BSA Theory Study Group (British Sociological Association)

@bsatheory.bsky.social

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The Theory Study Group of @britsoci.bsky.social provides a forum for sociologists interested in social theory. If you'd like to join the group then please see our website. #Sociology #BSATheory

Theorizing from Lived Experience: A Roundtable on Activist Scholarship A joint event from the BSA Theory and Activism, Social Movements and Revolutions Study Groups 12 May 2026 (4.00-5.30pm BST) Online
Poster for the event. On the left half, a tarot-like imagery is featured, in black and white, of pirate carers by the sea. On the right side, it reads 'please join us on March 3rd, 2026 at 7pm (UTC+0) online for a discussion of the book Pirate Care: Acts Against the Criminalisation of Solidarity with the authors and with contributors to a new critical forum on the book that appears in the Postdigital Science and Education Journal. To register, visit vagabonds.xyz Around the poster are also the logos of the organisations supporting it - bsa, mdn, cas, rival, alternatives to capitalism research network, and the vagabonds book series of Pluto Press
Theorizing from Lived Experience: A Roundtable on Phenomenological Approaches A BSA Theory Study Group Event 27 February 2026 (3.30-5.00pm GMT) Online
Forthcoming Events 27 February 2026 (3.30-5.00pm GMT) Theorizing from Lived Experience: A Roundtable on Phenomenological Approaches Online 3 March 2026 (7-8pm GMT) Hope and Refusal in an Era of Criminalised Care: Responses to Pirate Care Online 26 March 2026 (5.00-6.30pm GMT) Racial Capitalism in Post(Imperial) Europe: A Roundtable Online
Racial Capitalism in Post(Imperial) Europe: A Roundtable A BSA Theory Study Group Event 26 March 2026 (5.00-6.30pm GMT) Online
ook Launch: Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence and Beyond: Theorising Society and Culture of the 21st Century (Routledge 2025) A BSA Theory Study Group Event 21 November 2025 (14:00-15:30 GMT) Online Registration Registration for this event is OPEN.
Ioana Cerasella Chis University of Birmingham Send an email. Joe Davidson University of Cambridge Send an email. Mr Sebastian Raza University of Cambridge Send an email. Sarah Bufkin University of Birmingham Send an email.
Banner for the BSA conference BSA 75 Years of Sociology University of Edinburgh 8 - 10 April 2026 #BritSoc26
Oral Papers (250 word count limit) The programme stream coordinators will allocate Oral Paper slots after consideration of all accepted abstracts, together with the keywords supplied by authors. All oral presentations will take place in a paper session (1.5 hours) made up of four Oral presentations. Each Oral presentation will be 20-minute papers so you should plan to speak for 15 minutes and allow 5 minutes for comments and questions. All rooms are equipped with a computer, screen, projector and PowerPoint facilities. Posters (250 word count limit) The organisers wish to encourage the presentation of suitable material by poster rather than in an oral presentation, and a prominent display area will be available. Further guidance on poster presentations here. Roundtables (250 word count limit) As is usual practice at some larger conferences, roundtable sessions are where a number of presentations are given simultaneously at separate tables within a single room. Each table will have a session chair and the papers allocated to it will be grouped by topic areas. All roundtables will take place in a paper session (1.5 hours) made up of four roundtable presentations. Each of the four papers within the roundtable will be allocated a 20 minute slot (15 minutes presentation followed by 5 minutes questions). Computers and PowerPoint will not be available for use during the roundtable sessions, therefore we would encourage presenters to use this as an opportunity to think more creatively about their input at the conference. Further guidance on roundtable sessions is available here. Special Events (500 word count limit) Special Event sessions are 1.5hr sessions and may include visual displays, symposia, panels, workshops, roundtable discussions and many more. Please submit your Special Event on the BSA website by choosing your preferred presentation mode from the dropdown menu as ‘Special Event’. Further guidance on special events is available here.
Banner for the BSA 2026 Conference BSA 75 years of Sociology University of Edinburgh, 8-10 April 2026 #BritSoc26
The Process and Implications of Doing Social Theory 23 May 2025 Programme ❖ 10:00am - 10:30am Registration, Meet & Greet ❖ 10:30am - 12:00pm Workshops Workshop A (Sarah Bufkin discussant) • Nabila Islam (Brown University) • Hochan Kim (University of Oxford) Workshop B (Birgan Gokmenoglu discussant) • Ningxiang Sun (University of Edinburgh) • D'Arcy Ritchie (University of Birmingham) • Vanessa Schofield (University of Leeds) ❖ 12pm - 1pm Lunch ❖ 1:00pm - 2:30pm Workshops Workshop C (Teodor Mladenov discussant) • Sacha Hilhorst (London School of Economics) • Sara McHaffie (Northumbria University) • Barbara Neukirchinger (Hochschule Bremen - City University of Applied Sciences) Workshop D (Kristin Surak discussant) • Christian Koutny (University of Hertfordshire) • Sophie Shall (Glasgow Caledonian University) • Maria Volkova (University of Exeter)
Become a British Sociological Association (BSA) Theory Study Group co-convenor! Please consider joining the co-convening team of the BSA Theory Study Group and/or forwarding the call for co-convenors to colleagues who might be interested in taking on this role. The Theory Study Group of the British Sociological Association needs new co-convenors! The current members of the convening team (Ioana Cerasella Chis, Joe Davidson, and Sebastian Raza) took on this role in July 2022 and we are now looking for (potentially three) BSA members to take up the torch and continue developing the Study Group in the coming years. We are keen to ensure a smooth transition by passing on what we have learnt over the past three years. To that end, we invite expressions of interest from individuals or teams to join the current co-convening team in July 2025, with the expectation that the newly appointed convenors would take over the leadership of the group from July 2026.
Call for Papers: Sociology Special Issue The Normative Turn in Sociology. Opening the Black Box Guest Editors: Elisabeth Becker-Topkara (Heidelberg University), Daniel Chernilo (Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez), Sebastian Raza (University of Cambridge) and Galen Watts (University of Waterloo) Deadline for submission of full papers: 22 January 2026
Immanuel Wallerstein 3rd Open Lecture Third session Race, Capital, Critique: For a Theory of Racial Capitalism Julian Go (University of Chicago) Discussants: Esteban Torres (UNC-CONICET) & Verónica Giordano (IEALC/UBA-CONICET) April 28 8:30am CHI, 4.30pm DEU - 10.30am ARG Livestream YouTube @FCSUNC
Call for Papers We are delighted to invite short paper submissions for our Symposium entitled The Process and Implications of Doing Social Theory. The event will provide a platform for early career scholars to discuss papers as part of themed workshops, receive feedback from distinguished discussants and peers, engage in constructive dialogue, and meet other social theorists from across a wide range of social theoretical disciplinary fields. The Symposium will include two elements: Papers will be grouped into thematic workshops (based on overlapping areas of interest) where each paper will be allocated a 25-minute slot for collective discussions. Each paper will be allocated a discussant from among four distinguished scholars and all other workshop attendees will be encouraged to read the papers in advance in order to contribute to a wider discussion and offer constructive feedback. These insights will, we hope, contribute to informing and refining your work for future publication. A roundtable event where the four guest discussants will share reflections from their own theoretical work (the processes by which they undertake social theoretical scholarship, highlighting the methods they employ to generate original concepts and insightful interventions), followed by a wider discussion where we will consider further aspects of the conditions of producing social theoretical work. We encourage the submission of short papers embedded within social theory and a wide range of sub-fields such as (but not limited to): political sociology, elites, nationalism, and international migration; disability, independent living, international social policy, (post)socialism and social justice; political ethnography, social and political change, time and the future; Black Atlantic political thought, cultural studies, and feminist and Marxist theory.
The Process and Implications of Doing Social Theory A BSA Early Career Regional Funded Symposium (organised by the BSA Theory Study Group) 23 May 2025 University of Cambridge, UK About the Event The process of producing social theory is often assumed to be self-explanatory within academic institutions. With the current ‘crisis’ of higher education and intensification of academic precarity disproportionately affecting theoretical scholarship, centres, departments, and institutes, the co-organisers of this Symposium wish to create a space for Early Career scholars interested in social theory to receive feedback on their ongoing research/papers and discuss the day-to-day experiences, challenges, and opportunities of continuing to undertake theoretical scholarship. We are honoured to announce that our guest discussants are Sarah Bufkin (Assistant Professor in Political Theory at the University of Birmingham), Birgan Gokmenoglu (Lecturer in Sociology at Birmingham City University), Teodor Mladenov (Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Dundee), and Kristin Surak (Associate Professor in Sociology at the London School of Economics).
The Process and Implications of Doing Social Theory
The Process and Implications of Doing Social Theory A BSA Early Career Regional Funded Symposium (organised by the BSA Theory Study Group) 23 May 2025 University of Cambridge, UK Call for Papers Submit a short paper with a theoretical contribution (between 750-1,000 words, excluding references) by Friday, 28 February 2025, 5pm GMT. Submit
The Process and Implications of Doing Social Theory A BSA Early Career Regional Funded Symposium (organised by the BSA Theory Study Group) 23 May 2025 University of Cambridge, UK Call for Papers Submit a short paper with a theoretical contribution (between 750-1,000 words, excluding references) by Friday, 28 February 2025, 5pm GMT.
Meaningful Silences: Possibilities of a New Theoretical and Methodological Agenda A joint BSA Social Theory Study Group and Childhood Study Group Event 11 February 2025 (15:00-16:30 GMT) Online
Meaningful Silences: Possibilities of a New Theoretical and Methodological Agenda A joint BSA Social Theory Study Group and Childhood Study Group Event 11 February 2025 (15:00-16:30 GMT) Online
Printscreen of the BSA Theory playlist on YouTube BSA Theory Study Group webinars - updated 5 days ago view full playlist
Theory and Society: Zygmunt Bauman Book launch Friday, 13th December 2024 (2 - 3:30pm GMT), Online [Free] Sponsored by BSA Theory Study Group & The Bauman Institute Register here Guest speakers: Presenter 1 (lead editor): Dr Tom Campbell (University of Leeds) Presenter 2 (translator): Dr Katarzyna Bartoszyńska (Ithaca College) Discussant 1: Dr Elena Álvarez Álvarez (Universidad de Navarra) Discussant 2: Dr Martin Aidnik (Tallinn University) Chair: Prof. Matt Dawson (University of Glasgow) The rest of the poster's text can be accessed via the page in the tweet
Theory and Society: Zygmunt Bauman - Book Launch Sponsored by BSA Theory Study Group & The Bauman Institute 13 December 2024 (2:00-3:30pm GMT) Online Guest Speakers Presenter 1 (lead editor): Dr Tom Campbell (University of Leeds) Presenter 2 (translator): Dr Katarzyna Bartoszyńska (Ithaca College) Discussant 1: Dr Elena Álvarez Álvarez (Universidad de Navarra) Discussant 2: Dr Martin Aidnik (Tallinn University) Chair: Professor Matt Dawson (University of Glasgow)