BSA Annual Conference 2014: Changing Society Call for Papers Theory Stream Submissions This stream welcomes abstracts on any aspect of theory as well as abstracts for the following Study Groups: · Bourdieu · Historical and Comparative Sociology · History of Sociology · Realism and Social Research · Weber The Realism and Social Research group would also like to invite abstracts under the theme “What is Realism for?” The group is particularly interested in papers that consider any of the following issues: The relevance of realist theory to substantive social, economic and political issues. The practical implications of methodologically operationalising different forms of realist thought. Those from other schools of thought who wish to engage critically in a dialogue with realist theory. How to submit All abstracts and proposals for other events can be submitted online at: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/events/bsa‐annual‐ conference/submissions.aspx The deadline for submission of abstracts is 18th October 2013. For further information contact the Theory stream coordinators: Gurminder K Bhambra E: g.k.bhambra@warwick.ac.uk Tom Brock E: T.Brock@mmu.ac.uk Alternatively, contact the BSA Events Team E: events@britsoc.org.uk
Month: September 2013
Hi, I’m helping to organise a conference stream at next year’s Discourse Power and Resistance. For more about the conference check the website out > http://dprconference.com/ There’s an attached description of the theme. As part of the ‘Space and Place in the Democracy Project’ conference stream at Discourse Power Resistance 2014, we are particularly interested in presentations on […]
Only a few days to go…. Supporters of the National Health Service and everybody who wants to defend jobs, services and a decent welfare state will be marching in Manchester on 29 September to deliver a clear message to Conservative Party Conference that we mean to Save Our NHS from cuts and privatisation. Join the marchers there! […]
Neoliberalism thoroughly revises what it means to be a human person.Classical liberalism identified “labor” as the critical original human infusion that both created and justified private property. Foucault correctly identifies the concept of “human capital” as the signal neoliberal departure that undermines centuries of political thought that parlayed humanism into stories of natural rights. Not only […]
This stream welcomes abstracts on any aspect of theory as well as abstracts for the following Study Groups: · Bourdieu · Historical and Comparative Sociology · History of Sociology · Realism and Social Research · Weber The Realism and Social Research group would also like to invite abstracts under the theme “What is Realism for?”. The […]
Beyond ‘Fateful Moments’ and ‘Turning Points’: Conceptualizing Biographical Events and Their Relationship To Social Change Advocates of biographical research often talk of it in terms of the “dynamic interplay of individuals and history, inner and outer worlds, self and other” underwritten by a view of “human beings as active agents in making their lives rather […]
The process of de-divinization which I described in the previous two chapters would, ideally, culminate in our no longer being able to see any use for the notion that finite, mortal, contingently existing human beings might derive the meanings of their lives from anything except other finite, mortal, contingently existing human beings. – Richard Rorty, […]
A few days after Bruce Springsteen appeared with Gaslight Anthem at Glastonbury, he invited Brian Fallon on stage with him at Hyde Park Calling. It’s hard to watch this video and not get the impression that the minute following 1:23 was probably the happiest moment of Brian’s life (though he does look like he’s about […]
This is a quick attempt to elaborate on a thought which kept coming back to me during the Quantified Self seminar on Tuesday. It seems obvious to me that one of the key conceptual questions encountered in studying technology which augments human capacities (and this category is obviously much wider than digital self-tracking) is the […]
Earlier this week the first meeting of the Quantified Self Research Network took place at the University Leeds. This was established by myself and Chris Till in order to help encourage interdisciplinary dialogue amongst people working on different aspects of Quantified Self. Our assumption was that there were a lot of people who intended to work […]
One writer who made a huge impact on me during my transition from philosophy to sociology was Ken Plummer. There are many aspects of his work which I now have problems with but I think my engagement with his work (particularly Sexual Stigma, Telling Sexual Stories and Documents of Life) had a big impact on […]
This came through on the Asexuality Studies mailing list – posted here because of the likelihood some not on the list might want to read it: I have finished my Master’s Thesis: Asexuality as a Spectrum: A National Probability Sample Comparison to the Sexual Community in the UK The final product is available here to […]
Daniel Allington, The Open University http://www.danielallington.net 1 October 2013 Centre for e-Research Anatomy Museum Space King’s Building (6th Floor) King’s College London The Strand London According to Bourdieu, the value of art, literature, etc is a form of belief that is produced within the cultural field and then propagated outwards into wider society through public-facing […]
There’s a fascinating post on Stumbling and Mumbling looking at the political implications of beliefs being path-dependent: However, according to Matthew Parris in the Times, many Tories have such out-dated attitudes to unions. He says they believe they benefit from Labour’s “indefensible” links with unions: They know the toxic potency in millions of minds of […]
What does ‘public sociology’ entail in a world of facebook, twitter, youtube, slideshare, soundcloud, pinterest and wordpress? What affordances and constraints do these tools entail for the task of “taking knowledge back to those from whom it came, making public issues out of private troubles, and thus regenerating sociology’s moral fibre”? What implications do these tools have […]
So as most people reading this will probably realise, Žižek bashing and boosting has been somewhat in vogue within certain sections of the academic blogosphere in recent months. The Sociological Imagination was an enthusiastic part of this recently, through an ever-so-slightly polemic blog post penned by Steve Fuller, Slavoj Zizek may be great at beating up […]
People who build castles in the air do not, for the most part accomplish much, it is true; but every man who does accomplish great things is given to building elaborate castles in the air and then playfully copying them on solid ground … Mere imagination would be indeed be mere trifling; only no imagination […]
