We’ve indirectly linked to this before but stumbling across it momentarily reminded me of how good it is: The End of Theorists: The Relevance, Opportunities, and Pitfalls of Theorizing in Sociology Today
Archive for March 2015
Preview of Book: Muslims, Schooling and the Question of Self-Segregation
Muslims, Schooling and the Question of Self-Segregation by Shamim Miah ‘Integration’ or the supposed lack of it by British Muslims has been a ubiquitous feature in political, media and policy discourses over the past decades, often with little or no evidence… Read More ›
1st Non-Monogamies and Contemporary Intimacies Conference
1st Non-Monogamies and Contemporary Intimacies Conference (Sept. 25th–27th, ’15) Call for Contributions – Deadline 18th May 2015 (To see a longer version of this Call for Contributions, please go here) || PLEASE SHARE Research in sociology, psychology, anthropology and contemporary history has shown… Read More ›
Making Sociology Public
This was originally published on Making Science Public Ever since I began to study Sociology, I’ve been fascinated by the question of how the discipline orientates itself towards public life. When I first encountered Sociology I was an intellectually frustrated… Read More ›
Book Review: Media Technologies: Essays on Communication, Materiality, and Society
This review was originally posted on the LSE Review of Books Media Technologies: Essays on Communication, Materiality, and Society is an impressively cohesive collection that seeks to map the intersections between Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Communication and Media… Read More ›
Saying goodbye to Apple, Microsoft and Google
Provocative reading for those, such as myself, who have become utterly reliant upon the products produced by these corporations: I’ve moved to these alternative platforms because I’ve changed my mind about the politics of technology. I now believe it’s essential to… Read More ›
Power, Acceleration and Metrics in Academic Life, 2nd-4th December 2015, Prague
Call for papers: 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… Read More ›
The Social Ontology of Digital Data & Digital Technology, July 8th in London
This innovative conference brings together leading figures from a variety of fields which address issues of digital technology and digital data. We’ve invited speakers with a range of intellectual perspectives and disciplinary backgrounds who engage with questions relating to digital… Read More ›
Call for an Internet Social Forum
The Internet belongs to all people – Let’s occupy it More and more, the Internet is the place where we meet up with our friends, get information, organise work, store our pictures and texts, do our banking, see videos, buy… Read More ›
What is theory?
Another interesting video from iai.tv: Theories, Mysteries and Mistakes We assume our theories about the world are gradually uncovering the way it really is. Yet from quantum mechanics to post-structuralism, the reality the theories describe is contradictory. Should we conclude… Read More ›
Collective Cleanliness: Meta-Discursive Study of Academic Tearoom Culture
Read the full paper here. Courtesy of Jennifer Upchurch.
Call for papers: Centre for Social Ontology PhD/ECR Conference
Centre for Social Ontology PhD/ECR Conference June 23rd, University of Warwick, 10am – 4pm Social ontology is integral to the study of society. It is impossible to inquire into the social world without some understanding, at least tacitly, concerning the… Read More ›
Using fiction to write about your research
I was fortunate to meet Tim Maughan at the Digital Sociology conference in New York last month. Along with Sava Saheli Singh, he’s been exploring how design fiction can be used to communicate sociological ideas. This is how Sava and… Read More ›
Power, Acceleration and Metrics in Academic Life, 2nd-4th December 2015, Prague
Power, Acceleration and Metrics in Academic Life, 2nd-4th December 2015, Prague Call for papers: 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… Read More ›
Weber/ Simmel antagonisms: Staged dialogues
Weber/ Simmel antagonisms Staged dialogues University of Edinburgh 10/11 December 2015 A conference organized by the Max Weber Group of the British Sociological Association & Sociology Edinburgh Call for outlines Much has been said about the strong oppositions between Simmel… Read More ›
Book Review: Social Morphogenesis, Volume 1
by Tom Brock Social Morphogenesis is the first volume in a series of books, edited by Margaret Archer, that seeks to develop an explanatory framework that can account for how the rate of social change has ‘speeded up’ in the… Read More ›
Big data philanthropy
This recent article in the New Yorker introduces a new counselling service, based in New York, which uses text messages a point of contact for young people experiencing crisis. It’s an intriguing discussion of changing generational norms regarding communication, offering a rich… Read More ›
The return of serious research into psychedelic drugs
While psychedelic drugs are now seen as illicit and criminalised around the world, with even those few remaining substances not criminalised occasionally cropping up as a potential bête noire for politicians, they were once at the forefront of psychiatric research. Here’s… Read More ›
Lately everybody seems to be talking about Digital Sociology
Or at least it’s easy to get that impression if you spend your time talking to digital sociologists. Last month saw the world’s first digital sociology (mini) conference, part of the Eastern Sociological Society’s event in New York. It was… Read More ›
Three Modes of Academic Success, none of them quite autonomous
Early career academics periodically ask me what it takes to be successful – as if I would know! Nevertheless, I do have some general observations on the topic based on what seems to work. Unfortunately, the three strategies listed below… Read More ›
Selling psychopathy in late modernity
A few weeks ago, I was browsing the bookshop in Kings Cross while waiting for the Eurostar and came across this disturbing book: Given I was on my way to a much needed holiday, I didn’t buy the book at… Read More ›
Regulating Intimacy: A Research Symposium
Regulating Intimacy: A Research Symposium “Intimate Labors and the Labors of Intimacy” Indiana University, Bloomington September 26, 2015 http://regulatingintimacy.wordpress.com/ Paper submission deadline: May 8, 2015 Regulating Intimacy is an interdisciplinary research symposium held annually at Indiana University. We seek to… Read More ›
Call for Papers: Journal of Intercultural Studies Inaugural Conference 2015
Call for Papers: Journal of Intercultural Studies Inaugural Conference 2015 CUNY Graduate Center, New York November 19-20, 2015 Submission Deadline: 1 June The Journal of Intercultural Studies is pleased to announce a call for papers to be presented at its Inaugural… Read More ›
An invitation to Digital Public Sociology
This is a slightly abridged version of the talk I gave at the Digital Sociology mini-conference at the Eastern Sociological Society conference in February 2015. At some point this will be the basis for a paper: Listen to ‘What is… Read More ›
Power, Acceleration and Metrics in Academic Life, 2nd-4th December 2015, Prague
Power, Acceleration and Metrics in Academic Life, 2nd-4th December 2015, Prague Call for papers: 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… Read More ›
The Tyranny of the Forced Smile
An interesting article in the New York Times discusses the mandated enthusiasm which increasingly characterises labour. This can be seen most emphatically in service jobs (e.g. the training required by Pret A Manger and its subsequent monitoring) but it’s also a feature… Read More ›
Considering becoming an indy scholar? 5 tips to get you started…
By Floor Basten You’re approaching the end of your PhD. While considering your alternatives for work, why not flirt with entrepreneurship? In 2003, almost a year after I left the university, as a postdoc, I decided to start my own… Read More ›
Book Review: The Nature of Intractable Conflict by Christopher Mitchell
by Bradley W Williams In the third edition of Contemporary Conflict Resolution, Oliver Ramsbotham, Tom Woodhouse, and Hugh Miall (2011) note that the “new field of conflict resolution in the 1950s defined itself in relation to the challenge of understanding… Read More ›
Social Fiction: Writing Social Science Research as Fiction
By Patricia Leavy, Ph.D. I am a feminist sociologist turned novelist. My primary interests are in gender and methodology. For me, methodological issues are about how we can best build and share knowledge. The desire to make social research engaging,… Read More ›
The Curious Case of Ray Rice: Domestic Violence in the NFL
by Amanda Admire and Christopher Vito A viral video was released depicting NFL player Raymell M. Rice dragging his then fiancée Janay Palmer out of a Revel Casino elevator on February 15th, 2014 1. He was then charged with aggravated… Read More ›