SSPSSR Emeritus Professor of Sociology Larry Ray has been awarded the 2021 Cultural Sociology SAGE Prize for Innovation and Excellence by the British Sociological Association (BSA).
Professor Ray’s article on ‘Social Theory, Photography and the Visual Aesthetic of Cultural Modernity’ has been recognised by the BSA for taking cultural sociology in new and distinctive directions. Published last year in the BSA journal Cultural Sociology, Professor Ray’s article is now available for a period of free electronic access.
Article abstract:
“Social theory and photographic aesthetics both engage with issues of representation, realism and validity, having crossed paths in theoretical and methodological controversies. This discussion begins with reflections on the realism debate in photography, arguing that beyond the polar positions of realism and constructivism the photographic image is essentially ambivalent, reflecting the ways in which it is situated within cultural modernity. The discussion draws critically on Simmel’s sociology of the visual to elucidate these issues and compares his concept of social forms and their development with the emergence of the photograph. Several dimensions of ambivalence are elaborated with reference to the politics and aesthetics socially engaged photography in the first half of the 20th century. It presents a case for the autonomy of the photographic as a social form that nonetheless has the potential to point beyond reality to immanent possibilities. The discussion exemplifies the processes of aesthetic formation with reference to the ‘New Vision’ artwork of László Moholy-Nagy and the social realism of Edith Tudor Hart.”
Read the paper in full on the Sage Journals website
SSPSSR’s Director of Research, Professor Carolyin Pedwell, said: ‘I am delighted that Professor’s Ray’s outstanding work on photography, social theory and cultural modernity has been recognised with the award of the 2021 Sage Prize. This is a wonderful personal achievement, which also speaks to the ongoing strength and innovative nature of cultural sociology scholarhship in the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research at Kent.’
Professor Ray writes on violence, inequality and photography. At the Univeristy of Kent, he was Head of the Department of Sociology from 1999 – 2001, and Sub-Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences from 2009 – 2011.
Professor Ray’s main research interests are sociological theory, postcommunism, the sociology of violence, Jewish studies and visual sociology. He has worked in recent years on the political philosophy of Hannah Arendt, the challenge to social science explanations of violence from neuroscience, and the sociology of Jewish identity and culture. He has also worked with Dr Sławomir Kapralski on Disputed Holocaust Memory in Poland, which is the subject of a special issue of the Journal of Holocaust Studies. In addition to photography, sociology and visual modernity, he is currently working on disputed Holocaust memory in current European culture wars.
The British Sociological Association
Founded in 1951, the BSA is the national subject association for sociologists in the UK. The SAGE Prize for Innovation and Excellence is awarded annually to one paper in each of the BSA’s prestigious journals: Cultural Sociology, Sociological Research Online, Sociology and Work, Employment and Society.