'Sociologists Talking'

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Hope's Work

This article, given as the Antipode RGS-IBG Lecture on 28 August 2019, argues that hope can be found through training an attentiveness to the social world in troubled times. Hope then is an empirical question and a matter of documenting hopeful possibilities that often otherwise remain unremarked upon. In this sense “worldly hope” draws possibilities that are manifested in the social world and stands in contrast to cruel forms of optimism or an unrealistic faith in future progress. An argument for such an approach to hope and trouble is developed through two examples drawn from contemporary London life, namely, the silent walks at Grenfell Tower in West London and a community arts project in Bellingham, South East London

Researching community and its moral projects

The study of community is a key area of concern in sociology and anthropology. In this paper it is argued that community should be understood as a moral project as well as a state of affairs or a set of social relationships. Through reviewing the current debate on the ‘death of multiculturalism’ the political and ethical dimensions of research practice are explored. The article argues for the development of a cosmopolitan method that reworks the relationship between technology, art and critical social science. Accounting for the complexities of community require a research imagination that is supple enough to attend to the interplay between local and global levels in order to find new ways of describing how people live in and across social divisions. Drawing on twenty years of research on the meanings of community in south London the paper explores the limits of interviewing and quantitative measures as they applied to social cohesion or social capital. It argues for a sensuous mode of scholarship in which the social relations of sound, smell, touch and taste can alert us to the ways in which community is inhabited and lived. The aspiration of this sensuous and multimodal agenda for researching community is to create vital forms of research that capture the conflicts as well as the opportunities that arise in city life

An ordinary virtue

Through a discussion of Primo Levi's work the paper explores the politics, ethics and art of listening

Of method and freedom: How to re-shape the restrictive dynamic between researcher and participant.

The ever more clinical ways of extracting and analysing ‘data’ from human research ‘subjects’ are cause for concern, not only for ethical reasons, but also because the process itself limits insight. Shamser Sinha and Les Back argue for a form of research that shifts the ordering of dialogue, where researchers can make observations about participants’ personal worlds and participants can shed light on how issues in their personal worlds connect with public issues, opening up more public possibilities for social research

What do Sociologists Learn from Music? Hidden Musical Lives and the Craft of Understanding Society

Os sociólogos são frequentemente músicos secretos. Isso vem desde W.E.B. Du Bois e Max Weber, no século XIX, para os quais a vida musical sempre esteve entrelaçada em seu pensamento sociológico. Nos últimos tempos, têm ocorrido numerosos apelos para que a música seja usada para reimaginar a própria sociologia. Por exemplo, David Beer (2014) reivindicou uma sociologia punk – tão urgente e vital como um single do The Clash – como um antídoto para as tendências vistosas e técnicas do “rock progressivo” na disciplina mainstream. Este artigo desenvolve a ideia de fazer sociologia com música, concentrando-se nas vidas musicais ocultas dos sociólogos. Ele explora uma série de exemplos, do aprendizado de campo de Howard Becker como pianista nos clubes de jazz de Chicago e suas teorias do desvio e rotulação, ao impacto que o violão teve na compreensão de Paul Gilroy sobre as culturas da diáspora africana, à conexão entre a vida de Emma Jackson como baixista na banda de indie rock Kenickie e sua sociologia feminista DIY (Faça você mesmo). Argumenta que os sociólogos aprendem muito com a música, tanto em termos das percepções que ela produz quanto no funcionamento da cultura e da sociedade, mas também em termos de como ela sustenta nossa imaginação sociológica e nos inspira a fazer sociologia de maneira diferente.Los sociólogos son a menudo músicos secretos. Esto se remonta a W.E.B. Du Bois y Max Weber en el siglo XIX para quienes la vida musical siempre estuvo entretejida en su pensamiento sociológico. En los últimos tiempos, ha habido numerosos llamamientos para usar la música para reinventar la sociología en sí. Por ejemplo, David Beer (2014) ha pedido una sociología punk, tan urgente y vital como un sencillo de Clash, como un antídoto para las tendencias llamativas y técnicas del "rock progresivo" en la disciplina convencional. Este artículo desarrolla la idea de hacer sociología con música al enfocarse en las vidas musicales ocultas de los sociólogos. Explora una variedad de ejemplos del trabajo de campo de Howard Becker como pianista en los clubes de jazz de Chicago y sus teorías de desviación y etiquetado del impacto que ha tenido tocar la guitarra en la comprensión de Paul Gilroy de las culturas de la diáspora africana con la conexión entre Emma Jackson La vida como bajista en la banda de indie rock Kenickie y su feminista sociología DIY. Argumentará que los sociólogos aprenden mucho de la música, tanto en términos de las percepciones que produce sobre el funcionamiento de la cultura y la sociedad, como también en términos de cómo sostiene nuestra imaginación sociológica y nos inspira a hacer que la sociología sea diferente.Sociologists are often secret musicians.  This goes all the way back to W.E.B. Du Bois and Max Weber in the nineteenth century for whom musical life was always woven into their sociological thinking. In recent times, there have been numerous appeals to use music to reimagine sociology itself. For example, David Beer (2014) has called for a punk sociology – as urgent and vital like a Clash single - as an antidote to the showy and technical ‘prog rock’ tendencies in the mainstream discipline. This article develops the idea of doing sociology with music through focusing on the hidden musical lives of sociologists. It explores a range of examples from Howard Becker’s fieldwork apprenticeship as a pianist in the Chicago jazz clubs and his theories of deviance and labelling to the impact playing the guitar has had on Paul Gilroy's understanding the cultures of the African diaspora to the connection between Emma Jackson’s life as a bass player in indie rock band Kenickie and her feminist DIY sociology. It will argue that sociologists learn a great deal from music both in terms the insights it produces into the workings of culture and society but also in terms of how it sustains our sociological imagination and inspires us to make sociology differently

Urban Multiculture and Xenophonophobia in London and Berlin

In this article, we argue that in the context of the rise of nationalism and increasing inequalities across European metropolises, developing an attentiveness to the sounds of the city can be utilized to unpack individual and collective claims to entitlement and belonging. Focussing on London and Berlin, we argue that thinking through two aspects of sonic registers – languages and non-verbal sounds – together can enrich understandings of cities where questions of living with difference have become politicized and fiercely charged. We draw on and further develop the concept of xenoglossophobia – the fear of foreign languages – to become inclusive of non-verbal sounds as well. Using the concept of xenophonophobia – the fear of all foreign sounds, including, but not limited to, foreign languages – we begin the process of naming racism beyond words in an attempt to find new ways to explore how the struggle for belonging is unfolding within the city. A consideration of the meanings given to sounds can offer a way to understand how boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them’ are being drawn in European capital cities like Berlin and London

Academic Diary

Les Back has chronicled three decades of his academic career, turning his sharp and often satirical eye to the everyday aspects of life on campus and the larger forces that are reshaping it. Presented as a collection of entries from a single academic year, the diary moves from the local to the global, from PowerPoint to the halls of power. With entries like Ivory Towers and The Library Angel, these smart, humorous and sometimes absurd campus tales not only demystify the opaque rituals of scholarship, they offer a personal route into the far-reaching issues of university life. From the impact of commercialisation and fee increases to measurement and auditing research, the diary offers a critical diagnosis of higher education today. At the same time it is a passionate argument for the life of the mind, the importance of collaborative thinking and why scholarship and writing are still vital for making sense of our troubled and divided world

What sociologists learn from music: identity, music-making, and the sociological imagination

Sociologists very often have extra-curricular lives as musicians. This article explores the relationship between musical life and sociological identities. Through a range of examples from Howard Becker’s grounding in field research as a pianist in the Chicago jazz clubs and his theories of deviance, to the connection between Emma Jackson’s life as a bass player in Brit pop band Kenickie and her feminist punk sociology, an argument is developed about the things sociologists learn from music. Based on 28 life history interviews with contemporary sociologists this paper shows how sociologists learn – both directly and tacitly – to understand society through their engagement with music. Music offers them an interpretive device to read cultural history, a training in the unspoken and yet structured aspects of culture, and an attentiveness to improvised and interactive aspects of social interaction. For sociologists, involvement in music making is also an incitement to get off campus and encounter an alternative world of value and values. Music enables sociologists to sustain their research imaginations and inspires them to make sociology differently. However, the article concludes that in the contemporary neoliberal university it is harder for sociologists to sustain a creative hinterland in music. The tacit knowledges that often nourish sociological identities may run the risk of being depleted as a result