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Department of Sociology

Nicholas Gane

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 is Director of Research and Impact for the Department of 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.

More recently, my research has addressed the sociological history 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, banking and finance. This includes work on sovereign debt and on usury. My current research centres on the history and power of corporations (see https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02632764221113727), and also questions the limits of the concept of neoliberalism. 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

Modern Social Theory (co-covenor, second year)

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

PhD Supervision

I welcome applications in the following areas: social and cultural theory; economic sociology; the sociology of markets; the sociological analysis of neoliberalism; the history of sociology; the sociology of debt.

I currently supervise the following PhD students:

Simon Arthur, The Role of Central Banking in England since 1997.

Sophie Wootton, A Crisis of European Proportions: Brexit, the Decline of Neoliberalism and Resurrection of Class.

Key Publications

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

Books
Selected Journal Articles and Book Chapters