It is with great pleasure that the Department of Sociology can announce that Professor Margaret S. Archer has published a new book with Professor Pierpaolo Donati on 'The Relational Subject'.

The Department of Sociology is pleased to announce that Professor Deborah Lynn Steinberg has just published a new book on Genes and the Bioimaginary. Genes and the Bioimaginary examines the dramatic rise and contemporary cultural apotheosis of ‘the gene’. In this book she traces not only the genetification of modern life but is also a journey through the complex relationship between science and culture.
 

A report by Dr Eric Jensen (Sociology, University of Warwick) and doctoral researcher Carli Rowell (Sociology, University of Warwick) on Higher Education Academy-funded project on engaged teaching practices within UK sociology has just been published:

https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/resources/Engaged%20teaching%20within%20the%20Social%20Sciences.pdf

This report discusses the potential and challenges of embedding engagement with civil society organisations within the higher education curriculum and teaching practice in sociology and other social sciences.

This new book edited by Margaret Archer and collecting the work of the Centre for Social Ontology’s collaborators has just been released. It is the latest volume in the Social Morphogenesis series and examines how generative mechanisms emerge in the social order and their consequences. It does so in the light of finding answers to the general question posed in this book series: Will Late Modernity be replaced by a social formation that could be called Morphogenic Society?

This volume clarifies what a ‘generative mechanism’ is, to achieve a better understanding of their social origins, and to delineate in what way such mechanisms exert effects within a current social formation, either stabilizing it or leading to changes potentially replacing it . The book explores questions about conjuncture, convergence and countervailing effects of morphogenetic mechanisms in order to assess their impact. Simultaneously, it looks at how products of positive feedback intertwine with the results of (morphostatic) negative feedback. This process also requires clarification, especially about the conditions under which morphostasis prevails over morphogenesis and vice versa. It raises the issue as to whether their co-existence can be other than short-lived.

The volume addresses whether or not there also is a process of ‘morpho-necrosis’, i.e. the ultimate demise of certain morphostatic mechanisms, such that they cannot ‘recover’. The book concludes that not only are generative mechanisms required to explain associations between variables involved in the replacement of Late Modernity by Morphogenic Society, but they are also robust enough to account for cases and times when such variables show no significant correlations.

http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319137728

The ten day festival starts tomorrow! View the complete programme here.

The festival will shine the light on social sciences by providing a variety of events for students, staff members and the wider public.

Here is a snapshot of just a few of the sessions which will take place:

• 12 May, 11.00-13.00: Dr Cath Lambert's 'Centre for Study of Women and Gender: Archive in the making' - R1.13, Ramphal
• 12, 13, 14 May, 19.15: Perfomance: 'Coney's Early Days (of a Better Nation) - Arts Centre. Booking required - book for this event here

So, join us and explore social matters throughout the years, whilst celebrating Warwick's 50th anniversary.

2 June - at The University of Warwick

The Centre for Social Ontology invites applications for this practical workshop aimed at those investigating human reflexivity through empirical research. The ‘internal conversation’ was developed by Margaret Archer as a solution to the problem of structure and agency: a mediatory mechanism that accounts for how society’s objective features influence its members to reproduce or transform society through their actions. Since initially discussed in Being Human, this account of human reflexivity has been developed through a trilogy of books reporting on empirical studies into the distinct modes through which reflexivity operates. This body of work has been used in projects across a range of disciplines and been the topic of much theoretical and methodological debate.

This workshop intends to support those who are currently undertaking or in the process of planning empirical research investigating the internal conversation. The day will begin with an introductory lecture by Margaret Archer in which she will discuss the development of her work on reflexivity, ranging from the initial formulation in Being Human through to her recent work with Pierpaolo Donati on relational reflexivity. Then Mark Carrigan (Warwick), Monder Ram (Birmingham) and Balihar Sanghera (Kent) will each give a shorter talk about their experience of investigating reflexivity through empirical research. The rest of the day will address the methodological and theoretical questions often encountered when studying reflexivity e.g. how to identify the modes of reflexivity of research subjects.

The workshop is free but registration is essential. If you would like to participate then please e-mail socialontology@warwick.ac.uk with a brief description of your project. We’re keen to adapt the content as much as possible to meet the needs of participants. If there are particular issues you would like us to address then please suggest these in your initial e-mail.

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 entities which make up that world and their properties and powers. However social ontology remains an often confused and contentious matter within the social sciences.

The first Centre for Social Ontology PhD and ECR conference seeks to address this matter through papers exploring the role of social ontology within sociology. This could include but is by no means limited to:

• The relationship between tacit assumptions concerning social ontology and reflective theoretical positions
• Social ontology and the formulation of research questions
• Social ontology as a topic standing at the interface between the social sciences and philosophy
• The methodological implications of social ontology
• The ontological assumptions implied by research methods
• The social ontology of particular areas of inquiry e.g. social movements or digital technology
• Disciplinary differences in approaches to social ontology
• Social ontology and philosophical under-labouring
• The limits of social ontology and where under-labouring has to stop
• New directions in sociological research through questions of social ontology

The conference is open to all PhD students and Early Career Researchers with an interest in social ontology.

Please send abstracts of 200 words or less and a short biographical note to socialontology@warwick.ac.uk by May 1st

The Conference will be held on the 23rd June from 10am-4pm

Charles Turner will be screening The Five Obstructions on Tuesday 10th March at 6pm in S0.28.

Lars von Trier has his hero Jorgen Leth remake his 1967 experimental film The Perfect Human five times under various constraints. A brilliant duel/dialogue on film-making, the culture of the copy, repetition/variation and frame analysis.

All welcome!

Thursday 5 March, 4-6pm, Reinvention Centre at Westwood

The film, Teachers' Views on Returning Schools, is a short documentary which looks at the experiences and views of teachers and young people at schools in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which cater for kids who have been excluded from, or do not participate in, education.

The film has been made by a Sociologist, Dr Analía Meo, from the University of Buenos Aires. Analia is also a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Sociology at the Unvierity of Warwick. Analía has researched on educational exclusion in the UK and in Argentina and through this film she provides a moving, engaging and provocative account of the difficulties and possibilities of school inclusion. The film offers some challenges to UK based programmes for excluded young people.

After the viewing of the film, there will be a discussion between Analía Meo and Cath Lambert from the Department of Sociology. There will also be an opportunity for audience questions and discussion.

The event will be followed by a drinks reception.

The event is organised and supported by the Department of Socioogy's Culture, Media and Creativity research cluster.

All are welcome.

The Reinvention Centre at Westwood is located in the Westwood Cafe building on Westwood campus, number 74 on th campus map http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/about/visiting/maps​