This essay was my first ever at the University of Sheffield. In it, I analyse consumerism using Goffman's interaction order, then loop this in with Marx, Veblen and Bourdieu, all of which I argue are "instances of Goffmanian macrosociology". Final grade was first class honours, word limit 1,500. -/- Ideas expressed in this essay have since turning into a separate paper I am working in which I present a Bourdieusien-Goffmanian Relativity theory of Interaction. This paper misses out later ideas I (...) developed around Veblen-Goffman analysis, particularly with regards to Veblen's theory of emulation and the concept of Veblen goods both being fundamentally proto-Goffmanian. (shrink)

In this essay, I analyse Howard S. Becker's labelling theory, using Wittgenstein and Foucault to argue that it has significant explanatory power in describing what I term "the hegemonic power of the label". Much of this essay hints at my general thought with regards hegemony at the level of interaction and language. Final grade was first class honours, 2,000 word limit. -/- The ideas expressed herein have matured significantly since. I am working on a quantitative study with my University to (...) analyse the ability of Becker's labelling theory (plus some ideas of my own) to explain the exact process of the social construction of age. I am also working on a revision of the theory of hegemony, of which includes analysis of hegemony at an interactive/linguistic level, which is heavily influenced by Becker's and Wittgenstein's thought. (shrink)

This is an outline to my paper attempting to develop a full theory of hegemony. I deal with hegemony both at the micro and the macro in this paper. Highly influenced by Goffman, Gramsci and Wittgenstein. -/- This will be the first of many paper outlines over the coming months as I move closer towards publication.

This is a draft and much shortened version of one of my most abstract and ambition works hitherto. It is deeply theoretical and extremely influenced by Wittgenstein. It is named after his Tractatus as a tribute. -/- In the parts of the work in this draft I attempt to map out the meanings of social propositions and how the social world and metasociology itself forms out of them. I also briefly introduce my Wittgensteinian Equivalence Theory in this work, but the (...) the version presented herein is simplified as it was applied only to the nature of social propositions. -/- Much of this work is liable to significant change in the future, and I do not expect to finish it until much later into my 20s. (shrink)

Wittgenstein's farcical clash with literary critic F. R. Leavis over the analysis of Empson's poem "Legal Fiction" is well known to devotees of Wittgenstein's life (Ludwig Wittgenstein: Personal Recollections (1981), edited by Rush Rhees, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 80). Less well known is the value of studying Empson's artistic and intellectual achievement as part of the wider cultural background for the appreciation of Wittgenstein's views and influence, early and late. This talk sketches some diverting byways awaiting further exploration. A (...) recurrent theme is contradiction. (shrink)