Our research interests:
The focus of the grouping's research is on contemporary social identities and their expression in socio-cultural forms, with particular emphasis on ethnicities; culture and identity; marginalised sexual identities; youth cultures and communication and interaction.
Current members
Academic Members: Victoria D. Alexander, Vief Boon, [Martin Bulmer], Ann Cronin, Florian Pichler, Colin B. Grant, Paul Hodkinson, Paul Johnson, Cornel Sandvoss, Katharine Tyler
Research Staff and
Research Students and Postdoctoral Fellows: Mohamed Abdou, Dimitros Anastasopoulos, Richard Antony, Rajaa Al-Gahatany, Anna Connolly, Alex Cuncev, Zafar Iqbal (Postdoctoral Fellow), Taroub Khayyat, Darinpaj Oonpipat, Sylvie Patel, Nitida Sangsingkeo, Ghulam Shabir (Postdoctoral Fellow), Sangita Shrestha, Vineet Vijh, Ole Jensen (Post-doctoral Fellow).
Research into the cultural identities of youth forms a theme for the group. Paul Hodkinson has focused upon the continuing adoption by some young people of subcultural identities based upon collective forms of cultural taste, such as music and style. A key interest is the self-positioning of young people, both in relation to other members of the group/s with which they associate and in relation to those they regard as outsiders. Hodkinson’s work has also examined the role of different forms of media and new media in the construction of both collective and individualised patterns of identity among young people.
Paul Johnson’s interests are in the intersections between identity, subjectivity and social order. Research has focused on the accomplishment and enactment of ‘normative’ heterosexual identities. A strong interest is in the relationship between gender, sexuality and social class. And in the relation between identity and cultural forms such as romantic love.
Ann Cronin’s research interests include the social construction of sexual identities, the interaction between gender, sexuality and ageing and homelessness. She has a methodological interest in narrative analysis and the sociology of story telling. She has undertaken research on the social networks of older lesbian women and is currently conducting research on the health and social care needs of older LGBT adults. Recently as part of an ESRC funded group project exploring conceptions of vulnerability she collected narrative accounts from people with experience of homelessness. Analysis of the data focused on the relationship between identity and location.
Situated within the broad sociological field of race and ethnicity studies, Katharine Tyler’s research has examined the formation of white ethnic identities with particular reference to the ways in which Englishness/Britishness is portrayed as essentially white, suburban/rural and middle-class. Tyler’s research has also explored ideas of genealogy, ethnicity and identity with particular attention given to the ways in which the members of mixed-race families think about ideas of belonging, descent, inheritance and ancestry across racial, ethnic, religious and classed lines. Tyler has conducted research on collective action, ethnicity and the state. This aspect of her research has illuminated some of the complexities, contradictions and limits of the contemporary advanced liberal state. She is currently Principle investigator of an SRC-funded project entitled: ‘Communities within communities: a longitudinal approach to minority/majority relationships and social cohesion’.
Victoria Alexander has written extensively on the sociology of the arts (both fine and popular forms), on state funding for artists and arts organisations, and on museums. She is also interested in organisational culture and visual sociology. Recently, she has been part of an ESRC-funded project on conceptions of vulnerability, with a team of colleagues from the University of Surrey. Her contribution involved the use of visual methods to study participants’ views of their neighbourhoods and their sense of communities.
Florian Pichler’s research mainly focuses on identity in a globalized world, linking different forms of national identity to the concepts of globalization and cosmopolitanization. His recent work examines different expressions of European and global identity using data from cross-national surveys such as the Eurobarometer, the European Values Study, the ISSP or the World Values Surveys. His work acknowledges the many different connotations of notions of identity across the different national and socio-demographic contexts and gains momentum from showing differences in the understanding of globalism. Key to his research is the juxtaposition of subjective feelings of belonging on the one hand and more objective descriptions of attitudes and opinions on the other hand to critically assess the cultural, political and social background of identity. With a view to the growing body of normative cosmopolitan theory, Florian Pichler presents much needed empirical studies to shed more critical light on current processes of cosmopolitanization using quantitative analytical tools.
Research on communication encompasses three main areas of concentration: political communication, popular culture and audience studies and communication and social theory. Faculty and research students in these areas work with strong, interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks and a range of methodologies and data sets.
Vivienne Boon's research interests are primarily in social and political philosophy, moral philosophy, and critical theory (especially Habermas). She is particularly interested in the relation between identity and democracy - and intends to investigate this relation through a project entitled "Democracy without identity: why popular sovereignty does not need a people". This will challenge many of the presuppositions underlying identity politics as well as notions of nationhood. She is currently submitting her PhD to the Department of Philosophy (University of Liverpool) on Habermas’s writings on Europe. She argues that Habermas's prescriptions of a thicker European identity are inconsistent with his thin procedural approach – and that his notions of learning curves should be shed in order for his model to be politically applicable. Her other interests are in the ethics of war and violence, politics of identity and recognition, multiculturalism, global justice and human rights, cosmopolitanism, ethics of torture, Europeanization and philosophy of communication. She has written several articles on these issues and co-edited a special edition of the European Journal of Social Theory called ‘Cosmopolitanism: Between Past and Future” (2007, Vol 7, nr 1).
Cornel Sandvoss specializes in audience research and the role of Social and Cultural Theory in contemporary media research. His research has in particular focused on the study of fan audiences in realms of spectator sports, television, popular music and film, highlighting the profound impact of fandom on the organisation of identity and citizenship in everyday life. In his current research Cornel explores the interplay between political intertextuality, media consumption and voting patters.
Colin B. Grant’s long-standing work in social and communication theory is a response to the great sociological theories of Jürgen Habermas and Niklas Luhmann and contemporary debates around the complex self in interaction, with strong epistemological foundations. A Sonderheft dedicated to his work, including commentaries by Siegfried J. Schmidt, Ernst von Glasersfeld, Dirk Baecker and Mike Sandbothe will appear in 2009. He is the author of Literary Communication from Consensus to Rupture (1995), Functions and Fictions of Communication (2000), Uncertainty and Communication (2007), Post-transcendental Communication. Contexts of Human Autonomy (2008) and editor of five other collections of essays. His programme is part of a critical engagement with complexities of self, systems and media in an age of hypercritical modernity.
'Ethnic and Racial Studies':
This major international journal has been edited in the department since 1995 by Martin Bulmer. Its coverage of race, ethnicity and nationalism is global. It is the leading journal in its field in the world (ISI rankings for ethnic studies 2007), and a majority of contributors are located outside the UK, including leading American, Russian, German and Asian scholars. The journal is now published nine times a year, sponsors an annual lecture, and features regular special issues.
Interdisciplinary Communication Studies
This new book series is edited by Colin B. Grant.
Doctoral research:
There are currently a number of doctoral students working on areas relating to the group's interests and supervised by members of the group.
Professional Activities
Members of the group serve in a wide range of positions in major professional associations.
Colin Grant is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Empedocles: European Journal of the Philosophy of Communication and Vivienne Boon is the Reviews Editor. Vivienne is also the Vice Chair of the ECREA Philosophy of Communication Section. Katharine Tyler is an editorial member of the race and ethnicity section of Sociology Compass, new on-line Blackwell journal. She is also convenor of the ASA (Association of Social Anthropologists of the Commonwealth) Anthropology of Britain Network. Victoria Alexander is the Vice-Chair of the ESA Research Network on Sociology of the Arts and is a member of the Advisory Board for the International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society.
To find out more, contact Katharine Tyler at the:
Department of Sociology
University of Surrey
Guildford
Surrey GU2 7XH
England
Tel. 01483 686964
Fax 01483 689551
E-mail: Katharine Tyler
Page last updated: January 2009
