John Roberts
Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Communications
Sociology and Communications
Brunel University
Uxbridge, UB8 3PH
United Kingdom
Biography
Qualifications
- PhD Sociology (Cardiff)
- MA Sociology (Essex)
- BA Sociology (Lancaster)
- PG Cert Research (Cardiff)
- PG Cert Teaching and Learning (Brunel)
Personal Biography
I completed my PhD at Cardiff University in 2000 on urban space and free speech. I’ve studied and taught various universities including Essex, Lancaster, Leeds, and Manchester universities. I joined Brunel in 2004.
Research
Research Overview
My research interests can be divided into four broad areas: the relationship between the public sphere, imperialism, urban space, and free speech; critical social theory - especially Marxism and various strands of poststructuralist thought - along with its application to research; global political economy, the state, finance, and management texts; and the sociology of new media and its relationship to public activism.
Current Projects
Exploring debates around public activism and new media
A critical examination of business and management ideology which underpins various debates on digital publics
Imperialism, urban space and free speech
Recently Completed Projects
The ideology of ‘competence’ in workplace public spheres
The regulation and governance of dissent in urban space
Financialisation and imperialism
PhD Supervision
Erminia Passannanti: Cinematic representation of the sacred and censorship by religion in post-Catholic Italy (1960/1980); 2009 - 2012
Teaching
Undergraduate Programmes
Module convenor
- Introduction to Sociology (Yr 1)
- The Age of New Media (Yr 3)
- Work Placements (Yr 2)
Postgraduate Programmes
Module convenor
- Creative Industries
Module contributor
- Dissertation
Administration
- Work Placement Convenor
- Joint Head of Undergraduate Studies
External Activity
- The Higher Education Academy
Publications
Publications
Journal Papers
(2012) Roberts, JM., 'Discourse or Dialogue? Habermas, the Bakhtin Circle and the Question of Concrete Utterances', Theory and Society 41 (4) : 395- 419
(2012) Roberts, JM., 'Poststructuralism Against Poststructuralism: Actor-network Theory, Organisations and Economic Markets', European Journal of Social Theory 15 (1) : 35- 53
(2011) Cremin, C. and Roberts, JM., 'Postmodern Left-liberalism: Hardt and Negri and the Disavowal of Critique', Critical Sociology 37 (2) : 179- 197
(2011) Roberts, J., 'The Development of Free Speech in Modern Britain', Speakers' Corner Trust http://www.speakerscornertrust.org/forum/occasional-essays/
(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., 'Expressive Free Speech, the State, and the Public Sphere', Social Movement Studies 7 (2) : 101- 119
(2008) Roberts, JM., 'Public Spaces of Dissent', Sociology Compass 2 (2) : 654- 674
(2005) Roberts, JM. and Sanders, T., 'Before, During and After: Realism, Reflexivity and Ethnography', The Sociological Review 53 (2) : 294- 313
(2005) Joseph, J. and Roberts, JM., 'Derrida, Foucault and Žižek: Being Realistic about Social Theory', New Formations 56 (Autumn) : 109- 120
(2005) New, C., Roberts, JM. and Groff, R., 'Taking Relativism Seriously', Journal of Critical Realism 4 (1) : 221- 246
(2004) Roberts, JM. and Devine, F., 'Some Everyday Experiences of Voluntarism', Social Politics 11 (2) : 280- 296
(2004) Roberts, JM., 'The Stylistics of Competent Speaking: A Bakhtinian Exploration of some Habermasian Themes', Theory, Culture and Society 21 (6) : 91- 114+200
(2004) Roberts, JM., 'From Populist to Political Dialogue in the Public Sphere', Cultural Studies 18 (6) : 884- 910
(2004) Roberts, JM., 'What's "Social" about "Social Capital"'?, The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 6 (4) : 471- 493
(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
(2003) Roberts, JM. and Devine, F., 'Hollowing Out of the Welfare State and Social Capital', Social Policy and Society 2 (4) : 1- 10
(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
