I joined CRESC and Open University Sociology in April 2010, I am a CRESC Centre Director, and co-convene the Social Life of Method (SLOM) research theme with Evelyn Ruppert.

My research approach

Four main points

First, I’m interdisciplinary. Part sociologist and part from STS (science, technology and society), I’ve worked with sociologists, philosophers, engineers, medical practitioners, geographers and students of STS. The world is interdisciplinary, and it demands an interdisciplinary approach of the kind being developed in CRESC.

Second, I assume that the world is materially heterogeneous, a mix of the social, economic, material, human, ‘natural’, and technical. We need rigorous ways of thinking and studying these heterogeneous processes. That’s why I’ve worked with actor-network theory and its successor ‘material-semiotic’ projects. ANT isn’t the only way of thinking about heterogeneity. Different approaches are needed, and this is another CRESC strength. But, suitably modulated, material-semiotics is a useful toolkit (certainly not a theory!) for catching some of the important processes of social life.

Third, I assume that the world is discursively heterogeneous. I’m fascinated and horrified by the exclusions of the social. Systems both depend on and Other the people, collectivities and realities that fail to fit. If there’s an enemy here in addition to injustice then it is hubris. This means that in my research I go looking for gaps, aporias, and subaltern realities. Parts of my work draw on postcolonial sensibilities to imagine alternative knowledge spaces.

Finally, I’m concerned with the performativity of method. In different ways CRESC members are exploring the character of research methods in domains ranging from financialisation, to the digital modelling of cities, and the remaking of social science methods. There’s a performative argument here. This is that methods tend to produce – though often in unanticipated and contradictory ways – the worlds they claim to be describing. This is why I’m so excited about the CRESC ‘social life of method’ SLOM theme. This will be an opportunity to debate methods and the social in a wide-ranging interdisciplinary forum. I’m hoping that STS work will add to this conversation.

Collaborations

I’m lucky enough to work closely with colleagues in a range of disciplines and locations. People I’ve worked with in the recent past include: Michel Callon (Paris CSI), Marianne Lien (Oslo), Wen-yuan Lin (Hsinchu, Taiwan), Annemarie Mol (Amsterdam), Ingunn Moser (Oslo), Vicky Singleton (Lancaster), John Urry (Lancaster), and Helen Verran (Melbourne). I'm now working with Karel Williams and Evelyn Ruppert within CRESC, and Mike Savage (York).