Dr Paul Jones

Summary

In 2017 I was 'Sociologist in Residence' at Bluecoat, which is housed in the oldest building in Liverpool city centre - opened in 1717 - and that has serious claims on being the first arts centre in the UK. During this time I delivered a range of taught courses, facilitated reading groups and organised conferences there; the aim was to open up my usual sociological work to a broader public. There's an archive of information about the programme of events and the general idea here: http://www.thebluecoat.org.uk/content/dr-paul-jones-sociologist-in-residence. I had a wonderful time here doing ‘sociology in public’ and am in particular very grateful to Bryan Biggs and Mary Cloake at Bluecoat for organising things and thinking of me, and to everyone who came along to things and contributed so fully.

I am continuing with this 'public' approach to doing sociology, and have collaborations ongoing with the Open Eye gallery (with whom I/we have co-promoted a number of events and collaborated on some teaching provision), Port Sunlight Village Trust (with whom I co-supervise Ronnie Hughes, a PhD researcher), and the architectural firm Harrison Stringfellow, a RIBA Role Model Practice with whom I have much in common with respect to thinking about the built environment and social change.

I am also one of the editors of The Sociological Review (www.thesociologicalreview.com). As part of that role, I have special responsibility for the digital footprint of the journal; we publish a great many blogs, sociological fictions, book reviews, photo essays, and have very active profiles on numerous social media profiles. The point of all this is to help make sociological research connect with public issues, and also to support and showcase early career research.