Professor Thomas Osborne

BA (Oxford), MSc (London School of Economics), PhD (Brunel)

Office: 3G1, 12 Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1UQ, UK
Tel: 01179 288818
Email: thomas.osborne@bris.ac.uk

Research Interests

Social theory, especially in relation to the work of Michel Foucault; governance and governmentality; intellectual history and the sociology of ideational change; sociology of intellectuals; aesthetic theory; the aesthetics of nature; sociology of art and literature.

Current Research

Aesthetic theory in the work of Michel Foucault; aesthetics of suicide; literary culture and English nationhood.

Current Teaching

Undergraduate

Key Social Thinkers

Recent Publications

(2008) 'Populating Sociology: Carr-Saunders and the problem of population,' Sociological Review (56) 4, 552-575 (with Nikolas Rose)

(2008) 'Introduction: British Sociology, some critical reflections,' Sociological Review (56) 4, 519-534 (with Nikolas Rose and Mike Savage)

(2008) The Structure of Modern Cultural Theory, Manchester University Press

(2007) 'What is a Problem?'  In G. Iwele, L. Kerr and V. Mudimbe, eds, The Normal and its Orders, Ottawa: Malaika

(2006) 'Polarities of Englishness: Larkin, Hughes and national culture,' Critical Quarterly (481) 1, 43-67

(2005) 'Aesthetics of Suicide,' Economy and Society (34) 1 [Special issue ed. C. Edwards and T. Osborne on Scenographies of Suicide]

(2004) 'On Mediators: intellectuals and the ideas trade in the knowledge society,' Economy and Society (33), 4, 430-447 [Special issue on The Dynamics of Ideas]