This post is written largely as a reflection on our times. Yesterday I had the honour of addressing the European Society for the Philosophy of Religion in a plenary session. I was glad to learn that one can believe in… Read More ›
Archive for August 2014
The Doorways Project
A couple of months the Idle Ethnographer wrote about the war on public space unfolding across Europe. However recognising this trend leaves us with the obvious question of who is being excluded from this space and how do they see it? This… Read More ›
The Life of the Mind Behind Bars
A few weeks ago we hosted an open letter by Les Back to the UK Justice Secretary Chris Grayling. In this podcast he talks to Simon Williams, a Goldsmiths student Les corresponded with during the student’s time in prison: Les… Read More ›
Escher Girls: bodies don’t work that way….
This great Tumblr blog collates and critiques the frequently absurd representations of women in comics. This is an issue which seems to have come to new-found prominence partly through social media, with the much shared Avengers graphic below only the… Read More ›
Social Theory as Optometry
The notion of philosophical under-labouring has been integral to the development of critical realism. It is, as Roy Bhaskar puts it, what critical realist philosophy most characteristically does. The metaphor comes from John Locke but it is deployed in a way that criticises Locke’s philosophical… Read More ›
Book Review: The Sacred Project of American Sociology
I approached this book with a certain degree of ambivalence, curious as to the hostility one of my favourite sociologists has seemingly provoked in many of its readers. As someone fascinated by the sociology of sociology, it was exciting to hear that… Read More ›
Computers and Intellectual Craftsmanship
by Jim Kemeny I still remember the large number of personnel needed to input and analyse data in the 1950s: “Computers were giant mechanical assemblages, big enough to take up an entire warehouse, programmed in advance with punch cards. In… Read More ›
The USA’s main Arab ally Saudi Arabia has created a monster in Isis
For anyone confused by the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and keen to learn more about the origins of the group, this short essay on Organised Rage is a good place to start: The jihadists of IS… Read More ›
Creative Methods in Gender, Sex and Relating
This upcoming event at Coventry University looks great. It’s the latest instalment in a series so I think there will be more to come even if you can’t make this one. Following on from the amazing Creative Methods in Gender,… Read More ›
CfP: The Sociological Craft Project
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 ›
The need for a sociology of thinking
How much time do you spend talking to yourself? If you put the question this way, it often makes people uncomfortable. An alternative phrasing: how much time do you spend engaged in “directed conscious thought”? This is what Tim Wilson… Read More ›
Rob Kitchin on critical data studies
An interesting presentation and video from Rob Kitchin. There’s an excellent paper developing these arguments online here. More here. Critical data studies from robkitchin
Book Review: The People, The Rise and Fall of the Working Class
by Patrick Ainley When Eric Hobsbawm asked in 1978 whether the forward march of labour had halted, he was calling attention to a possible political reversal, not bidding Farewell to the Working Class as Andre Gorz did two years later. More… Read More ›
The artistic opportunities afforded by self-tracking technology
A lot of work went into these – running drawing. (HT Kirsty Lohman) Another long run completed. Photograph: Running Drawing/Claire Wyckoff
What will neo-neoliberal ideology look like?
Do you remember compassionate conservatism? It seemed vacuous when promulgated by George Bush pre-9/11 and even more so when David Cameron was going through his ‘hug a husky’ phase pre-crisis. It still seems vacuous now, at the point of its purported resurgence, though… Read More ›
In Defence of Obama’s Handling of Ferguson
I have been struck by the on-line antagonism to US President Obama’s relatively muted response to the civil unrest in Ferguson, a suburb of St Louis, Missouri, which followed the shooting of a black youth by a white police officer…. Read More ›
Self-tracking and social control: what would techno-fascism look like?
Earlier this week I finally bought the Jawbone Up24 after weeks of deliberation. I’d got bored with the Nike Fuel Band, losing interest in the opaque ‘fuel points’ measurement and increasingly finding it to be an unwelcome presence on my wrist…. Read More ›
The Philosophy of Data Science
This is a series of interviews I’m conducting for the LSE Impact blog: Rob Kitchin: “Big data should complement small data, not replace them.” In this first interview, Rob Kitchin elaborates on the specific characteristics of big data, the hype… Read More ›
Call for contributions: An Alternative History of Sociology
This open and web based project aims to contribute to a rethinking of the sociological canon and debates about the past and future of the discipline. Would you like to contribute to An Alternative History of Sociology? There’s more information here about the project and its… Read More ›
An introduction to blogging and twitter for social researchers
Given the increasing pressure to demonstrate the impact of social research, it is inevitable that researchers are looking towards the opportunities offered by social media. This one day course offers an accessible introduction to the use of blogging and twitter,… Read More ›
Big Data and the Future of the Social Sciences
In this podcast, Professor Patrick Dunleavy talks about how big data will affect the future of the social sciences. Say goodbye to academic siloes as we enter into a new age of cross/multi/and inter-disciplinary research. In this changing landscape, the old boundaries… Read More ›
Call for contributions: An Alternative History of Sociology
This open and web based project aims to contribute to a rethinking of the sociological canon and debates about the past and future of the discipline. Would you like to contribute to An Alternative History of Sociology? There’s more information here about the project and its… Read More ›
A Conversation with Benjamin Zephaniah on Britishness
In January 2014, I interviewed the writer and Professor of Poetry and Creative Writing Benjamin Zephaniah about his thoughts on British identity and belonging to Britain. I began by informing him of my research on students’ perceptions of Britishness. My… Read More ›
Using Archives to Teach Gender
The University of Warwick’s Maria do Mar and colleagues from the University of Leeds have put together this great resource on using archives to teach gender. It includes an extensive collection of artefacts and documents relating to gender, as well as… Read More ›
Towards a More Honest Neo-Liberalism
I recently had dinner with a close friend at the Strada restaurant in Cheltenham Spa. The dinner was fine, as was the waitress. At the end of the meal, the waitress presented me with the bill and then directed my… Read More ›
The Bullshit Machine
The digital management guru Umair Haque seems to be having something of a nihilistic turn. At least until you get to the end of this essay, posted on his medium blog, which somewhat undermines the effect of a piece of writing I actually rather… Read More ›
Weirdly ethnomethodological magic tricks with dogs
These are very amusing and very cute but does anyone else find the bewilderment of the animals utterly fascinating? I find it hard not to read these as almost akin to a breaching experiment – the dog reveals its understanding of how the… Read More ›
Bloggers blogging about blogging
An interesting post on patter’s site reflects upon the tendency of bloggers to blog about blogging. This is something I do a lot and I’m not alone in this. Why is it so common? A useful answer to that question… Read More ›