Thresholds - A pop-up symposium

22 September 2017
University of York

21 Exciting abstracts have been accepted !

Spaces now limited - book via eventbrite ASAP

This event platforms scholars working across the humanities and social sciences around the theme of ‘thresholds’. It explores perspectives on the liminal edges of everyday, organisational and social life. What and who reside beyond or within different types of thresholds? Who has to cross thresholds? What prevents people or things crossing? How does power operate through different thresholds? How do thresholds articulate with limits, extremes, dangers and tipping points? These are just some of the questions explored in this one day symposium.

Thresholds is intended to bring together diverse disciplines including sociology, politics, history, anthropology, women’s studies, critical management, human geography, social policy. The format will be short papers (10 mins) followed by discussion.

Organisers: Joanna Latimer, David Beer, Nik Brown, Rolland Munro

SATSU – Sociology – University of York

Time and Place: 10:30 to 15:30; Berrick Saul Building, The Treehouse - University of York


REGISTER HERE

Supported by: the University of York ‘Culture and Communication’ Research Theme; The Department of Sociology; Science and Technology Studies Unit (SATSU)

Politics and the British Working Class

Tim Jones, one of our recent MA in Social Research graduates has published a piece in Discover Society that was inspired by his dissertation research.

Tim Jones

Click on the link to read 'Do I really wanna waffle on with people who are waffling on?' Politics and the British Working Class 

Follow Tim on twitter: @T1MJ0N35

The Politics of Data in Discover Society

The new issue of Discover Society magazine focuses on the 'Politics of Data'. Dave Beer has an article in the issue on 'The growing power of the data analytics industry'. You can read the article here - Discover Society

And here is the opening paragraph:

Following the England cricket team’s recent elimination from the world cup, Peter Moores, the England coach, caused something of a stir by suggesting that ‘we shall have to look at the data’. The response in the media was one of consternation – as was the public response based on the 953 comments that the Guardian article alone has already received. Both Moores’ statement and the media response reveal something of the politics of data. Moores’ desire to return to the numbers is suggestive of how embedded and routine data analytics already are in the production and consumption of culture. Data are seen to provide the objective means by which people can be judged or pushed to compete in lots of different ways.

New Book on Political Disengagement

Nathan Manning has recently survived the process of editing a book Political (Dis)engagement. The Changing Nature of the ‘Political’. The book asks:

In what ways is the meaning and practice of politics changing?
Why might so many people feel dissatisfied and disaffected with electoral politics?
What approaches do political activists use to raise issues and mobilise people for action?
What role does the internet and social media play in contemporary citizenship and activism? 

It brings together academics from a range of disciplines with political activists and campaigners to explore the meaning of politics and citizenship in contemporary society and the current forms of political (dis)engagement. As a result Nathans edited collection provides a rare dialogue between analysts and activists which will be especially valuable to academics and students across the social sciences, in particular sociology and political science.

More information is available on the publishers’ website – Policy Press

Politics, Campus and Thinktanks

Richard Crawshaw is a social and political sciences student at York and is the chair of the student thinktank. He has published in the Guardian about the rise and role of university student thinktanks.

You can follow Richard on twitter at @Rcrawshaw16

New Research Centre!

Nisha Kapoor, Brian Loader and Nathan Manning are Co-Directors of the new Centre for Political Youth Culture and Communication (CPAC). The Centre is dedicated to exploring the socio-cultural factors influencing the civic engagement of young people and its means of communicative expression. Young networking citizens in many parts of the world today play a crucial role in shaping the future prospects for democratic societies. The styles, nature and means of their political engagement is therefore of increasing importance to policy-makers and academics alike. The Centre’s research is focused upon the communicative, emotional, embodied, and aesthetical modes of youth citizenship. Researchers examine the social construction of young people’s political identities within the context of widening social inequality, climate change, reflexive individualism and a networked media ecology. Find out more about the Centre by following this link - http://www.york.ac.uk/sociology/research/groups/cpac/

You can also follow CPAC on Twitter - @PoliticalYouth2