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Paul Sweetman joined CMCI in January 2011 as Senior Lecturer in Culture, Media and Creative Industries. He was previously Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Southampton (2000 – 2010), and, before that, Lecturer in Sociology at The University of Durham (1998 -1999). His PhD was in Sociology, focusing on contemporary forms of body modification (University of Southampton, 1999), and he also has a Postgraduate Diploma in Sociology from the University of Manchester (1993) and an MA in the Sociology of Contemporary Culture from the University of York (1994). His first degree was in Economics with Economic History, from the University of Sussex (1989), following which he also worked as a Financial Statistics Analyst at the Bank of England.

• Cultural sociology and the sociology of culture
• Social and cultural theory (particularly with reference to habitus, reflexivity and sociality)
• Subcultures
• The body and identity
• Fashion and consumption
• Visual methods and methodology
• Ethics, representation and recognition

Books

Caroline Knowles & Paul Sweetman (eds) (2004) Picturing the Social Landscape: Visual Methods and the Sociological Imagination, London: Routledge 

Journal articles

Paul Sweetman (2009) 'Revealing Habitus, Illuminating Practice: Bourdieu, Photography and Visual Methods', The Sociological Review, (special issue on Post-colonial Bourdieu), 57 (3): 491-511 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2009.01851.x/full

Paul Sweetman (2007) 'Nekotorye soobrazhenia po povody visualnoi sotsiologii, visualnoi antropologii i visualnyh metodov issledoviania' ('Some thoughts on visual sociology, visual anthropology and visual methods of research'). Antropologichesky Forum (Forum for Anthropology and Culture), 7, 89-98

Paul Sweetman (2003) ‘Twenty-First Century Dis-Ease? Habitual Reflexivity or the Reflexive Habitus’, The Sociological Review , 51 (4): 528-549

Book Chapters

Paul Sweetman (2009) 'Subculture: Hodkinson's Goth', in F. Devine & S. Heath (eds) Doing Social Science: Evidence and Methods in Empirical Research, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan ISBN: 978-0-230-53789-7 (hbk); 978-0-230-53790-3 (pbk) http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?PID=281135

Paul Sweetman (2007) ''Everything is Fragmenting Beautifully': Post-subcultures and everyday life' In LADDA vzw (ed.), Talkie Walkie [jongerensubcultuur]: 4 Believers/non-believers, Leuven/Voorburg: Acco

Paul Sweetman (2007) ‘Anchoring the (Postmodern) Self? Body Modification, Fashion and Identity’, in M. Barnard (ed.) Fashion Theory: A Reader, London: Routledge (republication of article/chapter in Body & Society, 5 (2-3): 51-76, and M. Featherstone (ed.) (2000) Body Modification, London: Sage)

Other publications

Paul Sweetman (2009) ‘Just Anybody? Images, Ethics and Recognition’ (catalogue essay), in R. Leino Just Anybody, exhibition catalogue, Winchester: The Winchester Gallery/Winchester School of Art.

 

For a full list of publications, please contact Dr Paul Sweeetman at:
paul.sweetman@kcl.ac.uk

Current Research

Paul Sweetman’s research interests centre around cultural sociology and the sociology of culture. He has written and published on social and cultural theory (particularly with reference to habitus, reflexivity and sociality), subcultures, the body and identity, fashion and consumption, and visual methods and methodology, and is also interested in issues of ethics, representation and recognition.

Teaching

Paul’s currently teaches an option module on the MA CCI programme: 7AAYCC29 Fashion, Culture & Society, and contributes to the core modules 7AAYCC31 Contested Culture: Formations and 7AAYCC32 Analysing the Cultural and Creative Industries.

Paul is happy to consider proposals for PhD research linked to any or all of his key research interests as listed above.

Paul is a founder member and co-convenor (with David Gauntlett) of the BSA Visual Sociology Study Group, and co –editor (with Caroline Knowles) of Picturing the Social Landscape (Routledge 2004). He has been a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Visual Studies, the Journal of the International Visual Studies Association, since 2008, and was a member of the Editorial Board of Sociology, flagship journal of the British Sociological Association, between 2003 and 2005.
His most recent empirical work includes City Portraits, a large scale public artwork and associated research project, developed in collaboration with artist Laura Hensser and colleagues at the John Hansard Gallery, University of Southampton.

Further information:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akrT5_RlNA0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40tyZwQgZZw