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Owen Abbott’s book ‘Social Theorists of Morality: Essays on Moral Agency’ https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-75181-3

From the back page:

This book provides an interdisciplinary series of essays on key social theorists of morality. It explores contributions to social moral theorising made by W. E. B. Du Bois, G. H. Mead, Jane Addams, Alasdair MacIntyre, Carol Gilligan, Seyla Benhabib, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and Jonathan Haidt. It thus seeks to integrate alternative voices at the “foundations” of sociological theorising about morality, while entering into dialogues with post-Enlightenment moral philosophy and contemporary moral psychology. In so doing, it engages with perspectives of pragmatism, virtue ethics, care ethics, feminist critiques, and moral foundations theory. The essays discuss key topics in social theories of morality, including moral action, socialisation, habit and reflexiveness, relationships, emotion, self, identity, racism and colonialism, universalism, and innateness. It centres crucial (but often overlooked) questions of moral power, and assesses the relationship between moral theorising and normative argument. The essays are conjoined by a running theme of moral agency—how it is constituted and how it is enacted—which orientates the book’s arguments and critiques.

“Owen Abbott’s Social Theorists of Morality is an excellent and much-needed work. His insightful account of morality goes beyond the standard theory canon and exploits synergies among sociological, psychological, and philosophical approaches. This is a must-read book for sociologists of morality, but also for sociological theorists, sociologists of culture, and social psychologists.”―Gabriel Abend, Professor of Sociology, University of Lucerne

“This is book is a tour de force. Focusing on a range of key thinkers, including neglected and marginalised voices, Abbott sets out key themes in the social theory of morality to establish what a properly ‘social’ account of morality requires. The clarity, breadth and depth of the analysis is remarkable.”― Wendy Bottero, Professor of Sociology, University of Manchester

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/454066/animals-robots-gods-by-keane-webb/9780241613207

From the back page:

We have always lived with ethically significant others, whether they are the pets we keep, the gods we believe in or the machines we are endowing with life. How should we treat them as our world changes? In Animals, Robots, Gods, acclaimed anthropologist Webb Keane provides a new vision of ethics, defined less by our minds, religion or society, and more by our interactions with those around us. Drawing on ground-breaking research by fieldworkers around the world, he explores the underpinnings of our moral universe. Along the way we investigate the ethical dilemmas of South Asian animal rights activists, Balinese cockfighters, Japanese robot fanciers – even macho cowboys. We meet a hunter in the Yukon who explains his prey generously gives itself up to him; a cancer sufferer in Thailand who sees his tumour as a reincarnated ox; a computer that gets you to confess your anxieties as if you were on the psychiatrist’s couch. With charm, wit and insight, Keane offers us a better understanding of our doubts and certainties, showing how centuries of conversations between us and non-humans inform our conceptions of morality, and will continue to guide us in the age of AI and beyond.

“Webb Keane has a marvellous ability to extend the scope of our moral compass not only to all varieties of human thought but also to the non-human beings with whom we share the biosphere. He is one of the world’s foremost and most thoughtful anthropologists. This book is a must-read, written with wit and clarity”—Professor Dame Caroline Humphrey

“The boundaries of our moral worlds are in flux as we rethink the claims made on us by animals, robots, humans on life-support, and AI. Webb Keane, the most important contemporary anthropologist of language and interaction, brilliantly guides us through the resulting murk. Drawing on research from around the world, and showing how people’s engagements with supernatural figures long ago raised questions of moral standing that we now apply to these other beings, this gracefully written book will make you think productively about your own life in ways you likely never imagined”—Joel Robbins

Just two month ago, Portable Cow crossed the Atlantic for the very first time. Photographer and anthropologist, Liz Hingley, and I, Camille Bellet, joined art historian, Emily K. Morgan, at the Iowa State University School of Design to present some of the findings from my Wellcome Trust-funded research on sensor technologies and human-cow relationships in farming in France and the UK.

Supported by the Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities at Iowa State University, we had the opportunity over a week to engage the Iowa State University and Ames communities in a discussion about human-cow relationships in farming. Through a series of glittering events—including an art exhibition, a symposium, a panel discussion, and interactive sensory workshops—Portable Cow sparked curiosity, even attracting the attention of the local press.

Originally conceived as a miniature exhibition contained within a bespoke 3D-printed box—including objects, archival documents and ethnographic observations I generated during my fieldwork, and Liz’s photographs—Portable Cow was designed to foster engagement and discussion in exhibition and workshop settings. This first exhibition in the United States took Portable Cow out of its box and into a gallery space, inviting visitors to reflect on cow lives, farmers’ experiences, and the human-cow bonds shaped by digital technologies.

Of course, Portable Cow is only just beginning! Liz and I are actively working on unboxing it in France, the UK, and beyond. If you would like to exchange ideas, discuss the project, learn more, or explore the possibility of hosting an exhibition or workshop within your group or institution, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me via email (camille.bellet@manchester.ac.uk). Portable Cow is only at the start of its journey—waiting to be discovered, shared, and to keep evolving.

The 2025 Andrew J Webster lecture

Speaker: Professor Elizabeth Shove, Lancaster University

Date: 17 June 2025

Elizabeth is a Professor of Sociology at Lancaster University, where she researches the relation between consumption, everyday practice and ordinary technologies. The author or editor of twelve books, Elizabeth has a long and distinguished career, and is currently working on her latest book, on which this lecture is based.

Book your place!

AsSIST-UK awards an annual prize for a PhD thesis that demonstrates outstanding quality in the STS/Innovation Studies field in the previous year. The Prize is dedicated to the memory of AsSIST-UK co-founder, Prof. Andrew Webster and in recognition of his unwavering commitment to supporting early career researchers.

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We are delighted to announce that the 2024 Andrew Webster PhD Prize is awarded to:

Dr Benedetta Catanzariti (University of Edinburgh) for her thesis: Seeing Affect: Knowledge Infrastructures in Facial Expression Recognition Systems

Benedetta’s thesis examines affective computing applications and their promise to ‘decode human affective experience’ – in essence, to read the face and its emotions, from frustration to boredom and depression – with scientific objectivity.

The nomination noted how she brings historical context to these practices by grounding them in older psychological theories (including overtly racist ones) and longstanding Western claims that there are universal emotions, and acknowledges an important legacy of critiques of such projects. Benedetta’s thesis, grounded in feminist studies of science and technology, offers empirical data on the current behind-the-scenes work that goes into the classification practices categorising affective behaviours and validating classification choices.

The thesis shows – perhaps surprisingly – that practitioners are well aware of the existing critiques of underlying Facial Expression Recognition theory, but profess agnosticism regarding this; their goal is to operationalise the underlying theory – even if it is flawed – to develop commercial applications in the workplace or healthcare. She argues that while the field claims this agnosticism in the face of critiques, this strategy obscures accountability towards these interpretive and normative decisions, sidestepping the social implications and underpinning origins of these systems. She also shows with impressive detail those instances in the FER process when human interpretation mediates and makes sense of affective data and the normative choices that go into labelling human affect – for instance, the power differentials seen between the different levels of expertise accorded to ‘expert coders’ on the one hand, and ‘lay annotators’ on the other; and how Facial Expression Recognition in the healthcare context reflects normative visions of health, the body and gender.

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We also wish to strongly commend the following graduates for their impressive and novel work:

Dr Vassilis Galanow (University of Edinburgh): Expectations and Expertise in Artificial Intelligence
Commendation: “An outstanding piece of research that offers novel insights into the relationships between AI technologists and those involved in AI governance, and which brings together the sociology of expectation and studies of experience and expertise in new ways”        

Dr Louise Elstow (University of Lancaster): Getting the Measure of It: Radiation Knowledge Construction in Japan since 2011
Commendation: “A highly original and in-depth ethnography of the practices through which radiation knowledge is constructed in Japan in the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdown, demonstrating the value of STS concepts and methods to the sociology of disaster and showiung how concepts and methods from STS can translate into the practical and policy work of emergency management professionals”

Congratulations to Benedetta and to Vassilis and Louise.

11am – 6pm | Thursday 5^th September 2024

The Hospitium, Museum Gardens, York

Anton Grabolle / Better Images of AI / AI Architecture / CC-BY 4.0

AsSIST-UK invites PhD students,  early career researchers and others involved in Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (STIS) to join our 2024 Summer School.  We offer a varied programme of interactive sessions to help scholars in the field develop the skills, strategies and contacts needed to build and strengthen their careers.

Sessions include skill development workshops (on publishing papers, writing research proposals etc), meet-a-mentor sessions, networking, panels on how to build your academic career; debate on how STIS scholars sustain their intellectual contribution in today’s dynamic and challenging higher education landscape.

Participation is FREE of charge and refreshments and light lunch are provided.

Reserve your place [registration closes 31st July]: 

SUMMER SCHOOL PROGRAMME
[click here for full updated programme]

11-11.30 Coffee, Welcome, Introductions

11.30-13.00 Session 1: Building your wonderful career

13.00-14.00 Lunch, Meet-A-Mentor

14.00-15.30 Session 2: Skill-sharing panels

15.30-16.00 Coffee Break

16.00-17.30 Session 3: Building an intellectual identity

17.30-18.00 Andrew Webster Prize Award; Wrap up and Networking 

18.30 After the summer school you are invited to join the Annual Public Lecture organised by the University of York, Science and Technology Studies Unit in memory of AsSIST-UK co-founder: Prof Andrew Webster.

Tempest Anderson Hall Museum Street York YO1 7FR
Sign-up separately via Eventbrite

“The organised irresponsibility of artificial intelligence”

Speaker: Professor Jack Stilgoe, University College London
Date: Thursday 5 September 2024
Location: Tempest Anserson Hall, Museum Street, York, YO1 7FR

Prof Jack Stilgoe

As the promises of artificial intelligence attract growing social, political and financial attention, risks and responsibilities are being imagined in ways that serve the interests of a technoscientific elite. In the UK and elsewhere, organisations are starting to institutionalise a mode of governance that presumes to know and take care of public concerns. And new research communities are forming around questions of AI ’safety’ and ‘alignment’. In this talk, I will draw on research into public and expert attitudes and reflect on my role as a proponent, analyst and actor in debates about ‘Responsible AI’. 

Book your free ticket below:

Andrew J Webster Annual Lecture on Science, Technology and Society

To commemorate the life and work of Professor Andrew Webster, the Department of Sociology and SATSU established an annual lecture series that will showcase research in the broadly conceived area of science, technology and society. 

Professor in the Sociology of Science at the University of York since 1999, Andrew was the founder and director of the Science and Technology Studies Unit, which he established originally at Anglia Ruskin University in 1988. 

He was Head of the Department of Sociology at York between 2004-2009 and then the Dean of Social Sciences. He was elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Science in 2007. 

He co-founded the UK Association for the Study of Innovation, Science and Technology (AsSIST-UK).

Read more about Andrew’s career and his huge impact on the academic community and beyond.