From On Sociology by John Goldthorope, pg 7. This is a really nice description of the intellectual conditions necessary for someone like Žižek to come along and publish 55 books in 14 years: Such a response, it may be noted, is highly congenial to those theorists who would believe that the main task of theoretical […]
Month: April 2016
An interesting footnote in On Sociology by John Goldthorpe speculates on the possibility of Sociology’s collapse. From pg 9: Such a collapse could conceivably come about through a series of ‘secessions’. For example, some university departments of sociology have already became in effect departments of ‘cultural studies’, and this could then prompt sociologists committed to […]
Something to remember as the Tory-led condemnation of Labour’s alleged anti-Semitism reaches fever pitch: Shadow education minister Lucy Powell ran day-to-day operations for Labour’s 2015 general election campaign. That year’s dog-whistle consisted of telling the electorate, again and again, that Labour had never apologised for destroying the economy, and that Ed Miliband stabbed his brother […]
The Sociological Review Annual Sociology Lecture Friday May 20th 2016, 17.45-21.00 SOAS, University of London This event is free but it is essential to register. To reserve a place, please email Jenny Thatcher [events@thesociologicalreview.com]. Keynote: Professor Éric Fassin (Université Paris-8) Discussants: Professor Gurminder K Bhambra (University of Warwick, UK and Linnaeus University, Sweden) and Dr […]
Clearing out my stock of library books, some of which I’ve had for a number of years, I’ve inevitably been drawn into looking through books I was once excited about before subsequently forgetting. Jeff Alexander’s Twenty Lecture in Social Theory is foremost among these, as a book I’d skim read but on second reading is […]
Re-orienting Sociological Thought? Glamorgan Council Chamber, Glamorgan Building, Cardiff University, School of Social Sciences Cardiff University 2pm to 4pm, Wednesday, May 11th 2016 In recent years, we’ve seen the proliferation of calls to reorientate sociological thought around new concerns, methodologies and approaches that can ground the discipline in changing times. This symposium brings together advocates of […]
From pg 258 of his Twenty Lectures in Social Theory: For a theorist to maintain individualism in a clear and honest way, he must introduce fantastic randomness into his picture of how the world comes to be orderly. Basically, he must deny that patterning exists outside of any specific situation. Most theorists, however, precisely because they […]
Breathe For Meby Martin O’Brien Thu 5 May 2016 – 7.45pm Martin O’Brien’s practice focuses on physical endurance and disgust in relation to the fact he suffers from cystic fibrosis. Breathe for Me considers the nature of the regulated chronically ill body. Martin O’Brien re-embodies and takes pleasure in the excessive performance of an already […]
And on a similar(ish) note:
I’m very interested in this concept, which I was introduced to through the work of Pierpaolo Donati and Andrea Maccarini earlier this year. It emerged from the work of Arnold Gehlen and refers to the role of human institutions in unburdening us from existential demands. This is quoted from his Human Beings and Institutions on pg 257 […]
Looks interesting: Media Archaeology summer school University of Pisa July 4-8 350 € (300 € for registration by May 2) Includes course materials, lunches, and coffee breaks Program description: Rather than a discipline, Media Archaeology may be seen as a perspective which addresses different practices and methodological approaches. Media culture – including the culture of […]
An interesting idea from Craig Lambert’s Shadow Work loc 3116 which deserves to be explored in greater depth: As noted earlier, philosopher John Locke argued that labor creates property; taking his view, if your shadow work made some information, it is your possession. In fact, who owns your data—your informational body—may some day be as […]
This is a really nice description from Craig Lambert’s Shadow Work of a problem I describe in a forthcoming paper as the multiplication of communication channels. From loc 3038-3054: The mushrooming number of communication channels spins off another type of shadow work. At one time, to reach a friend, you could send a letter or […]
From Shadow Work, by Craig Lambert, loc 2884: Routinely, businesses now ask shadow-working customers to cough up personal information as a way to smooth transactions, or even enable them to buy things at all. To make online purchases, customers open accounts with bookstores, banks, newspapers, utilities, sports teams, apparel vendors, phone service providers, and so […]
From Shadow Work, by Craig Lambert, loc 2301. Does anyone know of ethnographies exploring the motivations of those who do this work and the meanings they attach to it? Apple online “communities” at discussions.apple.com, for example, include forums for users of most kinds of Apple software, like iTunes and Apple Pay, as well as Apple […]
Thanks to Dave O’Brien for recording this podcast with me about my book for New Books In Sociology.
This passage from Shadow Work, by Craig Lambert, conveys what I’ve written about in two recent papers as the challenge of cultural abundance. From loc 1395: To be sure, posting creations does not guarantee them an audience. Far from it. Take the songs that anyone can now publish online and sell as downloads. In 2011, […]
A delightfully cynical view about citizen science in Shadow Work, by Craig Lambert, loc 1521-1536. I don’t think I agree with him but I struggle to articulate why exactly. This is a challenge that proponents of citizen science need to be able to answer: NONETHELESS, IF THE work is interesting, some organizations can attract support […]
From Shadow Work, by Craig Lambert, loc 198: Commuting—the job of getting to the job—is an unpaid task done to serve the employer. It has become so woven into American life that we scarcely recognize it for what it is. Yet commuting is very expensive, time-consuming shadow work. The commuter must either brave crowded public […]
It helps you become more clear about your ideas. It gives you practice at presenting your ideas for a non-specialist audience. It increases your visibility within academia. It increases your visibility outside academia and makes it much easier for journalists, campaigners and practitioners to find you. It increases your visibility more than a static site and allows […]
