John Roberts

I arrived at Brunel in 2004 having worked and studied at various other sociology departments in the UK. My areas of interest include the public sphere and free speech, new media, imperialism, global political economy and the workplace, regulation of everyday life, Marxist theory, and the use of social theory for qualitative research methods.

At Brunel I convene and teach undergraduate modules on introductory sociology and on new media, while at a postgraduate level I co-teach an MSc module on the information society. I also contribute to some teaching on various other modules in the department.

Research Interests

Free speech, the public sphere, public space, new media, imperialism, global political economy and the workplace, regulation of everyday life, Marxist theory, and the use of social theory for qualitative research methods.

Publications

Journal Papers

(2012) Roberts, JM., 'Poststructuralism Against Poststructuralism: Actor-network Theory, Organisations and Economic Markets', European Journal of Social Theory 15 (1) : 35- 53

(2012) Roberts, JM., 'Discourse or Dialogue? Habermas, the Bakhtin Circle and the Question of Concrete Utterances', Theory and Society

(2011) Roberts, J., 'The Development of Free Speech in Modern Britain', Speakers' Corner Trust http://www.speakerscornertrust.org/forum/occasional-essays/

(2011) Cremin, C. and Roberts, JM., 'Postmodern Left-liberalism: Hardt and Negri and the Disavowal of Critique', Critical Sociology 37 (2) : 179- 197

(2010) Roberts, JM., 'Reading Orwell Through Deleuze', Deleuze Studies 4 (3) : 356- 380

(2010) Roberts, J., 'The State, Empire, and Imperialism', Current Sociology 58 (6) : 833- 858

(2008) Roberts, JM., 'Public Spaces of Dissent', Sociology Compass 2 (2) : 654- 674

(2008) Roberts, JM., 'Expressive Free Speech, the State, and the Public Sphere', Social Movement Studies 7 (2) : 101- 119

(2005) New, C., Roberts, JM. and Groff, R., 'Taking Relativism Seriously', Journal of Critical Realism 4 (1) : 221- 246

(2005) Joseph, J. and Roberts, JM., 'Derrida, Foucault and Žižek: Being Realistic about Social Theory', New Formations 56 (Autumn) : 109- 120

(2005) Roberts, JM. and Sanders, T., 'Before, During and After: Realism, Reflexivity and Ethnography', The Sociological Review 53 (2) : 294- 313

(2004) Roberts, JM. and Devine, F., 'Some Everyday Experiences of Voluntarism', Social Politics 11 (2) : 280- 296

(2004) Roberts, JM., 'What's "Social" about "Social Capital"'?, The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 6 (4) : 471- 493

(2004) Roberts, JM., 'From Populist to Political Dialogue in the Public Sphere', Cultural Studies 18 (6) : 884- 910

(2004) Roberts, JM., 'The Stylistics of Competent Speaking: A Bakhtinian Exploration of some Habermasian Themes', Theory, Culture and Society 21 (6) : 91- 114+200

(2003) Roberts, JM. and Devine, F., 'Hollowing Out of the Welfare State and Social Capital', Social Policy and Society 2 (4) : 1- 10

(2003) Roberts, JM. and Devine, F., 'Alternative Approaches to Measuring Social Capital: A Note on van Deth's "Measuring Social Capital"', International Journal of Social Research Methodology 6 (1) : 93- 100

(2002) Roberts, JM., 'From Reflection to Refraction: Opening Up Open Marxism', Capital and Class 78 87- 116

(2001) Roberts, JM., 'Critical Realism and the Dialectic', The British Journal of Sociology 52 (4) : 667- 685

(2001) Roberts, JM., 'Dialogue, Positionality and the Legal Framing of Ethnographic Research', Sociological Research Online 5 (4)

(2001) Roberts, JM., 'Spatial Governance and Working Class Public Spheres: The Case of a Chartist Demonstration at Hyde Park', Journal of Historical Sociology 14 (3) : 308- 333

(2001) Roberts, JM., 'Realistic Spatial Abstraction? Marxist Observations of a Claim within Critical Realist Geography', Progress in Human Geography 25 (4) : 545- 567

(2000) Roberts, JM., 'Marxism and Critical Realism: The Same, Similar or Just Plain Different?', Capital and Class 68 21- 49

(2000) Roberts, JM., 'The Enigma of Free Speech: Speakers' Corner, the Geography of Governance and a Crisis of Rationality', Social and Legal Studies 9 (2) : 271- 292

Book Chapters

(2010) Roberts, JM., 'The Public Sphere'. In: Bevir, M. ed. Encyclopedia of Political Theory. London : Sage

(2007) Roberts, JM., 'Poststructuralism' (dictionary entry). In: Hartwig, M. ed. Dictionary of Critical Realism. London : Routledge

(2004) Roberts, JM., 'John Stuart Mill, Free Speech and the Public Sphere'.. In: Crossley, N.. and Roberts, JM. eds. After Habermas: New Perspectives on the Public Sphere. Blackwell

(2004) Roberts, JM., 'Will the Materialists in the Bakhtin Cicle Please Stand Up?'. In: Joseph, J. and Roberts, JM. eds. Realism, Discourse and Deconstruction.. Routledge

(2002) Roberts, JM., 'Abstracting Emancipation: Two Dialectics on the Trail of Freedom'.. In: Brown, A., Fleetwood, S. and Roberts, JM. eds. Critical Realism and Marxism.. Routledge

(1999) Roberts, JM., 'Investigating a "Criminal" Public Sphere'.. In: Brookman, F., Noaks, L. and Wincup, E. eds. Qualitative Research in Criminology.. Ashgate

Books

(2009) Roberts, JM., The Competent Public Sphere: Global Political Economy, Dialogue, and the Contemporary Workplace. Palgrave

(2006) Dean, K., Joseph, J., Roberts, JM. and Wight, C., Realism, Philosophy and Social Science. Palgrave MacMillan

(2004) Crossley, N. and Roberts, JM., After Habermas: New Perspectives on the Public Sphere (edited collection). Wiley-Blackwell

(2003) Joseph, J. and Roberts, JM., Realism, Discourse and Deconstruction (edited collection). Routledge

(2003) Roberts, JM., The Aesthetics of Free Speech: Rethinking the Public Sphere. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan

(2002) Brown, A., Fleetwood, S. and Roberts, JM., Critical Realism and Marxism (edited collection). Routledge