A woman needs a fridge of her own if she is to write theory. In fact, I’d wager a woman needs a fridge of her own if she is to write pretty much anything, but since what I am writing at the moment is (mostly) theory, let’s assume that it can serve as a … More A fridge of one’s own
One of my favourite texts back from the time when I was writing my Master’s thesis is the Situationist International’s On The Poverty of Student Life (De la misère au milieu étudiant). Written in 1966 and distributed in 10.000 copies at the official ceremony marking the start of the new academic year at … More The poverty of student experience
[This review was originally published on the blog of the Political Economy Research Centre as part of its Anthropocene Reading Group, as well as on the blog of Centre for Understanding Sustainable Prosperity] Donna Haraway, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene, (Duke University Press, 2016) From the opening, Donna Haraway’s recent … More Critters, Critics, and Californian Theory – review of Haraway’s Staying with the Trouble
[These are my thoughts/notes for the “Practice of Social Theory“, which Mark Carrigan and I are running at the Department of Sociology of the University of Cambridge from 4 to 6 September, 2017]. Revival of theory? It seems we are witnessing something akin to a revival of theory, or at least of … More Theory as practice: for a politics of social theory, or how to get out of the theory zoo
[This review of “Democratic problem-solving” (Cruickshank and Sassower eds., 2017) was first published in Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective, 26 May 2017]. It is a testament to the lasting influence of Karl Popper and Richard Rorty that their work continues to provide inspiration for debates concerning the role and purpose of knowledge, democracy, … More Solving the democratic problem: intellectuals and reconciling epistemic and liberal democracy
Last Friday in April, I was at a conference entitled Universities, neoliberalisation and (in)equality at Goldsmiths, University of London. It was an one-day event featuring presentations and interventions from academics who work on understanding, and criticising, the transformation of working conditions in neoliberal academia. Besides sharing these concerns, attending such events is part of my … More Universities, neoliberalisation, and the (im)possibility of critique
[This post was originally published at the Sociological Review blog’s Special Issue on Zygmunt Bauman, 13 April 2017] “Morality, as it were, is a functional prerequisite of a world with an in-built finality and irreversibility of choices. Postmodern culture does not know of such a world.” Zygmunt Bauman, Sociology and postmodernity Getting reacquainted with Bauman’s … More Zygmunt Bauman and the sociologies of end times
Prologue One Saturday in late January, I go to the PhD office at the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge’s New Museums site (yes, PhD students shouldn’t work on Saturdays, and yes, we do). I swipe my card at the main gate of the building. Nothing happens. I try again, and again, and … More Boundaries and barbarians: ontological (in)security and the [cyber?] war on universities
Last week, I finally got around to seeing Denial. It has many qualities and a few disadvantages – its attempt at hyperrealism treading on both – but I would like to focus on the aspect most reviews I’ve read so far seem to have missed. In other words: mansplaining. Brief contextualization. Lest I be accused … More On ‘Denial’: or, the uncanny similarity between Holocaust and mansplaining
[This post was originally published on 03/01 2017 in Discover Society Special Issue on Digital Futures. I am also working on a longer (article) version of it, which will be uploaded soon]. It is by now commonplace to claim that digital technologies have fundamentally transformed knowledge production. This applies not only to how we create, … More @Grand_Hotel_Abyss: digital university and the future of critique
