Event overview
020 7919 7707
Ken Plummer On Narrative
Human beings are narrating animals and the societies they create are homes for their stories. We create, appreciate and live stories all our lives; and we need stories in order to live. Although stories and narrative are often neglected in the orthodoxies of social analysis, they are usually critical to every stage of the human social research process. In the broadest terms we study the stories that people tell; we connect these stories to the wider stories of the world; and we ultimately represent them as our ‘social science stories’ – in theses, articles & books (and sometimes more startlingly in films, photos, media, conferences, exhibitions). Narrative and story telling also crucially places a critical role in shaping personal lives, political change and ethical choices. In this presentation, I will ponder a number of story images that enable us to think more clearly about the role of stories in our research and lives drawing from my own researches and experiences as both a gay man and a transplant person.
Ken Plummer taught at the University of Essex from 1975-2006 and ran the introductory first year sociology course for 18 years. He has written some ten books and over 100 articles on gay life, human rights, symbolic interactionism, life stories, intimacies, global inequalities, critical humanism, queer theory, studies of sexualities, masculinity and the body. Most recently he has been writing about the experiences of transplant surgery – which saved his life in 2007. His manifesto of critical humanism can be found in Documents of Life: An Invitation to a Critical Humanism (2001, 2nd ed). He was the founder and editor of the journal Sexualities. His most recent books are Intimate Citizenship (2003) and Sociology: The Basics (2010), and he has just published the 5th edition of his text book with John Macionis (Sociology: A Global Introduction). He is now an Emeritus Professor.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 17 Nov 2011 | 5:00pm - 7:00pm |
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