Research interests
Network Analysis and Social Movements
Manchester Sociology is prominent for its longstanding interest in network analysis. We, as a research group, take an active part in the development and promotion of network analysis in research on social movements. In particular, analysing mobilization in variety of historical and cultural contexts, we are keen to combine qualitative and quantitative methodologies. In our quest to provide the best analysis possible we aim to be methodologically innovative. We employ variety of ethnographic methods to learn about networks and utilize social network software to visualise, analyse and model networks, engaging with cross-sectional and longitudinal data. The members of our group study networks among suffragettes in the UK, IRA activists and peace movements in the UK and Israel and contemporary cross-national feminist social movements and their intersection with culture, music and political activism.
Social Theory and Social Movements
The application of social theory to the empirical reality of social movements is one of the primary research interests of the group. Our members critically employ and extend the theories of such major social theorists such as Habermas and Bourdieu. Gemma Edwards and Nick Crossley have published widely on Habermas’s new social movement theory. Nick Crossley and Yousaf Ibrahim have applied Bourdieu’s ideas to analyse political activism.
Anti-Corporate and Anti-War Activism
The members of the group have expertise in several areas. Our members study anti-corporate and alter-globalisation movements in British (Kevin Gillan and Yousaf Ibrahim), German (Raphael Schlembach) and Spanish (Luke Yates) contexts. Peace and anti-war activism is another research topic we are engaged with. Yulia Zemlinskaya has a longstanding research interest in the peace movement in Israel, while Kevin Gillan researches anti-war activism in the UK. The fields of expertise of our members also include trade unions (Gemma Edwards), social movements in mental health (Nick Crossley), and the life-review processes among veterans of the left-wing youth movements of the 1930s in Britain (Joseph Maslen).