J M Roberts
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 1470 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | J M Roberts |
| NOMBRES | J M |
| APELLIDO | Roberts |
| FIRMA | ROBERTS J M |
| AFILIACIONES | Brunel University of London |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3288-9505 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 80 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 246 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 80 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1960 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 10 |
The hegemony of free speech
Sari Hanafi has written a scolding piece against a so-called crisis of free speech in society and, specifically, in universities. In this response, I comment critically on how Hanafi employs Symbolic Liberalism, cancel culture and identity politics to explore this ostensible free speech tragedy. I conclude by suggesting that free speech is always part of broader battles around hegemony in society, but not in ways often argued for by Hanafi
Multiaccentual coalitions, dialogic grief and carnivalesque assemblies
This article for the first time seeks to bring together theoretical insights from Judith Butler and Mikhail Bakhtin in order to strengthen their respective understanding of ethics. First, the article suggests that Bakhtin’s theory of dialogic events and the ‘multiaccentuality’ and thematic nature of everyday utterances can help Butler address criticisms that suggest her work concentrates too heavily on invariant meanings in utterances. Second, Bu…
Outline of a critical sociology of free speech in everyday life
Critical sociologists have been conspicuous by their absence in theoretical debates about free speech in everyday life. The aim of this article is to address this missing gap in critical sociology by making some tentative suggestions about how such a theory might advance. Drawing mainly from the ideas of Pierre Bourdieu and Judith Butler, the article suggests that free speech occurs when coalitions come together in venues to discuss the possessio…
Digital Technology, Work, Finance and Crises
The single and combined work of Scott Lash and John Urry have become extremely significant in the social sciences in the UK and beyond. In particular, one of their principal ideas that dominant capitalist countries have made a transition to a ‘disorganized’ and ‘mobile’ era founded on digital networks, global flows of people, objects, images and texts, decentralized and flexible work practices, declining industrialized social classes, and a loss …
Traffic logic, state strategies and free speech in an urban park
‘Traffic logic’ draws attention to how civil rights in public space, such as free speech, are often compromised by officials in favour of expanding bureaucratic traffic codes, designs and plans. However, internal disputes among state departments about nascent traffic logic schemes will sometimes be strategically employed by social movements to campaign for civil liberties and rights in public space. This article explores these issues through the …
Assemblies, Coalitions, and Conflicts Over Free Speech
By drawing, among others, on the ideas of the Bakhtin Circle and Judith Butler, this paper explores spatial struggles over the right to free speech at Hyde Park, London, 1861–1962. From the 1860s to the early 20 th century, the state gradually constructed a “monologic” discourse about an ideal‐typical “indecent” speaker who would “trespass” on Hyde Park through their “excitable speech” against a legally sanctioned right to give a “public address”…
A road scheme, the state, and the détournement of urban space
Henri Lefebvre develops the term, détournement, to help analyse how certain events can make urban spaces more ‘plastic’ and uncertain and thus more readily malleable for appropriation by groups and organisations. In the literature, however, there has less been discussion about how events of détournement can lead to often intense dialogue and internal divisions within and between state departments, and between the state and groups in civil society…
Introduction
Copyright © The Author(s) 2022. Since its establishment in 1977, Capital and Class has provided a critical space for scholars and activists to explore existing and new forms of socio-political struggles and movements in and against capital. A range of theoretical perspectives have also been employed by Capital and Class authors to make sense of these movements, which, among others, include Open Marxism, social movement theory, critical urban appr…
Open Marxism, social class, and social and political movements
Open Marxists argue that capitalist society is mediated through forms of alienated and dispossessed labour from the means of production. For Open Marxists, then, labour is fluid in its constitution because it is constantly struggling to various degrees in and against its alienated and dispossessed capitalist form. Static sociological concepts of social class therefore cannot fully grasp this fluid and antagonistic relationship between labour and …
Digital, Class, Work
Explores the changing nature of digital labour and work both before and during the Covid-19 pandemic Describes and categorises different types of labour, work and the digital Develops theoretically a class perspective, based in critical theory, on contemporary digital labour processes Provides one of the first systematic accounts that analyses and explores the impact of COVID-19 on the digital labour process Includes numerous academic case studie…
Judith Butler, the Bakhtin Circle and Free Speech
In June 21, 1990, the Joneses, an African-American family living in the mainly white and working-class neighbourhood of St. Paul in Minnesota, saw a small white cross burning in their yard. By placing the burning cross on the yard, the Minnesota Supreme Court argued that one of the accused, Robert A Viktora, had engaged in ‘fighting words’. However, the US Supreme Court reversed this decision, arguing that the local authority in St Paul only lega…
Speakers' Corner
Speakers' Corner is located in the northeast corner of Hyde Park, London. This entry shows that its origins lie in Tyburn hanging tree, which, in early modern England, was also situated in the northeast corner of Hyde Park. Interestingly, many onlookers in the Tyburn crowd frequently rioted in favor of the condemned body, seeing the hanging spectacle as unjust. Tyburn therefore carved out a public space at Hyde Park for regular debate and discuss…
Public Sphere
This entry maps out some of the key debates in defining the public sphere. After a brief definition of this term as comprising a space in society for people to engage in debate and discussion on a range of subjects, the entry goes on to outline some of the main theoretical perspectives on the public sphere. In particular, the entry discusses some of the early and later ideas of the leading theorist of the public sphere, Jürgen Habermas, alongside…
Lenin’s Lens
This paper offers a theoretical critique of the Occupy movement by drawing on V.I. Lenin’s work, Left-wing Communism: an Infantile Disorder (LWC). This work emphasizes the importance of recognizing political power within institutionalized political systems, for example, trade unions and parliamentary democracy. We bring the ideas contained in this work to bear on the Occupy movement by drawing on 20 activist accounts from two UK Occupy camps to a…
Outline of a Marxist Commodity Theory of the Public Sphere
In recent years, the public sphere, which represents a realm in civil society where people can debate and discuss a range of issues and common concerns important to them, has become a key area for research in the humanities and social sciences. Arguably, however, Marxist theory has yet to advance a theoretical account of the most abstract and simple ideological properties of the capitalist public sphere as these appear under universal commodity r…
Contested meanings, myths and hyperimages of the apocalypse
This article considers the depoliticising effects of current images and myths of apocalyptic visions, such that the world faces a catastrophe whether this emerges from environmental degradation, mass migration, terrorism, or global financial collapse. In our digital media age, apocalyptic images are now also captured through the raw footage of actual disaster events. In the article we call such footage, “hyperimages”. The power of the hyperimage …
Co-creative prosumer labor, financial knowledge capitalism, and Marxist value theory
Some argue that the “co-creative labors” of “prosumers,” who often work for free on social media sites, represent new types of exploitation insofar that they provide novel ways for capitalists to accumulate surplus value. For others, however, prosumers illustrate how capitalism is now dominated by commercial and noncommercial informational networks that build brand value in innovative ways, especially through “immaterial” relations of communicati…
How are George Orwell’s writings a precursor to studies of popular culture
George Orwell is known as an acclaimed novelist, essayist, documentary writer, and journalist. But Orwell also wrote widely on a number of themes in and around popular culture. However, even though Orwell's writings might be considered as a precursor to some well-known themes in studies of popular culture his contribution to this area still remains relatively unacknowledged by others in the discipline. The aim of this article is simply, therefore…
Beyond Flows, Fluids and Networks
In this paper we critically explore some of the arguments made by those social theorists who claim that we live in a new global economy defined by informational and technological flows, fluids and networks. By recourse to Marx's concept of fetishism we argue that these theorists often fetishise the very social changes in the global economy they are trying to describe. As a result, they articulate a ‘flat ontology’ of concrete and contingent relat…
Critical Realism, Dialectics, and Qualitative Research Methods
Critical realism has been an important advance in social science methodology because it develops a qualitative theory of causality which avoids some of the pitfalls of empiricist theories of causality. But while there has been ample work exploring the relationship between critical realism and qualitative research methods there has been noticeably less work exploring the relationship between dialectical critical realism and qualitative research me…
Poststructuralism against poststructuralism
In recent years, actor-network theory (ANT) has become an increasingly influential theoretical framework through which to analyse economic markets and organizations. Indeed, with its emphasis on the power of social and natural concrete 'things' to become contingently enrolled in different networks, many argue that ANT successfully draws attention to the complex intermeshing of new technologies and social actors in organizations and markets across…
On critique
Discourse or Dialogue? Habermas, the Bakhtin Circle, and the question of concrete utterances
Postmodern Left-Liberalism
In this article we set out to critique what we term the politics of left-liberalism. Broadly speaking, we situate left-liberalism around four principles. First, left-liberalism rejects Marx's labour theory of value. Second, left-liberalism believes that capitalism is inherently antagonistic. Third, left-liberalism develops a notion of resistance to the antagonistic nature of global capitalism through a politics of cultural difference. Fourth, lef…
Deleuzian intersections
Before, during and after
In this paper we argue that what is missing from many ethnographic accounts is a recognition that dilemmas inevitably emerge for the researcher before they make contact with the research setting, during the process of ethnographic research, and subsequently in the lengthy time taken to unravel the theoretical importance of the research after the fieldwork has ended. Using a comparison of two ethnographies as case studies, and by recourse to a rea…
Some Everyday Experiences of Voluntarism
Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society - Volume 11, Number 2, Summer 2004
Critical Realism, Dialectics, and Qualitative Research Methods
Critical realism has been an important advance in social science methodology because it develops a qualitative theory of causality which avoids some of the pitfalls of empiricist theories of causality. But while there has been ample work exploring the relationship between critical realism and qualitative research methods there has been noticeably less work exploring the relationship between dialectical critical realism and qualitative research me…
The Mythology of the Secret Societies
Spatial Governance and Working Class Public Spheres
The concepts of the public sphere and public space have gained increasing purchase within social history. This paper contributes to this literature by theoretically developing a critical approach to both concepts. By drawing upon the insights of the Bakhtin circle, as well as Marxism and Poststructuralism, the paper suggests that public spheres under capitalism are structured through the basic contradiction between capital and labour. Each public…
Alternative approaches to researching social capital
This paper responds to van Deth's overview of empirical research on social capital and the difficulties of measuring the concept. We entirely agree with many of the problems that he identifies with the dominant mode of enquiry to date: namely survey and polling methods of attitudinal data. We are sure there are ways of improving on such quantitative methods although we are of the view that qualitative research is especially helpful for exploring …
Marxism and Critical Realism
The author examines the relationship between Marxism and critical realism. He problematises the suggestion that Marx implicitly utilised a critical realist theoretical framework. He does this by exploring three areas of inquiry: epistemology and ideology; the method of abstraction; causal powers and social form. By exploring these areas, the author demonstrates that critical realism in fact pursues a different theoretical project to that of Marxi…
What's ‘Social’ about ‘Social Capital’
Debates around the concept of social capital are often also debates about the level at which social capital can be abstracted for analytical use. Yet while many theorists and commentators involved in these debates implicitly discuss the issue of abstraction it is rarely done explicitly. In this article I attempt to overcome this missing link in the social capital literature by theoretically examining the ‘social’ in ‘social capital’ through inter…
Poststructuralism against poststructuralism
In recent years, actor-network theory (ANT) has become an increasingly influential theoretical framework through which to analyse economic markets and organizations. Indeed, with its emphasis on the power of social and natural concrete 'things' to become contingently enrolled in different networks, many argue that ANT successfully draws attention to the complex intermeshing of new technologies and social actors in organizations and markets across…
Realism, Philosophy and Social Science
The authors examine the relationship between social science and philosophy and ask what sort of work social science and an accompanying philosophy should do. They reintroduce the question of ontology
The Hollowing Out of the Welfare State and Social Capital
Social capital has become an increasingly popular concept within some academic and government circles as a means of exploring how communities can embark upon a process of civic renewal by establishing bridges of reciprocity between community members from diverse social and cultural backgrounds. In this article we place the popularity of social capital within the historical context of the ‘hollowing out of the welfare state’. This allows us to hig…
Realistic spatial abstraction? Marxist observations of a claim within critical realist geography
Critical realism has attracted substantial interest and following within social geography for a number of years. A principal reason for this popularity lies with the critical realist method of abstraction. This method seeks to abstract the underlying causal powers of an object for social analysis at different levels of abstraction. The theoretical movement from the underlying reality of an object to its contingent and everyday appearance therefor…
Dialogue, Positionality and the Legal Framing of Ethnographic Research
The question of positioning between the research Self and the research Other is a much discussed issue within qualitative research, especially within ethnographic approaches. Yet what is distinctive about many of these accounts is that they begin their respective analyses from a concrete level. In other words, many who champion placing their Self in the research process do so by focusing upon face-to-face encounters between their Self and the Oth…
The Enigma of Free Speech
Officially sanctioned in 1872 by the Royal Parks and Gardens Regulation Act, Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park, London is often seen as a potent symbol for free speech in Britain. Yet this image is highly problematic. Nowhere in the original 1872 Act does the term 'free speech' appear. In this article it is argued that this enigma is in fact perfectly understandable for two reasons. First, the sign 'speech' had carved out a distinct geographical and …
Critical realism and the dialectic1
A prominent strand within both sociological and social theory has been concerned to develop a 'systems approach' with which to explore social life. One of the most original contributions to a systems approach has arisen within critical realism. In particular critical realism demonstrates that it is possible to abstract the causal powers of different objects of analysis to examine their interaction within concrete and contingent 'open systems'. Th…
From reflection to refraction
In this paper the author provides a sympathetic critique of open Marxism. In particular the author suggests that while open Marxists successfully show how social forms reflect the contradiction between capital and labour, they do not at present demonstrate with equal insight how social forms also refract this contradiction in their own unique and qualitative way. This leads the author to insist that a genuinely open approach to Marxist theory mus…
Beyond Flows, Fluids and Networks
In this paper we critically explore some of the arguments made by those social theorists who claim that we live in a new global economy defined by informational and technological flows, fluids and networks. By recourse to Marx's concept of fetishism we argue that these theorists often fetishise the very social changes in the global economy they are trying to describe. As a result, they articulate a ‘flat ontology’ of concrete and contingent relat…
The Politics of Religion in Napoleonic Italy
Public Spaces of Dissent
This article looks at some recent developments in the relationship between public space and dissent. The article does this by firstly distinguishing between dissent and resistance. Dissent is based broadly around disagreements between individuals in particular groups and contexts against a perceived grievance of some sort. As a result dissent can arise in a variety of contexts, especially within everyday life, popular culture, and with small acts…
Étude épidémiologique de la maladie de Rendu-Osler en France
Bideau Alain, Plauchu Henri, Brunet Guy, Robert J.M. Étude épidémiologique de la maladie de Rendu-Osler en France : répartition géographique et prévalence. In: Population, 44e année, n°1, 1989. pp. 9-28
Introduction
Copyright © The Author(s) 2022. Since its establishment in 1977, Capital and Class has provided a critical space for scholars and activists to explore existing and new forms of socio-political struggles and movements in and against capital. A range of theoretical perspectives have also been employed by Capital and Class authors to make sense of these movements, which, among others, include Open Marxism, social movement theory, critical urban appr…
Lenin’s Lens
This paper offers a theoretical critique of the Occupy movement by drawing on V.I. Lenin’s work, Left-wing Communism: an Infantile Disorder (LWC). This work emphasizes the importance of recognizing political power within institutionalized political systems, for example, trade unions and parliamentary democracy. We bring the ideas contained in this work to bear on the Occupy movement by drawing on 20 activist accounts from two UK Occupy camps to a…
The Stylistics of Competent Speaking
It has been noted that certain similarities can be detected between the work of the Bakhtin Circle and the work of Jürgen Habermas. While I do not deny that these sorts of similarities can be detected, I also argue that the insights of the Bakhtin Circle can be used to provide the basis of a critique of Habermas. My specific aim is to show how Habermas perpetuates a 'stylistic' approach to discourse theory. 'Stylistics', as conceived by the Bakht…
Assemblies, Coalitions, and Conflicts Over Free Speech
By drawing, among others, on the ideas of the Bakhtin Circle and Judith Butler, this paper explores spatial struggles over the right to free speech at Hyde Park, London, 1861–1962. From the 1860s to the early 20 th century, the state gradually constructed a “monologic” discourse about an ideal‐typical “indecent” speaker who would “trespass” on Hyde Park through their “excitable speech” against a legally sanctioned right to give a “public address”…
Discourse or Dialogue? Habermas, the Bakhtin Circle, and the question of concrete utterances
La defaite des Sans-culottes
European Fascism
Journal Article European Fascism Get access European Fascism. Ed. by S. J. Woolf. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 1968. 386 pp. Bibliog. Index. (Reading University Studies on Contemporary Europe. I: Studies in Fascism.) 63s. J. M. Roberts J. M. Roberts Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 45, Issue 2, April 1969, Page 335, https://doi.org/10.2307/2613050 Published: 01 April 1969
Short Notices
Journal Article Short Notices Get access JOHN M. ROBERTS JOHN M. ROBERTS Merton CollegeOxford Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume LXXXVI, Issue CCCXXXVIII, January 1971, Pages 182-b–182, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/LXXXVI.CCCXXXVIII.182-b Published: 01 January 1971
Short Notices
Short Notices Get access JOHN M. ROBERTS JOHN M. ROBERTS Merton CollegeOxford Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume LXXXVI, Issue CCCXXXVIII, January 1971, Page 181, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/LXXXVI.CCCXXXVIII.181 Published: 01 January 1971
The Origins of a Mythology
The Origins of a Mythology: Freemasons, Protestants and the French Revolution J. M. ROBERTS J. M. ROBERTS Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, Volume 44, Issue 109, May 1971, Pages 78–97, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2281.1971.tb00392.x Published: 12 October 2007
The Mythology of the Secret Societies
Short Notices
Short Notices Get access J. M. ROBERTS J. M. ROBERTS Merton CollegeOxford Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume XC, Issue CCCLVII, October 1975, Pages 909-b–910, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/XC.CCCLVII.909-b Published: 01 October 1975
Revolution and improvement
Short Notices
SHORT NOTICES Get access J. M. ROBERTS J. M. ROBERTS University of Southampton Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume XCV, Issue CCCLXXV, April 1980, Pages 432-a–432, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/XCV.CCCLXXV.432-a Published: 01 April 1980
Pioneering Sociological History
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Vieillards et familles
BiDEAU Alain. Brunet Guy, Piaithi Henri - Vieillards et familles : intégration ou rejet. L'exemple de Chezery-Forens (1856-1872). Le xixe siècle voit un déclin démographique précoce des deux communes étudiées Les données nominatives du recensement de 1856 permettent de situer les personnes âgées dans ce contexte les hommes sont presque tous mariés et chefs de ménage comprenant essentiellement d'autres adultes plus jeunes, ainsi que leurs enfants …
Étude épidémiologique de la maladie de Rendu-Osler en France
Bideau Alain, Plauchu Henri, Brunet Guy, Robert J.M. Étude épidémiologique de la maladie de Rendu-Osler en France : répartition géographique et prévalence. In: Population, 44e année, n°1, 1989. pp. 9-28
World Historians and Their Goals
Shorter Notices
Journal Article SHORTER NOTICES Get access JOHN M. ROBERTS JOHN M. ROBERTS Merton CollegeOxford Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume CXI, Issue 442, June 1996, Pages 759–760, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/CXI.442.759 Published: 01 June 1996
Shorter Notices
Journal Article SHORTER NOTICES Get access JOHN M. ROBERTS JOHN M. ROBERTS Merton CollegeOxford Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume CXI, Issue 442, June 1996, Pages 738–739, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/CXI.442.738 Published: 01 June 1996
Shorter Notices
SHORTER NOTICES Get access JOHN M. ROBERTS JOHN M. ROBERTS Merton CollegeOxford Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume CXII, Issue 449, November 1997, Page 1352, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/CXII.449.1352 Published: 01 November 1997
Shorter Notices
Journal Article SHORTER NOTICES Get access JOHN M. ROBERTS JOHN M. ROBERTS Merton CollegeOxford Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume CXII, Issue 446, April 1997, Pages 517–518, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/CXII.446.517 Published: 01 April 1997
Shorter Notices
Journal Article SHORTER NOTICES Get access JOHN M. ROBERTS JOHN M. ROBERTS Merton CollegeOxford Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume CXIII, Issue 453, September 1998, Pages 1043-b–1044, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/CXIII.453.1043-b Published: 01 September 1998
Marxism and Critical Realism
The author examines the relationship between Marxism and critical realism. He problematises the suggestion that Marx implicitly utilised a critical realist theoretical framework. He does this by exploring three areas of inquiry: epistemology and ideology; the method of abstraction; causal powers and social form. By exploring these areas, the author demonstrates that critical realism in fact pursues a different theoretical project to that of Marxi…
Twentieth Century
Dall'Europa libertina all'Europa illuminista
Received
The Enigma of Free Speech
Officially sanctioned in 1872 by the Royal Parks and Gardens Regulation Act, Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park, London is often seen as a potent symbol for free speech in Britain. Yet this image is highly problematic. Nowhere in the original 1872 Act does the term 'free speech' appear. In this article it is argued that this enigma is in fact perfectly understandable for two reasons. First, the sign 'speech' had carved out a distinct geographical and …
Realistic spatial abstraction? Marxist observations of a claim within critical realist geography
Critical realism has attracted substantial interest and following within social geography for a number of years. A principal reason for this popularity lies with the critical realist method of abstraction. This method seeks to abstract the underlying causal powers of an object for social analysis at different levels of abstraction. The theoretical movement from the underlying reality of an object to its contingent and everyday appearance therefor…
Critical Reaalism
The Paris Commune, 1871, Robert Tombs
Journal Article The Paris Commune, 1871, Robert Tombs Get access John M. Roberts John M. Roberts Merton College, Oxford Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume 116, Issue 465, February 2001, Pages 258–259, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/116.465.258 Published: 01 February 2001
Sociology (49 obras) · Political science (46 obras) · Law (37 obras) · History (32 obras) · Politics (32 obras) · Epistemology (27 obras) · Philosophy (24 obras) · Law (23 obras) · Computer Science (20 obras) · History (17 obras)