School of Social and Political Science

Research interests

Social theory, the structure/agency problem, actor-network theory, rationality, explanation, complexity theory, Risk, epistemology and epistemic justification

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 actor-network theory and the 'new empiricism', but I also consider older approaches such as realism and social 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? 

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 and knowledge/power. (5) Human/non-human: particularly debates regarding actor-network theory's approach to this division.

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

• PhD in Sociology (opens in new window)