By Jana Bacevic [These are my thoughts/notes for the “Practice of Social Theory“, which Mark Carrigan and I are running at the Department of Sociology of the University of Cambridge from 4 to 6 September, 2017]. Revival of theory? It… Read More ›
Tag Archive for ‘social theory’
Call for Participants: The Practice of Social Theory
First Cambridge summer school in social theory University of Cambridge, Department of Sociology, 4-6 September 2017 Conveners: Jana Bacevic (University of Cambridge) and Mark Carrigan (The Sociological Review) Passionate about social theory? Want to learn more about how it is… Read More ›
Call for Participants: The Practice of Social Theory
Conveners: Jana Bacevic (University of Cambridge) and Mark Carrigan (The Sociological Review) Passionate about social theory? Want to learn more about how it is created? Interested in seeing theory being made, rather than just read or applied? Apply to… Read More ›
The Impact of Social Theory
The Sociological Review has just published a thought-provoking review of Doug Porpora’s Reconstructing Sociology: The Critical Realist Approach. It gives a lucid, though brief, overview of the book’s core arguments: seven myths which afflict American sociology and seven philosophical counter-points. But… Read More ›
A Bleak Social Theory For Bleak Times
Given the number of times I’ve argued with him on Twitter, it was a surprise to discover quite how much I like Steve Hall’s work. There’s an unapologetic bleakness to it which I find appealing, not as a matter of aesthetics but rather… Read More ›
Theorizing Social Inquiry: Contemporary Debates
Theorizing Social Inquiry: Contemporary Debates University of Edinburgh, Friday 6th May, 2016, 1-5.30pm Summary: This symposium will address contemporary theoretical debates about social science as a form of inquiry – as an active, ongoing process of knowledge production. Areas of… Read More ›
The esoteric appeal of Tony Giddens
From How to become an internationally famous British social theorist by Stewart Clegg, 585-586: “Giddens’s later concerns with structure and agency allow him to tap into many prestigious intellectual products as resources, such as linguistics, analytical philosophy and the Heideggerian… Read More ›
How to shift sociological product: lessons from the career of tony giddens
Taking the lead from Peter Walsh’s laudible work on academic celebrity, here’s some lessons from the career of Tony Giddens which I inferred from this excellent review article Peter pointed me towards, coupled with my own reading of Giddens, who… Read More ›
Podcasts and videocasts from the Social Theory Centre @SocioWarwick
Great to see this being done: Exploring Stigma & Shame: An Interdisciplinary Workshop (14th May 2015) STC Annual Lecture with Imogen Tyler: Classificatory Struggles: Class, Culture and Inequality in Neoliberal Times (13th May) Theories & Methodologies Cluster, APT Symposium Occupational Hazards:… Read More ›
Social theory is something you can’t get away from
From an interview with Margaret Archer in disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory: Well, social theory is something you can’t get away from. It’s indispensible. People in the street are social theorists. They don’t know it, they wouldn’t appropriate the… Read More ›
Are you a PhD student or early career researcher interested in social ontology?
Centre for Social Ontology PhD/ECR Conference June 23rd, University of Warwick, 10am – 4pm Social ontology is integral to the study of society. It is impossible to inquire into the social world without some understanding, at least tacitly, concerning the… Read More ›
The Journal of Applied Social Theory
The Journal of Applied Social Theory is an exciting new journal launched by the team behind Social Theory Applied: The Journal of Applied Social Theory aims to provide an intellectual space where critical applications of social theory (in all its… Read More ›
International Social Theory Consortium 2015 in Cambridge, UK, June 17-19
4th Annual Conference of the International Social Theory Consortium Cambridge, UK, June 17-19, 2015 Details at www.socialtheory.org/ISTC2015 RECONSTRUCTING SOCIAL THEORY, HISTORY AND PRACTICE We are pleased to announce the 2015 meeting of the International Social Theory Consortium to be held… Read More ›
Occupational Hazards (Palestine/Kashmir): Authority & Political Technologies 2015
Sociology Department Theories & Methodologies Cluster and the Authority Research Network Present a two day symposium at the University of Warwick Occupational Hazards: Theories & Methodologies (Palestine/Kashmir) – a workshop: Thursday May 7th. Authority & Political Technologies 2015: Dialogues and Works in Progress: Friday… Read More ›
A world without foundations: Politics, society and history in post-foundationalist thought
International Conference —————————————————————————————————— A world without foundations: Politics, society and history in post-foundationalist thought September 23 & 24, 2015 Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago de Chile Keynote speakers: Oliver Marchart (Academy of Arts Düsseldorf, Germany) Martín Plot (CalArts, EE.UU.) —————————————————————————————————— In… Read More ›
Five important works of realist social theory being published in 2015
To Flourish or Destruct: A Personalist Theory of Human Goods, Motivations, Failure, and Evil Generative Mechanisms Transforming the Social Order (Social Morphogenesis) The Relational Subject Reconstructing Sociology: The Critical Realist Approach A realist philosophy of social science
The End of Theorists?
We’ve indirectly linked to this before but stumbling across it momentarily reminded me of how good it is: The End of Theorists: The Relevance, Opportunities, and Pitfalls of Theorizing in Sociology Today
What is social ontology? An introduction in 13 minutes by Margaret Archer
This podcast is an introduction to social ontology given by Margaret Archer at a Centre for Social Ontology event in June 2014
CFP – BSA Early Career Theorists’ Symposium (29th May, 2015, Goldsmiths)
Submission DEADLINE: 27th January, 2015 We invite early-career sociologists across all research areas to submit abstracts for the 3rd Early Career Theorists’ Symposium (ECT). Submissions from advanced PhD students are also welcome. ECT is a special one-day symposium for up-and-coming… Read More ›
Social Theory Re-Wired
We just discovered this interesting resource produced by Routledge: Social Theory Re-Wired. A rich collection of web-based materials—including interactive versions of key texts, open spaces to write and reflect on readings, biographical sketches of authors, and dozens of supplementary sources—that transports… Read More ›
Time and Reflexivity
In Margaret Archer’s work on Reflexivity, this faculty is seen as mediating between structure and agency. Our capacity to ‘bend back’ upon ourselves, considering our circumstances in light of our commitments and vice versa, constitutes the point at which structural… Read More ›
Junior Theorist Symposium August 2015, Chicago, IL CFP
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 13, 2015 We invite submissions for extended abstracts for the 9th Junior Theorists Symposium (JTS), to be held in Chicago, IL on August 21st, 2015, the day before the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA)…. Read More ›
The unavoidability of sociological theory
There’s an important way in which sociological theory is unavoidable. I mean this in the sense in which Alexander describes the problems of action and order as non-optional: “every theory takes some position on both” (Alexander 1987: 12). This is an… Read More ›
Four concepts of social structure
The concept of ‘social structure’ is central to sociological inquiry yet there is little agreement about what it means. This matters because social explanation hinges on what we take ‘structure’ to be and a lack of ubiquity about the term… Read More ›
Emma Uprichard on Complex Temporal Ontologies and Method – October 28th @SocioWarwick
In the second Centre for Social Ontology seminar of 2014/15, Emma Uprichard (Associate Professor at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies) discusses Complex Temporal Ontologies and Method: This paper reflects on the methodological challenge of applying complexity theory to study social systems. More… Read More ›
Mapping the Philosophy of Social Science
How would you map the current state of the philosophy of social science? I really like how Daniel Little does this here – it’s a very informative post which deserves to be read in full: There is a traditional lineup of… Read More ›
What would happen if an evil scientist wiped the memories of everyone within a workplace?
In a recent paper Tero Piiroinen suggests that “if we all just suddenly lost our memories and other relevant neural dispositions—if no one was able to remember his or her own name, let alone relatives, friends, possessions, occupation, place of residence, and so… Read More ›
Hartmut Rosa on Social Acceleration and Time
This video interview is an excellent introduction to the work of Harmut Rosa on Social Acceleration. The music is a mistake given the low quality of the audio but it’s worth persisting with because the material is great. You can… Read More ›
Social Theory as Optometry
The notion of philosophical under-labouring has been integral to the development of critical realism. It is, as Roy Bhaskar puts it, what critical realist philosophy most characteristically does. The metaphor comes from John Locke but it is deployed in a way that criticises Locke’s philosophical… Read More ›
Sociologies of Everyday Life – Still Time to Submit Your Paper
Sociology A journal of the British Sociological Association Sociologies of Everyday Life Special Issue Call for Papers Deadline for submissions: 31 August 2014 Everyday life sociology is a well-established tradition in the discipline and interest in ways of understanding day-to-day worlds… Read More ›