What has the EU ever done for us? Lacuna will be looking at the theme of the Europe Union over the next few months. With the In/Out Referendum taking place on 23 June, we want to explore the issues that… Read More ›
Archive for March 2016
Why publish? The politics of communication in perishing times
In her inaugural lecture, Professor Sarah Kember asks how a new generation of independent and university presses can reinvent rather than reinforce what counts in scholarly and artistic practice. In a context of ongoing crisis and policy reform in publishing,… Read More ›
Call for Blog Posts: the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Sociologist
The notion of ‘publish or perish’ has become something of a cliché. But its reality is starkly confirmed by the sheer quantity of scholarly literature produced each year, with an estimated 28,100 active scholarly peer-reviewed journals publishing around 1.8-1.9 million articles… Read More ›
John Oliver on the history of student debt
Television at its best: extremely funny and genuinely informative:
The Politics of the Platform Society
This is a great talk by José van Dijck. I can’t wait for her new book: There are some excellent responses by Sonia Livingstone, suggesting we need to be critical of an emerging grand narrative of the platform society. It meshes… Read More ›
Violence as the expression of Trump’s nascent ideology
I’m sure I’m not the only person who’s been getting a little bit obsessed with Donald Trump in recent months. There’s certainly a risk of overstating the threat that heposes, such that a preoccupation with the man himself risks obscuring the… Read More ›
Early Career Researcher Event: Sociological Review Writing Retreat
The Sociological Review Foundation is delighted to announce that we have commissioned Rowena Murray to deliver a Writing Retreat for sociologists. Murray has devised and delivered structured writing retreats to support academics by providing dedicated writing time done in a group setting…. Read More ›
Ontographology Cards: Oblique Strategies for Interdisciplinary Teams (sort of)
This is an early report on a project I’d really welcome feedback on: This is my first attempt to write up an ongoing project I’m in the early stages of undertaking, as well as solicit much needed feedback on it…. Read More ›
Paxman Britannica’: Empire, Sociology, and Postcolonial Reconstruction
Gurminder K. Bhambra gave the 2015 Marshall Lecture at the University of Southampton:
CfP: Ethics as Methods in the Era of Big Data
Ethic as method in an era of big data Special Issue of Social Media + Society We invite contributions to a special issue of Social Media + Society devoted to a critical examination of the future of Internet research practices… Read More ›
Two free workshops at the Centre for Social Ontology
The Morphogenetic Approach June 21st, 10am to 5pm The University of Warwick This one day workshop is intended for those currently using or planning to use the morphogenetic approach in their research. In the first half of the workshop, Margaret… Read More ›
The Meaning of Donald Trump
A collection of the best essays and articles I’ve found about the rise of Donald Trump:
Writing praxes beyond papers and books
A really fascinating reflection by Rob Kitchin on ten forms of academic writing beyond scholarly papers and books: fiction, blog posts, newspaper op eds, email correspondence, policy papers, policy consultation, a television documentary script, powerpoint slides, academic papers, and grant application…. Read More ›
Two free workshops at the Centre for Social Ontology
The Morphogenetic Approach June 21st, 10am to 5pm The University of Warwick This one day workshop is intended for those currently using or planning to use the morphogenetic approach in their research. In the first half of the workshop, Margaret… Read More ›
Call for Blog Posts: the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Sociologist
The notion of ‘publish or perish’ has become something of a cliché. But its reality is starkly confirmed by the sheer quantity of scholarly literature produced each year, with an estimated 28,100 active scholarly peer-reviewed journals publishing around 1.8-1.9 million articles… Read More ›
YouTube Conference: Call for Papers
YouTube Conference: Call for Papers 23/4 September 2016, Middlesex University, The Burroughs, Hendon, London. Keynote speaker: Professor Jean Burgess Please send an abstract of 350 words plus a short bio of 100 words for single papers or 500 words and… Read More ›
Untangling the American election: two great podcasts
Two superb LSE podcasts with expert analysis of the astonishing events unfolding in America at the moment:
Celibacies: American Modernism & Sexual Life
Benjamin Kahan, Celibacies: American Modernism & Sexual Life, 2013, United States of America, Duke University Press, 235 pp., There is a degree of difficulty inherent in reviewing texts from outside your discipline and certain risks attached to evaluating research… Read More ›
Stuck in the mess of life: anticipation and disappointment
In recent papers Ruth Müller has offered what I think is the very important concept of anticipatory acceleration to make sense of how subjects, in this case post-doctoral researchers, wilfully participate in social acceleration. Drawing on the work of James Scott, she outlines… Read More ›
Creativity inside and outside universities
by Deborah Talbot The Alternative Academia Network held its second meeting on the 14th February 2016. The aim is to discuss how creativity works inside and outside universities. The following are notes from the presentation by Deborah Talbot, which explores… Read More ›
Review of ‘Comparative phylogenetic analyses uncover the ancient roots of Indo-European folktales’
by Emma Parfitt A review of ‘Comparative phylogenetic analyses uncover the ancient roots of Indo-European folktales’ by Sara Graça da Silva, Jamshid J. Tehrani Let us begin with a story… A blacksmith is granted three wishes by Jesus and… Read More ›
The Cultural Politics of Automation
The rise of the robots is a recurrent theme of popular culture. Robots are often seen as a threat, heralding the prospect of human beings being replaced by their creations, perhaps to the extent of being deemed useless by them and attacked…. Read More ›
The LSE’s remarkable archive of public talks
I just stumbled across the LSE’s Digital Archive. It’s an absolute goldmine. Here are some of the ones I’m planning to listen to in the near future: Niklas Luhmann (1995) Bruno Latour (2000) Steven Lukes (2006) Erik Olin Wright (2001) Tony… Read More ›
Two upcoming events @socialontology @sociowarwick
A workshop on the morphogenetic approach: June 21st, 10am to 5pm The University of Warwick This one day workshop is intended for those currently using or planning to use the morphogenetic approach in their research. In the first half of… Read More ›
The Sex Myth
I first encountered the work of Rachel Hills in 2012, when she interviewed me for an essay in the Atlantic exploring asexuality. The conversation itself was incredibly stimulating and the ensuing piece of work was the best thing I’ve read… Read More ›
The Sociological Review Annual Lecture
The Great Divide: Sociology, Anthropology, and Race in France since Lévi-Strauss Keynote: Professor Éric Fassin (Université Paris-8) Discussants: Professor Gurminder K Bhambra (University of Warwick, UK and Linnaeus University, Sweden) and Dr Imogen Tyler (Lancaster University) Professor Éric Fassin will… Read More ›
The Feral Interdisciplinarian
I find it hard to express quite how drawn I am to this conception offered by Robert Frodeman in Sustainable Knowledge, loc 665: There is another model possible. It is where the interdisciplinarian goes feral, largely abandoning his or her… Read More ›
The Shifting Plate Tetonics of the Human Sciences
This is a wonderful account by Felicity Callard and Des Fitzgerald, in their new book on interdisciplinarity, concerning the radical restructuring of academic labour that is currently underway within the university. I’ve come at this from a different angle, specifically… Read More ›
When ITV invited the former leader of the British Union of Fascists onto national TV
With recent debates about no platform that are unfolding in the UK, it’s interesting to stumble across this footage of the (by then former) leader of the British Union of Fascists being interviewed by David Frost: