Professor of Sociology

Email: n.gane@warwick.ac.uk
Room: E.0.11

Tel: +44(0)24 765 73415
Fax: +44(0)24 765 23497

Advice and Feedback:

Please contact me by email to make an appointment.

 

 

Profile

Nicholas Gane joined the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick in October 2013 from the University of York. He worked previously at Brunel University and Goldsmiths College. He directed the ESRC Warwick Doctoral Training Centre and the Midlands Graduate School Doctoral Training Partnership from 2016-19. He was a member of the REF2021 sub-panel for Sociology.

Research

I have written two monographs on Max Weber that seek to develop theoretical resources for thinking critically about contemporary capitalist culture and society: Max Weber and Postmodern Theory (Palgrave, 2002) and Max Weber and Contemporary Capitalism (Palgrave, 2012). I have also published a collection of interviews with leading social and cultural theorists under the title The Future of Social Theory (Continuum, 2004) that addresses different aspects of the capitalist present, including: cosmopolitanism, post-colonialism, complexity, mobility, and the information order.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, my research has addressed the history and politics of neoliberalism. For a publication in this area that uses the work of Foucault to address the different governmentalities of liberalism and neoliberalism, see http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2012.02126.x/abstract You can hear me speaking about the history of neoliberalism at: http://estudiosdelaeconomia.wordpress.com/2014/09/14/is-neoliberalism-weberian-an-interview-with-nicholas-gane/ As part of this work on neoliberalism, I have addressed various aspects of debt, usury, banking, and finance. My current research centres on the history and power of corporations (see https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02632764221113727). I have recently co-edited, with Will Davies, a special issue of Theory, Culture and Society on the question of Post-Neoliberalism, see: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02632764211036722

Finally, I am interested in debates over the theoretical and methodological ‘crises’ of the discipline of sociology. I have used the writings of C. Wright Mills to reflect upon the promise and craft of sociology today, see: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2012.02054.x/abstract and (with Les Back) http://tcs.sagepub.com/content/29/7-8/399.abstract More recently, I have questioned the value of a 'descriptive turn' across the social sciences, see: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1468-4446.12715

Nicholas is a board member of the journal Theory, Culture and Society, and edited the Theory, Culture and Society Annual Review from 2006 to 2009. He was a board member of the journal Sociology from 2004-06 and 2015-17.

Teaching

Capitalism, State and Market (convenor, core module of MA Social and Political Thought)

Key Publications

(for a full list see http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/view/author_id/31584.html)

Books

• Max Weber and Contemporary Capitalism. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2012.
• New Media: The Key Concepts (with David Beer). London: Bloomsbury, 2008.
• Umberto Eco (co-edited with Mike Gane). London: Sage, 2005.
• The Future of Social Theory. London: Bloomsbury, 2004.
• Roland Barthes (co-edited with Mike Gane). London: Sage, 2004.
• Max Weber and Postmodern Theory. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002.

Selected Journal Articles and Book Chapters

• 'Capitalism, Democracy, and Territorial Forms of Exception' (review article of

  Quinn Slobodian, Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World without Democracy). Theory, Culture and Society, 2023: https://doi.org/10.1177/02632764231201334
• 'Neoliberalism and the Defence of the Corporation'. Theory, Culture and Society, 40, 3, 2023, pp.63-80: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02632764221113727
• 'Post-Neoliberalism: An Introduction'. Theory, Culture and Society, 38, 6, 2021, pp.3-28 (co-authored with Will Davies). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02632764211036722
• 'Nudge Economics as Libertarian Paternalism'. Theory, Culture and Society, 38, 6, 2021, pp.119-42. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0263276421999447
• 'Competition: A Critical History of a Concept'. Theory, Culture and Society, 37, 2, 2020, pp.31-59. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0263276419878247
• 'Against a Descriptive Turn'. British Journal of Sociology, 77, 1, 2020, pp.4-18. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1468-4446.12715
• ‘Debt, Usury and the Ongoing Crises of Capitalism’, in M.Featherstone (ed.) The Sociology of Debt. Bristol: Policy Press, 2019. ISBN 978-1-4473-3952-6. https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-sociology-of-debt
• ‘Foucault’s History of Neoliberalism’, in L.Downing (ed.). After Foucault: Culture, Theory, and Criticism in the 21st Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018, pp.46-60.
• 'In and Out of Neoliberalism: Reconsidering the Sociology of Raymond Aron'. Journal of Classical Sociology, 16, August, 2106, pp.261-79. http://jcs.sagepub.com/content/16/3/261.abstract
• 'Central Banking, Technocratic Governance and the Financial Crisis'. Sosiologia, 52, 4, 2015, pp.381-96. Available here: https://www.academia.edu/19658356/Central_Banking_Technocratic_Governance_and_the_Financial_Crisis
• 'Sociology and Neoliberalism: A Missing History'. ​Sociology​, 48, 6, 2014, pp.1092-1106. http://soc.sagepub.com/content/48/6/1092
• ‘The Emergence of Neoliberalism: Thinking Through and Beyond Michel Foucault’s Lectures on Biopolitics’. Theory, Culture and Society, 31, 4, 2014, pp.3-27. http://tcs.sagepub.com/content/31/4/3.full.pdf+html
• C. Wright Mills 50 Years On: The Promise and Craft of Sociology Revisited’ . Theory, Culture and Society, 29, 7/8, 2012, pp.399-421 (co-authored with Les Back). http://tcs.sagepub.com/content/29/7-8/399.abstract
• ‘The Governmentalities of Neoliberalism: Panopticism, Post-Panopticism and Beyond’. Sociological Review, 60, 4, 2012, pp.611-34. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2012.02126.x/abstract
• ‘Measure, Value and the Current Crises of Sociology’, Sociological Review, 58, s2, December, 2011, pp.151-73. Also published in Adkins, L. and Lury, C. (eds.) Value and Measure. Oxford: Blackwell, 2012. ISBN: 978-1-4443-3958-1. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2012.02054.x/abstract