A small-town high school in western New York became the focus of news media attention from late 2011 to early 2012. Nearly two dozen teens and one adult, all but one female, exhibited spasmodic movements and vocalizations with no easily detectable cause. The outbreak provoked a cascade of conflicts, leaving them largely unresolved even as the symptoms subsided and life …
Category Archives: Features
On the pragmatics and politics of collaborative work between the social and life sciences
For scholars in the humanities and interpretive social sciences, it sometimes seems like hardly a day goes by without some kind of exhortation towards ‘interdisciplinarity’ – a trend that has only become more pronounced during the ongoing realignment of public higher education in many countries. ‘The humanities are being driven into defensive positions,’ wrote the vice-provost of University College London …
Robert Castel – 1933 – 2013
A French-language version of this piece, written by Nicolas Henckes, first appeared on h-madness. It has been translated into English by Anne Lovell and is also being posted simultaneously on h-madness.
French sociologist and historian Robert Castel passed away on March 12, 2013, at the age of 79. An important figure in French intellectual life over the past …
Longing for Sleep: Assessing the Place of Sleep in the 21st Century – Part 3
This article is part of the series: Longing for Sleep
Sleep has been in the news for the past decade or so as a matter of growing concern. Along with this popular, medical and scientific attention, social scientists have been increasingly interested in sleep as an object or process of study. The first major sociological book published on sleep was Simon Williams’ Sleep and Society (Routledge, 2005), after which …
Longing for Sleep: Assessing the Place of Sleep in the 21st Century – Part 2
This article is part of the series: Longing for Sleep
Sleep has been in the news for the past decade or so as a matter of growing concern. Along with this popular, medical and scientific attention, social scientists have been increasingly interested in sleep as an object or process of study. The first major sociological book published on sleep was Simon Williams’ Sleep and Society (Routledge, 2005), after which …
Longing for Sleep: Assessing the Place of Sleep in the 21st Century – Part 1
This article is part of the series: Longing for Sleep
Sleep has been in the news for the past decade or so as a matter of growing concern. Along with this popular, medical and scientific attention, social scientists have been increasingly interested in sleep as an object or process of study. The first major sociological book published on sleep was Simon Williams’ Sleep and Society (Routledge, 2005), after which …