Theory, Culture & Society

January Issue of TCS - Out Now!

2012-01-24T06:04:00.000-08:00

The new issue of TCS (29.1, Jan 2012) is now available.

The issue features the Special Section on 'Memory, Community and the New Museum', edited and introduced by Jens Andermann and Silke Arnold-de Simine, and consisting of Arnold-de Simine's article on Libeskind's Jewish Museum and Sebald's Austerlitz, Andermann's on concentration camps in Argentina, and Patrizia Violi on trauma in three different museums.

The issue also includes standard articles by Sylvia Walby on Amartya Sen, Penelope Deutscher's re-reading of Foucault's History of Sexuality vol. 1, and Alistair Bonnett on Ashis Nandy; as well as Gurminder Bhambra's review of Satya Mohanty's edited collection on Colonialism.

TCS Annual Review 2011 - Out Now!

2012-01-24T05:53:00.000-08:00

The TCS Annual Review (28.7-8, Dec 2011), edited by Ryan Bishop and John Phillips, is now available.

This time the AR features sections on 'Secrecy and Transparency', 'Air-Target' and our usual 'Global Public Life' section.

The 'Secrecy and Transparency' section, edited by Clare Birchall, features articles by Geoffrey Bennington, Dave Boothroyd, Clare Birchall, Alexander Galloway, Eva Horn, John Beck, Martin McQuillan, and John Phillips's interview with Sam Weber.

The 'Air-Target' section, edited by Peter Adey, Mark Whitehead and Alison J Williams, includes articles by Derek Gregory, Ben Anderson, Paul K Saint-Amour and Ryan Bishop.

And the 'Global Public Life' section features photo essays on the 20-Kilometer University in Shenzhen and the High Line in New York, commentaries on 'rubbish' and industrialisation, and reviews of Michael Dutton's Beijing Time (by Stephanie Hemelryk Donald) and John Beck's Dirty Wars (by Adam Piette).

Interview with Adrian Mackenzie and Theo Vurdubakis on Code and Crisis

2012-01-24T05:31:00.000-08:00

As a supplement to our Special Issue on Codes and Codings in Crisis (TCS 28.6, Nov 2011), Simon Dawes interviewed Adrian Mackenzie and Theo Vurdubakis on the relationship between code, crisis, performativity and language, as well as some of the other themes explored throughout the issue.

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TCS Special Issue on Code - Out Now!

2011-12-23T02:38:00.000-08:00

The TCS Special Issue on Codes and Codings in Crisis (TCS 28.6, Nov 2011) is now available.

Edited by Adrian MacKenzie and Theo Vurdubakis, the issue includes their introduction on the themes of signification, performativity and excess in code, and articles by Louise Amoore on data derrivatives and risk, Marc Lenglet on algorithmic trading and financial regulation, Anna Munster on biopolitics, noopolitics and death in digital code, Wendy Hui Kyong Chun on crisis, sovereignty and networks, Lucas D Introna on encoding and plagiarism, Hannah Knox and Penny Harvey on codes of conduct and health and safety in the regulation of a road construction project, and John Cheney-Lippold on algorithmic identity and soft biopolitics.

New Issue of Body & Society - Out Now

2011-11-17T06:48:00.000-08:00

The December 2011 issue of Body & Society (17.4) is now available.

The new issue features articles by Daniel Black on the phenomenon of 'the face', Bernadette Wegenstein & Nora Ruck on the cosmetic gaze of reality television, Steve Pile on spatialities of skin and T.E. Lawrence, Eeva Puumala, Tarja Vayrynen, Anitta Kynsilehto and Samu Pehkonen on Jean-Luc Nancy and asylum seekers, and Emily Wentzell on the marketing and health discourse of gay men's use of Viagra.

TCS September Issue - Out Now!

2011-10-12T06:25:00.000-07:00

The new issue of Theory, Culture & Society (TCS 28.5, Sep 2011) is now available, featuring articles by David Cecchetto on Mark Hansen and Affect, Kim Su Rasmussen on Foucault and Racism, Jussi Parikka on Wolfgang Ernst and Media Archaeology, Tariq Jazeel on Cosmopolitanism and Planetary Futures, and Jonathan Bach on Modernity and the Urban Imagination.

The issue also features Roberta Sassatelli's interview with Laura Mulvey, Vincent Lloyd's review article on Violence, and Ginette Verstraete's book review of Daniel Miller's Anthropology and the Individual.

The Tourist Gaze 3.0 - Out Now!

2011-09-13T02:08:00.000-07:00

The 3rd edition of the TCS Book The Tourist Gaze by John Urry and Jonas Larsen is now available from Sage.

This new edition features additional chapters on photography and digitization, embodied performances and risk and alternative futures.

Body & Society Impact Factor Increase!

2011-09-02T06:32:00.000-07:00

Body & Society Impact Factor Increase
Editor's Announcement

We are pleased to announce the great news that the journal Body & Society has increased its impact factor to 1.082, which means that it is now ranked 34, out of 129 in Sociology. As we know in the competitive academic climate impact factors are important for authors, who increasingly are under intense demands to publish in the best journals. As a celebration of the journal's standing in the field we are opening up access to the 10 most highly cited articles over the period upon which the impact factor is based. These articles can be accessed using the links below. Simply click on the article titles below to be taken to the content...

Click on 'Read more' for links to the free articles, and the rest of Lisa Blackman's announcement.
Read more »

TCS July Issue - Out Now

2011-08-16T22:06:00.000-07:00

The new issue of Theory, Culture & Society is now available (TCS 28.4, July 2011), featuring articles by Alexandre Macmillan on Christian techniques of the self, Thomas Lemke on critique and experience in Foucault, John B Thompson on the shifting boundaries of public and private life, Sergei Prozorov on pornography and profanation in Agamben, and Philip Webb on family values in American modernity.

The issue also features Huimin Jin's interview with David Morley on British Cultural Studies, and book reviews by Ross Abbinett on Baudrillard's Carnival or Cannibal, and by Scott McQuire on Adrian Franklin's City Life

Interview with Sindre Bangstad on Saba Mahmood

2011-07-27T04:49:00.000-07:00

Image: Sindre Bangstad

Simon Dawes interviews Sindre Bangstad on his article 'Saba Mahmood and Anthropological Feminism After Virtue' (TCS 28.3, May 2011)

Interview with Lesley A. Sharp

2011-06-30T02:11:00.000-07:00

Simon Dawes interviews Lesley A. Sharp about her article 'The Invisible Woman: The Bioaesthetics of Engineered Bodies' (Body & Society, 17.1, March 2011)

Interview with Stephanie Merchant

2011-06-23T06:22:00.000-07:00

Photo by Stephanie Merchant

Simon Dawes interviews Stephanie Merchant about her article 'The Body and the Senses: Visual Methods, Videography and the Submarine Sensorium' in Body & Society 17.1

Read more »

Interview with Ben Carrington

2011-06-20T04:20:00.000-07:00

Photo: Ben Carrington

Simon Dawes interviews Ben Carrington on his recently published book, Race, Sport and Politics: The Sporting Black Diaspora, published as part of the Theory, Culture and Society Book Series (Sage, 2010).

TCS Book by Nick Stevenson - Out Now

2011-06-17T13:05:00.000-07:00

Nick Stevenson's Education and Cultural Citizenship (TCS Book Series, Sage) is now available.

The book offers a global introduction to the major debates within the field and provides a sustained argument for a democratic and normative view of education.

For more details about the book and how to buy it, go here

Interview with Boris Groys

2011-06-15T03:13:00.000-07:00

Image: Boris Groys

Simon Dawes interviews Boris Groys about his article, interview and book reviewed in the March issue of TCS (28.2)

Interview with Hannah Abdullah and Matthias Benzer on Boris Groys

2011-06-09T05:25:00.000-07:00

In the March issue of TCS (28.2), we featured an article by Boris Groys, an interview with him by Hannah Abdullah and Matthias Benzer, and a review of his book The Communist Postscript by Claudia Mesch.

As a supplement to that issue, Simon Dawes interviewed Abdullah and Benzer for the TCS Blog.

Body & Society 17.2/3 - Special Issue on Medical Migrations - Out Now

2011-06-03T05:11:00.000-07:00

The June/September issue of Body & Society (17.2/3) is now available.

This double special issue, 'Medical Migrations: Beauty, Health and Life', edited by Elizabeth FS Roberts, Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Chris Roebuck, is introduced by Roberts and Scheper-Hughes, and features articles by Lawrence Cohen, Scheper-Hughes, Stefan Beck, Ara Wilson, Miriam Ticktin, Ian Whitmarsh, Sandra Teresa Hyde, and an afterword by Charis Thompson.

TCS 28.3 - May Issue - Out Now

2011-06-01T04:39:00.000-07:00

The May issue of TCS (28.3) is now available.

Go here to read articles by Claire Peta Blencowe on contingency and feminist discourse, Sindre Bangstad on Saba Mahmood, Matthew C. Watson on cosmopolitics and the subaltern, Charles Turner on Philip Rieff, and Stefan Schwarzkopf on consumer sovereignty.

Also in the issue are Simon Dawes's interview with Zygmunt Bauman, and Jan Nederveen Pieterse's review article on Jack Goody.

TCS 28.2 - Out Now!

2011-04-05T02:25:00.000-07:00

The March issue of TCS (28.2) is now available, featuring articles by Mayfair Mei-hui Yang on postcoloniality and religiosity in modern China, Xiaoshuo Hou on community capitalism in rural China, Hannah Abdullah & Matthias Benzer's interview with Boris Groys, Groys on the relation between language and image, and Ashwini Tambe on race science in the League of Nations.

The issue also features review articles by Barry Smart on the recent literature on sustainable economies, and Ali Riza Taskale on nihilism; and book reviews by Claudia Mesch on Boris Groys's The Communist Postscript, and Martin Lussier on Giorgio Agamben's The Signature of All Things

Interview with Jeffrey Shaw on new media art

2011-04-01T05:19:00.000-07:00

Part I: on the embodied experience and the augmentation of space

Yuk Hui interviews new media artist, Jeffrey Shaw, about his artwork and the computing industry, and about concepts such as embodiment, augmented space and data.
Read more »

Interview with Mark Davis on the Bauman Institute

2011-03-30T08:33:00.000-07:00

Photo: Mark Davis

(Simon and Simon,

http://www.simonandsimonphoto.co.uk/)

Simon Dawes speaks to Mark Davis about the aims and research interests of the Bauman Institute, and about what it means to address Bauman’s challenge.

Body & Society - March Issue - Out Now

2011-03-24T04:06:00.000-07:00

The new issue of Body & Society (17.1, March 2011) is now available, featuring articles by Lesley A. Sharp on bioaesthetics and the invisibility of the female form in visual renderings of heart devices, Annette Schlicter on the performative acts of voice, Stephanie Merchant on underwater videography and the unrepresentable, Pablo Santoro on biopolitics and the umbilical cord, Chikako & Brendan Ozawa de Silva on Tibetan medicine and Buddhism, and Kate O'Riordan's book review of Laura Mamo's Queering Reproduction

Interview with Stephen J. Collier on Foucault, Assemblages and Topology

2011-03-23T06:55:00.000-07:00

Photo: Stephen J. Collier

Simon Dawes interviews Stephen J. Collier on the turn to topology in Foucault’s later lectures, the relation between topologies and assemblages, and the use of concepts such as governmentality and neoliberalism.

Mona Abaza on Egypt, Public Space and Media

2011-03-22T05:41:00.000-07:00

Photo by Mona Abaza

In the fourth of our responses to events across North Africa and the Middle East, Mona Abaza comments on the uprising in Egypt. After describing her own personal experience in Cairo, she reflects on the significance of the use of public space, the multilingual soundbites used as slogans amongst the protesters, the importance of al-Jazeera and new media, and the hypocrisy of the West’s views on global democracy.

Interview with Pheng Cheah on cosmopolitanism, nationalism and human rights

2011-03-17T01:31:00.000-07:00

Photo: Pheng Cheah
(taken by Yuk Hui)

Yuk Hui interviews Pheng Cheah about nationalism and the nation-state, cosmopolitics and globalisation, human rights and the inhuman, financial crises and the importance of economic theory and collaborative work

Japan Disaster Aid

2011-03-16T07:32:00.000-07:00

As everyone will be aware, a major earthquake (magnitude 9.0) and tsunami hit north Japan on 11 March 2011 (now referred to as the ‘Tohoku Kanto earthquake’ or 2011 Sendai earthquake and tsunami - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Sendai_earthquake_and_tsunami).

This was the strongest earthquake and most devastating tsunami in Japanese history that caused mega destruction, fatality and fear amongst the Japanese people. Some 28,000 people are dead or missing. Sixteen towns, 95,000 buildings and 23 railway stations have been destroyed. In addition to this, people now face radiation fears from the explosions at the Fukushima nuclear power station.

Perhaps you would be willing to assist and support the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami by providing a donation? If so, please could you follow one of the links below.

Donations Links

British Red Cross Japan Tsunami Appeal

http://www.redcross.org.uk/Donate-Now/Make-a-single-donation/Japan-Tsunami-Appeal

eBay for Charity Japan Earthquake & Tsunami Appeal

http://donations.ebay.co.uk/charity_event_62.html

Donate with PayPal Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief

https://www.paypal-donations.com/pp-charity/web.us/campaign.jsp?cid=-12

Save the Chidren Japan Emergency Appeal

http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/en/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-appeal.htm

Interview with Antonio Casilli on Computer Culture and the Body

2011-03-15T09:25:00.000-07:00

Photo: Antonio Casilli
(copyright: Ulf Andersen)

Tomoko Tamari interviews Antonio A. Casilli on his article ‘A History of Virulence: The Body and Computer Culture in the 1980s’ in Body & Society 16.4 (Dec 2010), and discusses the links between the discourses of bodily and computer viruses, the roles of intimacy and biopolitics, and the difference between medicine’s and computer culture’s view of the body.

Read more »

Armando Salvatore on Egypt, Facebook and the Public Sphere

2011-03-11T04:17:00.000-08:00

Photo: Armando Salvatore

In the third of our commissioned commentaries on recent events across North Africa and the Middle East, Armando Salvatore reflects on the significance of the use of social media in these popular uprisings, and on the consequences for public sphere theory.

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Ayelet Zohar and Ibrahim Nubani: Interview and Images

2011-03-08T09:49:00.000-08:00

Ibrahim Nubani, Untitled (2009),
Pastel on Paper, 100X140 cm

Simon Dawes interviews Ayelet Zohar on her article in the current issue of TCS (28.1, Jan 2011): ‘The Paintings of Ibrahim Nubani: Camouflage, Schizophrenia and Ambivalence - Eight Fragments’.

In discussing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, schizophrenia and assimilation in the life and works of Ibrahim Nubani, Zohar includes Nubani’s own responses, taken from a recent conversation. This interview within an interview also features images of artworks by both Nubani and Zohar.

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Couze Venn on the link between the bonus system and the financial crisis

2011-03-04T08:29:00.000-08:00

Photo: Couze Venn

Drawing on Ha-Joon Chang's 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism, and Roubini's Crisis Economics, Couze Venn draws connections between the bonus culture of the 1980s and the economic crisis of 2008, and explains the contemporary significance of collateralised debt and loan obligations

Video: Renate Holub on Intellectuals and Information Capitalism

2011-03-02T03:55:00.000-08:00

Yuk Hui films Renate Holub's talk on 'Elements for a Critical Theory of Intellectuals under Conditions of Informational Capitalism', given at Goldsmith's College, University of London, on 9th Dec 2010, and interviews her on it for the TCS Website.

Renate Holub proposes that it is by linking the predominant features of informational capitalism to its embeddedness in larger processes of social evolutions in the information age that we can together engage in the development of new forms of norms and values in relation to global justice and democracy.

To go straight to Yuk Hui's interview with Renate Holub, go to Part 5.

Interview with Lucy Pickering on Toilets and Embodied Material Culture

2011-02-28T07:28:00.000-08:00

Photo: Lucy Pickering

In this interview with Simon Dawes, Lucy Pickering discusses her article ‘Toilets, Bodies, Selves: Enacting Composting as Counterculture in Hawai’i’ in the current issue of Body & Society (16.4).

She explains her interest in urination, defecation and toilets, the ideas of ‘embodied material culture’ and ‘matter (and relations) out of place’, and the possibility of a corporeal critique of the state.

Martin McQuillan on Higher Education policy in the UK

2011-02-25T07:24:00.000-08:00

Photo: Martin McQuillan

Martin McQuillan comments for the TCS Website on recent developments in Higher Education policy in the

In the wake of the Browne Report and the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review, he discusses the current government’s attack on arts, humanities and social science subjects at not only university level, but in secondary school education too.

Interview with Yuk Hui on Digital Objects

2011-02-24T08:09:00.000-08:00

Photo: Yuk Hui

Simon Dawes interviews Yuk Hui, who joined the TCS Website team as researcher a few months ago.

Yuk discusses his research into digital objects, the gap between the humanities and the sciences, and the kind of material he’s been collating for our website and blog.

Amr Sabet on the Egyptian Condition

2011-02-23T02:53:00.000-08:00

In the second of our commissioned responses to the Arab Revolutions, Amr G. E. Sabet comments on the ‘Egyptian Condition’.

He focuses on the reasons for the sudden uprising in Egypt: not so much social media, he argues, as recent tensions over water, gas and oil, the consequences of the Camp David Accords, and Mubarak’s role as Israel’s ‘strategic bonanza’

Elena Loizidou introduces our Judith Butler Archive

2011-02-18T06:00:00.000-08:00

Photo: Elena Loizidou

Elena Loizidou comments on the work of Judith Butler, and introduces our Judith Butler Archive.

The Archive is split between those articles published in Theory, Culture & Society and those published in Body & Society between 1997 and 2009, and contains 2 articles by Butler herself. These articles will be free to access until 30^th April.

Read more »

Free Access to Selected Archives until 30/04/11

2011-02-18T05:58:00.000-08:00

Theory, Culture & Society and Body & Society are opening up their archives.

So far we've collated our articles on/by/related to Zygmunt Bauman, Judith Butler, Michel Foucault, Paul Ricoeur, Georg Simmel, Affect, Climate Change and Race. These articles will be available for free until 30th April 2011.

Go here to access the Theory, Culture & Society Archive

Go here to access the Body & Society Archive

Interview with Gurminder Bhambra on Colonialism, Empire and Slavery

2011-02-17T04:49:00.000-08:00

Photo: Gurminder K. Bhambra

Gurminder Bhambra speaks to Simon Dawes about the forthcoming conference, ‘Rethinking the Modern: Colonialism, Empire and Slavery’.

Read more to find out about the continued significance of imperialism, the importance of the idea of 'connections', and how to submit an abstract of your own.

Abdelmajid Hannoum on the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt

2011-02-15T06:03:00.000-08:00

Photo: Abdelmajid Hannoum

In the first of our commissioned commentaries on the recent revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, Abdelmajid Hannoum considers what is at stake for the region.

In 'Revolutions Signées Arabes', he comments on the differences between the two revolutions, the 21st Century use of peaceful protest and absence of ideology, and the consequences for Egypt's relations with Israel and the US.

Free Access to Ash Amin's 'The Remainder of Race'

2011-02-11T05:39:00.000-08:00

Photo: Ash Amin

To coincide with the publication of the Special Section of Responses to Ash Amin's article 'The Remainders of Race', we're making his article freely available to everyone until 1st March.

To access the article, go here

Abstract

Prompted by the speed with which, in certain historical moments, the hardwon achievements of anti-racism can be comprehensively undone, this article reflects on the mechanisms that keep racial coding and judgement close to the surface, ready to spring into action. It reads the intensity of race in a given present in terms of the play between vernacular legacies of racecoded reception of visible difference and the conjunctural mobilizations of race by biopolitical regimes – state-regulated systems of governing populations – to maintain collective order. The article explains the contemporary trend in the West towards the ‘racialization of everything’ as the product of mutually reinforcing mischief between vernacular and biopolitical racism. It closes with a discussion of the implications of such conjunctural tightness, one which questions the effectiveness of humanist arguments that have come to the fore in recent years focusing on practices of recognition and reconciliation.

Key words

anti-racism ■ biopolitics ■ phenotype ■ race ■ racial legacies

Interview with Ash Amin on the Responses to his Article on Racism

2011-02-11T04:56:00.000-08:00

Photo: Ash Amin

Ash Amin responds to the responses to his article, 'The Remainders of Race', which was published last year in TCS.

In this interview with Simon Dawes, Amin discusses the claims made by Ali Rattansi, Abdoumaliq Simone and Denise da Silva in the current issue of TCS, addressing in particular his epistemological pessimism, the idea of living in difference, and the common ground for freedom.

Interview with Mike Hulme on Climate Change and Consumption

2011-02-09T23:58:00.000-08:00

Photo: Mike Hulme

Souvik Mukherjee and Josi Paz interview Mike Hulme on climate change and consumption.

Read more to find out his views on the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), on advocating a polycentric 'messy' approach to climate change, and on the role of the climate change 'expert'.

Read more »

Domestic Economy of the Soul by John O'Neill - Out Now!

2011-02-08T07:38:00.000-08:00

John O'Neill's new book, The Domestic Economy of the Soul: Freud's Five Case Studies, is now available as part of the TCS Book Series (Sage).

A mixture of psychoanalytical insight and social theory, this is the first major study of Freud's most famous case studies (Little Hans, Dora, the Rat Man, the Wolf Man and Schreber)

Inhuman Nature by Nigel Clark - Out Now!

2011-02-08T07:28:00.000-08:00

Nigel Clark's new book, Inhuman Nature: Sociable Life on a Dynamic Planet, is now available as part of the TCS Book Series (Sage).

Inhuman Nature explores the relationship between human activity and planetary processes, and between human life, social thought and the physical earth.

Interview with Couze Venn on Ash Amin and Racism

2011-02-04T08:54:00.000-08:00

Photo: Couze Venn

Simon Dawes interviews Couze Venn on the TCS Special Section of responses to Ash Amin's article 'The Remainders of Race'.

Couze explains the importance of Amin's challenge to conventional approaches to racism, summarises the responses made by Denise da Silva, Abdoumaliq Simone and Ali Rattansi, and argues for a further consideration of the role played by inequality, and how Foucault's 'discourse of race war' helps us understand this.

Read more »

TCS January Issue - Out Now!

2011-02-02T05:29:00.000-08:00

The January Issue of TCS (28.1) is now available.

This issue includes articles by Ayelet Zohar on the paintings of Ibrahim Nubani, Mathieu Hilgers on autochtony and capital, Hagar Kotef & Merav Amir on military checkpoints in Palestine, and Bjorn Schiermer on quasi-objects, fetishism and fashion.

It also includes a Special Section of Responses to Ash Amin on Race (Ash Amin's article, 'The Remainders of Race', was published in TCS 27.1 in January 2010). The section, edited by Couze Venn, features articles by Ali Rattansi, Abdoumaliq Simone and Denise Ferreira da Silva.

The issue also includes a review article by Ian Tucker on bodily connections in the work of Michel Serres.

Interview with Jennifer Bajorek and Erin Haney on Bamako

2011-01-27T02:52:00.000-08:00

Passersby check out poster-format
photographs mounted on the exterior wall
of the gardens of the National Museum of Mali
during the Rencontres de Bamako,
Bamako, Mali, November 2009.
Photograph: Jennifer Bajorek

Simon Dawes interviews Jennifer Bajorek and Erin Haney on their article, ‘Eye on Bamako: Conversations on the African Photography Biennial’, published in the Global Public Life section of December's Annual Review (TCS 27.7/8).

Jennifer and Erin discuss the history of the Biennial and the growing interest in African photography, the role of exhibitions in supporting artists, and the tension between French co-operation and neo-colonialism in Africa.

Interview with Jenny Slatman and Guy Widdershoven on Hand Transplants

2011-01-19T00:11:00.000-08:00

Tomoko Tamari interviews Jenny Slatman and Guy Widdershoven on their article on Hand Transplants in last year's Body & Society Special Issue on 'Bodily Integrity' (B&S 16.3, Sep 2010).

Read more to find out about transplants of visible body parts and invisible organs, the ambiguity of 'brain death', and the relationship between anti-allopathic medicine and bodily integrity.

Read more »

Interview with Jennifer Bajorek on Photography and the State

2011-01-12T09:46:00.000-08:00

Author Jennifer Bajorek

in the galleries of the

pan-African exhibition

during the Rencontres de Bamako,

Bamako, Mali, November 2009.

Photograph: Erin Haney

Simon Dawes interviews Jennifer Bajorek on the Special Section on 'Photography and the State' that she co-edits (with Vikki Bell) and introduces in the TCS Annual Review 2010.

Read more to find out about the role of photography in South Africa, Israel/Palestine and Latin America, the relation between photography and the state, and how practical issues to do with photography help us theorise state sovereignty

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Interview with David Macey on Fanon, Foucault and Race

2011-01-05T05:26:00.000-08:00

Photo: David Macey

Simon Dawes interviews David Macey about his contribution to the Special Section on Frantz Fanon in the current issue of the TCS Annual Review, and about his 2009 article in the TCS Special Issue on Michel Foucault.

Read more to find out why (and for whom) Fanon is a source of embarrassment, the link for Foucault between race and the legitimacy of power, and why we should all be reaching for our copies of Fanon and Aimé Césaire.

Read more »

TCS Annual Review 2010 - Out Now!

2011-01-05T04:42:00.000-08:00

The TCS Annual Review 2010 (27.7/8), edited by Vikki Bell, is now available. Go here to read the special sections on 'Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth Fifty Years On' and 'Photography and the State', as well as the articles in our recurring section 'Global Public Life'.

'Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth Fifty Years On' is edited and introduced by Vikki Bell, and contains articles by Paul Gilroy, David Macey, Mohammed A Bamyeh, Azzedine Haddour, Francoise Vergès, Ghassan Hage and Abdoumaliq Simone.

'Photography and the State' is edited by Jennifer Bajorek and Vikki Bell, introduced by Bajorek, and contains articles by Jens Andermann, Andrea Noble, Bronwyn Law-Viljoen and Ariella Azoulay.

And this year's 'Global Public Life' section has articles by Jennifer Bajorek & Erin Haney on the African Photography Biennial, Stewart Motha's commentary on Antjie Krog's 'Begging to be Black', Susanne Neubauer on Warren Neidich's photography, and concludes with a conversation between Lynne Huffer and Elizabeth Wilson on Foucault and Queer Theory.

John W.P. Phillips on Fractals

2011-01-03T05:07:00.000-08:00

Photo: John WP Phillips

As a supplement to Couze Venn’s commentary on Benoit Mandelbrot, John Phillips writes about fractals and the border between mathematics and the humanities, focusing on the work of Mandelbrot, MacFarlane Burnet and Jacques Derrida, and arguing for a view of distinct disciplines that focuses more on general principles.

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Couze Venn on Benoit Mandelbrot, fractals and the realignment of the human sciences

2011-01-03T03:16:00.000-08:00

Photo: Couze Venn

Following the death of Benoit Mandelbrot, the father of fractal geometry, on 14th Oct 2010, Couze Venn comments on the mathematician’s influence, on fractals and knowledge, and on the methodological and epistemological traffic between mathematics, the natural sciences, the social sciences and the humanities.

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Interview with Zygmunt Bauman

2010-12-22T07:11:00.000-08:00

Zygmunt Bauman

(Photo: Simon and Simon

http://www.simonandsimonphoto.co.uk/)

Simon Dawes asks Zygmunt Bauman for his responses to some of the claims made in the current TCS Special Section on his work, about his forthcoming book on inequality, and why he no longer referees articles for TCS

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Body & Society 16.4 - Out Now

2010-12-22T06:43:00.000-08:00

The December issue of Body & Society (volume 16, issue number 4) is now available.

Go here to read articles by Antonio A. Casilli on the body and computer culture in the 80s; Lucy Pickering on toilets and composting in Hawai'i; Debra Gimlin on the 'other' in cosmetic surgery; Anne Pollock on a feminist articulation of heart disease; and Luna Dolezal's review article on Sartre on the Body (edited by Katherine J. Morris)

Interview with John Milbank on Bauman and Religion

2010-12-21T04:33:00.000-08:00

John Milbank

Edmund Frettingham interviews John Milbank on reason, religion, foundationalist secularity, and his critique of Bauman’s position on the role of the intellectual

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Peter Burke on writing The Social History of Knowledge

2010-12-21T04:01:00.000-08:00

Photo: Peter Burke

Here is the full text of Peter Burke's seminar on ‘Writing The Social History of Knowledge’, given in the History Department of Birkbeck College, University of London, on 2nd November.

We also provide links to our earlier interview with Peter on the TCS Blog, to the podcast and written text of his lecture on his forthcoming sequel to A Social History of Knowledge, and to his article on Jack Goody that we published in TCS in 2009.

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2010-12-20T08:14:00.000-08:00

The (late) November issue of TCS (27.6) is now available. In the Special Section on Megacities & Violence, edited by Ryan Bishop, you can read articles by Saskia Sassen, Eyal Weizman, Peter Adey and Jordan Crandall. And in the Special Section on Zygmunt Bauman, edited by Roy Boyne, you can read articles by Martin Jay, John Milbank and Julia Hell.

On the Blog we've already featured Mark Davis's profile of Bauman and an interview with Ryan Bishop on the themes of his section. This week we'll be posting an interview with John Milbank on his article on Bauman, and an interview with Bauman himself on his response to the claims made in the journal.

Ben Carrington: Race, Sport and Politics - Out Now

2010-12-17T05:34:00.000-08:00

Ben Carrington's new TCS book, Race, Sport and Politics: The Sporting Black Diaspora is now available.

The book was also featured on Left of Black on Monday 13/12/10, and discussed on Laurie Taylor's Thinking Allowed (BBC Radio 4) on Wednesday 15/12/10

Interview with Ryan Bishop on Megacities & Violence

2010-12-15T08:16:00.000-08:00

Photo: Ryan Bishop

The Special Section on Megacities & Violence, edited by Ryan Bishop, will be published in the (running late) November issue of TCS, and will feature articles by Saskia Sassen, Eyal Weizman, Jordan Crandall and Peter Adey.

Simon Dawes interviewed Ryan on the themes of the section. Read more to find out what makes a mega city, what they can tell us about our propensity to violence, and to what extent megacities can unsettle ‘the vertical’

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Peter Burke on the Social History of Knowledge, 1750-2000

2010-12-13T09:36:00.000-08:00

Photo: Peter Burke

Here is the full text of Peter Burke's public lecture ‘Loss and Gain: The Social History of Knowledge, 1750-2000’, given at Birkbeck College, University of London, on 9th November.

Read more to find out about the three forms of knowledge loss: the hiding, destroying and discarding of knowledge.

We also provide links to our earlier interview with Peter on the TCS Blog, to the podcast of the lecture, and to his article on Jack Goody that we published in TCS in 2009.

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Mark Davis on Zygmunt Bauman

2010-12-10T01:22:00.000-08:00

Zygmunt Bauman
(Photograph: Grzegorz Lepiarz
http://www.photogl.com/)

To coincide with Zygmunt Bauman's 85th birthday in November, we commissioned for the journal a special section of articles on his work (TCS 27.6), and for the blog we asked Mark Davis, Director of the Bauman Institute, to provide his own reflections on Bauman. Read more for Mark's sociological, personal and birthday notes 'For Zygmunt'

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TCS Special E-Issue: 'David Frisby on Georg Simmel and Social Theory' - Out Now

2010-12-09T04:56:00.000-08:00

Photo: David Frisby

The TCS Special E-Issue 'David Frisby on Georg Simmel and Social Theory' is now available.

Introduced by Thomas Kemple, and featuring all David's articles in TCS, his translations of Simmel, as well as other TCS articles with which he was involved and a review of his Sociological Impressionism book, this is our tribute to David Frisby (1944-2010).

Thomas Kemple introduces 'David Frisby on Georg Simmel and Social Theory'

2010-12-08T03:50:00.000-08:00

Photo: David Frisby

In commemoration of David Frisby (1944-2010), we have compiled a Special E-Issue of David's writings in TCS, the Special Issue on Simmel with which he was invloved, and a review of his book Sociological Impressionism. The E-Issue, 'David Frisby on Georg Simmel and Social Theory', is introduced by editorial board member Thomas Kemple. You can read the introduction here

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Interview with Michel Maffesoli on Postmodernity

2010-12-06T02:38:00.000-08:00

Michel Maffesoli (Photo by Simon Dawes)

Before Michel Maffesoli gave his talk on ‘Le Temps Revient: Les Formes Elémentaires de la Postmodernité’ in Montpellier (France), Simon Dawes met him at his hotel to discuss postmodernity, the state of sociology in France, and letting the burning house of modernity burn.

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Nigel Clark: Beyond Justice? The Radical Asymmetries of Climate Change

2010-12-03T01:30:00.000-08:00

Photo: Nigel Clark

Nigel Clark's lecture 'Beyond Justice? The Radical Asymmetries of Climate Change' was presented at the Department of Geography, King’s College, London on 19th October, 2010. We interviewed him about it last week, and now Nigel has agreed to let us reproduce the full text of his lecture exclusively on the TCS Blog.

Read more on the desire for justice, the importance of the body in our ‘learning to be affected’ by climate change, and on the possibility of asymmetrical gestures
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John W.P. Phillips: On how Slavoj Zizek doesn’t know how to read

2010-12-01T07:40:00.000-08:00

Photo: John W.P. Phillips

Following an interview with John Phillips on the TCS Blog in September, we asked him to follow-up on some of his references and claims. Here is his third and final (for now) post: on deconstruction, the possibility of impossibility, and how Slavoj Žižek doesn’t know how to read

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Mike Featherstone pays tribute to David Frisby

2010-11-29T04:31:00.000-08:00

Mike Featherstone pays tribute to David Frisby, Emeritus Professor at the London School of Economics, who died just over a week ago.

Photo: David Frisby 26th March 1944 - 20th November 2010

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Interview with Nigel Clark on Climate Change and Justice

2010-11-25T02:43:00.000-08:00

Photo: Nigel Clark

Following his contribution to the Special Issue on Changing Climates (TCS 27.2/3), Nigel Clark continues his work on climate change in a recent talk at King’s College, London. Here, Jennifer Barth interviews him on the meaning of justice, the limits of climate calculations, and alternatives to the economic logic of understanding climate change.

Next week, we'll be posting the full text of his lecture exclusively on the TCS Blog.

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John W.P. Phillips: On Rancière and Derrida on Plato

2010-11-19T12:47:00.000-08:00

Photo: John W.P. Phillips

Following on from our interview with John Phillips on the TCS Blog in September, we’ve been asking John to clarify and elaborate upon some of the complex theories and concepts to which he’s referred. Here is his second response: on Rancière’s and Derrida’s readings of Plato, and a new logic for addressing the metaphysical questions of space, time and death.

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Interview with Peter Burke on the social history of knowledge

2010-11-15T09:07:00.000-08:00

Photo: Peter Burke

Last week, Peter Burke gave a public lecture entitled ‘Loss and Gain: The Social History of Knowledge, 1750-2000’ at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Simon Dawes interviewed him about his lecture, his forthcoming book, and about knowledge, ignorance, trust, encyclopedia projects and ‘agnotology’.

We provide links to the podcast of his talk, and to his article in TCS last year, at the end of the interview.

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John W.P. Phillips: On Mathematical Logic

2010-11-12T02:09:00.000-08:00

Photo: John W.P. Phillips

We featured an interview with John Phillips on the TCS Blog in September, in which Simon Dawes asked him about aesthetics, Badiou and Rancière; his responses took us on to Lacan, Plato, Žižek and mathematics. We asked John to clarify some of the complex theories and concepts to which he referred, and over the next few weeks we’ll be posting his responses. Here is his first response: on the significance of cardinal and ordinal numbers, and mathematical logic in general, to philosophy and psychoanalysis.

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Interview with Aryn Martin on Microchimerism

2010-11-10T05:38:00.000-08:00

Photo: Aryn Martin

In this interview, Simon Dawes asks Aryn Martin about her article on microchimerism in the current issue of Body & Society – a Special Issue on Bodily Integrity, edited by Lisa Blackman.

In explaining the concept of microchimerism, Aryn discusses the exchange of cells between a mother and her foetus, problematises the self/non-self model dominant in immunology, and emphasizes the significance of the use of geopolitical metaphors to explain this phenomenon – and consequently the links between the foetus and the nation-state.

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Interview with Adam Piette on Paul Ricoeur

2010-11-01T02:01:00.000-07:00

In the fourth and final of our interviews with the contributors to the Special Section on Paul Ricoeur (TCS 27.5), Simon Dawes interviews Adam Piette, whose article draws on Ricoeur to compare the remembrance and forgetting of two massacres in Vichy France.

Photo: Adam Piette

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Remembering Mohammed Arkoun (1928-2010) by Couze Venn

2010-10-26T08:23:00.000-07:00

In this short piece for the TCS Blog, Couze Venn pays tribute to Mohammed Arkoun, who died last month in Paris.

Arkoun's article, 'The Answers of Applied Islamology', was published in the TCS Special Issue on Authority and Islam (24.2) in 2007. We've made his article freely available until 30th November (follow the link below).

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Interview with Lisa Jones on Paul Ricoeur

2010-10-25T01:42:00.000-07:00

In the third of our interviews with the contributors to the Special Section on Paul Ricoeur (TCS 27.5), Simon Dawes interviews Lisa Jones, whose translation of Ricoeur's lecture on Hannah Arendt and violence, and whose own article on Ricoeur's idea of the Author, feature in the section.

Photo: Lisa Jones

Exhibition Review: Unfold: Art from Cape Farewell

2010-10-21T09:06:00.000-07:00

Following on from our Special Issue on Changing Climates (TCS 27.2/3), we sent Jennifer Barth to review artistic responses to climate change at Cape Farewell's Unfold exhibition

Photo from Chris Wainwright: ‘Here comes the sun, there goes the ice’

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Interview with Alison Scott-Baumann on Paul Ricoeur

2010-10-18T02:59:00.000-07:00

In the second of our interviews with the contributors to the Special Section on Paul Ricoeur (TCS 27.5), Simon Dawes interviews Alison Scott-Baumann, English Representative of Fonds Ricoeur, on Ricoeur's translation model, and the relation between translation and tolerance.

Photo: Alison Scott-Baumann at Fonds Ricoeur

Exhibition Review: ‘Through Labyrinths’, Barcelona

2010-10-14T07:46:00.000-07:00

In the second of his reports from the Centre of Contemporary Culture in Barcelona (CCCB), Simon Dawes reviews the exhibition ‘Through Labyrinths’

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Interview with Steve Hedley Clark on Paul Ricoeur

2010-10-11T14:54:00.000-07:00

In the first of our interviews with the contributors to the Special Section on Paul Ricoeur (TCS 27.5), Simon Dawes interviews Steve Hedley Clark, who edited and introduces the section.

Photo: Steve Hedley Clark

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Éric Fassin: Why the Roma?

2010-10-07T05:32:00.000-07:00

In response to the recent deportations of Roma from France, we invited sociologist Éric Fassin to give us his account of why the Roma are being stigmatised by the Sarkozy administration.

In this translation of a talk he gave last month at a public event in Montreuil, France, Éric explains the symbolic links between Roma and Muslims, and suggests the concept of the 'floating signified' to explain the rhetorical circulation of the 'othering' of multiple groups.

Photo: Éric Fassin

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TCS Special on Ricoeur - Out Now!

2010-10-02T07:10:00.000-07:00

The new issue of TCS (vol 27, issue 5) is out now, featuring a Special Section on Paul Ricoeur. The Section is edited and introduced by Steve Hedley Clark, and features translations of two Ricoeur articles, as well as new articles by Lisa Jones, Alison Scott-Baumann and Adam Piette.

The issue also includes two standard articles: Leonhard Praeg's 'Of Evil and Other Figures of the Liminal' and Leslie Sklair's 'Iconic Architecture and the Culture-ideology of Consumerism'.

Over the next few weeks on the TCS Blog, we'll have interviews with all the contributors to the section on Ricoeur, a report on Fonds Ricoeur (the Ricoeur archives in Paris), and an introduction on 'how to read Ricoeur' by Alison Scott-Baumann.

You can access all the articles in this issue of TCS here

Tomoko Tamari interviews Jennifer Robertson on Robo-Sexism in Japan

2010-09-22T03:18:00.000-07:00

Tomoko Tamari (Managing Editor of Body & Society) talks to Jennifer Robertson about the posthuman, eugenics and robotics, and about gender and national identity in Japan.

Image: Jennifer Robertson (left)

Body & Society - Special Issue on Bodily Integrity - Out Now!

2010-09-20T04:32:00.000-07:00

The September issue of Body & Society (volume 16, issue 3) is out now.

In this Special Issue on Bodily Integrity, edited and introduced by the journal's editor, Lisa Blackman, you can read Margrit Shildrick's commentary on the issue, and articles by Aryn Martin (on micro-chimerism), Vivian Sobchack (on phantom limbs), Jenny Slatman & Guy Widdershoven (on hand transplants), Boaz Neumann (on prosthetics in WWI and Weimar Germany) and Rhonda Shaw (on organ donation in New Zealand).

Go here for the full table of contents and access to the articles.

Special Issue Extra: Interview with Elizabeth Shove

2010-09-15T07:53:00.000-07:00

In the fourth of a series of interviews with contributors to the TCS Special Issue on Changing Climates (27.2/3, March-May 2010), Simon Dawes interviews Elizabeth Shove on the relationship between social theory (and economics) and climate policy

Image: Elizabeth Shove

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Interview with Souvik Mukherjee

2010-09-10T06:48:00.000-07:00

In this interview, Simon Dawes speaks to Souvik Mukherjee about videogame narratives, Gilles Deleuze and the history of the TCS Website

Read more to find out why only people who play computer games should write about them, and why Souvik thinks game theory is growing up

Image: Souvik Mukherjee

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Interview with John W.P. Phillips on Badiou, Rancière...and Žižek

2010-09-06T03:03:00.000-07:00

Simon Dawes interviews TCS Editorial Board member John W.P. Phillips on his article, 'Art, Politics, and Philosophy: Alain Badiou and Jacques Rancière', which was published in the July issue of TCS (volume 27, issue number 4).

In this interview, John discusses aesthetics, the relationship between Badiou and Rancière, and between them and the French intellectual tradition...and then criticises Žižek's selective reading of the two thinkers

Image: John W.P. Phillips

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Exhibition Review: Barcelona and the City

2010-09-01T06:26:00.000-07:00

In the first of his reports from the Centre of Contemporary Culture in Barcelona, Simon Dawes reviews the exhibition ‘Barcelona-València-Palma (BVP): A History of Confluence and Divergence’

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Interview with Vikki Bell

2010-09-01T05:28:00.000-07:00

Simon Dawes interviews Vikki Bell on her recent articles in TCS.

Image: Vikki Bell

To supplement her article on images and justice in Argentina, Vikki has supplied us with a list of links to key organizations in Argentina, which we've reproduced at the end of this interview. Her interview with Judith Butler is the latest in a long line of articles we've published on and by Butler, and we'll be making the archive freely available on the TCS Website very soon.

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Surfing the Jagged Shards of Communism: Jennifer Barth comments on Boris Groys at the ICA

2010-08-05T06:23:00.000-07:00

In the first of Jennifer Barth’s reports as TCS Website Researcher, she discusses the recent talk given by Boris Groys in London.

Groys is perhaps most famous among Anglophones for his work on Russian avant-garde art, the ‘post-communist condition’ and the relationship between art and power. A special section on Boris Groys, edited by Matthias Benzer and Hannah Abdullah, will be published in TCS in early 2011.

Image: Boris Groys

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Interview with Jennifer Barth

2010-08-04T02:47:00.000-07:00

Jennifer Barth has recently joined the TCS Website team.

As Researcher, she’ll be reporting for us on the UK events that we’re following, and in which we hope readers of Theory, Culture & Society and Body & Society will be interested.

Image: Jennifer Barth

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Interview with Gurminder Bhambra

2010-08-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

Gurminder K. Bhambra is the convenor of the British Sociological Association's (BSA) Theory Study Group, and is currently editing a TCS Special Issue on economist Amartya Sen. In this interview with Simon Dawes, she discusses the activities of the Group, Sen's theories and her own research interests.

Image: Gurminder K. Bhambra

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Simon Dawes interviews Stephanie Hemelryk Donald on Ang Lee's 'Lust Caution'

2010-08-02T07:10:00.000-07:00

Simon Dawes interviews Stephanie Hemelryk Donald, whose article, 'Tang Wei: Sex, the City, and the Scapegoat in Lust Caution', is now available in Theory, Culture & Society (volume 27, number 4).

Image: Stephanie Hemelryk Donald

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TCS 27.4 Out Now!

2010-08-02T05:53:00.000-07:00

The new issue of Theory, Culture & Society (volume 27, number 4) is out now.

This issue contains a controversial article on 'The Postsecular Turn' by Gregor McLennan, an article by Stephanie H Donald on the controversial film Lust, Caution, Susan Ruddick on Affect in the work of Negri and Deleuze, Neil Narine on narrative cinema, Vikki Bell on biopolitics in Argentina, Alev Cinar on globalisation and nationalism in Turkey, and John WP Phillips on Badiou and Rancière

You can access the articles here

Simon Dawes interviews Gregor McLennan on 'The Postsecular Turn'

2010-07-23T01:23:00.000-07:00

In anticipation of the forthcoming publication of the new issue of TCS (27.4), Simon Dawes interviews Gregor McLennan, whose article, 'The Postsecular Turn', opens the issue.

Image: Gregor McLennan

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Simon Dawes interviews Lee F. Monaghan about his co-authored article on obesity 'epidemics'

2010-07-16T09:21:00.000-07:00

In this supplement to the new issue of Body & Society (16.2), Simon Dawes interviews Lee F. Monaghan about his co-authored article on obesity 'epidemics'

Image: Lee F. Monaghan

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The new issue of Body & Society (16.2) is out now.

2010-07-16T08:58:00.000-07:00

The new issue of Body & Society (16.2) is out now.

In volume 16, issue number 2, you can read articles by Jennifer Robertson on robo-sexism in Japan, Lee F Monaghan, Robert Hollands and Gary Pritchard on obesity epidemic entrepreneurs, Matthias Zick Varul on Talcott Parsons and chronic illness, Sarah EH Moore on the gendered healthy body, Tanya Maria Zivkovic on Tibetan Buddhist embodiment and Susie Scott on the swimmer's body.

You can read the articles here

Special Issue Extra: Interview with Kathryn Yusoff

2010-07-01T05:47:00.000-07:00

In the third of a series of interviews with contributors to the TCS Special Issue on Changing Climates, Simon Dawes interviews Kathryn Yusoff about polar bears, archives and the hybrid nature of climate change

Image: Kathryn Yusoff

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Special Issue on Changing Climates – For Free until end of July

2010-06-22T23:46:00.000-07:00

The TCS Special Issue on Changing Climates (TCS 27.2/3, May 2010, edited by Bronislaw Szerszynski and John Urry), featuring articles by Ulrich Beck, Mike Hulme, Elizabeth Shove, Brian Wynne, and many more, will be available for free until 31st July 2010.

The issue demonstrates how social science can help to illuminate the very nature of the challenge of climate change, and gathers papers by some of the world's leading authors working on climate and society. The contributors trace the way that climate science has been produced, organised, mobilised and contested, and explore the relationships between climate change, politics, global inequity, financial turbulence and even life itself.

You can access the articles for free here.

To support the publication of this issue, we’ve also collated links to some other material (relevant publications and events, interviews, recordings etc) you may also find of interest – you can access the extra material here.

Special Issue Extra: Interview with J. Timmons Roberts

2010-06-22T23:31:00.000-07:00

In this supplement to our special issue on Changing Climates, Simon Dawes interviews J. Timmons Roberts, whose co-authored article, ‘Climate Change, Social Theory and Justice’ features in the issue.

Image: J. Timmons Roberts

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