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  • The Progressive War on the 1%

    How widespread are these views? I’m fascinated by how someone can become so detached from reality as to make this comparison. Presuming it’s not a calculated media intervention (why would it be? it makes him look like absurd) then how someone can come to hold such a belief demands explanation. The capacity to draw a…

  • Chris Smith on Religion & Human Personhood

  • What would a viable left-wing populist agenda for the UK look like?

    Quite a lot like this I’d imagine. I’ll never understand the contempt with which some on the left regard Owen Jones. I think this is great:  1) A statutory living wage, with immediate effect, for large businesses and the  public sector, and phased  in for small and medium  businesses over a five-year Parliament. This would save…

  • The Asexual Story Project

      (HT Ace-Muslim)  

  • Julian Assange in conversation with Slavoj Zizek

  • People were wondering what goes on inside a cat’s head. This guy nails it.

    (HT @megbarkerpsych)

  • I feel sick tonight

    Nothing is more entertaining, Than fuckin’ with words and their arrangement, Every syllable can rhyme, If you will afford the time, But now I’ll leave it there alright, And simply declare, I feel sick tonight. I feel sick tonight. I’m seeing them tomorrow night and my excitement has been diminished somewhat by discovering that the…

  • CfP: Digital Sociology PhD/ECR Workshop

    Are you a PhD student or Early Career Researcher doing work in digital sociology? The BSA Digital Sociology Group has organised a PhD/ECR Workshop where a limited number of participants can get feedback on their work from peers and established academics in a supportive environment. The event will take place between 11am to 4pm on February 19th at…

  • CfP: Quantified Self Research Network, March 25th

    The next meeting of the Quantified Self Research Network will take place on the 25th March at the University of Warwick from 1pm to 6pm. It’s an informal seminar to present work in progress and is open to all. If you would like to contribute then please send a short abstract and bio to mark@markcarrigan.net by February 1st. We use ‘quantified…

  • Capitalism Is The Crisis

  • it’s just so easy, it’s hard….

  • Noam Chomsky on “What is Anarchism?”

    Four thoughts: I love “what is X” questions. “Widening the bars of the cage” is the most succinct way I can articulate my orientation to political questions. Claiming Dewey as a proto-anarchist would be a wonderful intellectual move It would also be a terrific rejoinder to the self-indulgent liberalism of Richard Rorty

  • This is what my PhD is about — “What should I do with my 20s?”

    (ht Study Hacks)

  • We’re all in it together within #HigherEd

    In an email, seen by the Guardian, one university said that going on strike was a breach of staff’s employment contracts. Although the strike is only set to last for two hours at lunch time, university bosses told academics that they should leave for a whole day, if they wanted to strike. The email said:…

  • CfP: Quantified Self Research Network, March 25th

    The next meeting of the Quantified Self Research Network will take place on the 25th March at the University of Warwick from 1pm to 6pm. It’s an informal seminar to present work in progress and is open to all. If you would like to contribute then please send a short abstract and bio to mark@markcarrigan.net by February 1st. We use ‘quantified…

  • CfP: Digital Sociology PhD/ECR Workshop

    Are you a PhD student or Early Career Researcher doing work in digital sociology? The BSA Digital Sociology Group has organised a PhD/ECR Workshop where a limited number of participants can get feedback on their work from peers and established academics in a supportive environment. The event will take place between 11am to 4pm on February 19th at…

  • Call for papers – social movements and memories

    Please find below the call for papers for the panel “Social Movements and Memories”, proposed to the ECPR general conference 2014. Please feel free to distribute this call to interested colleagues. Please send paper abstracts (max. 250 words) by 26 January 2014 to:p.daphi@hu-berlin.de orlorenzo.zamponi@eui.eu Social Movements and Memorie Chair: Priska Daphi (Humboldt University Berlin) p.daphi@hu-berlin.de Discussant: Lorenzo Zamponi (European University…

  • No more google adverts for @soc_imagination

    There have been a few instances of really problematic adverts since I registered the site for Google Ads a year and a half ago. But Wonga is a step too far. I’ve been as picky as the system will allow me to be in setting which categories of advert are acceptable for the site but…

  • 1+ Hour Of Zelda Dubstep

  • Utterly beautiful flash mob (how strange to find myself typing that)

  • Against ‘norm circles’

    Dave Elder-Vass (2010: 122) argues that normativity should be understood as a result of ‘norm circles’ which “have emergent causal powers to influence their members, by virtue of the ways in which those members interact in them”. These powers are founded on the commitment which members of the circle have to endorse and enforce practices…

  • Working Paper: Realism, Biography and (a)Sexuality

    In this paper I explore the role of sexual categories in the lived experience of contemporary young people through a case study of the asexual community. While still representing a relatively small area of research within contemporary sexuality studies, asexuality (commonly defined as people who do not experience sexual attraction) has become the focus of…

  • The return of absolute poverty in the UK

    Michael Meacher gave a great speech on Jan 13th which seems to have attracted little attention in the media: It is clear that something terrible is happening across the face of Britain. We are seeing the return of absolute poverty, which has not existed in this country since the Victorian age, more than a century…

  • Analysing mothers’ blogs about feeding families – free seminar

    ‘Analysing mothers’ blogs about feeding families: findings, methodological and ethical issues’ SRA free evening seminar, 29 Jan. Presenters – Heather Elliott, Rebecca O’Connell, Corinne Squire (Novella) , Myrrh Domingo, Gunther Kress (MODE). Mothers’ strategies for feeding their children in the context of rising food prices, socio-economic ‘austerity’ measures, and ‘time poverty’, have attracted increasing media attention,…

  • Queering the Creative City – Call for Papers

    CfP – please feel free to forward and address any queries to the organisers. Queering the Creative City – Call for Papers Royal Geographical Society with IBG Annual Conference, London, 27-29 August 2014. During the last decade, an increasing interest has been seen by urban and economic geographers around the creative economy, creative cities, and…

  • The ‘creative confusion’ of the near to completion PhD student

    I came across a lovely passage in an intellectual biography of Montaigne I read recently: A more private kind of writerly doubt sometimes afflicted him, all the same. He could not pick the book up without being thrown into creative confusion. “For my part, I do not judge the value of any other work less clearly…

  • MAXQDA user conference: CAQD – Berlin, March 6-7

    Dear all, The 16th Conference on Computer-Assisted Analysis of Qualitative Data (CAQD) will be held in Berlin from March 6 to 7, 2014 consisting of two keynote addresses, workshops, and a poster session. KEYNOTES: – New Horizions for Mixed Methods Analysis, Prof. Dr. Udo Kuckartz, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany – Using QDA software in the context of field…

  • Queer London Research Forum LGBT History Month events

    MONDAY 17th February: The Ageing Queer populations of London (7pm, The Boardroom, 309 Regent Street) This panel discussion will explore the challenges, opportunities and difficulties facing London’s ageing queer populations. How do older queer populations experience London and how do they read it differently? In part, the event will also consider how soap operas offer a frame…

  • 2014 Call for Papers for NWSA Asexuality Studies Interest Group

    2014 Call for Papers about Asexuality Asexuality Studies Interest Group National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) November 13-16, 2014, San Juan, Puerto Rico  The NWSA Asexuality Studies Interest Group welcomes papers for the 2014 NWSA annual conference. These asexuality-related themes are orientated towards the full NWSA 2014 CFP which can be found here: http://www.nwsa.org/files/NWSA%202014%20CFP_Final.pdf If you…

  • Putin: “some of my best friends are gay”

    When Marr got Putin one-on-one briefly, he again raised the gay issue. Putin insisted he had no personal problem with gay people: “If you want to know what I personally think about this, a person’s sexual orientation actually does not make any difference to me. I know a few of them, and I am on…

  • The increasingly fuzzy boundary between public and private security

    Business Crime Reduction Partnerships (BCRPs) perform a valuable function as part of local community efforts to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour which effects businesses, their staff, customers and the community. Their work is now recognised by police, community safety and community safety partnerships as providing a valuable source of information and demonstrating practical steps to…

  • Wolfgang Hofkirchner: Facing Complexity – General System Theory

  • Wolfgang Hofkirchner – ICTs and Society Research – What for?

  • Call for Papers: Media Sociology Preconference, ASA 2014

    Call for Papers: Media Sociology Preconference, ASA 2014 Venue: Mills College (Oakland, CA) Date: August 15, 2014 We invite submissions for a second preconference on media sociology to be held at Mills College (Oakland, CA) on Friday, August 15, 2014. (This is one day before the start of the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in…

  • Tony Lawson – Really Reorienting Modern Economics

  • Margaret Archer – We are what we love: love and identity

  • The Apostrophe Protection Society

    Does anyone else find this as interesting as I do? See here for examples of the linguistic degeneracy which the society seeks to ameliorate.

  • Shostakovich – Symphony No. 5

  • CfP: Quantified Self Research Network, March 25th

    The next meeting of the Quantified Self Research Network will take place on the 25th March at the University of Warwick from 1pm to 6pm. It’s an informal seminar to present work in progress and is open to all. If you would like to contribute then please send a short abstract and bio to mark@markcarrigan.net by February 1st. We use ‘quantified…

  • CfP: Young People, Precarious Work and Trade Unionism

    Call for Papers on Young people, Precarious Work and Trade Unionism SASE/Chicago 2014 Mini-Conference, July 10-12, 2014 Deadline for extended abstracts 20th January 2014 We invite abstracts on the topic of ‘Young People, Precarious Work and Trade Unionism’ for a mini-conference at the 2014 annual meeting of the Society for Advancement of Socio-Economics, Northwestern University and the University…

  • CfP: Kate Millett Conference

    Flying: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Kate Millett 30 May 2014 School of Arts Birkbeck, University of London Supported by the Feminist Review Trust Keynote: Victoria Hesford (SUNY Stony Brook University), author of Feeling Women’s Liberation (Duke UP, 2013) Papers are invited for an interdisciplinary conference dedicated to the work of Kate Millett. Millett became an…

  • Did U2 ruin the Mandela film for anyone else?

    Sure, it was not a film without its problems. But I thought the direction was intelligent and sensitive, particularly in its portrayal of political violence and the context within which it came to prominence as a tactic. Plus Idris Elba’s performance was superb. But then it ended with this: U2!??? Seriously……? Itch from the King…

  • Shostakovich: Symphony #3 In E Flat Major, Op.20 ‘The First Of May’ – To Verses by Semion Kirsanov

  • Is speculative realism just critical realism without the sociology of (social) science?

    An interesting post on An und für sich reminded me of this question which I’ve long wondered about the answer to. From what I know of speculative realism, Graham Harman is the thinker who appeals to me most and I have some of his papers on my reading list. But it’s a long list. I’m really intrigued by…

  • Call for Papers: Futures in Question conference

    Call for Papers   FUTURES IN QUESTION   11-12 September 2014   Goldsmiths, University of London    How is the future imagined, planned for and manifested as the site of social and political struggle? Is the idea of progress towards a better future challenged as a result of financial, environmental, political and health crises? How…

  • International Symposium on Wearable Computers

    International Symposium on Wearable Computers ISWC 2014 will be held in Downtown Seattle, WA, USA from Sep. 13-17 and is collocated with the ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp’14) (and is followed by the Automotive UI 2014) . The International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC) is a conference dedicated to cutting-edge research in wearable technologies, and is the premier…

  • Social Media in Social Research – call for papers

    The SRA is holding our fourth annual Social Media in Social Research conference on 19 May this year.  It’s an all-day event at the British Library’s conference centre in London (Bronte room, so around 75 delegate places). We are now inviting papers for presentations of 30 mins (including audience Q&A).  These can be from the academic research,…

  • The Backlash Moral Panic Film Club

    Did you know that you could potentially be prosecuted for taking consensual, private pictures of yourself or your partner, if the government deems them to be obscene? Join us in an evening of disgust and moral panic to raise funds to support academic, legal and campaigning resources defending freedom of sexual expression and the right…

  • Enduring love? – Warwick, Jan. 29

    Warwick Sociology Seminar Series Wednesday 29 January, 2014 (5:00–6:30pm) Gillian Rose Room, 3rd floor, Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, Coventry followed by a drinks reception in the foyer of the Ramphal Building. All welcome. Jacqui Gabb, Social Policy and Criminology, The Open University Enduring love? The in/significance of sex and sexuality in long-term couple…

  • CfP: Digital Sociology PhD/ECR Workshop

    Are you a PhD student or Early Career Researcher doing work in digital sociology? The BSA Digital Sociology Group has organised a PhD/ECR Workshop where a limited number of participants can get feedback on their work from peers and established academics in a supportive environment. The event will take place between 11am to 4pm on February 19th at…

  • CfP: Quantified Self Research Network, March 25th

    The next meeting of the Quantified Self Research Network will take place on the 25th March at the University of Warwick from 1pm to 6pm. It’s an informal seminar to present work in progress and is open to all. If you would like to contribute then please send a short abstract and bio to mark@markcarrigan.net by February 1st. We use ‘quantified…

  • Creative Citizens Call for Papers

    Creative Citizens Conference Royal College of Art, London September 18-19 2014. FFI http://creativecitizens.co.uk/events/ Call for Papers – closing January 20th 2014 Creative citizens make new things happen in their communities. Their activities are vital to civic life but also to the creative economy, where their contribution mostly goes uncounted. They invent new ways of delivering music, visual art,…

  • Launch of ‘SexGen Northern Network’ and seminar on Compulsory Sexualities

    I’m speaking at this and I’m really looking forward to it: We would like to invite you to get involved in the ‘sexgen’ network. ‘sexgen’ is a collaborative interdisciplinary network bringing together gender and sexuality based research centres around the North of England. We aim to bring academic research, writing and thinking on gender and sexuality into…

  • The Family, Sexuality, and Human Rights in Global Perspective, 23rd Jan, Glasgow

    The Glasgow Human Rights Network, in association with the Gender and Sexualities Forum, is pleased to announce the following event: The Family, Sexuality, and Human Rights in Global Perspective Chair: Dr. Vikki Turbine (Politics, University of Glasgow) Dr. Kelly Kollman (Politics, University of Glasgow) Dr. Roona Simpson (Sociology, University of Glasgow) Dr. Matthew Waites (Sociology, University of…

  • Open Panel: Quantifying Affect and Emotion, Past and Present

    Open Panel: Quantifying Affect and Emotion, Past and Present Annual Meeting of the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S), August 20-23 2014, Buenos Aires, Argentina In an age of “Big Data,” the enumeration of feelings has become big business. Increasingly sophisticated facial recognition algorithms, techniques of textual sentiment analysis, and sensors able to…

  • Rorty, Realism and the Idea of Freedom

    In contrast to the scorn which Rorty’s name now provokes in some quarters, it’s arresting to see the esteem in which he was held by Roy Bhaskar in the late 80s, albeit in the context of a trenchant philosophical critique. He commends Rorty’s “eloquent critique of the epistemological problematic” but intends to argue that Rorty…

  • CfP: Diffusion of Ideas

    CALL FOR PAPERS: ESPAnet 2014-STREAM: DIFFUSION OF IDEAS 12th Annual Conference: ESPAnet 2014 Oslo. 4-6 September, 2014 «Beyond the Crisis in Europe New Opportunities for reconciling sustainability. Equality and economic robustness» Organisers: NOVA & the Oslo and Akershus University Colleges of Applied Sciences, Norway The deadline for applications is 12 March 2014! STREAM: DIFFUSION OF IDEAS Stream…

  • IACR Annual Conference 2014

    The 2014 IACR Annual Conference will take place on 18th to 21st July at the International Centre of Critical Realism (ICCR) at the London Institute of Education. Conference website:www.ioe.ac.uk/iccr The event will also be the inaugural Conference for the new international centre for Critical Realism.  Pre- and post-conference program: 16th-18th July: Pre-Conference workshop on critical realism 21st July (after lunch): An exploratory…

  • The pseudo-problem of incommensurability

    Does it follow, as Feyerabend and Kuhn contend, that there can then be no rational grounds for choosing between them? No. For we can allow that a theory Ta is preferable to a theory Tb, even if they are incommensurable, provided that Ta can explain under its descriptions almost all the phenomena P1…Pn that Tb can explain…

  • Roy Bhaskar on the Fetishisation of Facts

    What is a ‘fact’? This deceptively simple question provides a route into the most pressing issues concerning the philosophy of science. In a short essay, “Philosophies as Ideologies of Science: A Contribution to the Critique of Positivism”, Roy Bhaskar offers a compelling answer to this question which impressively incorporates an epistemic account of knowledge alongside…

  • Call for papers – Social media in social research

    The Social Research Association will be hosting our fourth annual Social Media in Social Research conference on Friday 16 May 2014, at the British Library Conference Centre in London (Bronte room).  This well-established event brings together social researchers from many different areas to share experiences and issues. We would like to receive papers and presentations on…

  • Reminder & Call for Posters, CAQD, Berlin, March 6-7, 2014

    The 16th Conference on Computer-Assisted Analysis of Qualitative Data (CAQD) will be held in Berlin from March 6 to 7, 2014. You will find all relevant details on the registration and the academic program at www.caqd.de/start The conference offers a combination of workshops, methods discussions and reports from research practice. CAQD will feature a total of 17…

  • Cultural Difference and Social Solidarity Network

    4th International Conference Cultural Difference and Social Solidarity Network Differences, Solidarities and Digital Technologies Hosted by Middle East Technical University Northern Cyprus Campus Tuesday, 1 July through Friday, 4 July, 2014 The 4th International Conference of the Cultural Difference and Social Solidarity Network aims to examine the influence of the spread and growth of digital…

  • Laddism and Higher Education

    Laddism and Higher Education A one-day SEN symposium discussing masculine behaviours and student culture. The Student Experience Network of the SRHE is holding a one day symposium on laddism and Higher Education. Its focus is on the intersection of such masculine behaviours with student culture, minorities, lived experience, and the night-time economy, all areas which…

  • ‘It’s not immaterial’ – Materiality at work

    BSA Work, Employment and Economic Life Study Group Seminar/Workshop ‘It’s not immaterial’ – Materiality at work Friday 24 January 2014, 13:30-17:00 BSA Meeting Room, Imperial Wharf, London. The BSA WEEL group is holding a half day seminar/workshop on materiality at work on Friday 24th January 1.30pm – 5pm. How does the material environment of work matter?…

  • Researching Human Fatigue in the Workplace Network

    The Researching Human Fatigue in the Workplace network is holding a symposium on the 27th January, 2.30-5.30. We are delighted to be hosting two expert speakers on this topic followed by discussions. Professor Andy Smith, from Cardiff University, UK, will discuss “Cognitive fatigue at work: from the laboratory to the sea”. Professor Sabine Sonnentag, from the…

  • CfP: ‘Where Now for Social Justice?’

    CALL FOR PAPERS ‘WHERE NOW FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE? THE MARGINALISATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE UK’ Thursday 12th – Friday 13th June 2014 We are inviting abstracts for a Two day Conference at Canterbury Christ Church University, Kent, UK on behalf of the Inclusion Equalities and Social Justice Theme and the Research Centre for Children, Families and…

  • Constructing Sexual Subjects – The CSWG Graduate Seminar Series @SocioWarwick

    The CSWG Graduate Seminar Series starts off this term with a seminar entitled Constructing Sexual Subjects to be held on Wednesday the 22th of January,5pm-7pm in the Ramphal Builing, room R0.14. Presentations: Julieta Vartabedian, University of Newcastle Do they transgress? On Brazilian travesti sex workers and their perceptions of themselves. Stephen Symons, University of Northampton Any swing goes? Discursive constructions of swinger- identities in a mononormative…

  • CFP: “Inclusionary Youth Geographies: Changes, Challenges and Responsibilities”, IGU Krakow 2014

    2014 IGU Regional Conference, 18-22.08.2014, Kraków, Poland (For more information about the conference, see http://www.igu2014.org) Call for papers: “Inclusionary Youth Geographies: Changes, Challenges and Responsibilities” Session organisers: Fiona M. Smith (University of Dundee, UK), Matej Blazek (Loughborough University, UK), Kathrin Hörschelmann (Leibniz-Institute for Regional Geography, Germany, and University of Durham, UK) Over the last couple of decades,…

  • SIID 5th Annual Postgraduate Conference: 2nd Call for Papers

    SIID 5th Annual Postgraduate Conference: 2nd Call for Papers “Multidisciplinary Insights into International Development: Reconciling the Divided Priorities of One Global Nation” 25th March 2014, University of Sheffield Keynote Speaker: Duncan Green, Oxfam GB The Sheffield Institute for International Development (SIID) would like to announce the second call for papers for the 5th Annual Postgraduate Conference. This event…

  • Popular Education Network Conference 2014 – Malta

    The 6th International Conference of the Popular Education Network (PEN) Thursday 24 – Saturday 26 April 2014 University of Malta Valletta Campus This conference seeks to build on the success of previous PEN conferences held in Edinburgh (2000), Barcelona (2002), Braga (2004), Maynooth (2007) and Seville (2011). The conference is an opportunity for university-based teachers…

  • Social and Political Critique in the Age of Austerity

    CALL FOR ABSTRACTS Social and Political Critique in the Age of Austerity A one day workshop at Keele University 10.30am-6pm, Wednesday 12th February, 2014 This one day workshop is devoted to the discussion of critical politics in the contemporary age of austerity.  Following the 2007 global economic crash, which led to a raft of government bank bail…

  • Call for Papers -1984: Freedom and Censorship in the Media – Where Are We Now? [Reopened due to relocation]

    Dear Colleagues, Apologies for cross posting. Please circulate and distribute widely: 1984: FREEDOM AND CENSORSHIP IN THE MEDIA – WHERE ARE WE NOW? University of Sunderland – London Campus (23rd-24th April 2014) In response to an overwhelming international interest from academics, we have decided to relocate the conference to the University of Sunderland’s London Campus. The conference will…

  • First “Critsex in the Midlands” event – 14 February 2014 – “Rethinking Foucault”

    http://www.criticalsexology.org.uk We are pleased to announce the first “Critical Sexology in the Midlands” event, to be held at the University of Birmingham, on Friday 14th February 2014. RETHINKING FOUCAULT FOR 21ST-CENTURY SEXUALITY STUDIES Organized by Lisa Downing 2-6pm Lecture Theatre 7, Strathcona Building University of Birmingham Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT Directions and campus maps here:…

  • CFP: Homophobia Rewritten

    Homophobia Rewritten:New Literary Perspectives on Violence and Sexuality An AHRC-funded Symposium Friday, 13 June 2014 Birkbeck, University of London How are attacks on queer lives and nonnormative bodies represented in fiction and other forms of cultural production? What forms of resistance and modes of being different are imagined in these texts? This one-day symposium turns…

  • The Fall – Way Round

    I just can’t find my way I just can’t find my way I just can’t find my way Round I just can’t find my way I just can’t find my way I just can’t find my way Round    

  • CfP: Quantified Self Research Network, March 25th @SocioWarwick

    The next meeting of the Quantified Self Research Network will take place on the 25th March at the University of Warwick from 1pm to 6pm. It’s an informal seminar to present work in progress and is open to all. If you would like to contribute then please send a short abstract and bio to mark@markcarrigan.net by February 1st. We use ‘quantified…

  • Videogames and human excellence

    I found myself procrastinating yesterday by looking at speedrunning videos of classic nintendo games. In case you’re not sure what speedrunning is, here’s the wiki overview of the practice: A speedrun is a play-through, or recording thereof, of a whole video game or a selected part of it (such as a single level) performed with the intent of…

  • Noam Chomsky on The Purpose of Education

    Is there a tension between what Chomsky says about education at the start and what he says about the dangers of technology? Surely a “well constructed directive conceptual apparatus” is something which is, at least initially, socialised into learners? I’m not sure how to square that with the intensely libertarian understanding of education which I’ve always…

  • At what point do addictive games become sinister?

    Prior to christmas I found myself installing Candy Crush on my iPad. Less than a week later I forced myself to delete it, not least of all because of the dawning realisation that I was going to do something which I’d previously found absurd and pay for extra lives. Since then I’ve been thinking about…

  • CfP: Digital Sociology PhD/ECR Workshop

    Are you a PhD student or Early Career Researcher doing work in digital sociology? The BSA Digital Sociology Group has organised a PhD/ECR Workshop where a limited number of participants can get feedback on their work from peers and established academics in a supportive environment. The event will take place between 11am to 4pm on February 19th at…

  • CfP: Quantified Self Research Network, March 25th @SocioWarwick

    The next meeting of the Quantified Self Research Network will take place on the 25th March at the University of Warwick from 1pm to 6pm. It’s an informal seminar to present work in progress and is open to all. If you would like to contribute then please send a short abstract and bio to mark@markcarrigan.net by February 1st. We use ‘quantified…

  • Deadline TODAY – CfP: An Invitation to Digital Public Sociology

    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…

  • The most popular posts on my blog in 2013

    17 reasons why you should blog about your research The Sociology of Intellectual Faddishness or, Why it’s unfair to blame everything on Foucault How to write 1000 words a day and not go bat shit crazy (within the first two weeks) “Where the fuck do they get their shit from!?”: Reality Television, Austerity Politics and Digital Public Sociology CFP:…

  • The TEDification of #HigherEd? Negotiating between the accessibly simple and the simplistically accessible

    There’s a particularly incisive rehearsal in the Guardian of what has become a well established critique of TED. There’s a lot of this I agree with but I nonetheless find the general thrust of the argument really problematic: So what is TED exactly? Perhaps it’s the proposition that if we talk about world-changing ideas enough,…

  • Towards a realist sociology of everyday life

    I’m planning to write a paper next year for submission to this special issue on the sociology of everyday life. One aspect of the paper is an argument that Margaret Archer’s recent work offers a rich set of conceptual resources for understanding everyday life. Another will be an attempt to address confusions about voluntarism and…

  • The coming war on charity?

    This may be a case of my drawing connections between things which are unconnected. Nonetheless, I keep noticing evidence (confirmation bias at work?) of a growing hostility towards charities in the UK. Those ‘greedy’ charity shops, with their greedy executives, scaremongering, political bias and radicalism. My claim here is entirely impressionistic but I’m sure I…

  • The Messiness of Intellectual Biography

    If one stands back from the day-to-day demands of professional routine, it becomes clear that an intellectual trajectory is not organised in advance, we do not begin by surveying the intellectual ground before deciding upon a line of enquiry; rather, as Hans-Georg Gadamer might put it, we fall into conversation; our starting points are accidental,…

  • This Is Water

    Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. But the insidious thing about these…

  • The fascinating banality of business bullshit

    There are many reasons not to listen to this nonsense. The glaring philosophical contradictions, the creepily messianic tones of his speech, the self-indulgent and naive politics underlying it. But as an emerging managerial discourse, upon which this man has apparently established a large consultancy and made a lot of money, it absolutely fascinates me. What…

  • Blogging and the 1%-9%-90% rule

    A very interesting post here: There’s an internet rule called 1%-9%-90% which states 1% create, 9% comment/interact/curate, 90% consume. Let me borrow this construct and apply it specifically to web publishing: WordPress is for the 1%. There are content creators who want their own dry piece of land, a full featured CMS and total control over their…

  • Why Medium might be pretty great for academics

    I just tried using Medium for the first time and I loved it. I suspect I won’t be alone in this. Here’s a few reasons why I think it’s a good fit for academic blogging: The interface is lovely. It does exactly what it claims to do and adopts an aesthetic which foregrounds what you’re writing.…

  • The uk economy can no longer create enough jobs that pay well enough to keep people off benefits

    What is behind the rise of the working poor? As James Plunkett says, it makes for a lousy whodunit. No single factor is to blame. Much as you might want to point the finger at the government, at least some of the evidence shows that these are long-term trends that have been gathering pace for…

  • CfP: Death Online Research Symposium

    CALL FOR PAPERS Death Online Research Symposium Wednesday April 9th – Thursday April 10th, 2014 Durham University Centre for Death and Life Studies, Durham University, UK. Keynote speaker:  Professor Tony Walters, Director of the Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath, UK. As digital media have become an integral part of our everyday life,…

  • Vipassana

    I was put here to do something before I’m lying in that casket I’d be lying on the beat if I said I didn’t know what that is The world’s a stage and we play a character, I found him It took me twenty-something years and a bunch of shitty soundchecks

  • Sexuality Summer School 26 – 30 May: Queer Anatomies

    Sexuality Summer School 26 – 30 May: Queer Anatomies Public Events Monday 26 May – 12-2 – lunchtime public lecture: Professor Jasbir Puar (Rutgers) Monday 26 May – 6-8 – film screening at Cornerhouse: United in Anger: A History of ACT UP (2012) followed by Q&A with director Jim Hubbard and Dr.Monica Pearl (Manchester) Tuesday 27 May – 5-7 – public lecture: Professor Valerie Traub (Michigan and Simon Visiting Professorship, Manchester). Co-sponsored by SEXGEN…

  • I am this rat. You are this rat. We are all this rat.

    (video, as well as title, via Jezebel)

  • CfP: Social and Political Critique in the Age of Austerity

    Social and Political Critique in the Age of Austerity A one day workshop at Keele University 10.30am-6pm, Wednesday 12th February, 2014 This one day workshop is devoted to the discussion of critical politics in the contemporary age of austerity.  Following the 2007 global economic crash, which led to a raft of government bank bail outs…