intensely private character of our thoughts”, these thoughts… Read More ›
CfP: Quantified Self Research Network, March 25th @SocioWarwick
The next meeting of the Quantified Self Research Network will take place on the 25th March at the University of Warwick from 1pm to 6pm. It’s an informal seminar to present work in progress and is open to all. If you would like to… Read More ›
Modern-Day Hermits: The Story Hikkomori in Japan and Beyond
Japan struggles with young people who have retreated into their bedrooms. Known as “hikikomori,” they are modern-day hermits who disdain social contact and are unable to work or go to school. Dr. Alan Teo reviews this epidemic of social isolation.
An invitation to punk sociology
I seem to recall dreaming up the notion of punk sociology at some point during my PhD, I think it was around 10 years ago. When I think back I imagine, rather melodramatically, that it came to me whilst I… Read More ›
“Wait, what? You have a PhD and you work where?!?”
I always find it interesting to find out about people who pursue careers outside the academy after completing a PhD. Org Theory has a new guest blogger who has done precisely this and whose first post describes the kind of… Read More ›
A Necessary Disenchantment: myth, agency and injustice in the digital age
This lecture by Nick Couldry, who we interviewed here about neoliberalism, offers a really plausible contextualisation of ‘big data’ in terms of a shifting history of ‘media myths’. Professor Couldry challenges some ‘digital age’ myths about how we gather on… Read More ›
CfP: Digital Sociology PhD/ECR Workshop
Are you a PhD student or Early Career Researcher doing work in digital sociology? The BSA Digital Sociology Group has organised a PhD/ECR Workshop where a limited number of participants can get feedback on their work from peers and established academics in… Read More ›
CfP: An Invitation to Digital Public Sociology
What does ‘public sociology’ entail in a world of facebook, twitter, youtube, slideshare, soundcloud, pinterest and wordpress? What affordances and constraints do these tools entail for the task of “taking knowledge back to those from whom it came, making public issues out… Read More ›
Judith Butler and Cornel West, Honoring Edward Said
On the Tenth Anniversary of Edward Said’s passing, renowned scholars Judith Butler and Cornell West discuss what it means to be a public intellectual and Edward Said’s impact on the academic discourse of Palestine. (HT BSA Theory)
CfP: Social and Political Critique in the Age of Austerity
Social and Political Critique in the Age of Austerity A one day workshop at Keele University 10.30am-6pm, Wednesday 12th February, 2014 This one day workshop is devoted to the discussion of critical politics in the contemporary age of austerity. Following… Read More ›
two big hassles in editing a book, and what you can do about them
My first post last week suggested that there were three good reasons to consider editing a book. This post focuses on the necessities of book editing. I’m writing about two big problems, not because I think that they should be enough… Read More ›
CfP: Sociologies of Everyday Life
Deadline for submissions: 31 August 2014 We are pleased to invite papers for consideration in the Sociology Editor’s Special Issue in 2015. The theme will be the Sociologies of Everyday Life. Everyday life sociology is a well-established tradition in the discipline and… Read More ›