In this paper in Dialogues in Human Geography, Evelyn Ruppert from Goldsmiths College makes a case for the need to rethink empirical social science in the face of the epistemological and methodological challenge of ‘big data’: While Big Data –… Read More ›
Archive for September 2014
Rebooting Robbins in The Second Machine Age
Review by Patrick Ainley Eric Brynjolfsson & Andrew McAfee (2014) The Second Machine Age, Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies. New York: Norton. Liam Byrne (2014) Robbins Rebooted, How We Earn Our Way in the Second… Read More ›
Book Review: The Sacred Project of American Sociology
Book Review by Bradley Williams To begin, I chose to review this book with no prior knowledge of the author or his academic work, nor about the book’s thesis. I have a general interest in the history of American sociology… Read More ›
The Physics of Productivity: Newton’s Laws of Getting Stuff Done
The Newtonian analogy may vex any physicists reading this but there’s some great productivity advice in this article: Newton’s First Law of Productivity First Law of Motion: An object either remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity,… Read More ›
Rosemary Crompton’s Journey to Sociology
Rosemary Crompton () was a famous British sociologist of work who researched white-collar work, women’s employment, organisational careers and class, cross-national variations in gender relations and related policies and their impacts on employment and family life. Yet, she was – as I… Read More ›
Being a sociologist means never having to be bored
The social theorist Randall Collins offers a lovely account of Sociology’s distinctive worth in this short article from Contemporary Sociology. There’s a PDF of the article available online here: Sociology, like everything else, is a product of particular historical conditions. But… Read More ›
Why are modern pianists so boring?
Why are pianists today so boring? The stilted way they often dress, the seriousness of performance, and even the way the whole pianist community or subculture works, is out of date. Why are pianists no longer the stars of the… Read More ›
The role of metaphors in framing Data Science
This is very interesting. The author argues that “Data carpentry” is “not a single process but a thousand little skills and techniques”. He takes issue with the manner in which other ways of framing this dimension of what data scientists do… Read More ›
Cognitive Triage on Wall Street
# / gettyimages.com What’s it like to be a junior analyst on Wall Street making $70,000 a year in your early 20s? What sort of people are drawn towards this career path? Young Money: Inside the Hidden World of Wall Street’s… Read More ›
The Psychology of Writing
This typically fascinating post on BrainPickings reflects on the psychology of writing and its implications for the notion that a fixed writing routine is most conducive to creativity and productivity. The argument certainly seems plausible yet I remain ambivalent about… Read More ›
British Sociological Association MedSoc Yorkshire Event
Rose Bowl 263, City Campus, Leeds Beckett University (formally Leeds Metropolitan University) 29 October, 2014, 12:00-16:30 The British Sociological Association Medical Sociology group for Yorkshire was launched in February 2014 with an event that brought together researchers from across the… Read More ›
Improving the relationship between academics and journalists
Having spent a lot of time working with journalists, I’m very aware of the difficult questions contrasting world views can pose and the lack of support for negotiating them in many areas of higher education. At various points in the last few years, I’ve… Read More ›
Why does the iPhone matter to us?
My initial impressions of Bernard Stiegler were far from positive, largely ensuing from the sheer incomprehensibility of his writing. However this essay by Mark Featherstone (HT Emma Head) has reminded me why I bought Stiegler’s books in the first place after a… Read More ›
Žižek as a player of paradoxes
Thanks to Colin Wight for pointing out this great analysis of the formulaic tendencies in Žižek’s writing style: Žižek arranges his book like a piece of music with different movements, with chapter subheadings such as “allegro moderato”. This is fitting, because Žižek is something of… Read More ›
The politics of mindfulness
Sceptical about the current fashionableness of mindfulness meditation? So are we. The problem is not mindfulness practice itself but rather the vulgarised form in which it is presented as a panacea to social problems. It strips it of its philosophical… Read More ›
Crisis and Social Change: Towards Alternative Horizons
Cambridge Sociology Conference Crisis and Social Change: Towards Alternative Horizons Friday Sep 26 – Saturday Sep 27 2014 Department of Sociology, Free School Lane Hi everyone, You are all hereby invited to attend the Crisis and Social Change conference next… Read More ›
The weight of economic output
# / gettyimages.com Loathe though I am to say something positive about Alan Greenspan, I’m rather taken with this way of thinking about economic output: Mr. Greenspan, one of the nation’s most astute economic observers, has a rare talent for… Read More ›
How to become a superstar economist
# / gettyimages.com This was an interesting little section in a thought-provoking article about Alan Greenspan’s ambivalent relationship to the economics profession: Step 1 is to attend an elite college, like Harvard (Bernanke), M.I.T. (Summers) or Brown (Yellen), followed by… Read More ›
Trailblazing Sociologist Receives Special Achievement Award: An Interview with Dr. Patricia Leavy
Patricia Leavy, Ph.D. is an independent scholar and novelist (formerly Associate Professor of Sociology, Founding Director of Gender Studies and Chairperson of Sociology & Criminology at Stonehill College). She has published sixteen books including Method Meets Art: Arts-Based Research Practice… Read More ›
How To Keep Your Sociological Imagination Alive
In this podcast recorded for Sociological Imagination, Les Back discusses the craft of sociology with Howard Becker. As anyone familiar with his Art of Listening will realise, Les has long been concerned with the role of attentiveness in the practice… Read More ›
Social Acceleration and Musical Innovation
I just came across a lovely point in Harmut Rosa’s book about the relationship between social change and musical innovation. Certain forms of music come to be seen as emblematic of the age but, as that age changes so too does the sensibility… Read More ›
An introduction to curation tools
For all that digital technology offers the academy, it also presents new problems. The instant availability of information from all over the word poses the inevitable challenge of how to collect, sort, evaluate and share this information. These are tasks… Read More ›
What would happen if an evil scientist wiped the memories of everyone within a workplace?
In a recent paper Tero Piiroinen suggests that “if we all just suddenly lost our memories and other relevant neural dispositions—if no one was able to remember his or her own name, let alone relatives, friends, possessions, occupation, place of residence, and so… Read More ›
Wellcome Trust Symposium and The Curious Museum of Personal Medical Devices
Wellcome Trust Symposium on New Conceptual Approaches to Personal Medical Devices 18th-19th September 2014 Post-doctoral Suite, 16 Mill Lane, University of Cambridge, Cambridge Fuelled by the accelerating pace of technological development and a general shift to personalised, patient-led medicine alongside… Read More ›
Research ‘Ignite’ CFP – Being Human in a Digital Age
The event is aimed at early career researchers in the humanities (who may be also working across disciplinary divides such as in the arts and sciences) whose research connects to the theme of ‘being human in a digital age’. Ignite… Read More ›
You know you’re a sociology student when…
…you think like this!
Hartmut Rosa on Social Acceleration and Time
This video interview is an excellent introduction to the work of Harmut Rosa on Social Acceleration. The music is a mistake given the low quality of the audio but it’s worth persisting with because the material is great. You can… Read More ›
Ecological privilege and the ugly underside of airborne conference-going
by Joseph Nevins Hardly a week seems to pass when an announcement or a “call for papers” for a conference, seminar, or workshop enters my inbox, or I hear a colleague mention a recently undertaken or soon-to-happen trip to some far-flung… Read More ›
Foucault—The Lost Interview
This is a very interesting companion to the well known debate between Chomsky and Foucault. It also has an unintentionally hilarious opening scene with retro music and an action close up on Foucault’s scalp. Unusually for a youtube video there’s… Read More ›
Book Review: A Critical Pedagogy of Resistance: 34 Pedagogues We Need to Know
Those passionate about social justice issues will enjoy reading an edited collection that illuminates the lives and works of the brilliant people who have dedicated their lives to fighting social injustices, and aims to inspire the reader to… Read More ›