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Category Archives: Sociology

Another Recommendation

Sunday, August 3, 2008

My friend and mentor, Lorna Weir, has been quite busy as of late. Another one of her papers, “The Concept of Truth Regime” [pdf], appears in the current Canadian Journal of Sociology 33(2). “Truth regime” is a much used but little theorized concept, with the Foucauldian literature presupposing that truth in modernity is uniformly scientific/quasi-scientific [...]

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Worth Reading

Friday, July 25, 2008

I’d like to draw the readership’s attention to two recent and excellent articles (note: all three authors are on my supervisory committee): Brian Singer and Lorna Weir “Sovereignty, Governance and the Political: The Problematic of Foucault” Thesis Eleven 94: 49-71. This is a companion article to their “Politics and Sovereign Power: Considerations on Foucault” European [...]

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Why sociology?

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Recently I asked the contributors to An und für sich to recommend some theology books to non-theologians that would give us an idea of what is going on in contemporary theology, why theology should matter to non-theologians, and how to make sense of the “theological turn” in contemporary social and political theory. (It seems to [...]

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Rich Get Richer (2)

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Further confirmation of the general observation: the rich get richer and everyone else better be happy with what they had in 1970. From today’s “The Daily” report at STATSCAN on their analysis of earnings, income and shelter costs of the 2006 Canadian census (see also the longitudinal study here using data back to 1981): Median [...]

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Randall Collins – Violence: A Micro-Sociological Theory

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Because it came up in a previous discussion this week and because the work looks genuinely interesting, the Chronicle of Higher Education has an interview with Randall Collins on his recent book Violence: A Micro-Sociological Theory (Princeton UP, 2008). The first chapter to the book is available from Princeton UP. (If anyone from Princeton UP [...]

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Cylon Sociology

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Daniel Solove, Devan Desai and David Hoffman have begun posting what looks to be quite an interesting hour-long interview with David Eick and Ronald Moore, the creators of the “re-imagined” Battlestar Galactica, on legal systems, torture, politics and economy, and – for lack of a better term – Cylon sociology at Concurring Opinions. Our interview [...]

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African-American Founders of Social Theory?

Friday, February 15, 2008

Is anyone aware of a survey article on the contributions of African-Americans to classical social theory comparable in scope to Lynn McDonald’s “Classical Social Theory With the Women Founders Included” [pdf]? I, and my second year social theory students, would be greatly obliged should anyone have any ideas.

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Theory and Methods in Select Sociology Programs in Ontario

Thursday, February 7, 2008

An aside from an email exchange with Neil McLaughlin from a few weeks back dealing with some of the issues raised in this post. Recently, the Department of Sociology at Queen’s University, where I teach the second year required course in “The Development of Social Theory,” has decided to split the second and third year [...]

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Rich Get Richer

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

From the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives: New Year’s party still going for top CEOs  TORONTO – By the time most Canadians roll up their sleeves to begin a new year of work, Canada’s best paid 100 CEOs will already be having a good year: They’ll pocket the national average wage of $38,998 by 10:33 [...]

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“A major challenge… a serious challenge”

Thursday, September 27, 2007

In yet another post on the ongoing battle between Adam Kotsko and the world over the influence and meaning of Slavoj Zizek, Adam writes: For all the “fame” Zizek has attained, the extent of his actual impact is difficult to assess. He makes a good point in this regard when responding to one of several [...]

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