Chocolate comes from cocoa beans, and about 70% of coco beans come from Ghana and the Ivory Coast in Africa. Coco bean plantations where it is grown and harvested have historically relied on child, slave labor to harvest those coco… Read More ›
Archive for October 2014
Human/animal cognition and the attribution of causal powers
Walking home in the rain earlier today, I encountered a very fluffy and very wet cat sitting unhappily outside someone’s front door. Upon getting my attention, the cat insistently tried to lead me towards the front door in the hope… Read More ›
Graham Scambler on an interdisciplinary approach to the ‘structuring of agency’ – November 11th @SocioWarwick
In the third Centre for Social Ontology seminar of 2014/15, Graham Scambler (Emeritus Professor of Medical Sociology at UCL) discusses reflexivity and an interdisciplinary approach to the ‘structuring of agency’: Margaret Archer’s recent contributions to our understanding of reflexivity in late capitalist society provide… Read More ›
Between interaction and intra-action
The notion of ‘interaction’ is well understood. Interactions are part of our everyday life. Sometimes these interactions leave us thinking about them afterwards (“what did he mean when he said that?”, “why is she always like that?” etc) and sometimes… Read More ›
Grayson Perry and The Ashford Hijab: White, Female & Muslim
#GraysonPerry Ashford Hijab by Grayson Perry Via @AnthonyDBowen pic.twitter.com/WZb1gkbQjQ — Education Researcher (@educ_research) October 27, 2014 In October 2006, I interviewed a White British female Year 11 student who had researched Islam for eight months and then decided to convert… Read More ›
Preview of Book: Identity, Neoliberalism and Aspiration – Educating White Working-class Boys
The issues surrounding boys ‘underachievement’ and raising standards have been at the centre of public debate in education over the last two decades. As part of the Routledge Research in Educational Equality and Diversity series, Identity, Neoliberalism and Aspiration: Educating… Read More ›
CfP: On the Politics of Ugliness
Anthology — Call for Submissions – On the Politics of Ugliness – deadline 15 January 2015 Ugliness is a pejorative marker for bodies, things, and feelings that fall beyond or outside the limits of acceptability. Ugliness has long been indirectly deployed… Read More ›
The unavoidability of sociological theory
There’s an important way in which sociological theory is unavoidable. I mean this in the sense in which Alexander describes the problems of action and order as non-optional: “every theory takes some position on both” (Alexander 1987: 12). This is an… Read More ›
The Mobile Apps in Research Summit 2014
On December 4th 2014 The University of Birmingham will be hosting the second Mobile Apps in Research Summit. We are excited to announce that delegate registration is now open. This year’s Summit includes some discussion-based workshop sessions, by popular demand,… Read More ›
Call for Papers: Feminism, Activism, Education
Call for Papers If not now, when? Feminism in contemporary activist, social and educational contexts Political and socio-economic developments in recent years have created new opportunities and new battlegrounds for feminism, with women taking to the streets and demonstrating against… Read More ›
Four concepts of social structure
The concept of ‘social structure’ is central to sociological inquiry yet there is little agreement about what it means. This matters because social explanation hinges on what we take ‘structure’ to be and a lack of ubiquity about the term… Read More ›
Emma Uprichard on Complex Temporal Ontologies and Method – October 28th @SocioWarwick
In the second Centre for Social Ontology seminar of 2014/15, Emma Uprichard (Associate Professor at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies) discusses Complex Temporal Ontologies and Method: This paper reflects on the methodological challenge of applying complexity theory to study social systems. More… Read More ›
“Invisible Lives”: Romanian Night Workers in London
Global cities like London have an incessant rhythm of consumption that needs to be maintained around-the-clock. This short film shines a light on the invisible lives of people working at night whilst the majority sleep or enjoy the nocturnal life…. Read More ›
Why don’t more early career researchers produce podcasts?
I’ve never understood why more PhD students and Early Career Researchers don’t produce podcasts. I’ve wondered this for a long time and the question came back to me when reading this post on LSE Impact. I think she overstates the… Read More ›
Limits of democratization. Two roots of the current political misery
by Ralf Wetzel Rwanda. Somalia. Iraq. Afghanistan. Libya. Egypt. And Syria. And Iraq again. The number of failed modern political interventions is legion. Successful examples are the rare exceptions. There are few worth mentioning, except certainly post-war Germany or post-Apartheid… Read More ›
Gurminder K Bhambra on Connected Sociologies
The discussion of Connected Sociologies as theoretical methodology around the 13 minute mark is particularly interesting:
Call for contributions: Power, Acceleration and Metrics in Academic Life
There is little doubt that science and knowledge production are presently undergoing dramatic and multi-layered transformations accompanied by new imperatives reflecting broader socio-economic and technological developments. The unprecedented proliferation of audit cultures preoccupied with digitally mediated measurement and quantification of… Read More ›
“I have no idea what to tweet about!”
Are you a social researcher who feels this way? Here are some ideas which might help: Have you read any interesting papers recently? Link to them and briefly explain why you liked them. Are you going to any conferences soon? Tweet that you’re… Read More ›
Digital Sociologist: Noortje Marres from @SociologyGold
How did the Goldsmiths MA/MSc in digital sociology come about? Is it difficult to unify the disciplines that are represented on the course? How would you describe the aims of the course? What sort of students are attracted to the… Read More ›
The exciting future of governance
Background to the video here. I have to admit that I’d assumed this sort of thing was at least a decade away. What’s so creepy about this (beyond “because of this your feeling of safety increased”) is how ‘joined up’ the proposed monitoring… Read More ›
An introduction to blogging and twitter for social researchers
My course at Nat Cen has been moved to December. You can book online here. 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… Read More ›
Resonance and subjectivity on twitter
In four years of using Twitter regularly, I’ve often found others tweeting things that resonate with me and vice versa. In fact one could plausibly suggest that these experiences play an important role in making continued use of the service appealing. What… Read More ›
Shaking up the social sciences
Ahead of the visit by Nicholas Christakis to the UK next month, the Times Higher Education has run an interesting article by Amanda Goodall and Andrew Oswald. I wrote a response to the original article by Christakis that sparked this debate (in fairness… Read More ›
Emma Uprichard on Complex Temporal Ontologies and Method – October 28th @SocioWarwick
In the second Centre for Social Ontology seminar of 2014/15, Emma Uprichard (Associate Professor at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies) discusses Complex Temporal Ontologies and Method: This paper reflects on the methodological challenge of applying complexity theory to study social systems. More… Read More ›
Is American higher education as horrible as ‘advice’ posts make it sound?
I read a lot of higher education blogs. One genre that you encounter from time to time is the ‘tough but fair advice to grad students’ post. This often offers advice on conferences or career planning. It tends to be slightly facetious… Read More ›
Happy birthday to Michel Foucault ()
Michel Foucault (15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, social theorist, philologist and literary critic. He also wore a turtle neck jumper and loved his cat.
Speaking … Truce to Power Reflections of a “guilty” bystander to the Israel-Palestine conflict (Part Two)
by Dr Lambros Fatsis continuing from Part One Section III: Responses 3.1 Negotiation, not a dialogue of the deaf Having already attempted to show some neglected or even hidden layers that lurk behind a sensitive and volatile political debate, this… Read More ›
Speaking … Truce to Power Reflections of a “guilty” bystander to the Israel-Palestine conflict (Part One)
by Dr Lambros Fatsis Having borne witness to seven weeks of fighting in Gaza which resulted to a multilateral ceasefire and a relative media silence ever since, anyone armed with a basic, cosmopolitan civic conscience, cannot help but feel helpless… Read More ›
Geek is Chic, but still the same Capitalism?
By Christopher Vito One of my fondest memories as a child was when my father would take me to the comic book store on his days off from work. I remember picking out X-Men and Spider-Man comic books, and being… Read More ›