"If liquid modern life is rubbish, what should we do about it? Sociological fragments": Faculty Inaugural Lecture by Prof. Mark Davis

Join us at the seventh lecture in the Faculty of Social Sciences Inaugural Lecture Series!

We are delighted to announce that the second lecture in the 2024-25 Faculty Inaugural Lecture Series will be given by Professor Mark Davis from the School of Sociology and Social Policy.

Professor Davis is a Professor of Economic Sociology whose research applies sociological theory to grand challenge questions of sustainability and climate change. His area of expertise covers Economic Sociology, Crowdfunding, Ethical Consumerism, Sociological Theory, Sustainability and Climate Change. He has founded The Bauman Institute at the University, and co-created Local Climate Bonds – a new model of investment-based crowdfunding to help finance place-based net-zero infrastructure.

The Lecture

If liquid modern life is rubbish, what should we do about it? Sociological fragments

Abstract

As the world aptly described by Zygmunt Bauman as ‘liquid modern’ continues to dissolve around us, how should sociology respond in a way that avoids its habitual role of grumbling from the sidelines? If liquid modern life really is rubbish, then what should we do about it? In his inaugural lecture, Professor Davis recounts how his encounters with Bauman’s work – in particular, steadfastly refusing to accept that ‘there is no alternative’ to our present ‘polycrisis’ – has resulted in his own adventures into the possibilities of alternatives. Mark will trace his time hanging out with the UK crowdfunding movement; (*not) debating prosumerism all around Europe; and more recently exploring the social relations of energy retrofit. In this way, Mark seeks to demonstrate how the enduring application of theory to substantive problem offers hope in demonstrating that a purposeful sociology can exercise an activating presence on the future direction of human societies.

We would like to welcome everyone – be they colleagues, postgraduate researchers, students, alumni or visitors – to this lecture celebrating the achievement and research contributions of Professor Davis.

The lecture will take place on Thursday 13 March 2025 at 17:00 at the University of Leeds in William Bragg LT (2.37). The lecture will take place from 17:00-18:00 including introductions and a Q&A session, after which there will be a drinks reception. 

To register your attendance at this lecture, please complete this short registration form.

If you have any queries about this lecture, or about the series, please direct them via email to Izzy Jenkinson (Faculty Events Coordinator) at I.K.S.Jenkinson@leeds.ac.uk.