The notion of the “sharing economy” is entering popular circulation in a way that would have seemed extremely unlikely only a year or two ago. Yet what is it? Is this really ‘sharing’? Is this capitalism creating the basis for… Read More ›
Archive for July 2014
OkCupid, social media and the ethics of data science
Not long after a scandal erupted over Facebook’s report on the experiment they conducted on users of the service, leading to an apology about how the study was communicated, the dating website OkCupid has waded into the debate with an… Read More ›
Cfp: Mini Conference on Digital Sociology
MINI-CONFERENCE ON DIGITAL SOCIOLOGY CALL FOR ABSTRACTS Eastern Sociological Society New York City February 26-March 1, 2015 Millennium Broadway Hotel In keeping with the Eastern Sociological Society’s theme of “Crossing Borders”, the Digital Sociology Mini-Conference seeks papers that address the… Read More ›
Qualitative self-tracking and the Qualified Self
The idea of “qualitative self-tracking” is one that I’ve mentioned on my blog before. It’s a term in which I think but it’s also one that I’m aware of being unclear about exactly what I mean by it. Searching google… Read More ›
Not the Nine O’Clock News: Where do you get your News from?
Beyond the BBC: Social Media Sharing News Stories on Palestine News items shared by those we follow on social media sites will perhaps be our first point of contact with breaking news items. Many of us no longer sit… Read More ›
The meaninglessness of the Myers-Briggs test
There’s a great article on Vox discussing the massive limitations of the Myers-Briggs personality test. You can read it in full here. What fascinates me is why it enjoys the popularity it does in spite of these limitations. Part of… Read More ›
Four extremely interesting digital sociology postdoc opportunities at Goldsmiths
Working with Evelyn Ruppert: Job Title: Postdoctoral Researchers Salary: £36,009 (min) – £40,161 max incl. LW Full time (1.0 FTE) Fixed-Term from 1 November 2014 until 31 October 2017 Goldsmiths College, New Cross, London We are seeking to appoint four… Read More ›
Multicultural Britain: Conviviality
Multicultural Britain: Conviviality #ShareRamadan with Neighbours, Colleagues and Friends The political pessimism about multiculturalism is evident in announcements of its death that keep on coming nearly a decade after Gilroy (2005:1) put forth who was to blame: “the murderous culprits… Read More ›
James Baldwin vs William Buckley
Thanks to The New Inquiry for the link to this video in which James Baldwin and William Buckley debate whether “The American Dream is at the Expense of the American Negro”: Brought together by the Cambridge Union Society at Cambridge University in 1965,… Read More ›
Warwick University Limited: Lessons from 1970 and the higher education sector today
This recent conference at the University of Warwick took its name from Warwick University LTD, a scathing critique of the institution by the renowned historian E.P. Thompson. The videos and other material from the event are now available on the… Read More ›
The politics of facebook
This post by Zeynep Tufekci on her Medium site is the best thing I’ve read yet about the recent facebook controversy. I’m struck by how this kind of power can be seen as no big deal. Large corporations exist to sell us things, and… Read More ›
Maya Angelou’s Letter to Her Younger Self
This wonderful letter by Maya Angelou was featured on Brainpickings recently. It was a contribution to a 2006 anthology, What I Know Now: Letters to My Younger Self, in which forty-one famous women wrote letters back in time to their former selves. The… Read More ›
What sociologists actually do and what social theorists think they should do
There’s a great post on Daniel Little’s blog which uses a critique of analytical sociology and critical realism to explore a premise which he argues they both share: ontology dictates methodology. As he frames the issue: Both groups have strong (and conflicting) ideas… Read More ›
Two upcoming quantified self special issues
Sensor Informatics and Quantified Self Deadline: 18 December 2014 Preventing disease through promotion of healthy lifestyle choice is a potentially cost-effective approach to modern healthcare challenges. Choices such as diet, physical activity, sleep, smoking and alcohol, have all been associated with… Read More ›
Sociologies of Everyday Life – Still Time to Submit Your Paper
Sociology A journal of the British Sociological Association Sociologies of Everyday Life Special Issue Call for Papers Deadline for submissions: 31 August 2014 Everyday life sociology is a well-established tradition in the discipline and interest in ways of understanding day-to-day worlds… Read More ›
Getting inside people’s frames: reflexivity and cultural sociology
In recent months I’ve been slowly working through some of Jeffrey Alexander’s work. I’m interested in what cultural sociology has to offer as I begin to try and extend my PhD research on internal conversation & biography into my planned post-doctoral work… Read More ›
10 ways to promote your university that don’t involve viral videos
I don’t like ‘viral videos’. I like many videos that have gone viral. But the notion of producing ‘viral videos’, with a deliberate strategy to engender virality, irritates me – it entrenches commodification of internet culture, often involves trying so hard… Read More ›
The next phase of post-democracy? Political disagreement becoming personal prejudice
I listened to a fascinatingly crap podcast while in the gym earlier – Robin Aitken, introduced solely as a ‘Tory supporter’ but last seen complaining about institutional discrimination against conservatives during his career at the BBC, has produced an episode of Analysis on Radio… Read More ›
Bev Skeggs discusses the contemporary sociological imagination with Les Back
In this lovely dialogue hosted on the Goldsmiths website, thanks to Dave Beer for flagging it up, Bev Skeggs discusses the contemporary sociological imagination with Les Back. To begin they discuss discomfort and dislocation as an integral aspect of the sociological… Read More ›
Would you like to write for Discover Society?
Discover Society is a free online magazine featuring articles on social research, policy analysis and commentary. It is supported by Policy Press and endorsed by the British Sociological Association and the Social Policy Association. We publish short (1500 word) research-based articles on a variety of topics…. Read More ›
A Conversation with Sudhir Venkatesh
In this videocast Sudhir Venkatesh, well known for his authorship of Gang Leader for a Day, discusses his experience of being invited to work with the FBI as a roving advisor on issues related to gang related crime. He describes how… Read More ›
The Invisible Orientation: An Introduction to Asexuality
In the last few years my interest in asexuality has shifted from a concern with the experience of asexual people to a preoccupation with why those who aren’t asexual find it as confusing as they do. This can seem to… Read More ›
Six principles for organising academic conferences in the 21st century
by Steve Fuller After my recent keynote at the 2014 meeting of the British Sociological Association, I was interviewed about my views on the conference. Perhaps somewhat unexpectedly, I said that a large professional conference such as this one is… Read More ›
Writing and your imagined audience
Do you imagine an audience when you write? I’ve become aware recently of how rarely I do this. The main reason for this has been the jarring experience of finding myself overly conscious about the particular audience I happen to… Read More ›
Accessible Books on Social Theory
The following two books are extremely useful for those embarking on a social theory journey and getting to know social theorists. The books would suit undergraduate students in fields such as Sociology and Politics, as well as postgraduate students who… Read More ›
The World Cup in Brazil and the Political Economy of Mega Events
This fascinating discussion offers a penetrating critique of the politics of the world cup, reflecting on the ‘echoes of dictatorship’ that can be seen in the implementation of such a mega event within a country that has only been a… Read More ›
An Alternative History of Sociological Thought
This idea occurred to me earlier today when I read this great article on Harriet Martineau for a second time. I’d first heard of Martineau through a conversation on twitter, ultimately leading to this proposal by Steve Fuller. The longer… Read More ›
Normcore and the Anxieties of Big Data
This essay by Kate Crawford (from Microsoft Research) at the New Inquiry explores the relationship between big data, the anxieties it provokes and normcore (“Having mastered difference, the truly cool attempt to master sameness”). If one accepts her contention that normcore reflects “the dispersed anxiety of… Read More ›
Would you like to write for Discover Society?
Discover Society is a free online magazine featuring articles on social research, policy analysis and commentary. It is supported by Policy Press and endorsed by the British Sociological Association and the Social Policy Association. We publish short (1500 word) research-based articles on a variety of topics…. Read More ›