Programme full

Thursday 16 April 2015 11:00 - 12:30
PAPER SESSION 4
The event will also give delegates an opportunity to meet with Sociology authors, members of the Editorial Board and
some of the Editorial Team within a semi-formal setting, and to hear the announcement of the 2015 SAGE prize for
Sociology.
Digital Futures? Sociological Challenges and Opportunities in the Emergent Semantic Web
Halford, S., Pope, C., Weal, M.
(University of Southampton)
In the context of recent debates about the ‘data deluge’ and the future of empirical sociology, this article turns
attention to current activities aimed at achieving far-reaching transformations to the World Wide Web. The emergent
‘Semantic Web’ has received little attention in sociology, despite its potentially profound consequences for data. In
response to more general recent calls for a critical politics of data we focus our enquiry as follows: first, we explore
how sociological analysis of the artefacts and tools that are currently being developed to build a Semantic Web helps
us to uncover the potential effects of this ‘next generation’ web on knowledge, data and expertise; and second we
consider what a Semantic Web might offer to sociological research. We conclude by considering some implications of
multidisciplinary engagement with the Web for the future of sociology.
Big Data: Methodological Challenges and Approaches for Sociological Analysis
Tinati, R., Halford, S., Carr, L., Pope, C.
(University of Southampton)
The emergence of Big Data is both promising and challenging for social research. This article suggests that realising
this promise has been restricted by the methods applied in social science research, which undermine our potential to
apprehend the qualities that make Big Data so appealing, not least in relation to the sociology of networks and flows.
With specific reference to the micro-blogging website Twitter, the article outlines a set of methodological principles for
approaching these data that stand in contrast to previous research; and introduces a new tool for harvesting and
analysing Twitter built on these principles. We work our argument through an analysis of Twitter data linked to political
protest over UK university fees. Our approach transcends earlier methodological limitations to offer original insights
into the flow of information and the actors and networks that emerge in this flow.
Chair: Nasar Meer (University of Strathclyde)
Medicine, Health and Illness 1
C236, CHARLES OAKLEY BUILDING
Theorising Cancer Fundraising: Progression or Regression?
Barbour, R.
(Open University)
Cancer fundraising and associated appeals for sponsorship – whether this involves marathons, fun runs, or even the
growing of a moustache - are ubiquitous, but this phenomenon has largely escaped sociological scrutiny. The view of
such activities as the 'commodification of compassion', fails to account for the scale of public engagement. This paper
brings a range of theoretical perspectives to bear in seeking to provide a more nuanced understanding of what may be
at stake besides the raising of money. This paper reviews the usefulness of theories relating to the genesis and
development of 'embodied health movements' (EHMs) and ideas about 'intimate citizenship'. EHMs are characterised
by the central role accorded the body – both as a site subjected to conceived threats and as a vector for fundraising,
drawing on and reproducing relationships of reciprocity. Taking part in fundraising events, involving celebration of
survival, enactment of memorialisation and transformation of fear and shame into empowerment could be viewed as
progressive in terms of helping individuals and groups to address health concerns and vulnerabilities. However, it is
argued that this may involve regression (at least in terms of revisiting relevant theoretical constructs. In some
respects, these activities may allow participants to articulate and engage the 'collective conscience' conceived of by
Durkheim. This raises interesting questions about the relationship between the personal and the political; personal
and collective achievement; 'intimate citizenship'; and the potential tensions between achieving catharsis at an
individual level and enacting resistance at a group level.
BSA Annual Conference 2015 152
Glasgow Caledonian University