One of the clear themes which emerged for me when reading Merchants of Doubt, a detailed exploration of corporate propaganda by historians of science Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, concerns the politics of public engagement. What might in other circumstances seem like anodyne… Read More ›
Tag Archive for ‘public engagement’
Trolling, public engagement and the sociology of knowledge
In recent months, I’ve become preoccupied by how we make sense of the experiences of academics being harassed or trolled when using social media. My initial interest in this was in my capacity as a trainer and consultant. One of… Read More ›
Public Engagement and Social Media
There’s a really important piece in the LSE Impact Blog by Philip Moriarty describing his experiences using social media for public engagement. In many ways he has been the embodiment of the engaged academic, driven by a sense of responsibility… Read More ›
Making an Impact with Social Media, July 5th in Manchester
Many researchers are excited about the potential social media offers for making an impact with their work. However 500 million tweets per day, 3 million blog posts per day and over a billion websites poses an obvious challenge: how can… 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 ›
Public sociology and the role of the researcher: engagement, communication and academic activism
29 March 2017 De Montfort University, Leicester – FULL DETAILS & PROGRAMME What is the role of the researcher outside the academy? This event invites Postgraduate and Early Career Researchers to innovate and critically reflect on three related areas of… Read More ›
A wonderful example of how universities can use YouTube
There’s a background to this hugely succesful engagement project here:
We should be very careful about how we construct ‘the public’ in discourses of public engagement
I just came across this description of Robert Moses, by the American Sociologist and former Secretary of Labour Frances Perkins, concerning his attitude towards the public. It was quoted in an essay by Jackson Lears in vol 38 number 6 of… Read More ›
Social media for academics and the risk of becoming ‘TED heads’
One of the anxieties I’ve regularly encountered about social media for academics is that it might lead to a devaluing of academic culture. What if I were to tell you that the spectre haunting the imagination of academics is the… Read More ›
Academic life and the marketplace of ideas
This is an extract from Social Media for Academics by Mark Carrigan The ‘marketplace of ideas’ is a term I found irritatingly trite when I first heard it. I’ve since come to think it captures something important, namely the environment in… Read More ›
Is social media ‘the new black’? Thoughts on digital scholarship as fashion and fad
These are some notes in preparation for my participation in this panel next week. I like the title of the event because it neatly raises something which I’ve been preoccupied by recently and is a key theme in the final… Read More ›
Dare to Do it Differently: Creative Methods In Gender and Sexuality Research & Public Engagement
Dare to Do it Differently: Creative Methods In Gender and Sexuality Research & Public Engagement Transforming Sexuality and Gender Research cluster event on: Friday 3rd July from p.m, Falmer Campus, University of Brighton Want to explore beyond well-used methods that reproduce well-established stories about sex, gender, sexuality… Read More ›
ISRF Workshop: Social Science as Communication
ISRF Workshop: Social Science as Communication June 1st & 2nd 2015 – Summerhall, Edinburgh Click Here to Register The Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF) provides competitive funding for independent–minded researchers. It supports original work which takes new approaches and suggests… Read More ›
Engaging with communities workshop
ENGAGING WITH COMMUNITIES WORKSHOP, LONDON Wednesday, May 20th, 10:30am to 3:30pm We have launched a brand new workshop aimed at academics wanting to, or already working with community based organisations and groups. The workshop will provide you with an… Read More ›
Using social media to improve the student experience: creating a departmental back channel for undergraduates
A few years ago when I was running the Twitter feed for the Sociology department at Warwick, I noticed how readily first year undergraduates tweeted practical questions to the account during their first few weeks of the first term. Students… Read More ›
Opening up @soc_imagination as a platform for public engagement
In my talk at the Digital Sociology conference in New York in February 2015 (available online here) I explained my enthusiasm for the new possibilities afforded by social media for doing research in real time with communities. These are the… Read More ›
19 interesting ways to communicate knowledge
Through Design Fiction (e.g. Zero Hours) Through Social Fiction (e.g. Low Fat Love) Through Visual Journalism (e.g. Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt) Through Visual Biography (e.g. Robert Moses: The Master Builder of New York City) Through Graphic Novels (I… Read More ›
Are academics very well-educated journalists who write badly but will work for free?
A few years ago I wrote a short article about the relationship between academic blogging and journalism which received a pretty positive reaction online. My suggestion was that academic blogging increasingly constitutes a ‘third space’ between the academy and journalism… Read More ›
11 reasons why we need a Chair for the Public Understanding of Sociology
It would provide a default point of contact for the media when looking for a sociological perspective. It would allow someone the time & support necessary to build up working relationships with a wide range of figures in the media…. Read More ›
Being a link between the academic world and local communities
This podcast is a talk by Lisa Mckenzie (twitter.com/redrumlisa) given at a Politics of Public Engagement in January 2014. You can read Lisa’s post for us here. Her new book has just been released.
Translating the Social Sciences
This episode of the Office Hour’s podcast interviews Emily Bazelon about the challenges of translating the social sciences: In this episode we speak to Emily Bazelon. Emily is former senior editor at Slate, a New York Times Magazine staff writer, and… Read More ›
What’s the difference between ‘public intellectualism’ and being unusually willing to talk about stuff in public?
In the last year I’ve had a selection of requests from the media to talk on an eclectic range of issues: contemporary sexual culture, the quantified self, dystopic social change, the limits of liberal tolerance and hipster hatred. I’m fairly confident in… Read More ›
Improving the relationship between academics and journalists
Having spent a lot of time working with journalists, I’m very aware of the difficult questions contrasting world views can pose and the lack of support for negotiating them in many areas of higher education. At various points in the last few years, I’ve… Read More ›
Getting your research noticed by journalists
Interested in getting your research noticed by journalists? The LSE Impact Blog recently published an article by a politics PhD student which reflected on this process. Engaging with the media is something which PhD students are rarely encouraged to do but… Read More ›
Getting Started: Public Engagement for Social Scientists
“Getting Started: Public Engagement for Social Scientists” on Bundlr
Social Science and the Politics of Public Engagement
Social Science and the Politics of Public Engagement Tuesday, January 28, 2014 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM Open University Camden Centre, 1 – 11 Hawley Crescent, Camden Town, London In recent years new technology has begun to facilitate ever… Read More ›
What does it mean to be a public intellectual in an age of austerity?
The higher education system is going through a period of profound change, with newfound opportunities opening up for the superstar professors to develop their brand through MOOCs, TV and cinema. Where will it all lead? Fortunately the renowned anthropologist Robin Dunbar has opted to… Read More ›
Social Science and the Politics of Public Engagement
Social Science and the Politics of Public Engagement Tuesday, January 28, 2014 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM Open University Camden Centre, 1 – 11 Hawley Crescent, Camden Town, London In recent years new technology has begun to facilitate ever… Read More ›
CfP: Discover Society
Announcing a new monthly online magazine of social research, policy analysis and commentary CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS DISCOVER SOCIETY Measured-Factual-Critical http://discoversociety.org We publish short (1500 word) research-based articles on social topics. We also publish: ‘Viewpoints’ (on current social issues); ‘Policy Briefings’;… Read More ›