This excellent essay by Jan-Werner Müller in the London Review of Books raises an important issue about the forms of political mobilisation facilitated by social media: Trump has called himself the Hemingway of the 140 characters. He has ‘the best… Read More ›
Archive for February 2017
Alternatives to neoliberalism: towards equality and democracy
PUBLICATION LAUNCH —– ALTERNATIVES TO NEOLIBERALISM: TOWARDS EQUALITY AND DEMOCRACY This is a book aimed at researchers, commentators, activists and left politicians looking for new ideas to challenge and replace neoliberal political economy and neo-populist politics. LAUNCH DETAILS: Tuesday 14th… Read More ›
On Social Acceleration
Earlier on this month, Hartmut Rosa gave a fascinating lecture at the LSE, marking the launch of this new book on the Sociology of Speed. It’s a great overview of his theory of acceleration, but it also included some things… Read More ›
Strictly Come Writing: The Sociological Review ECR Writing Retreat
The Sociological Review Foundation is delighted to announce that after the success of last year ECR writing retreat we have commissioned Rowena Murray to deliver another Writing Retreat for social scientists in 2017. We anticipate that this will become an annual… Read More ›
Digital Methodologies: Beyond Big & Small Data
Podcasts from a stream at the ISA Logic and Methodologies conference in September 2016:
Doing Social Media Analysis with Free Tools
Doing Social Media Analysis with Free Tools A Digital Sociology Study Group Event 28 April 2017, 10:00-13:00 Leeds Beckett University, UK https://www.britsoc.co.uk/events/key-bsa-events/doing-social-media-analysis-with-free-tools/ Analysing Data from Twitter, Youtube, Facebook and Smartphones Social media are now a central part of many people’s… Read More ›
A new project on the lived experience of interdisciplinarity
We’ve launched a new project on the lived experience of interdisciplinarity with these four pieces: Negotiating spaces of interdisciplinarity by Sinead D’Silva The lived experience of interdisciplinarity in social research by Murray Goulden Reflective Practice and Interdisciplinary Approaches to ‘Digital Social Research’ by William Housley Interdisciplinarity defines… Read More ›
Negotiating spaces of interdisciplinarity
By Sinead D’Silva A few years ago I would confidently have said that I am a sociologist, and nobody would have been able to tell me otherwise. My BA in sociology was followed by an MA in Social and Cultural Geography… Read More ›
The lived experience of interdisciplinarity in social research
By Murray Goulden My first experience of interdisciplinarity was genuinely exciting to be a part of. To some degree of course the quality of the experience was shaped by the particular focus of research, and the characters of those on… Read More ›
Interdisciplinarity defines us as medical educators
By Mairead Corrigan, Jenny Johnston and Helen Reid We are a small research group working in medical education (#meded), a job which entails embracing and challenging subject, epistemological and methodological boundaries. One of us is a sociologist and two of… Read More ›
Reflective Practice and Interdisciplinary Approaches to ‘Digital Social Research’
By William Housley Reflecting on interdisciplinarity in the context of digital social research is a worthwhile exercise. There is a significant discrepancy between the rhetoric of interdisciplinarity and its actual practice and accomplishment. Sociology, as a global disciplinary enterprise, has participated… Read More ›
The Sociological Review Early Career Researcher Event: Senior Seminar with Rivke Jaffe
The Sociological Review Early Career Researcher Event: Senior Seminar with Rivke Jaffe The Manchester Museum Friday 28th April The Sociological Review Foundation invite applicants to take part in a workshop with Rivke Jaffe (University of Amsterdam) taking place… Read More ›
Migration and Crisis in Europe Special Issue – Last Call for Papers
Sociology 2018 Special Issue — Last Call for Submissions! Sociology’s 2018 special issue will be on the theme of Migration and Crisis in Europe. The issue will be guest edited by Nick Dines, Nicola Montagna, both at Middlesex University, UK… Read More ›
The Unreality of Reality TV: From “After Dark” towards Twitter, Big Data, and “Big Brother”
The Unreality of Reality TV: From “After Dark” towards Twitter, Big Data, and “Big Brother” Organised by the Westminster Institute for Advanced Studies and Open Media Fri, March 3, 17:00 309 Regent Street Boardroom (RS117) W1B 2HW London Registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/unreality-of-reality-tv-from-after-dark-towards-twitter-big-data-and-big-brother-tickets-… Read More ›
The Founder
The Founder tells the story of Ray Kroc, the driven yet craven man who was the first owner of McDonalds. Not the founder, the first owner. The distinction is a crucial one and the plot of the film hinges on… Read More ›
CfP: Forced Migrants in Higher Education
Please distribute in your networks Forced Migrants in Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities for Visibility and Participation A one day conference on 6th September 2017 at The University of Warwick, UK With increasing attention being paid to refugee reception, especially… Read More ›
The Banal Reality of Democracy’s Death
There are two issues which have long fascinated me that seem more salient with each passing day. Our struggle to conceptualise long term social change from within (particularly the possibility of civilisational collapse) and the transition away from democratic government. Cinematic spectacle dominates… Read More ›
The epistemology of democracy’s death
In the last few weeks, I’ve written a few times about the epistemological questions posed by post-democracy. This notion put forward by Colin Crouch sees transitions within mature democracies as involving a hollowing out of democratic structures rather than a… Read More ›
The Eschatology of Technology
In the last couple of days, I’ve been reading this book of talks by the ed-tech writer Audrey Watters. There are many things to recommend about it but the one that interests me most is its focus on the narrative… Read More ›
Creative Dark Matter Rising? Struggling Over the Future of Alternative Cultural Spaces in the City of Geneva
by Robert Hollands When I recently mentioned to some friends that I was going to Geneva, Switzerland to conduct some sociological research into alternative cultural spaces, most shook their heads in disbelief. ‘All I think of when I hear the… Read More ›
Al Jazeera’s ‘The Crusades: An Arab Perspective’
by Dr Z.A. In the West, one of the most decisive battles ever fought is the Battle of Tours, in 732 France. This moment is considered the turning point where Arab expansion into western Europe was forever halted. It is… Read More ›
Notes on Platform Capitalism
In Platform Capitalism, Nick Srnicek seeks to address what he sees as a profound oversight in the existing literature on digital capitalism. One set of contributions focuses on emerging technologies and their implications for privacy and surveillance but ignores the economic… Read More ›
The Sociology of Predatory Publishing
In a recent article on Derivace, Luděk Brož, Tereza Stöckelová and Filip Vostal reflect on the case of Wadim Strielkowski, whose over-enthusiastic game playing was the subject of extensive debate within the Czech academy. There are many factors which have, as a… Read More ›
The Unreality of Reality TV: From “After Dark” towards Twitter, Big Data, and “Big Brother”
The Unreality of Reality TV: From “After Dark” towards Twitter, Big Data, and “Big Brother” Organised by the Westminster Institute for Advanced Studies and Open Media Fri, March 3, 17:00 309 Regent Street Boardroom (RS117) W1B 2HW London Registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/unreality-of-reality-tv-from-after-dark-towards-twitter-big-data-and-big-brother-tickets-… Read More ›
Writing prompts for a PhD journal
Embed from Getty Images I’m a big advocate of the research journal as a key part of doing a PhD. I think blogs are wonderful for this but I realise this might not be for everyone. The important thing is… Read More ›
Catastrophe: Critical Legal Conference 2017 Call for Streams
‘Catastrophe’ by Lala Gallardo Ten years ago, the so-called ‘Invisible Committee’ urged that ‘It is useless to wait…. To go on waiting is madness. The catastrophe is not coming, it is here. We are already situated within the collapse of… Read More ›
Denial and the Antinomies of (Post)Truth
Rarely can a film have been as timely as Denial. It tells the story of the libel action the holocaust denying historian David Irving took against Deborah Lipstadt and her publisher, alleging that she had damaged his professional reputation as a historian… Read More ›
Social media for academics and the increasing toxicity of the online ecology
In the last few months, I’ve begun to seriously plan a much more sophisticated follow-up to Social Media for Academics, investigating the implications of social media for academic labour. A crucial aspect of this, which seems likely to become much more… Read More ›
Quit social media!
A provocative argument put forward by someone who’s built a high-profile secondary career through blogging: