Dear all,

We are currently nearly 200 users from 20 different countries, so I think it would be interesting to start an ongoing thread where we introduce ourselves and our relations to sociology.

Of course, many of us have already written something like that on our profile page, so to make it easy for you, I have made it possible to just enter #showmybio as a reply to this thread, which will then load the content from your profile to this particular thread. This also means that the info you write in this thread is always synchronized and up to date with your biography on the profile page, should you change things there from time to time.

If you haven't written anything on your profile page under the section "Short biography" (which I encourage you to do, though) - you can of course also just enter the text manually here as a reply to this post.

Looking forward to see some introductions :)

All the best,
Lars

Founder, owner and developer of Sociologically.net.. Holds a BA and MA degree in sociology from University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Besides, I am a board member of the Danish Sociological Association.

The sociological areas which fascinate me the most are qualitative methods and, more generally, the way sociological theory allows us to think differently about things. That being said, most sociology fascinates me in one way or the other.

When not sociologically occupied I like to use a camera, the results of which can be found on http://www.inthemaking.dk/en/

Professionally, I work as an information architect and analyst in the field of usability and user experience design.

Holds a BA in Sociology, and is now a Master's student, as well as working as a research assistant at a Danish politically independent think thank.

Interested in quantitative methods, classical sociological theory, new theories on migration/flight, and socio-legal studies. Main research interests is the rights of refugees/migrants and more general the position of civil rights in modern democracy.

On the board of the Danish Society for Survey Research.

I am a Master's student in sociology at the University of Victoria.

My approaches and interests include phenomenology, mixed-methods research, and methodology.

I am considering doing my thesis on the differences between in-person communities and online communities. I find the interactions and developments of an Internet-based community fascinating, and I'd like to study the ways in which the online nature of Internet-based communities affects how relationships are formed, how respect and prestige are earned and offered, and how participants in online communities are perceived outside of those communities.

I am currently finishing up a doctoral dissertation at McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) examining Canadian youth crime and justice debates, exploring representations of young offenders and debates regarding the extent/severity of youth crime, as well as potential responses to youth crime, from a social constructionist perspective.

I am also interested in symbolic interactionism and pragmatism, and Eastern modes of thought and 'orientalism'. I usually start topics regarding other areas I'm interested in - come check them out!

about to begin a phd-programme on the role played by subjective beliefs in educational decisions, and their relation to inequality of educational opportunity. main interests are educational sociology, sociology of inequality, advanced social statistics, and sociological rational choice theory. recently I've been caught by Simmel's fascinating writings on the problem of sociology, in particular form-content relations.

The #showmybio tag only works when you have written a bio on your profile page

@ Kirstian:
I'm really interested how you combine your interest in rational choice theory and your thesis on inequality in educaction. Do you user Bourdieu?

Hi Jan,

I have actually tried to avoid using Bourdieu, because I would like to make a sociological contribution that doesn't invoke super-individual notions such as the habitus, doxa, and so on. I find that notions such as habitus (or related terms such as socialization effects, cultural influences, or in Durkheim's parlance "social facts") are often too easily invoked when sociologists are in need of an ad hoc explanation (i.e., when sociologists do not have a theory that explains a set of related findings). It is not that a notion like habitus is useless, but often we can suffice with much simpler representations of individuals (for instance, as purposive actors that choose the best option given the beliefs or "theories" they hold about the world).

Regarding my thesis, my idea was to concieve concieve social inequality in educational choices as a result of purposive action of the pupils and their families (i.e., in the words of Robert Merton, I understand social inequality in education as an unintended consequence of purposive action). This position is different from assuming, with Bourdieu for instance, that social reproduction is a result of arbitrary and coercive pedagogical practices in the school that give preferential treatment to the higher class pupils endowed with cultural and linguistic capital (this is one of the main points in Bourdieu and Passeron's "Reproduction"). However, I do not use the strict version of RCT as we find it in economics (such as Gary Becker). I use the cognitive model developed by Boudon, a model that has great affinity with Max Weber's rationality understandings (especially Wertrationalität). I also use Raymond Boudon's early work on inequality of opportunity in Western democracies (1974), and I supply with the relative risk aversion hypothesis developed by John Goldthorpe and Richard Breen.

So much said, I have actually planned to include Bourdieu's (and Passeron's) early work on cultural reproduction in the educational system in my discussion, which serves as a self-criticism of the RCT position I take in the theoretical part of the paper. However, I haven't gotten that far yet ;)

If you have any inputs, please feel free to let me know.

All the best,
Kristian

Hey Kristian,
That's an interesting point of view. Although I wouldn't describe Bourdieu's notions as super-individual, I think it's good you don't automatically follow the road of Bourdieu.

I'm not a big fan of theories which regard inviduals a rational beings, but I beleive you neither.
Have you read Erikson and Goldthorpe "intergenerational inequality" ? It's only 14 pages, but I think it's very interesting for you.

Hi Jan,

Your right--it is too simple of me to characterize Bourdieu's habitus notion as a supra-individual entity. I mistankingly wrote "super". My point was merely to suggest that using habitus normally involves supra-individual aspects of man (objective structures embedded in mental models, class habitus, group dispositions, and so on). Generally I am not a big fan of simple rational choice models either, and that is actually the reason why I chose to try something "different" than Bourdieu. So I think we agree more than we disagree on these matters ;) And I'll have a look at the reference. Thanks!

All the best
Kristian

Trying to complete a PhD on cultural power in late 6th Gaul. Background in History (BA & MA) but investigating use of socio-cultural theory and philosophy as methods in/for the study of the past.

MA & PhD in Sociology, Professor of educational research and econometrics at the School of Eduation, Aarhus University. Main interests: social mobility, cultural consumption, and quantitative methods.

Mads

B.A. in Urban Studies from the New College of Florida, United States. In the process of applying to graduate schools for admittance in the Fall of 2010. Research interests include Science and Technology in Society, Actor Network Theory, and Urban Sociology. Baccalaureate thesis investigated the citizens' perspective on functions of the city, and how those perspectives dictate their demands for urban built form.

I recently graduated the MA in sociology from University of Copenhagen, Denmark. During this MA I spend one semester in Ljubljana, Slovenia, studying anthropology and psychoanalysis.

Now, I am a researcher at a privately owned research unit in Copenhagen. Here, I mainly do analysis in the field of criminology but also on active labour market policies (and on the connections between the two fields). This suits me very well; as my MA dissertation I wrote on the causal relationship between unemployment and crime. And I in general find sociological knowledge of social structures surrounding people's lives very interesting and highly relevant for making actual change and contributions to the world.

My methodological merits mainly lie in the worlds of statistics and causal analysis. However, I would never think of one method as superior to others - one should always chose the appropriate tool for a challenge. Therefore, I do my best to keep somehow up-to-date with other methods (though this can be hard at times working in a geeky quantitative milieu - but hey, I try!).

I'm currently a sociology teacher in a further education college. Love the job, especially developing some sociological imaginations and having a good old argue with opinionated students. Hoping to leave it next year, however, and focus on my own learning by starting a Masters.

Sociologically, my interests lie in the affective realm of cultural consumption, especially with reference to online fandom and fan groups. I having a slightly more than passing interest in the sociology of humour, owing to my interest in TV/stand-up comedy, and the sociology of education, owing to my job.

Hey! I would consider myself an aspiring sociologist, currently a first-year graduate student at the New School for Social Research. Previously, I attended Stony Brook University, where I made the drastic switch from Computer Science to Sociology in 2007.

My main interests are classified as urban sociology, including characteristics of cities and how they differ depending on the area, the differences between cities and suburbs, gentrification and other forms of neighborhood change, the dynamics of mass transit, especially the subway system, and the use of public space in urban areas. My focus of study is mainly the gigantic metropolis of New York City, although I plan to expand in the future.

I am also interested in the Sociology of Media, how the advancement of technology and the internet has changed society, especially regarding flow of information, deviant subcultures, crime, and race, class, and gender, especially in the United States.

My goal in life is to write a book and attain a PhD in Sociology. In addition, I would love to be a college professor.

I sometimes feel like I'm addicted to education.

I work on social and historical time theory, also memory studies, I take part of an independent study group called Sociology of Modernity and Culture where Georg Simmel´s works are our principal guide.
Just now I am finishing my monograph (graduate or as Iread it is said here: B.A.) about temporality in the political life of the early 20th century Colombia. My alma mater is Universidad de Antioquia, Medellin.

Hi there. In 2004 I graduated from uni with a journalism double major, however it was from within my minor in sociology that I discovered an area of intense interest for me.

I love Baudrillard and have a small penchant for Barthes.

Forgive me, I am rusty on sociological terminology and the like as I haven't met anybody into it since I left uni six years ago. That's partially why I've joined this forum, to brush up on my knowledge.

PS: From reading the rest of the comments on here, I am amazed that people can actually make a viable living out of studying sociology in other countries. In Australia (well, in Queensland) it appears to be vastly underrated...then again, so is a journalism qualification ;)

Hello Everyone. I'm from republic of Korea(South Korea). I just graduated from undergraduate school of sociology in Yonsei University. Now I'm preparing my master's study for studying abroad on Sweden. My main study field is Social policy, which is also called as 'social work' in European countries. Nice to meet you!

I am a Brazilian sociologist, at the moment studying for my PhD on Sociological Theory. I am also a journalist. At the moment I am editor in a newspaper and work also in a big project with life stories in Brazil.

Hello fellow sociologists,

I'm a master's student in urban sociology at the University of Amsterdam. I'm currently writing my thesis on hacker communities and as an experiment I keep a blog during this semester on the progress I make on my thesis [heelveelkoffie.nl]. Feel free to comment on anything you read.

My interests are: (urban) inequalities, general epistemological questions, construction of identity, online collaboration, general theory, language, reflexivity in science, collective believes, nature/nurture debate and the relation between technology and society.

My favs: Bourdieu, Wacquant, Elias
Big no nos: Rational Choise Theory, pure quantitative studies

I am a undergraduate student at NTNU, Trondheim, in the fields of sociology and psychology.
Besides sociology, i like to travel, read, design stuff, listen to music and go to concerts.