On pg 106 of their Rethinking Social Exclusion: The End of the Social? Simon Winlow and Steve Hall describe the changing realities of work, as more and more jobs become “non-unionised, low paid, short-term, insecure and part time”: We should… Read More ›
Archive for September 2016
Book Review: ‘Sufis, Salafis and Islamists: The Contested Ground of British Islamic Activism’
Sufis, Salafis and Islamists: The Contested Ground of British Islamic Activism by Sadek Hamid (2016) reviewed by Tamim Sadikali What attracts young Muslims to this type of ephemeral but ferocious activism? One does not have to subscribe to determinist social… Read More ›
NCRM Lectures on Big Data
Part of a much wider series of lecture videos they’ve posted on their YouTube page:
Engines of Knowledge in the First Information Age: Geography and the Map
by Hamish Robertson Introduction The map and hence geographic thinking and cartographic skill are as old as human civilisation. It has been suggested that spatial cognition may even precede the emergence of both numeracy and literacy. Navigating the world in… Read More ›
Ethnography as being-in-the-world rather than method
A fascinating discussion by Matthew Desmond in the conclusion of his wonderful book Evicted: There’s this idea that ethnography is a “method.” When we see it this way, we tend to ask methodological questions about it. How do I get… Read More ›
The Antinomies of ‘Intelligence’
On a recent Any Answers, there was a call so fascinatingly stupid that I’ve been intermittently thinking back to it for the last few days. In a discussion about the possible reintroduction of grammar schools, a couple who had been to grammar… Read More ›
CfP: Social Media and Social Futures – a special issue of @DiscoverSoc
Co-edited by Mark Carrigan and William Housley Social media is conventionally located within a commercial narrative that theorises an array of emerging ‘disruptive technologies’ that includes big data, additive manufacture and robotics. These and related technologies are underpinned by computational… Read More ›
‘Conference Business’ as Usual? Open Letter to European Sociological Association
We’re a bit late posting this, but those concerned with the future of the European Sociological Association should definitely read this open letter and engage with the accompanying website: As participants of the 12th Conference of the European Sociological Association (ESA),… Read More ›
The Individualisation of Utopia
From Riots and Political Protest, by Simon Winlow, Steve Hall, Daniel Briggs and James Treadwell, pg 42: Utopianism did not disappear, but it came to address the libidinal dreams of the individual rather than the political dreams of the collective…. Read More ›
A wonderful archives of videos produced by the American Sociological Association
Thanks to Carol Leach for flagging up this wonderful archive of videos produced by the American Sociological Association: http://videoarchive.asanet.org/
The difference between philosophy and talk about philosophy
A distinction I find rather tenuous, invoked by Ray Brassier in his attack on the self-importance of the speculative realist blogging community: What is peculiar to them is the claim that this is the first philosophy movement to have been generated… Read More ›
Academics as bullshit detectors
I love this idea from the introduction to Mark Blyth’s book Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea: Part of what academics do is generate ideas and teach. The other, perhaps more important part, is to play the role of “the… Read More ›
Virtuous, vulnerable and burdened: how feminism is undermined by making everything ‘a feminist issue’
By Tina Sikka Language, discourse, and other symbolic forms have real, tangible, material consequences. This is something I tell my students over and over and over (and over) again. It is also something I hope readers keep in mind while… Read More ›
The Pseudo-Catharsis of Social Media
From Rethinking Social Exclusion, by Simon Winlow and Steve Hall, pg 73: Political protests these days are taken not as an indication that something is going wrong and that a significant number of the population are dissatisfied with the nation’s… Read More ›
Mike Featherstone’s unpublished MA thesis on Ecology and the Chicago School
Roger Burrows shared this link to Mike Featherstone’s unpublished MA thesis a few weeks ago. It really is an incredible piece of work: The development of human ecology is closely associated with the rise of empirical sociological research in the United… Read More ›
A wonderful example of how universities can use YouTube
There’s a background to this hugely succesful engagement project here:
Going to extremes: How radical are you? Art education & British values
by Carol Wild Semantic satiation refers to the making strange of words by continual repetition until they become meaningless. Within the discourse surrounding the Fundamental British Values (FBV) since their introduction into schools in 2014 words such as extremism and… Read More ›
A Feminist Guide to Opera or Why I Read the Subtitles
by Lisa Gaufman How is that for a Hollywood movie scenario: a young woman starts dating a poor student, but then dumps him for a rich old man, whom she tries to relieve of his treasures before getting… Read More ›
Registration Open: Bourdieu, Aesthetics and the Body
Registration is now open for the forthcoming BSA Bourdieu Study Group Event: Bourdieu, Aesthetics and the Body. You can register here: http://portal.britsoc.co.uk/public/event/eventBooking.aspx?id=EVT10592 Bourdieu, Aesthetics and the Body. London Monday 28th November, What can Bourdieusian theory add to exploration… Read More ›
Brassed Off (Oldham Coliseum until 1 October)
BRASSED OFF 7 SEP – 1 0CT 2016 “I don’t know anyone who admits to voting Tory but t’buggers keep getting in”. Brassed Off film fans will very much enjoy the Oldham Coliseum Theatre production of the hugely successful… Read More ›
CfP: Social Media and Social Futures – a special issue of @DiscoverSoc
Co-edited by Mark Carrigan and William Housley Social media is conventionally located within a commercial narrative that theorises an array of emerging ‘disruptive technologies’ that includes big data, additive manufacture and robotics. These and related technologies are underpinned by computational… Read More ›
Are we dominated by our smart phones and mobile games?
#ポケモンGO #PokemonGO pic.twitter.com/Vfli2vCX4o — S@KANOUE (@_sakanoue) July 31, 2016
What do you do when people you like act offensively online?
I’ve been planning how to address this issue much more comprehensively in a second edition of Social Media for Academics. But then Vox helpfully shared this flow chart and I’m not sure I have anything further to add:
Images of the end of capitalism
In various posts over the last few years, I’ve written about my fascination with images of civilisational collapse. Reading Riots and Political Protest, by Steve Hall, Simon Winlow, Daniel Briggs and James Treadwell, I find myself wondering if this fascination… Read More ›
Eliminating the first person from ethnography
A powerful argument by Matthew Desmond from the conclusion of his incredible book Evicted. What do you think? Far from being a prerequisite for reflexivity, can writing the “I” into ethnography inadvertently make the text about the author rather than the… Read More ›
Call for Applications: Work, Employment and Society Editorial Board
Work, employment and society Editorial Board Call for Applications Deadline: Wednesday 21 September 2016, 17:00 (GMT) Work, employment and society is seeking 10 new members to join its Editorial Board and serve for three years from January 2017 to end… Read More ›
The Familiarity of the Future: A Look Back from 1999
In preparation for writing a review of the Unabomber’s new book, I have gone through my files to find all the things I and others had said about this iconic figure when he struck terror in the hearts of technophiles… Read More ›
The #Brexit Fortune Teller
A fantastic invention by Bob Dickinson! Here’s how to make one: HOW TO MAKE THE BREXIT FORTUNE TELLER 1 trim the paper to a square, flush with the edges of the artwork 2 artwork face up, fold diagonally, corner to… Read More ›
Call for Papers: Philosophy and Technology special issue on The Governance of Algorithms
Call for Papers for Philosophy and Technology’s special issue on The Governance of Algorithms GUEST EDITORS Marcello D’Agostino (University of Milan, Italy) and Massimo Durante (University of Turin, Italy) INTRODUCTION In our information societies, we increasingly delegate tasks to automated… Read More ›
An Open Access Series of Books on Why We Post
I’ve just started working my way through this series of books produced by UCL’s massive Why We Post project. The past work of the project team is fantastic and I’m hopeful this will prove to be an important series of… Read More ›