Dr Alex Dennis
BSc (Hons), MA, PhD
Department of Sociological Studies
Lecturer in Sociology
BA Sociology Programme Leader
Foundation Year Liaison
+44 114 222 6448
Full contact details
Department of Sociological Studies
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH
- Profile
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Alex joined the Department of Sociological Studies in 2012 having previously worked at the University of Salford. He took his PhD at the University of Manchester between 1996 and 1999, investigating complex decision-making and accountability in an organisational context. He is an ethnomethodologist, but teaches, supervises and researches across the broader fields of the sociology of interaction and theories of social order.
- Research interests
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Alex is currently working on a book on theories of rationality, a paper on ‘hearing things legally’, and a grant application to examine situated and contingent ethics in fieldwork practice (with colleagues from Geography, Education and East Asian Studies). Most of his work is collaborative.
Research Interests:
- Ethnomethodology and conversation(al) analysis
- Ethnographic method and methodology
- Workplace studies
- Social interaction
- Theories of social order
- Publications
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Books
- Human agents and social structures.
- Introduction: The opposition of structure and agency.
- Magic, Science and Society. Routledge.
- Making Decisions about People. Routledge.
- Perspectives in Sociology. Routledge.
Journal articles
- emporal and moral orders of social work intervention: The accomplishment of relationship work in a case of physical abuse. Qualitative Social Work. View this article in WRRO
- Zande magic and the Dawkins delusion. Ethnographic Studies, 16, 202-224. View this article in WRRO
- The influence of ‘topic and resource’ on some aspects of social theorising. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour. View this article in WRRO
- The strange survival and apparent resurgence of sociobiology. History of the Human Sciences, 31(1), 19-35. View this article in WRRO
- Having your say: The social organisation of online news commentary. Sociological Research Online, 18(2).
- Framing the riots. Capital and Class, 36(3), 375-381.
- Symbolic interactionism and ethnomethodology. Symbolic Interaction, 34(3), 349-356.
- That We Obey Rules Blindly Does Not Mean that We Are Blindly Subservient to Rules. Theory, Culture & Society, 25(2), 33-50.
- Symbolic Interactionism and the Concept of Social Structure. Sociological Focus, 40(3), 287-305.
- Symbolic interactionism and the concept of power.. Br J Sociol, 56(2), 191-213.
- Lynch on Schutz and science: Postanalytic ethnomethodology reconsidered. Theory and Science, 5(1).
- Skepticist Philosophy as Ethnomethodology. Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 33(2), 151-173.
- Sources of support for older people after discharge from hospital: 10 years on. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 33(5), 575-582.
- Reconsidering foundational relationships between ethnography and ethnomethodology and conversation analysis – an introduction. Qualitative Research.
- Secondary ethnographic analysis: Thinking about things. Qualitative Research.
Chapters
- Herbert Blumer, The Interactionist Imagination (pp. 145-167). Palgrave Macmillan UK
- On the reception of Foucault, Human agents and social structures (pp. 117-130).
- Interactionism, Symbolic, International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (pp. 352-356). Elsevier
- Pragmatism and symbolic interactionism In Jarvie IC & Zamora-Bonilla J (Ed.), The Sage Handbook of The Philosophy of Social Sciences (pp. 463-474). Sage Publications Limited
- Structure and agency as the products of dynamic social processes: Marx and modern social theory In Martin PJ & Dennis A (Ed.), Human Agents and Social Structures (pp. 52-67). Manchester University Press
Book reviews
- Work in a Rubber Cage. Symbolic Interaction, 42(4), 726-728.
- The Great Sociological Eye, Then and Now. Symbolic Interaction, 41(3), 415-417.
Conference proceedings papers
- Supporting Doctor-Patient Interaction: Using a Surrogate Application as a Basis for Evaluation.. CHI Conference Companion (pp 223-224)
- Human agents and social structures.
- Research group
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Alex is a member of the American Sociological Association, and Secretary of its Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis section. He is a founding member of the ‘New Directions in Ethnomethodology’ project, and White Rose lead for the EMCA Doctoral Network. Separate to these he is the membership secretary of the Orwell Society.
- Grants
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2019 White Rose Doctoral Training Centre, to run the ESRC Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis Doctoral Network conference, £2,000
2016 White Rose Doctoral Training Centre, to run the ESRC Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis Doctoral Network conference, £1,500
2013 University of Sheffield Transformation Award, to set up the BioSociety Network, with Paul Martin (PI), Matthias Benzer, Kathy Boxall, Stevie de Saille, Susan Molyneux-Hodgson, Kate Reed, Kate Weiner, Tamara Hervey, Amanda Warren-Jones, Richard Jones, Sandrine Soubes, Vincent Cunliffe and Barry Gibson, £88,400
- Teaching interests
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Alex is particularly interested in supervising and teaching around the sociology of interaction, especially where that involves participation in, and disruption of, practices of everyday life.
- Teaching activities
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SCS1001 The Sociology of Everyday Life
SCS1002 The Sociological Imagination
SCS2001 Sociological Theory and Analysis (with Matthias Benzer)
SCS403 How the World Gets Made
Alex is currently working on a complete revision of the undergraduate programme, but will retain his teaching interests in the new structure. He is particularly interested in the history and development of social theory (social order, not sociologies of conflict), social interaction, organisational sociology, the philosophy of social studies, and ‘everyday life’. He has previously taught at the Universities of Manchester, Leeds, Salford and Huddersfield.
- Professional activities and memberships
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Alex is the editor in chief of the journal Ethnographic Studies, and organises the White Rose meetings of the ESRC-funded EMCA Doctoral Network. He has previously helped organise two IIEMCA conferences and two of the meetings of the ‘New Directions in Ethnomethodology’ network. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (now Advance HE).
- Postgraduate Supervision
Alex has supervised a wide range of topics, including an ethnographic study of cosplay (Adele Mason-Bertrand, with Tom Clark), a semiotic and historical study of ‘manner posters’ in Japan (Chris Schimkowsky, with Jamie Coates in East Asian Studies), and an investigation of the politics, aesthetics and uses of digitised music (Sam Aldersley, with Matthias Benzer). He is interested in supervising any topic that focuses on social organisation, social interaction, rationality (broadly conceived) and the irrational, and/or the production of meaning.