From How to become an internationally famous British social theorist by Stewart Clegg, 585-586: “Giddens’s later concerns with structure and agency allow him to tap into many prestigious intellectual products as resources, such as linguistics, analytical philosophy and the Heideggerian… Read More ›
Archive for October 2015
A Primer on the Essence of Humanity: Prolegomena to any Future Social Ontology
According to Hegel’s bird’s eye-view of the world, the Owl of Minerva takes flight at dusk. If this bird is supposed to be the personification of philosophical insight, then we start thinking deeply about the nature of something only once… Read More ›
The Politics of Data
A new series on the LSE Impact Blog, following on from the Philosophy of Data Science interview series and the Discover Society special issue on the Politics of Data (Science). Follow it in full here. Our latest series delves into the politics of data…. Read More ›
please tell early career scholars: the isrf social media essay competition
The Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF) and Big Data & Society (BD&S) intend to award a prize of CHF 1,000 for the best essay on the topic ‘Influence and Power’. This is a topic, not a title. Accordingly, authors are… Read More ›
still places left for tomorrow: sociological careers outside of academia
A few places have opened up for tomorrow’s event: The Sociological Review’s Early Career Researchers Event: Working Outside of Academia Organised by The Sociological Review Early Career Researcher team For those with a background in social science, career paths do… Read More ›
deadline tomorrow! the question of the human in social theory & social research
25th November 2015, 11:00 to 17:00 WT0.05, University of Warwick This workshop and symposium will explore the, mostly implicit, conceptions of the human, humanity and human nature that underpin various contemporary conceptions of social life. In the context of much-publicised post-human… Read More ›
The 2015/16 @sociowarwick seminar series
This year’s seminar series in the Sociology department at Warwick looks like an interesting mix:
Humanity on a Budget, or the ‘Value-Added’ of Being Human
This piece is dedicated to Stefan Stern, who picked up on – and ran with – a remark I made at this year’s Brain Bar Budapest, concerning the need for a ‘value-added’ account of being ‘human’ in a world in… Read More ›
How to shift sociological product: lessons from the career of tony giddens
Taking the lead from Peter Walsh’s laudible work on academic celebrity, here’s some lessons from the career of Tony Giddens which I inferred from this excellent review article Peter pointed me towards, coupled with my own reading of Giddens, who… Read More ›
Rethinking UK Research Funding – Manchester, November 4th
Rethinking UK research funding Do you have strong opinions about the way academic research is funded in the UK? Maybe you’re a researcher employed on one short term project after another and have ideas about how things could be better… Read More ›
Work, Employment and Society Editorial Board: Call for Applications
Work, Employment and Society Editorial Board Call for Applications Deadline: Thursday 5 November 2015, 17:00 (GMT) Work, employment and society is seeking 10 new members of its Editorial Board to serve for three years from January 2016 to end of… Read More ›
Media and the Environment: Media@McGill Postdoctoral Fellowship
Call for Application: Media@McGill Postdoctoral Fellowship Description: Media@McGill is a hub of interdisciplinary research, scholarship and public outreach on issues in media, technology and culture, located in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University in Montreal,… Read More ›
a week left to register: the question of the human in social theory & social research
25th November 2015, 11:00 to 17:00 WT0.05, University of Warwick This workshop and symposium will explore the, mostly implicit, conceptions of the human, humanity and human nature that underpin various contemporary conceptions of social life. In the context of much-publicised post-human… Read More ›
The International Journal of Social Research Methodology Seminar Competition
The Board of the International Journal of Social Research Methodology (IJSRM) is pleased to announce the launch of our new Seminar Competition. Our aim is to support the development of critical and innovative approaches to on-going and emerging methodological debates across a… Read More ›
Dying alone in New York
A fantastic, chilling ethnography of death in the modern metropolis – and of a life forgotten and pieced together from postmortem scraps. This text gives insights not only into the journey of a death person through a number of complex… Read More ›
Registration open for the Accelerated Academy
Power, Acceleration and Metrics in Academic Life 2nd-4th December 2015, Prague (Vila Lanna) Organised by the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences and supported by the Strategy AV21. For more details see our webpage at accelerated.academy Powered… Read More ›
#icanhazpdf
This new way of finding articles is cool. Three people sent me this link in the last few days (two mathematicians and one social scientist). It’s not new, but it is the first sign of organisation spreading beyond social scientists’… Read More ›
The Sociology of Everyday Life
A really exciting new special issue of Sociology. It’s free to access for another few days! Find it online here. Why Everyday Life Matters Les Back Goldsmiths, University of London, UK The Scriptural Economy, the Forbes Figuration and the Racial… Read More ›
The Politics of Discretionary Effort
Since first encountering the notion of discretionary effort, I’ve been fascinated by it. This is a definition I found on page one of Google: Discretionary effort is the level of effort people could give if they wanted to, but above… Read More ›
Digital Social Science Essay Competition
The Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF) and Big Data & Society (BD&S) intend to award a prize of CHF 1,000 for the best essay on the topic ‘Influence and Power’. This is a topic, not a title. Accordingly, authors are… Read More ›
Workshop and Symposium: The Question of the Human in Social Theory and Social Research
25th November 2015, 11:00 to 17:00 WT0.05, University of Warwick This workshop and symposium will explore the, mostly implicit, conceptions of the human, humanity and human nature that underpin various contemporary conceptions of social life. In the context of much-publicised post-human… Read More ›
Social Media for Academics: Available for Pre-Order!
Available for pre-order now! See here for the cheapest place to buy it online, as well as table of contents & summary.
The Pre-History of the Internet of Things
I had no idea how long this notion had been around for. Blair Newman was a notoriously drug addled technologist (who once tried to claim cocaine as a business expense) into whose failed venture Microsoft ploughed $50,000 in the late… Read More ›
Call For Papers: Qualitative Methods and Data in Digital Societies
Call for papers: Themed Issue Qualitative Methods and Data in Digital Societies Qualitative Research [html: http://qrj.sagepub.com%5D Edited by William Housley (Cardiff University), Bella Dicks (Cardiff University) and Karen Henwood (Cardiff University). The explosion of digital social data in recent years has required… Read More ›
Over-Reach By Unelected Technocrats
This is the debate which the Financial Times says has been prompted by Mark Carney’s intervention on climate change earlier in the week. His point seemed rather incisive to me, observing that “Since the 1980s the number of registered weather-related loss events has tripled” and… Read More ›
Digital Sociology Mini-Conference
Digital Sociology Mini-Conference In keeping with the Eastern Sociological Society’s theme of “My Day Job: Politics and Pedagogy in Academia,” the Digital Sociology Mini-Conference seeks papers that address the many digital ways of knowing, particularly as those impinge on the work we… Read More ›
The Challenge of Sociological Writing
In this event organised by The Sociological Review’s Early Career Forum, a panel of accomplished writers with a long history of supporting younger scholars reflect on the challenges of sociological writing. Each participant will give a short talk, discussing a particular aspect… Read More ›
Academic identity in the digital university: current trends and future challenges
Some talks from a really interesting Society for Research Into Higher Education event are now available as podcasts: Dr. Antonella Esposito: PhD researchers using social media: Exploring the emergent trajectories of academic identities Dr. Mark Carrigan: Surviving life in the accelerated academy:… Read More ›
Social Media for Academics: Available for Pre-Order!
Available for pre-order now! See here for the cheapest place to buy it online, as well as table of contents & summary.