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Section: Sociology
Stephen Kemp
- Name
- Dr Stephen Kemp
- Organisation
- Sociology, School of Social and Political Science
University of Edinburgh - Address
- 5.09 Chrystal Macmillan Building 15a George Square Edinburgh UK EH8 9LD
- Telephone
- +44 (0)131 650 3895
- s.kemp@ed.ac.uk
- Research Interests
- social theory,the structure/agency problem,actor-network theory,Discourse Theory,Feminist Theory,rationality,explanation,complexity theory,Risk
- URL
- http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/staff/sociology/kemp_s
Office Hours
Semester 1: Tuesday 2-4pm
Semester 2: Tuesday 10am-12pm
Qualifications
- BA, MPhil (Sociology, Massey University, New Zealand)
- PHD (University of Edinburgh)
Research Interests
My research is in the area of social theory, and I have a particular interest in debates about social scientific knowledge (epistemology) and about the fundamental features of the social world (ontology). In relation to social scientific knowledge, I'm interested in the question of what knowledge is for - is the intention to describe the social world, to explain it, or to change it? I also spend a lot of time thinking about issues of justification, reflecting on whether social scientific knowledge claims can be epistemically justified despite their apparent entanglements with politics and power. I'm currently thinking about these questions in relation to relatively recent developments like complexity theory, actor-network theory and the 'new empiricism', but I also consider older approaches such as realism and constructionism. In relation to the ontology of the social world, I'm interested in contestations over the fundamental features of the social world - is the social world made up of discourses and performances, networks and flows, structures and agents, or some other entities? As this list would suggest, I engage with the work of thinkers like Judith Butler, Bruno Latour, John Urry, and Margaret Archer on these topics.
Recent publications include:
'Unpredictability and Nonlinearity in Complexity Theory: A Critical Appraisal', 2009, E:CO, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 84-93
'Concepts, Anomalies and Reality: A Response to Bloor and Feher', 2007, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science , Vol. 38, No. 1, pp. 241-253
'Saving the Strong Programme? A Critique of David Bloor's Recent Work', 2005, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science , Vol. 36, No. 4, pp. 707-720
'Critical Realism and the Limits of Philosophy', 2005, European Journal of Social Theory , Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 171-191
Topics interested in supervising
I would be very happy to supervise research in any of the following areas: (1) Social theory: including ontological arguments about discourse, performance and structure, debates about the complexity of the social world, the interpretation of social action, and rationality in scientific and everyday contexts. (2) Philosophy of social science: including investigations concerned with the links between theory and research, the impact of politics, power, and values on knowledge, and analyses of progress, explanation and theory testing in social science. (3) Risk: including research addressing Beck's Risk Society thesis, extreme risk-taking, expertise and lay-expert relations, and the gendered aspects of risk perception and action. (4) Sociology of knowledge: including debates around the social character of knowledge, science and gender, and approaches such as the Strong Programme and Actor-Network Theory
If you are interested in being supervised by Stephen Kemp, please see the links below for more information:
PhD in Sociology
This page was published on 6 October 2011