School of Social and Political Science

Background

Qualifications

• PhD in Sociology, University of Manchester
• MSc Politics and Sociology, Birkbeck College, University of London
• MA Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC Paris), France

Publications

In preparation: Of sound and flavour. For a new materialist sociology of art domains (Routledge)

In preparation: Coeditor of CALL FOR PAPERS: Special Issue: The Social Sustainability of Food Systems: Addressing the Inequality-Unsustainability Nexus

(2024) Equality, not sufficiency! Critical theoretical perspectives on the inequality-unsustainability nexus. Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy. (accepted - in preparation).

(2022) The unequal university will never be 'sustainable' (with Ana Diaz and Clara Freudenberg). Undisciplined Environments. 15 February 2022.

(2021) Of sound and flavour – revisiting the notion of material for the cultural sociological analysis of art domains. Cultural Sociology. 15(3): 327-345.,

(2020) Philanthrocapitalism vs. the public in covid-19 times, Discover Society. 8 June 2020.

(2020) Filantrocapitalismo contra lo publico en tiempos de covid 19, seccion especial COVID-19:Tiempos críticos en tiempos de pandemia. Cuadernos de Teoría Social 6(11): 162-168.

(2019) Habits and orders of everyday life: commensal adjustment in Anglo-French couples. (with Alan Warde).The British Journal of Sociology, 70(3), 1025-1042.

(2017) 'Theatrical Dialogue in Teaching the Classics'. Editors’ Introduction (with Carlos Frade). Special issue Weber/Simmel antagonisms: imagined dialogues. Journal of Classical Sociology 17(2), 77-86.

(2016) 'Senses and sensibilities: stabilising and changing tastes in cross-national couples' (with Alan Warde), Food, Culture & Society 19(4), 705-722.

(2016) 'Of flavour and sound' Discover Society (36). 6 September 2016.

(2015) ‘Weber on music: Approaching music as a dynamic domain of action and experience’, Cultural Sociology, 9(1): 20-37 (special issue on 'The Social Space of Music') (First published online: 2013)

(2014) 'Introduction: towards dynamic comparative analysis' [Introduction to the Special Issue on Explorations in cross-national comparison of food practices edited with Alan Warde], Anthropology of food [Online], S10 | 2014, Online since 30 December 2014.

(2014) 'Under pressure – learning from the culinary and alimentary practices of Anglo-French couples for cross-national comparison' (with Alan Warde), Anthropology of food [Online], S10 | 2014, Online since 30 December 2014

(2013) 'Introduction to the Special Issue: Weber, the Press and Sociology, Then and Now' (with Carlos Frade) Max Weber Studies 13(2): 137-150.

(2012) ‘Beneath and Beyond the Fragments: The Charms of Simmel’s Philosophical Path for Contemporary Subjectivities’ (with C. Frade) Theory Culture & Society 29 (7-8): 197-217.

(2011) ‘No “new spirit”? Max Weber’s account of the dynamic of contemporary capitalism through “pure adaptation” and the shaping of adequate subjects.’ Max Weber Studies 11 (2): 193-216.

(2011) ‘“Conduct of conduct” or the shaping of “adequate dispositions”? Labour market and career guidance in four European countries’ (with C. Perez) (2011) Critical Social Policy 31 (1): 77-101.

(2009) ‘Extended review of Joachim Radkau, Max Weber: A Biography’ Sociological Review 57(3): 530-6.

Recent conferences/seminars

(2023) Equality, not sufficiency ! Critical theoretical perspectives on the inequality / unsustainability nexus in food provisioning, Food Crises. Challenges, Innovations and Sustainable Change. Conference organized by the Institut Européen d’Histoire et des Cultures de l’Alimentation. Tours (France). 14-16 December 2023

(2023) Equality or sufficiency – Exploring Antagonistic Conceptions of the Working Class In Current Ecological Politics, Marxist Summer School, Kasos (Greece). June 2023.

(2022) Social Sustainability and Transition Capitalism: A Critical Theoretical Understanding, Historical Materialism conference, London, 10-13 November 2022.

(2022) Social Sustainability. Some critical reflections in view of the social sustainability of the Good Food Nation bill. EURSAFE Conference 2022. Edinburgh. FRIED workshop. 07/09/2022

(2021) Precarious sounds and flavours and the ethics of care in music and cuisine. EN-COMPASS-ING CULTURE(S). 8th mid-term conference of the European Sociological Association's Sociology of Culture research network (RN7), 10th - 12th March 2021 (online).

PhD students

Current:

- Eric Yan: Food and Distinction in Contemporary Urban China: A Dispositionalist-Contextualist Exploration (with Marisa Wilson and Nick Prior)

- Sicheng Long: The Invention of Talent: Human Capital Valuation in Talent Assessment (with Angelica Thumala)

- Llibert Mendez de Vigo: The Flag as a Tablecloth: Food practices as class performance by the new Spanish migrants in Edinburgh (with Ross Bond)

Completed:

- Ming-Tse Hung (completed in 2023): What is ‘Real Food’? A Discourse Analysis of Food Education in Taiwan (with Steve Kemp)

- Lisa Howard (completed in 2023): Where ‘green’ parenting meets climate activism: Understanding the affective, political, generative, but challenging ‘space in-between’ of radical eco-parenting (with Lynn Jamieson)

- Shubhi Sharma (completed in 2022): Forest governance, Forest Dwelling People and Construction of Environmental Subjects: Case of REDD+ and Khasis in Meghalaya, India (with Radhika Govinda and Roger Jeffery)

- Yahti Mohammad Miharja (completed in 2020): Relocating Malays: Housing Biographies, the State and Multiracial Nationbuilding in Singapore. (with Liliana Riga)

- Chun-Ming Huang (completed in 2018): Taiwanese Popular Music in China. (with Nick Prior)

Topics interested in supervising

I would welcome proposals from research students with interests in dynamics of capitalism and environmental problems, critical theory, cultural sociology of food, music and the arts. 

If you are interested in being supervised by Isabelle Darmon, please see the links below for more information:

• PhD in Sociology (opens in a new window)

Courses convened and taught

Sustainable Development 1A (convened the course 2013-2021. Course now convened by Dr Faye Wade. I am teaching the unit on capitalism and SD)

Sociology 2A (teaching unit on capitalism) (course convened by Gil Viry)

The Social Life of Food (convened by Dr Niamh Moore)

Global Environment and Society (postgrad, convening and teaching)

Academics Beyond Borders (remote visiting research programme for PhD students affected by the war in Ukraine - co-convening with Sophia Woodman)