Someone should design a course called 'Sociological discoveries that changed the world' and record short, shape lectures for YouTube. That could be a great success for the writer and a lovely resource for the discipline. @rwjdingwall.bsky.social know anyone?

This post is gonna age like fine wine. Unfortunately in that time a needless amount of brains and lives will be damaged

Down with Dons - John Carey. Recommended reading for anyone in academia, esp those 'overgrown schoolboy professors' that are so desperate to be respected for their honorifics.

Ive been away teaching medics abouts doing research. Its been a great few days. My main take away is the false separation they see between their practice and their research projects. Hopefully we've corrected that somewhat, it seems we've inspired some different ways forward.

Anyone else feel like an 'odd one out in academia'?

Anyone else feel like an 'odd one out in academia'?

Steve Borgatti and I invite contributions to a special issue on "Social Network Theory" at the journal Social Networks. Send us a wide range of approaches and manuscripts, anything really, on the theoretical interpretation, systematization, integration, and reflection of empirical network research!

There are sports where kids get quite routine brain trauma. Obviously that is immoral. Counter arguments never hold children's health, well being and human rights in high enough regard. More here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The quality of your methods is meaningless if the quality of your theory is lacking. Put another way - if your basic assumptions are wack your methodological rigour is wasted effort. More in Ch8 here: www.routledge.com/Doing-Good-S....

Our Charity Manager - Dr Jane Rowley developed this information leaflet with other researchers at Nottingham Trent University. If you would like a copy please get in touch via our contact form. More information here: tinyurl.com/mwfsm5xp @drcrmatthews.bsky.social @nottinghamtrentuni.bsky.social

Nothing to do with the new year, but I resolve to have a footnote that is a page long at some point in my career. Obviously I'll credit Stewart Lee for leading the way.

Formal teaching qualifications should focus on the science of pedagogy. But not to the detriment of the social theory, politics, theology, humanities and art of pedagogy. Accepting these statements requires a radical shift in how PGCHEs & university pedagogy is structured and managed.

Embedded in these four books (in combo with a background of decent social theory) is a powerful reworking of academia and society more broadly. How will we get people to engage with such ideas when they are so quick to farm out their deliberations to unthinking artificial 'intelligence'?

If you're like me & like reading non-fiction on holiday, I couldn't recommend this more highly. Powerful, cogent, clear. Halpin is well read & his arguments are well reasoned. He writes with care & confidence. Very insightful & quite inspirational at time #education #pedagogy #sociology #theory

Do you see the problem of performance sport? @jackhardwicke.bsky.social and i certainly do. So we put this special issue together. Do get in touch if you have an idea. Cheers, CRM think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issu...

There is very little reason for developing scholars to memorise information. If your pedagogy is built around such a thing, and assessing retention, I think its misguided. Helping people think > learning facts.

Editorial doublespeak - when a journal claims to support rigorous methods but inforce restrictive word count limits on methodological discussions.

Formal teaching qualifications should focus on the science of pedagogy. But not to the detriment of the social theory, politics, theology, humanities and art of pedagogy. Accepting these statements requires a radical shift in how PGCHEs & university pedagogy is structured and managed.

This one is for the educators who have realised the world is going to hell in a handbasket... there is still hope. In fact, hope is foundational to all that is good in education, not as some passive psychology state but as an epistemological and sociological nessesity to critical assess and act.

'Social science is not as it should be - I think we have lost contact with what matters'

New preprint: Empathy, Thick and Thin papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... It is perhaps foolhardy to attempt to say something new about a topic as widely studied as empathy. I tried anyway! 1/

One should have good vocabulary but also swear too much

Down with Dons - John Carey. Recommended reading for anyone in academia, esp those 'overgrown schoolboy professors' that are so desperate to be respected for their honorifics.

Love a good beer fueled creative edit of a paper

Another day, another American war crime.

All scholarship is inherently reductive. I'm beginning to think the majority might be overly so.

I spent a decade as an academic not understanding truth and i didnt even know. Do you think most academics spend much time deeply considering the nature of truth?

can't claim hero status but I am proud and happy to provide a space for nerds like @drcrmatthews.bsky.social!

One of the giants of social psychology was a serial sexual harasser. This new report reveals how Miles Hewstone touched, bullied, and sexual harassed numerous women during his 18 years at the University of Oxford. It's amazing how often bullying and sexual harassment go together in academia.

I'm convinced that much of academia has lost contact with what really matters. Why would this be the case? An overly confident faith in a reductively understood notion of science born of the enlightenment, I think. So, we need a reenchanting & I'm working to make that happen. Anyone fancy joinin me?

@kylethegreen.bsky.social is a hero for providing nerds like me 🤓 a space to get into ideas. Here we discuss loads of stuff but specifically a 'soulful approach to the sacred act of scholarship' - thesocietypages.org/theory/2025/...

Very gratified to learn that we were nominated for UNC Press' inaugural Readers' Choice Award. We'd appreciate it if you would consider voting for *The End of College Football*! uncpress.org/readers-choi...

Causally putting 90s pop music themed puns into scholarship is peak academia, and I am very proud of myself for doing so.

Lower the maximum wage.

Colleagues, I might be speaking too soon, but it looks like I might hit a writing deadline! Its only taken 45 years.

Its a myth that putting money into performance-sport helps with public health. Anyone who tells you otherwise usually has a reason to belief the myth - thesocietypages.org/engagingspor...

If you keep working hard at the art and craft of academic writing it can become a super power. So speaks a boy who barely passed English in school, still cant spell well and knows nothing of grammar beyond feel. Dont let AI close down your ability to become a great writer.

One for the old sociology heads. 1964 > 2024!

Whats the best thing you've ever writen?

Many, perhaps most, senior academics have really big egos that are very quite easily brused when you make it clear to them that they're not doing a good enough job. This information needs to be part of doctoral training so future leaders can try to avoid falling into the same glaring trap.

Sooooo much wasted time from talented scholars has gone into those numbers. I realised a long time ago I can get really good work done with zero or tiny bits of funding, so im more than happy to stop wasting my time chancing something that 99% of people dont get.

Footnotes > Endnotes > No footnotes

There are sports where kids get quite routine brain trauma. Obviously that is immoral. Counter arguments never hold children's health, well being and human rights in high enough regard. More here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Most methodology sections of social scientific papers would be better if people stopped referencing others and focused on explain their work in clear and practical terms. More here - journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

This is so good to see. From this side of the pond it has looked like a very one sided slip towards authoritarian horrificness. At least we know there will be a fight.

Professors *never* supply information. Students aren’t paying premium prices for ‘information’ at all. How can people who presumably have attended universities misunderstand their role so badly?

Most methodology sections of social scientific papers would be better if people stopped referencing others and focused on explain their work in clear and practical terms. More here - journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

The quality of your methods is meaningless if the quality of your theory is lacking. Put another way - if your basic assumptions are wack your methodological rigour is wasted effort. More in Ch8 here: www.routledge.com/Doing-Good-S....

The quality of your methods is meaningless if the quality of your theory is lacking. Put another way - if your basic assumptions are wack your methodological rigour is wasted effort.

Your philosophical position is most obvious in how you produce, understand and treat data. One of the less obviously places it comes across is usually in a bland and hackneyed statement of 'Philosophical Position'. Research philosophy is practical and pragmatic more than it is explicable in prose.