The Department of Sociology is pleased to announce that Professor Deborah Lynn Steinberg has guest edited a special issue of Body and Society 2015 ‘Estranged Bodies: Shifting Paradigms and the Biomedical Imaginary’ http://bod.sagepub.com/content/21/3.toc and that this has just been published.

You can find out more and watch her at the following links:

On Sky News on the migration crisis in Europe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpWZcPE0KUo&feature=youtu.be

On Sky News on protests in Ferguson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AFC5ET96SY

In The Conversation on public opinion and the migration crisis https://theconversation.com/public-opinion-on-the-refugee-crisis-is-changing-fast-and-for-the-better-47064

On The Huffington Post Blog on British policy on the migration crisis http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/hannah-jones/on-british-values-and-building-fences-calais_b_8016626.html

Warwick Sociology lecturer Eric Jensen recently appeared on the internet-based television news programme Huffpost Live to discuss the sociological implications of the now infamous killing of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe. You can watch here: http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/cecil-the-lion-trophy-hunting-/55b77c0b78c90acf34000011

The ESRC has now opened its fifth annual call for applications for the Future Research Leaders Scheme with a deadline of 29^th September 2015. Full details of the FRL scheme, including eligibility requirements and other guidance, can be found here.

The Sociology Department is seeking to nominate a limited number of outstanding candidates. We will be running a preliminary internal competition as part of a wider University screening process in order to determine which candidates the Department will be supporting in the competition.

In the first stage of this process, applicants seeking a Sociology nomination for this scheme should send the following items to Professor Gurminder K Bhambra (g.k.bhambra@warwick.ac.uk) by 31 July 2015:

(1) A 2/3 page summary of their research proposal (to include sections on methodology, skill development and impact following ESRC guidance on these issues in their detailed guidance for applicants)

(2) A 2 page CV following the ESRC guidance

(3) A 1 page statement from the applicant's prospective mentor (who must be a permanent member of Sociology academic staff) in support of application, including its scientific quality and fit with Departmental research profile and expertise.

In the second stage of the process, nominated candidates (who will be nominated at the discretion of the Head of Department & Research Director), will receive feedback on their applications by 3 August and will be requested to submit their applications to the University selection process, with the support of the Department, by 6 August 2015.

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'.

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.

June 23rd, University of Warwick, 10am – 4pm

R1.15, Ramphal Building

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

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/centre-for-social-ontology-phdecr-conference-tickets-17016640229

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

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.

July 8th - The Shard, London​

This innovative conference brings together leading figures from a variety of fields which address issues of digital technology and digital data. We’ve invited speakers with a range of intellectual perspectives and disciplinary backgrounds who engage with questions relating to digital data and digital technology in their work. Our suggestion is that social ontology, however this might be construed, represents a potential common ground that could cut across this still rather siloed domain of inquiry into the social dimensions of digital technology.

The conference aims to explore this possibility by assembling a diverse range of perspectives and drawing them into a dialogue about a common question, without assuming a shared understanding of the topic at hand. Our aim is to extend this digitally via twitter, podcast and blog beyond the event itself, in order to facilitate an extended conversation that will draw more people into its remit as it circulates after the conference itself.

To this end, we invite each speaker to address this theme (the social ontology of digital data & digital technology) in whatever way they choose. Each speaker will have 30 mins to talk and 15 mins for questions. We’ll have an accomplished audio editor on hand to record each talk as a podcast. These will be released on www.socialontology.org and will be circulated on social media in order to try and stimulate a continuing debate around the issues raised at the conference. The hashtag for the day will be #socialontology.

This conference is aimed at people actively working in this field.

Confirmed Speakers:

• Chair: Celia Lury (Warwick)
• Noortje Marres (Goldsmiths) – Does Digital Sociology have a Problem?
• Jochen Runde (Cambridge) – Non-materiality and the Ontology of Digital Objects
• Alistair Mutch (NTU) – title TBC
• Susan Halford (Southampton) – title TBC
• Nick Couldry (LSE) – title TBC
• Emma Uprichard (Warwick) – Big Data, Complexity and Time.