BSA Conference@UEL, 2007

Saturday

2007-04-15T15:48:00.000+01:00

Overall, Saturday seemed to be a bit quieter than the other days. But then this could have been purely because of a sense of relief that things seemed to have gone quite well. There was a fair bit of noise for a while at the 40th Birthday party held by the journal Sociology, and the cake disappeared rapidly.

I had reports that one or two sessions weren't as well attended as the papers deserved, but elsewhere rooms were full to overflowing. It's always interesting to see which topics (or which people) attract larger numbers. I'm not sure it's always easy to predict, though.

For the first time this year we put out an invitation to undergraduates to attend on Saturday for a bargain basement fee. I think we had enough takers for this to be worth doing again. I hope the students enjoyed the day.

They certainly got their money's worth in the final panel on the relationship of sociology to public policy. Sue Duncan made some straightforward points about how academics could gain the attention of people in government, and Anthony Giddens recounted his turn from theoretical academic to policy shaper, making a plea along the way for more people to follow in his footsteps. Mike Rustin then made a very lively and impassioned plea for academics not to shirk from bringing 'bad news' to government, and in the course of an argument about the connections between globalisation and capitalism read out the longest quotation from the Communist Manifesto that I've heard in many a year. The following discussion ranged widely across different topics, and I won't attempt to summarise it. Barbara Harrison in the chair managed to allow many people to comment (despite the handicap of having only one roving microphone available) and to close the session in good time.

I won't at this point launch into an Oscar-length thank you to everyone involved, but maybe a special mention should go to the student helpers, some of whom came in at very short notice. Not only were they helpful and friendly, they also used their own initiative to do things unasked.

So it's all over now? Well, sort of. The place has to be cleaned up (not that delegates were particularly untidy), bills have to be paid, the Proceedings have to be sorted out, etc. And preparations are, I'm sure, already underway at Warwick for 2008.

Reactions to Friday?

2007-04-14T12:34:00.000+01:00

I know that, as Chair of the session, I probably have to say it, but I really would do anyway: wasn't Bruno Latour great? Sociologists - in particular British sociologists - have seldom been so charmingly "dissed". Hey, but we can take it. And behind the joking there were some interesting points to chew over.

Generally, things seemed to be settling down on Friday, with a lot of excellent papers being given in sessions that ran prety smoothly - even the few that didn't have formal chairs. Actually I have a theory that presenters police themselves much more ruthlessly than formal chairpeople, although having a chair is probably preferable for the presenter, as it means there are fewer external things to think about.

Cultural Sociology got off to a flying start in the evening. David Inglis - by saying at the start that nothing should come between the delegate and the free drink - lulled us into a false expectation of extreme brevity. However, he didn't really speak for very long and he did give a very clear explanation of what CS is all about, why it's different from existing journals and why it's worth a place on our bookshelves.

The BSA AGM was one of the smoothest pieces of administrative necessity I've seen in a long time. Well done to Gayle, Tom, Geoff, Barbara, Judith and others for getting through the business quickly, informatively, and without ever making us feel we were being railroaded. No doubt the Warwick organisers will have taken note of Tim Strangleman's AOB plea for a more environmentally friendly conference.

I didn't go on either of the walking tours, and I'd love to hear how they went, how many people got lost in the backstreets of the East End, etc.

The guys at the conference bar weren't getting very much business, which was a shame for them as they were nice and friendly. The guys at the pizza van, on the other hand, were extremely pleased at the trade they've been doing. I'm not sure about the ethical implications of the free ice cream Syd got for tipping them off about the conference, though. This could pave the way for massive corruption within sociology if it goes unchecked! In fact it's already spreading. I found myself quite unable to refuse the offer of a voucherless half-pint top-up at the bar (justified by the barman on the grounds that it was less to carry away).

Onward and upward to the final day. I've clearly missed out all sorts of things that went on during Friday. Feel free to fill in the gaps.

How was Thursday?

2007-04-13T09:57:00.000+01:00

Any comments on how the conference went on Thursday? Here are my impressions.

The residences seem basically OK, although there are a couple of things missing, as everything is very new. What about the breakfasts? They're fine for me - cereal, fruit, pain au chocolat, etc. - but not so good for those who want a full cooked breakfast.

The sessions all seemed to be going very well - lots of interesting presentations, and keeping nicely to time. The exhibitions are great, aren't they?

ConfCo (Registration) and the Conference Office are doing a great job. And the venue itself looks like it's working well, helped by the sunshine that lures people outside and stops the atrium from getting crowded at break times. The publishers say they're happy - lots of through traffic.

We'll try to get the lunch tables pulled away from the wall on Friday, which should shorten the queues. It's good that lunch is available for longer than the nominal hour.

IT stuff is mostly working (I think - say if it isn't), except that installing the wireless setup seems to be causing quite a few problems. Sorry about that, but it's only just moving from a testing phase into a full service. Your feedback will be useful for IT Services.

The meal at Yi-Ban was nice, but it was a shame they didn't provide a dessert. Was the magician a hit? It sounded like it, but he didn't get to my table. The atmosphere seemed to be good. Bruno Latour, who comes from a wine-growing family with a long tradition (the Burgundy Latours, not the Bordeaux ones) was suitably dismissive about the quality of the wine, but it seemed to b e going down well enough with those of us who have less dicriminating palates.

The bar at Oscar's - ah. Apologies for the 'raffle tickets'. There was a late change of venue and we couldn't get a new licence in time. Still, on the bright side, how many raffles have you entered where every ticket's a winner?

There are probably all sorts of aspects I've missed out, so feel free to fill in the gaps.

What do you think of the show so far, folks?

2007-04-10T09:21:00.000+01:00

Older readers may have recognised that the title of the previous post, Bring Me Sunshine, was that of the theme tune of British comedy duo Morecambe and Wise (they were big in the 1960s/1970s). The title of the current post was one of Eric Morecambe's catch phrases. Again, I'm tempting fate here, because the standard answer from the audience was a huge cry of "Rubbish!"

Feel free to shout "Rubbish!" or make any other comments about the conference here. I'm intending to create a similar post for each day, but I'm putting this here now in case I'm too busy or I forget.

(Clearly, copyright for this image rests with the BBC. I hope they see it as free advertising rather than copyright theft.)

Bring me sunshine

2007-04-10T09:10:00.000+01:00

Obviously, mentioning this it tempting fate in a major way, and if we have three days of wet, windy, miserable weather it's all going to be my fault - but here goes anyway.

The BBC's five-day weather forecast claims (today - Tuesday - at least) it's going to be sunny in London throughout the conference. The maximum temperature should be around 20 degrees with a light breeze, falling to just above 10 degrees overnight. It could hardly be better.

I just hope there isn't some cosmic balancing mechanism that means if the weather's good everything else will go wrong...

All wirelessed up

2007-04-03T16:15:00.000+01:00

UEL's IT Services staff have been testing out the special conference ID setup and a wireless network for use by delegates. Delegates' IDs can be used at any campus computer, in particular at the lecterns in the session rooms and for general internet access from the PCs on the ground floor of the Business School. It's a couple of hundred metres from the East Building (where most of the sessions are being held) to the Business School, but once you get there you won't have to queue to get on a machine, as there are hundreds of them. Your ID will allow internet access and access to office applications.

The wireless network is being used on a potentially large scale for the first time, but testing has gone well and (famous last words!) it shouldn't crash. Getting connected is apparently going to be easier for people with Centrino-based laptops, but access is also possible for other configurations. In both cases you have to connect to a less secure network, download some software (reputable stuff, from Intel or Cisco), install and configure it, then use your ID to connect to a more secure network. So don't expect to be surfing within seconds. Once you're set up, though, subsequent connections should be much quicker.

Documentation will be provided in the Welcome Packs. (The documentation is also being tested, so there's at least a chance it will be written in plain English.)

"Am I That Name?"

2007-03-27T18:56:00.000+01:00

One of the striking images from the exhibition "Am I That Name? Nomadic Lines in Becoming a Woman Artist" that forms part of this year's BSA Conference.

Artists who contributed to the exhibition will be taking part in a roundtable discussion on Saturday morning (Room EB.G1.62 at 11.30am; the exhibition is in room EB.G.09, directly off the atrium.)

The Programme's off to the Printers

2007-03-24T18:08:00.000Z

It's done, it's been sent off! We've amended, arranged, adjusted, corrected, moved, rearranged and readjusted the conference programme until it's now at the pinnacle of perfection. Well, maybe. Well, actually, probably not absolute perfection. Just as every computer program always has a few more bugs that might be ironed out given a bit more time, there are certainly a few typos lurking deep within the conference programme, and it's not entirely impossible that the odd bit of information is incomplete, incorrect or totally absent. Apologies in advance to anyone affected by our errors and imperfections.

But there shouldn't be too many. (Famous last words!) When the programme went off it was looking pretty good to our (admittedly somewhat dazed and confused) eyes. We think we've managed to take into account all the withdrawals, requests for changes, last-minute information, etc. and we're fairly confident that the amendments list in the Welcome Packs won't be heavier than the programme itself.

It turned out to be a bigger task than we'd anticipated, made more complicated by the need to keep several spreadsheet grids and other documents in harmony, and to ensure that London didn't get (too far) out of sync with Durham. In theory we've always been persuaded of the value of a fully relational database, but we didn't have the skills to develop one quickly enough. Something for next year, perhaps.

Liz at the BSA deserves something special for editing the final document in the midst of a blizzard of corrections and suggestions coming at her from the South.

Now we've just got to sort out one or two (hundred) practical arrangements. We'll get there. Or if not, there's always the option of a quick dash to City Airport and a standby flight to a country without an extradition treaty...

Groundrush

2007-03-01T18:54:00.000Z

That conference that we applied to organise back in Autumn 2005 seemed quite a long way off then. Now it's approaching at a great (and apparently accelerating) rate. Syd says it's like the 'groundrush' feeling you may get as a plane comes in to land. Where did I put my 'Don't Panic!' badge?

At UEL we've been warming up for the main event with a series of seminars designed to increase awareness of, and interest in, the conference. Just recently Roger Burrows (of York University and the ESRC's e-Society Programme) spoke on 'New Cartographies of Knowing Capitalism', about the challenges to empirical sociology posed by a) commercial organisations that integrate transactional databases and geographic information systems and b) web-based 'mashup' sites. He was followed a week later by David Inglis, who came down from Aberdeen to propose (using examples from as far back as ancient Greece and the Roman Empire) that globalisation and global consciousness are phenomena with a much longer history than popularly supposed. Excellent talks, both.

It's going to be quite a big event. At the moment it looks like there are going to be at least 450 people on any one day, and that doesn't count the ones who are going to book late. If the crush gets to be too much, you can always cool off with a swim in the dock. (Actually, that's definitely not recommended by the Health and Safety folks, even though the water does look inviting at times.)

Exhibitions at the Conference

2007-03-01T18:18:00.000Z

Alongside the paper streams, plenaries, roundtables, symposia etc. this year's BSA conference will have a couple of exhibitions. One is a series of photographs on working-class lives, which forms part of the ESRC's Identities and Social Action Programme. The other explores the work and identities of women artists.

The pictures here are taken from a series on cleaners, relating to a project at Queen Mary University of London. You can see more of them at the Cleaners and Cleaning in London site.

Queen gets the date wrong

2007-03-01T17:52:00.000Z

A lady with an extensive entourage and an antipodean wobbleboard wizard turned up at UEL on February 16th, obviously in search of the BSA Conference. However, as they were a couple of months early they had to content themselves with a good look around and some replacement activities.

The Queen officially opened the new Business School/Learning Resources and Knowledge Dock buildings, while her good mate Rolf Harris gave a sketching masterclass to some local kids.

Which sessions do you reckon they'd be most interested in? There are several on art, design and music that might appeal to Rolf. Could his friend be an enthusiast for actor-network theory?

Where it all takes place

2006-12-20T22:17:00.000Z

I've added a link to a map of the area around the UEL campus. Once you've clicked on the link and are looking at the street map, try the 'hybrid' setting, which overlays the street names on a satellite image (taken some time around early Spring 2006, by the looks of it - this may be updated later, of course). You can see the University buildings quite clearly, although more building work has been done since then.

The Yi-Ban restaurant (Conference Dinner on Thursday) and the Premier Travel Inn (alternative accommodation to UEL residences) are at the left (=west) end of the Royal Albert Dock. The Cyprus DLR station is inside, and under, the roundabout directly above the University buildings. If you look very carefully you can see a DLR train just to the west of Cyprus station. The airport runway is of course easier to spot.

If you keep dragging the picture to the right (i.e. so that new scenery comes in from the left) you will eventually get to the ExCel Exhibition Centre, the Dome and Canary Wharf.

What a programme...

2006-12-02T18:12:00.000Z

...we've got for you (as Jonathan Ross might say).

It's considerably bigger than we thought it would be before all those abstracts poured in. There are lots of sessions, either 'ordinary' sets of papers presented in streams (though some of the titles indicate that they are far from ordinary) or special events, roundtables, symposia, etc. And that's all without the exhibitions, meet 'n greets, launches, parties and dinners.

Special mention should go to 'Syd the grid'. We all worked on the spreadsheets, but Syd was the architect and designer. Without the discipline of his grids we might have ended up with many more than the couple of queries we've had since the acceptance letters went out. Only one paper was put in two places (well - only one author has noticed so far...). Thanks to all the other members of the organising group who finished things off so well when I slipped away to a long-arranged meeting.

We've done our best to put papers together in an appropriate way - there are some really nice-looking sessions - and we apologise in advance if we haven't succeeded in all cases. No doubt there will be many amendments once we see who actually registers and turns up. This may force us to put together some odd couplings, but with a bit of sociological imagination and some creativity on the part of session chairs we can hope for serendipity.

Liz, Judith & co at BSA HQ have been doing great work in firming up lots of arrangements, and now that we have a good idea of the overall size of the event we can confirm (and expand!) our provisional room bookings. Now that the programme's more or less ready there are only a million or so details to take care of...

Driven to abstraction

2006-10-20T13:28:00.000+01:00

Well, we've now got a pile of abstracts and I guess there's nothing for it but to get down to reading them. There's also the matter of checking which have been submitted for 'normal' streams and which are part of a symposium, panel, roundtable, study group session, etc. - in theory not a difficult task, but in reality more confusing than it might be. At some stage I'm sure we'll place a paper in 10 different slots and not realise it. We will of course deny all knowledge and force the presenter to give the paper 10 times...

Comments welcome

2006-09-25T13:30:00.000+01:00

If anyone would like to say anything about whether this is a good idea, how it might develop, etc., feel free to add a comment to this post (or to other people's comments).

Do we want to flag events in advance, or should that be left to the official BSA site? It could be quicker and easier to put announcements here, but this would bypass any editorial control, and it looks like posts will be archived at the end of each month, so the blog won't be equally useful for every announcement. (I've since found out how to control how much is displayed on the front page, so posts won't automatically disappear at the end of each month.)

I've just spotted a 'moderate comments' option (moderate as verb rather than noun, I assume). Would we ever want to alter or delete comments? If they were abusive? If they were racist? (Unlikely from BSA members, but anyone can view this if they take the trouble to find it.)

In general, how can we make this a site that people want to look at and participate in?

Entering the Blogosphere

2006-09-22T17:49:00.000+01:00

No sooner said than done. The visitors view as they step off the train at the sunny sounding Cyprus station on the DLR.

First build your venue

2006-09-22T15:15:00.000+01:00

Organising the BSA Conference: first build your venue. (Don't worry - it's all built now. This picture was taken in Feb 2006). Various organisers are given a tour by the UEL Estates manager.

Just a start

2006-09-22T13:58:00.000+01:00

This is a test post to see what the new blog looks like. I don't know yet how it's going to look or what info it's useful to put here (do names get added automatically?), but I'm sure something will appear somewhere and that people - probably just me to begin with - will be able to comment on it.