Section: Staff Profiles

Jonathan Hearn

Name
Dr Jonathan Hearn
Title
Deputy Head of School
Organisation
Sociology, School of Social and Political Science
University of Edinburgh
Address
6.29 Chrystal Macmillan Building 15a George Square Edinburgh UK EH8 9LD
Telephone
+44 (0)131 650 4242
E-Mail
Research Interests
Power (domination, authority, legitimacy),Nationalism and National Identity,Macrosociology and Social Change,Liberal Society,Scottish Society
URL
http://www.sociology.ed.ac.uk/staff_profiles/hearn_jonathan
Jonathan Hearn

Office Hours

Thursdays 3:00-5:00, within semesters

Research

I am a political and historical sociologist, broadly interested in how we conceptualise and theorise power, its role in society, and associated long-term patterns of historical and social change.  I am also particularly interested in the nature of liberal society, its emergence and fate.  Much of my work is on nationalism and national identity, with particular interest in liberal or civic forms of nationalism, as in Scotland.  I have done ethnographically based empirical research on devolution politics in Scotland, and the role of national identities in a changing Scottish financial sector.  Recently I have been completing a new book on theories of power. Current interests/writing projects include: the impact of the financial crisis on the legitimacy of the financial sector; the emergence of modern competition as an organising idea/ritual of society; the ideology of armed citizenry in the US; and the relationship between nationalism, identity, and biography. 

Publications

Books

Rethinking Nationalism: A Critical Introduction, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

Claiming Scotland: National Identity and Liberal Culture, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2000.

Recent articles and chapters

‘The Strength of Weak Legitimacy: a Cultural Analysis of Legitimacy in Capitalist, Liberal, Democratic Nation-States’, Journal of Political Power 4(2): 199-216, 2011.

'Global Crisis, National Blame' in Nations and Globalisation: Conflicting or Complimentary? D. Halikiopoulou and S. Vasilopoulou (eds), London: Routledge, 2011.

‘Domination' article in Sage Encyclopaedia of Power, K. Dowding (ed), London: Sage, 2011.

‘Small Fortunes: Nationalism, Capitalism and Changing Identities’, in National, Identity, Nationalism and Constitutional Change, F. Bechhofer and D. McCrone (eds) Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2009.

'The Origins of Modern Nationalism in the North Atlantic Interaction Sphere', Sociological Research Online 14:5, 2009.

‘What’s Wrong with Domination?’, Journal of Power 1(1): 37-49, 2008.

‘National Identity: Banal, Personal, and Embedded’, Nations and Nationalism13(4): 657-674, 2007. 

Teaching and Supervision

Courses

  • Theories and Theorists in Nationalism Studies (PG)
  • Comparative Perspectives in Nationalism Studies (PG)
  • Key Debates in Global and International Sociology (PG)
  • Power: Conceptualising, Theorising, Investigating (PG)
  • Theories of Power (UG honours)
  • Historical Perspective and Social Change (unit in Sociology 2, UG pre-honours)

Supervision: I enjoy supervising Ph.Ds, MSc dissertations, and honours projects, on topics related to my research and teaching interests above, although I am happy to consider supervision beyond this, where appropriate.  I am best suited to supervising work using ethnographic, historical, comparative and qualitative methods, and work concerned with problems of theorisation.

Current Administrative Roles

  • Programme Director, MSc in Global and International Sociology
  • Co-opted member, University Teaching and Learning Committee
  • Associate Director, Institute of Governance
  • Sociology Rep., Undergraduate Board of Studies (SPS)

Biographical Note and Qualifications

I attended a radically experimental primary and secondary school in Austin, Texas, modeled on the educational philosophies of A. S. Neill and John Holt.  The School was not accredited by the Texas State Board of Schools and could not award diplomas, so I obtained a 'General Equivalency Diploma'.  During the late 1970s and early 1980s I concentrated on music (guitar, songwriting, composing), working and recording with theatrical groups, modern dance troupes, and several bands in Austin.  In 1986 I turned to undergraduate studies in earnest, earning a BA (1989) in Social Studies, with a concentration in Anthropology, at Bard College.  From there I went to do a Ph.D. (1997) in Cultural Anthropology at the City University of New York, earning an MA en route.  While working on my Ph.D. I taught as an adjunct at several colleges in New York City.  After completing my Ph.D. I taught briefly part-time at the New School for Social Research, and had a post-doc from the Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research in 1998.  I began a joint post in Sociology and Politics at the University of Edinburgh in Autumn 1998, and moved entirely into Sociology three years later.  I continue to play music in my spare time. 











Topics interested in supervising

I am interested in four broad areas: (1) the dynamics of social power (domination, authority, legitimacy) in a variety of social contexts; (2) issues in nationalism and national identity; (3) macrosociology, social evolution and social change; (4) the nature and dynamics of liberal society. More specific topics of recent interest, connected to the above, include: competition, the public/private dichotomy, banking and the economic crisis.

If you are interested in being supervised by Jonathan Hearn, please see the links below for more information:

PhD in Sociology

This page was published on 18 January 2012


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