I find this argument from loc 270 of Rob Kitchin’s The Data Revolution extremely compelling. It reminds me of Roy Bhaskar’s argument about the fetishisation of facts from his Reclaiming Reality. This is what Kitchin says: Moreover, just as we think… Read More ›
Archive for May 2016
Let’s Talk Vice-Presidents! Steve Fuller’s Guide to the 2016 US Party Conventions
So the 2016 US presidential race will pit Democrat Hillary Clinton against Republican Donald Trump. Who should be their respective running mates for the vice-presidency? To be sure, there’s some grim historical truth to John Garner’s remark that the role… Read More ›
The Most Cited Publications in the Social Sciences
A really thought provoking analysis published on the LSE Impact Blog, using Google Scholar data:
Yanis Varoufakis in conversation with Noam Chomsky
This is a fabulous conversation between two of the most incisive minds currently alive today:
Harmut Rosa on Public Spaces
A really interesting interview by Harmut Rosa, whose groundbreaking work on acceleration has been developed in recent years into a theory of ‘resonance’:
The EU: a flawed democracy whose failures are fuelling the rise of fascism?
A powerful polemic by Paul Mason in the Guardian arguing that the post-democratic character of the EU is intimately connection to the reemergence of fascism across Europe: All this suggests that those of us who want Brexit in order to… Read More ›
Reclaiming ‘aspiration’ for the left
This is powerful stuff from Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the UK’s Labour Party, in his recent LSE lecture: I am not talking here about the aspiration of the delusional Del Boys – “This time next year Rodney, we’ll be millionaires” –… Read More ›
A special @thesocreview feature on the rise of the Superstar Professor
I’m really pleased with this special feature I just finished for The Sociological Review’s website: Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a SUPER PROFESSOR! Slavo Zizek: Between Public Intellectual and Academic Celebrity How To Shift Sociological… Read More ›
Sociology and Fiction: a @thesocreview Special Feature
I think this is come out really well. Get in touch if you’d like to contribute something further: Imagining Futures: From Sociology of the Future to Future Fictions The Future Perfect Writing Fiction and Writing Social Science Life Chances: Co-written… Read More ›
PhD student workshop: Collecting and analysing social media data
PhD student workshop: Collecting and analysing social media data The ESRC-funded “Social Media – Developing Understanding, Infrastructure & Engagement” (ES/M001628/1) award based at the University of Aberdeen is organising a workshop for PhD student researchers in the social sciences to… Read More ›
Call for Papers (CfP): VI. International Conference on Critical Education
VI. International Conference on Critical Education 10-13 August 2016, London, UK Dialogue, Solidarity and Resistance against Neo-liberalism and Neo-conservatism in Education The International Conference on Critical Education (ICCE), previously held in Athens (2011, 2012), Ankara (2013), Thessaloniki (2014) and Wroclaw, Poland… Read More ›
The Liberal Imagination of Barack Obama
What messages can we take from this speech? It’s Obama at his most self-consciously inspirational, addressing ‘young people’ pursuing social change. I think it can also be taken as an attempt to outline a worldview in the broadest terms. Here’s… Read More ›
Obama’s Best Comebacks and Rebuttals
Imagine a comparable round up for President Trump, produced circa 2020? And on a similar(ish) note:
Computational Social Science and the Collapse of Sociology
An interesting footnote in On Sociology by John Goldthorpe speculates on the possibility of Sociology’s collapse. From pg 9: Such a collapse could conceivably come about through a series of ‘secessions’. For example, some university departments of sociology have already… Read More ›
The Accelerative Ethos of Steve Jobs
From the Commencement address Steve Jobs gave on June 12, 2005: When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It… Read More ›
Using social media to map scholarly literatures
At a time when there are more than 28,100 active scholarly peer-reviewed journals publishing around 1.8-1.9 million articles per year, finding ways to navigate scholarly literatures are more important than ever. This is one of the most exciting ways in which social… Read More ›
The Rise and Fall of Fantasy
Once we paraded grand visions of the future, now such goals are more typically left to the fanatical fringe. With economic and cultural growth in the East what vision does the West have to offer? Do we need new fantasies… Read More ›
The UK housing crisis explained in 3 minutes
If you liked this video, you might like these podcasts on the Sociological Review’s website about the experience of housing insecurity in the UK.
Higher Education & Race Inequalities
Tenure Denied At Dartmouth, an Asian-American professor receives unanimous English department backing and is rejected at higher levels. The same happened to a black historian at the college. Many see a disturbing pattern. More on this story on Inside Higher… Read More ›
A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Economics: Yanis Varoufakis, Ann Pettifor, Mufti Abdur Rahman Mangera
A wonderful event organised by People’s Philosophy, Politics and Economics:
Working with Alternative Traditions of Thought
ANNUAL CPD WORKSHOP: “Working with Alternative Traditions of Thought” 2nd September, 2016 Hosted by the School of Humanities, University of Brighton Hi all Very happy to announce more specific details on the workshop. It will be composed of two main… Read More ›
21st Century Salute to my Heroine Quartet
by Natty Mark Samuels On this Saturday evening, I sit relaxing in joyful thought, wishing that the next time I go to Ghana, I get to hear Dr. Rabiatu Deinyo Ammah speak. I wish I could have been there, at… Read More ›
Sociology 50th Anniversary e-Special Issues and Podcasts
An e-Special and series of podcasts to highlight the 50th anniversary of Sage’s journal Sociology: Read the e-Special Issues* Social Class and Sociology: The State of the Debate Between 1967 and 1979 Louise Ryan, Middlesex University, UK and Claire Maxwell,… Read More ›
Spurious correlations: a wonderful resource for teaching statistics?
Check these out by Tyler Vigen. Both hilarious and an excellent way of teaching a crucial idea:
What Nice Men Don’t Say To Nice Women
This video is part of a really interesting series produced by The School of Life.
Interested in the internal conversation? Come to this symposium @SocioWarwick on May 24th
Following on from a succesful event this time last year, we’re organising another reflexivity forum. We potentially have one more speaking slot available but we’re still keen for others to come along for the discussion. Here’s the programme for the day: E-mail… Read More ›
How to do Sociology with … Music
A lovely video with occasional SI author Les Back (HT Dave Beer):
Book Review: Diversity, Equality and Achievement in Education (Knowles & Lander, 2011)
reviewed by Sadia Habib Diversity, Equality and Achievement in Education by Gianna Knowles and Vini Lander (Sage, 2011) Intentional and unintentional racism is very much still a part of today’s society experienced by people of colour in everyday situations… Read More ›
The Great Divide: Sociology, Anthropology, and Race in France since Lévi-Strauss
The Sociological Review Annual Sociology Lecture Friday May 20th 2016, SOAS, University of London This event is free but it is essential to register. To reserve a place, please email Jenny Thatcher []. Keynote: Professor Éric Fassin (Université Paris-8) … Read More ›
Workshop: Using the Morphogenetic Approach, June 21st @SocioWarwick
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 Archer will give… Read More ›