Manchester Digital Laboratory Thursday 8th June 2017 09.00-17.00 The Sociological Review Foundation is delighted to announce our forthcoming workshop using graphic novel methods to present social research. We invite applications to take part in a Graphic Novel Workshop with Tony… Read More ›
Archive for April 2017
Conservatism eats itself: An irreverent look at the conservative mind by Deborah Talbot
by Deborah Talbot Conservative politics are everywhere, but what is it, and what are they really like? In the cities, you don’t notice conservatism. It’s there, for sure, but is pretty quiet about itself. Political parties of a more left… Read More ›
Social Morphogenesis: Five Years of Inquiring Into Social Change
Postmodernity. Second modernity. Network Society. Late modernity. Liquid modernity. Such concepts have dominated social thought in recent decades, with a bewildering array of claims about social change and its implications. But what do we mean by ‘social change’? How do… Read More ›
What does it mean to be a public sociologist in an age of Donald Trump?
From the Public sociology and the role of the researcher: engagement, communication and academic activism postgraduate conference a couple of weeks ago:
Fuck virality, I want my ideas to be radioactive
There’s a fascinating footnote in Radio Benjamin, loc 395-410, discussing Adorno’s description of Benjamin’s ideas as ‘radioactive’: The full sentence reads, “Everything which fell under the scrutiny of his words was transformed, as though it had become radioactive,” … Although… Read More ›
How should we attribute authorship on our blog?
I just came across this student essay in which a blog post written by Les Back was attributed to me. This isn’t the first time it’s happened and I’m unsure how to respond to it. The backlist of posts on… Read More ›
Social Morphogenesis: Five Years of Inquiring Into Social Change
Postmodernity. Second modernity. Network Society. Late modernity. Liquid modernity. Such concepts have dominated social thought in recent decades, with a bewildering array of claims about social change and its implications. But what do we mean by ‘social change’? How do… Read More ›
Using graphic novels to communicate your research
Manchester Digital Laboratory Thursday 8th June 2017 09.00-17.00 The Sociological Review Foundation is delighted to announce our forthcoming workshop using graphic novel methods to present social research. We invite applications to take part in a Graphic Novel Workshop with Tony… Read More ›
This Week: Cities and the Political Imagination
Keynote Speaker: Rivke Jaffe (University of Amsterdam) The Manchester Museum Friday 28th April 2017 17.45-20.00, followed by wine reception at 20.00 Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cities-and-the-political-imagination-the-sociological-review-annual-lecture-2017-with-rivke-jaffe-tickets-31372245230 Cities and the Political Imagination How can we recognize the political in the city? How might social scientists… Read More ›
“A new kind of intellectual”: Pierre Bourdieu’s tribute to Michel Foucault
After Michel Foucault died in 1984 at the age of fifty-seven, Pierre Bourdieu wrote a tribute in Le Monde, reflecting on his life and what could be learned from it. Bourdieu attributed to his former colleague at the Collège de France a great… Read More ›
A Nobel Peace Prize for Sublimation
I originally wrote the following in October 2012, just after the European Union was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union makes the most sense when you consider the front-runners, which included Julian… Read More ›
In defence of ‘curation’
The term ‘curation’ has got a bad press in recent years. Or rather the use of the term beyond the art world has. To a certain extent I understand this but I nonetheless always feel the need to defend the… Read More ›
After Positivism
In this talk where he discusses previous presentations, Professor Daniel Little talks about what should come after positivism for social sciences. He argues that social sciences have suffered heavily from the twin pillars of positivism and naturalism. The question that… Read More ›
What is ‘Fake News’?
What we are seeing with the growth of ‘fake news’ is perhaps the weaponisation of epistemology. In other words, ‘fake news’ as a construct is becoming a discursive component of our repertoire of contention. Far from entering a post-truth era, we… Read More ›
Call for Proposals: Netflix at the Nexus: Content, Practice, and Production in the Age of Streaming Television
Call for Proposals Netflix at the Nexus: Content, Practice, and Production in the Age of Streaming Television Netflix’s meteoric rise as an online content provider has been well documented and much debated in the popular press and in academic circles…. Read More ›
Why it’s fine to broadcast on Twitter
Foremost amongst the guidance offered about Twitter is the claim that it is fundamentally a conversational platform. One shouldn’t simply ‘broadcast’. It’s for discussion and engagement. There’s an element of truth in this but it’s one which can be lost… Read More ›
The Morphology of Public Engagement
In recent weeks I’ve become fascinated by what I’ve thought of as the poetics of impact and engagement. What linguistic techniques can we identify in how ‘impact’ and ‘engagement’ are written about? What work do they do in terms of… Read More ›
Social Morphogenesis: Five Years of Inquiring Into Social Change
Postmodernity. Second modernity. Network Society. Late modernity. Liquid modernity. Such concepts have dominated social thought in recent decades, with a bewildering array of claims about social change and its implications. But what do we mean by ‘social change’? How do… Read More ›
Queer Circuits in Archival Times
*QUEER CIRCUITS IN ARCHIVAL TIMES: PERFORMANCE, NETWORKED DATA, DIGITAL CULTURE <https://www.womenandperformance.org/submit/current-cfps/>* *Guest Editors*: *Benjamin Haber*, PhD Candidate Sociology, Graduate Center, CUNY + *Daniel J Sander*, PhD Candidate Performance Studies, NYU *Submission Deadline: June 1st 2017* We live in an increasingly… Read More ›
Using graphic novels to communicate your research
Manchester Digital Laboratory Thursday 8th June 2017 09.00-17.00 The Sociological Review Foundation is delighted to announce our forthcoming workshop using graphic novel methods to present social research. We invite applications to take part in a Graphic Novel Workshop with Tony… Read More ›
Rethinking Digital Media and Citizenship: Conditions, Contexts, and Consequences
American Behavioral Scientist (ABS) Special Issue Call for Papers (CFPs) *Rethinking Digital Media and Citizenship:* *Conditions, Contexts, and Consequences* *Guest Editors:* Seungahn Nah (University of Kentucky) Masahiro Yamamoto (University at Albany, State University of New York) *Description:* A substantial body… Read More ›
Do academics write badly because they’re rushing?
I saw the science journalist Simon Makin give an excellent talk yesterday on how social and natural scientists can make their writing clearer. He offered some excellent tips to this end, including assuming your reader is exactly as intelligent as you are, but has absolutely none… Read More ›
Call for special issue proposals: International Journal of Social Research Methodology
The International Journal of Social Research Methodology publishes up to two guest-edited Special Issues per volume. The IJSRM editorial board welcomes proposals for Special Issues for volume 18, to be submitted to the Journal editors by Friday 14th July 2017… Read More ›
The cultural significance of blogging
In his Uberworked and Underpaid, Trebor Scholz offers an important reflection on the cultural significance of blogging. While its uptake has been exaggerated, dependent upon questionable assumptions concerning the relationship between users and blogs, it nonetheless represents a transformation of… Read More ›
Digital labour and the epistemic fallacy
One of the arguments which pervades Uberworked and Underpaid, by Trebor Scholz, concerns the materiality of digital labour. As someone whose back and neck start to ache if I spend too much time at a computer, I’ve always found the… Read More ›
Marketing the Digital University
In the excellent Lower Ed, Tressie McMillan Cottom reflects on the market-orientation of for-profit colleges, tending to seek a continual growth in student numbers. This growth imperative can manifest itself in marketing and recruitment outstripping teaching in institutional spending. From pg… Read More ›
Social Media Training Workshop
Social Media Training Workshop Led by Holly Powell Jones City University, London EC1V 0HB Monday 8 May 2017, 12.30 – 4.00 pm This workshop will be of interest and assistance if you wish to use social media to disseminate… Read More ›
On Irritation, Or, How Social Networks Tend To Make Us Slightly More Assholic
In the last couple of months, I’ve found myself reflecting on irritation. What is it? It’s one of our most recognisable reactions to the world, yet it’s hard to be precise about what it is. Is it an emotion? Is it a state… Read More ›
Keeping the conversation going in an age of scholarly abundance
In the last few years, I’ve become increasingly preoccupied with the notion of ‘the literature’ and how it is invoked by scholars. I’m now rather sceptical of the way in which many people talk about ‘the literature’ and the role it plays… Read More ›
Public engagement, social media and university boundaries
In her wonderful Lower Ed, Tressie Cottom describes how her public profile led to her being in contact with someone who was enormously relevant to her ongoing research. From pg 103: Aaron found me through my public writing and blogging… Read More ›