The Theory Study Group provides a forum for those interested in sociological and social theory. After a well-attended event at the BSA 2007 annual conference – on ‘Sociological Theory: Still Going Wrong?’ – it was decided that there was scope for future activities organized under the auspices of the Theory Group. To signal the start of a new period of activity for the group, we decided to organise a high-profile conference to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of the events of May 1968 (see below).

If you would like to join the Theory Group click here. Please use an institutional email address when requesting to join. If, for some reason, you would like to use an alternative account, please email Ipek Demir (id34[AT]le.ac.uk) with your request.

Short website address: http://www.warwick.ac.uk/go/bsatheorysg

Forthcoming BSA Theory Group Events 

• Foucault, the Family and Politics
  BSA Theory Study Group supported Conference
  Friday, 12 November 2010, Kings College, Keynes Hall, Cambridge
  
  Organised by Robbie Duschinsky, Sociology, University of Cambridge
  
  Foucault writes of how the internal power-dynamics of the family interact with the social politics of society as a whole. On the one hand, social politics impact family structure and dynamics in many ways, including legal judgements, medical interventions, and social work. On the other hand, members of families call on discourses and institutions from society at large in order to manage or change the operation of the family. The conference will begin by examining the theme of the family in Foucault’s life and texts; it will then use his ideas to explore the politics of the family more generally in the contemporary world.
  
  
  
  Click here for the conference programme.
  Click here for registration (attendance is free, but please register). Closing date for registration is Tuesday 9 November, 2010.
  
  
  Speakers include:
  Professor Remi Lenoir (Centre de Sociologie Européenne, Université Paris 1, France)
  Professor Valerie Walkerdine (School of Social Sciences, University of Cardiff, UK/Visiting Professor, University of Oslo, Norway)
  Professor Vikki Bell (Sociology, University of London, Goldsmiths, UK)
  Professor Veronique Mottier (Sociology, University of Lausanne/Sociology, University of Cambridge, UK) 
  
  
  
  

• 'Symposium for Margaret Archer'
  BSA Theory Study Group Symposium
  Organised with the Realism and Social Research Study Group and the Department of Sociology, University of Warwick
  Tuesday 16 November 2010, University of Warwick
  
  Further details will be posted here in due course.
  

Past BSA Theory Group Events

• 1968: Impact and Implications - BSA Theory Study Group Conference in collaboration with Birkbeck Institute for Social Research on 3-4 July 2008 at Birkbeck, University of London.
  
  This conference was timed to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of May 1968. It sought to provide a forum for reflecting back on the events of that time as well as thinking about their implications for current and future endeavours – theoretical and political. Alongside plenary events with keynote speakers and roundtables, there were also a number of parallel paper sessions. For more details about the conference please use the link above.
  
  
• BSA Annual Conference 2009, 16-18 April, Cardiff City Hall
  
  Theory Study Group sub-plenary: Global Social Inquiry: The Challenge of Listening
  Saturday 18th April, 11:00-12:30, in the Assembly Hall.
  
  - Lisa Adkins (Goldsmiths, UK) The Future and Futurity of Time: Gender and/at the End of Hegemonic Clock Time           
  - Les Back (Goldsmiths, UK) Global Attentiveness and the Sociological Ear
  - Rolando Vázquez (Utrecht, Netherlands) Social Struggle as Epistemic Struggles, or the Fight against Invisibility  
  
  The papers from this sub-plenary were published as a special 'Debate' section of Sociological Research Online. You can access them here.
  
  
• BSA Theory Study Group Conference 2009, 17-18 Sept, 2009, University of Warwick
  
  Have We Ever Been 'Post'? The Critique of Sociological Knowledge
  A BSA Theory Study Group conference held in collaboration with the Department of Sociology, University of Warwick
  
  Organised by Rodrigo Cordero Vega, Elisabeth Simbuerger and Gurminder K Bhambra
  
  For further details, see here.
  
  
• BSA Annual Conference 2010, Glasgow, 7-9 April, 2010, Glasgow Caledonian
  
  For further details of all sessions in the Theory stream, please click here.
  
  The Theory stream sub-plenary session is on Amartya Sen's work and, in particular, his new book The Idea of Justice.
  
  Changing Interpretations of Capabilities: The Contested Neoliberalisation of Sen
  Sylvia Walby (Lancaster)
  
  The Global Reach of Sen: Working Lives, Entangled Histories and Social Justice
  Alice Mah (Humboldt)
  
  Democracy and Public Reasoning in the Capability Approach: Toward a Sociological Understanding
  Jean-Michel Bonvin (Lausanne)
  
  Public Reasoning Without Sociology: Problems in Sen's Theory of Justice
  John Holmwood (Nottingham)
  
  
  
  

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News

See the home page for the Theory, Culture, Society website for information about its journals, book series and a range of material including: interviews, video-clips and podcasts with established scholars, authors and issue editors. There is also a section on key theorists and a glossary of the latest theoretical concepts.

Interview with Neera Chandhoke (BSA 2010 plenary speaker) available here.

A new award has been established by the BSA to support early career scholars. See here for details.

The papers from the 2009 Theory sub-plenary at the Annual Conference were published as a special 'Debate' section of Sociological Research Online.

Selected papers from the Theory group's inaugural conference on '1968' were published as an edited volume: 1968 in Retrospect: History, Theory, Alterity

Newsletters

Newsletter 3 (2010)

Newsletter 2 (2009)

Newsletter 1 (2008)