Conference - The Wire as Social Science Fiction?
26-27 November 2009, Leeds Town Hall
Conference Outline
The HBO TV series The Wire premièred in the USA on June 2, 2002 and ended on March 9, 2008, with 60
episodes airing over the course of its 5 seasons. Set in Baltimore, Maryland, USA it has a huge cast of over
300 characters. The ‘star’ of the show is the city – a simulated post-industrial every town – within which the
interactions between the drugs economy, race, the criminal justice system, the polity, globalisation processes,
the changing class structure, the education system and the (new and old) media are examined in minute detail.
It was finally screened by the BBC in mid-2009 but had already received widespread media attention,
especially from The Guardian newspaper. It has sold well on DVD and has developed a cult status, especially
amongst media literate audiences with aspirations towards more critical social and cultural sensibilities. It has
been critically acclaimed not just as a complex piece of ‘entertainment’ but also as a profoundly ‘sociological’
piece of TV, invoking a renewed sense of the ‘sociological imagination’ amongst many. The eminent Harvard
sociologist William Julius Wilson recently said of the series: ‘The Wire’s exploration of sociological themes is
truly exceptional. Indeed I do not hesitate to say that it has done more to enhance our understandings of the
challenges of urban life and urban inequality than any other media event or scholarly publication including
studies by social scientists’. The University of Columbia (rogue) sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh, has produced a
widely read (freakonomics) blog reporting on how the series was received and interpreted by New York drugs
gangs. The Savage Minds anthropology blog has extensively debated the question: ‘Is The Wire our best
ethnographic text on the U.S.today?’ This event allows us to debate these issues and more.
Plenary Speakers: Peter Moskos (CUNY), author of "Cop in the Hood: My Year Policing Baltimore’s Eastern
District" and Griselda Pollock(University of Leeds) & Antony Bryant (Leeds Metropolitan University) on 'Where
Do Bunnys Come From? From Hamsterdam to Hubris'
There are also about 18 other sessions including 50 other papers from across the humanities and the social sciences.
The conference is co-hosted by The ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC), University of Manchester and the Open University & The Department of Sociology, the Department of Theatre, Film and Television, and the Taylor & Francis Journal Information, Communication & Society, University of York & The Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law, University of Leeds.
We may have space for some reserve papers, just incase people drop out from the programme. if you are interested to still send us an abstract please submit a 250 word abstract for individual papers (30 minutes long) by the 31 October 2009. Please click here for a copy of the Proposal Form Your completed form should be sent to: Wire Conference Administration, 178 Waterloo Place, Oxford Road, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, Tel: +44(0)161 275 8985 / Fax: +44(0)161 275 8985 Josine.opmeer@manchester.ac.uk / http://www.cresc.ac.uk
* http://www.hbo.com/thewire/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wire_(TV_series).
*It has received widespread media attention, especially from The Guardian newspaper, and it has recently been announced that, late in the day, it will be shown on BBC2 in the spring of 2009.
* http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/03/09/85-the-wire/
* http://www.iop.harvard.edu/Multimedia-Center/All-Videos/The-HBO-Series-The-Wire-A-Compelling-Portrayal-of-an-American-City
*http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/09/what-do-real-thugs-think-of-the-wire/
* http://www.petermoskos.com/
