Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 17/09/2026A great couple of days at the British Academy, hearing about a range of research on various aspects of justice system. 010
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Open paper and panel call deadline 23rd October. Tick tick. #EMCA 043
Reposted by Rob SmithIIEMCA2027 @iiemca27.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Interested in Psychology and #EMCA? Have a look at these #iiemca27 panels. ➡️ Mind, Brain and Conduct in EMCA ➡️ EMCA in and as Psychology: Respecification, Inquiry and Application www.iiemca27.org/calls @interactemca.bsky.social 066
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 29/08/2026Contributed to this piece on queues and mountains. Two of my favourite things (unless I’m actually on a mountain…). www.thegreatoutdoorsmag.com/opinion/queu...thegreatoutdoorsmag.comIs queue-jumping on Snowdon/Yr Wyddfa ever acceptable? Well, yes. I'm a Mountain Rescue volunteer. This is how it's done.In defence of queue-jumping on Yr Wyddfa/Snowdon: insights from a Welsh Mountain Rescue volunteer & ultra-running professor of social order. 180
Reposted by Rob SmithJana Bacevic 🌲🌳✊🏴 @unsocialtheory.bsky.social · 27/08/2026I don't hear any of the AcAdeMIc FReEdOM bros screaming against this blatant - and really, blatant - intervention not only of the state but of a *foreign* state into sovereign matters of a university? 1151
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 26/08/2026If you are working on practice and perception in high-stakes environments - where timely noticings (or, indeed, “missings”) of interactional and environmental significances are highly consequential - do consider submitting a paper to our panel! www.iiemca27.org/calls #iiemca27 #emca 0114
Reposted by Rob SmithJakub Mlynář @jakubmlynar.bsky.social · 21/08/2026Honoured that our article on the Chicago School received the 2026 Melvin Pollner Memorial Prize from the #ASA #EMCA Section. Many thanks to my co-authors @robinjsmith.bsky.social, Terry Au-Yeung, Erik Boström & @phdahlphd.bsky.social, and to colleagues who shared their insights with us. t.ly/9A-yH 5184
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 17/07/2026Loving the Panel Lead/Co-Lead musical chairs on IIEMCA submission day…! Sounds like there are some fantastic panels being put together, so look out for calls down the line. And there’s the open paper call coming up in September. Hope to see lots of you in Jo’burg next year! #EMCA #IIEMCA27 171
Reposted by Rob SmithMargot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 27/06/2026'What is perhaps remarkable about the Exeter cuts is that they are targeted at some of the university’s most successful departments, many of which turn over a profit even after they have made enormous and increasing contributions to the central university budget.' Read, rage and weep.johnheathershaw.substack.comThe Crisis in Britain’s UniversitiesThe cuts that have been proposed at the University of Exeter demonstrates the crisis of purpose in Britain’s universities. Should not universities also be places to prepare for "eternal dwellings"? 10307179
Reposted by Rob SmithNatasha Shrikant @natshri.bsky.social · 16/06/2026Finally recovered from ICA Cape Town! Hosted an awesome pre-conference on discourses of racial inequality and presented my and @francescaorfw.bsky.social book about what @ica-lsi.bsky.social can bring to studies of race and communication! A link to the book!: www.peterlang.com/document/131... 2116
Reposted by Rob SmithDr Yuchen Yang @dr-yang.bsky.social · 16/06/2026My article "Gender Uptake: Theorizing the Semiotics of (Un)Doing Gender" received the Outstanding Article Award from the SSSP Gender, Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities Division AND an Honorable Mention for the Best Paper Award from the ASA Ethnomethodology & Conversation Analysis Section! 🥳 291
Reposted by Rob SmithMusa Okwonga @okwonga.bsky.social · 05/06/2026What Reform have successfully done is to make the floor of open racism in England much higher than I have seen it in several years. I don’t know what their peak will be but they have normalised something that I haven’t seen here since the mid-1990s, and that is already dangerous enough. 317352
Reposted by Rob SmithPhil Hutchinson @philhutchinson.bsky.social · 02/06/2026This was a great event. Excellent papers and discussions in the most amazing setting. Another fine entry in the annual New Developments in Ethnomethodology series. Thanks to the organisers! To Joburg in 2027. 141
Reposted by Rob Smith😶 stuart reeves 😶 @5tuartreeves.bsky.social · 01/06/2026🎉 my employer in the news 🎉 1. narrative being peddled by the university mgmt - "do nothing" vs "do our cuts" - is a false choice that rests on (ahem) "unusual" modelling reverse engineered from surplus targets 2. they need better PR people ("DISAPPOINTED!" youtu.be/y6EDlD_fWn0?...)youtu.beHercules - DISAPPOINTED! (High Quality)YouTube video by OddTomato 051
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 01/06/2026This really was great! So much to think about and so lovely to catch up with EM folk. 020
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 23/05/2026Easily the most intense rescue I’ve been involved in… Called to a Casualty hanging inverted from top of cliff after falling and left leg catching a tree root. Amazing teamwork from all Central Brecon MRT colleagues to secure, lower, treat, and evacuate. #EMCA #Fieldwork #MountainRescue 191
Reposted by Rob SmithAnders Vassenden @andersvassenden.bsky.social · 22/05/2026Just out! Very happy with this one. Combines Goffman and Collins to push interaction ritual theory forward. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...journals.sagepub.comBetween Two Rituals: Face and Effervescence as Moments of Social Life - Anders Vassenden, Nicholas Hoynes, Taylor Price, Iddo Tavory, 2026Many of the social outcomes and patterns located at the very center of sociological inquiry are grounded in interaction ritual dynamics. Yet, while broadly used... 132
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 22/05/2026Ah - but the real magic happens when the post-it notes get stuck to a piece of A3, and five bits of be-post-it-noted A3 are blu-tacked to a whiteboard, and then people stick stars on them. 131
Reposted by Rob Smith😶 stuart reeves 😶 @5tuartreeves.bsky.social · 20/05/2026we're just doing ELIZA again and again it makes the ACM decision to generate "podcasts for papers" look even more stupid 051
Reposted by Rob SmithJill Walker Rettberg @jilltxt.bsky.social · 20/05/2026Here’s a video from the same podcast as linked in my previous post where you can hear the audio too. I love this because it really lays bare how LLMs fool us - but really they’re just slotting words into linguistic patterns that we’re familiar with. Genres like a podcast or LinkedIn post. 21935316
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 20/05/2026A paper on Simmel and Ethnomethodology as non-dualist approaches to foundational issues of subjectivity/objectivity, practice, and social order. With Chiara Bassetti, Erik Boström, Ken Liberman, @jakubmlynar.bsky.social and @dirkvl.bsky.social #EMCA #Sociology link.springer.com/article/10.1...link.springer.comSimmel and Ethnomethodology: Foundational Sociological Issues from a Nondualist Perspective - The American SociologistGeorg Simmel, despite being a founding father of sociology, is often excluded from the list of the discipline’s principal founders. This neglect of Simmel’s work was perpetuated in ethnomethodology ev... 0154
Reposted by Rob SmithMiriam Posner @miriamposner.com · 29/04/2026Ah. www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-in... 34724
Reposted by Rob SmithDes Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 20/04/2026Of four free speech cases highlighted here, fully three of them concern self-described "gender critical" academics, while the fourth is a guy opposed to BLM and the concept of strutural racism - if anyone is in doubt about that this is for. www.bbc.com/news/article...bbc.comNew university free speech complaints system to come into force this yearUniversities could face fines of £500,000 or 2% of their income if they are found to have failed to protect free speech. 0136
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 19/04/2026The worldliness of EM phenomena is reintroduced to me as I update a lecture on instructed action. My wife calls up from downstairs. She has all the parts of the IKEA cabinet, but their order is elusive. She can’t find the hammer. I muse on instructions in the midst of making the bloody thing. #EMCA 1101
Reposted by Rob Smith𝚈𝚊𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚐 𝚇𝚒𝚎 謝雅戎 @xyarong.bsky.social · 17/04/2026⏳ Tick tock, tick tock… 2 weeks left to submit to this special issue. @suewiddicombe.bsky.social and I are looking forward to contributions that engage with the theme and push the conversation forward. If it’s on your list, now’s the time to get it over the line 👇 Spread the word! 162
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 16/04/2026Out today! A great collection of studies of the organisation of the senses in interaction. Our chapter looks at visual and haptic aspect shifts in an orienteering race. Plenty of other settings and sensings to be found within! #emca #interactionism #sociology www.routledge.com/Sensing-Life...routledge.comSensing Life: The Social Organisation of the Senses in InteractionThis book showcases the critical contribution that scholarship in the field of social interaction can make to the study of the senses. Centred on an understanding of the senses as interactionally conf... 1197
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 09/04/2026First time back at the BSA conference in a long while to speak on a panel launching this lovely collection of walking essays. I’ll be speaking briefly on walking as organised practice of care in the search for missing persons. 1600 in room 4.206. @britsoci.bsky.social #sociology #britsoc26 0120
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 31/03/2026Applications for the ESRC WGSSS postdoctoral Fellowship are now open. If you have recently completed a PhD in the U.K. and are interested in coming to Cardiff to work with me and the small, but lively and lovely, CEEIT research group, do get in touch. wgsss.ac.uk/fellowships/ #EMCA #Ethnographywgsss.ac.ukPostdoctoral Fellowships – Welsh Graduate School for the Social Sciences 033
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 29/03/2026Such a good couple of days of talking through different approaches to language and interaction in Macau. Highlights were learning about developments in Chinese social and digital media, and drawing from an abundance of positive energy from a special bunch of local and Hong Kong PhDs. #EMCA 0161
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 24/03/2026And on to Macau for a workshop on EM/CA, discourse, and ethnography. #EMCA 1110
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 24/03/2026Two days of data sessions and dim sum in Hong Kong. 050
Reposted by Rob SmithJakub Mlynář @jakubmlynar.bsky.social · 14/03/2026Many thanks to Andrew Carlin and Marek Czyżewski for inviting me to contribute to the special issue of Przegląd Socjologiczny dedicated to the work of Harvey Sacks. Special issue - part 1: t.ly/GLUVh Special issue - part 2: t.ly/ZI7mP My paper: t.ly/-O1ei #EMCA #HarveySacks #Sociology 094
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 17/02/2026The cracks are where the light gets in, and shines out. 020
Reposted by Rob SmithPhil Hutchinson @philhutchinson.bsky.social · 16/02/2026Loreen Chikwira of the Kings Fund & I wrote this protocol paper for using Praxeological Analysis and Critical Praxeological Analysis: www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...frontiersin.orgFrontiers | Praxeological analysis (PA/CPA) for stigma, health inequalities, and coercion in women’s servicesThis paper sets out a practical, interview-free protocol for studying how stigma, inequalities, and restrictive practices are done in women’s mental health, ... 021
Reposted by Rob SmithElizabeth Stokoe @lizstokoe.bsky.social · 20/01/2026Hello #EMCA community! There's been another Bluesky influx - to find #ConversationAnalysis #DiscursivePsychology #MCA #Ethnomethodology use these Starter Packs. Let me know if you'd like to be added (check you're not there first) and repost this! 1. go.bsky.app/DHMkXcX 2. go.bsky.app/6p8x2UZ 32819
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 13/01/2026We need a Strava-like app for marking season motivation. Kudos! You’ve marked five essays! Elapsed time: 90mins Grade Adjusted Pace: 3 hours Calories burned/consumed: +300 Recovery time: 1hr 130
Reposted by Rob SmithLiesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 10/01/2026Three short paragraphs, and you've got the whole mind-bending mess that is #UKHE finance & governance neatly laid out. This is why it's all so exhausting: our managers declare there's only one static frame, while we know their framing is part of the issue. 💡 www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/01/10/w... 411152
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 07/01/2026Website and call for papers for the 2026 EUSSSI conference launched. As reflected in the Symbolic Interaction journal and CfP, welcoming of work in EM/CA related to conference theme. #symbolicinteraction #groundedtheory #emca www.sv.uio.no/iss/english/...sv.uio.noEuropean Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction Oslo 2026 - Department of Sociology and Human GeographyThe annual conference of the European Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction will take place from June 16th - June 19th in beautiful Oslo, Norway. This is the main European conference designed ... 042
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 19/12/2025Just published. My chapter is based on resolving the three complaints of the novice fieldworker. “I didn’t know what to write because”: 1) no one was doing anything! 2) people were doing too much! 3) I didn’t know what to call the thing I was seeing! tinyurl.com/5n7w84hk #ethnography #emcatinyurl.comTeaching Research Methods in SociologyProviding both theoretical and practical strategies for developing engaging and innovative approaches to teaching, expert instructors share their insights into teaching about important topics in the s... 2220
Reposted by Rob SmithDes Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 15/12/2025Delighted to receive this in the post - 'Bigfooters and Scientific Inquiry' by @drjamielewis.bsky.social and Andy Bartlett. This book is in the finest STS tradition of showing how an apparently marginal or obscure scientific practice opens up an entire epistemological world. 1214925
Reposted by Rob SmithRyan Boyd @ryanboyd.bsky.social · 12/12/2025There isn't a single problem "solved" by edtech that couldn't be fixed with smaller classes led by well-paid teachers given real academic freedom 1055651587
Reposted by Rob SmithSSSI & SI Journal @sijournal.bsky.social · 11/12/2025Symbolic Interaction, Vol.48 No4 is out - it's a special issue on "The (Re)Production and Navigation of Social Asymmetries‐in‐Action" co-edited by Catherine L. Tam @cathtam.bsky.social & Robin James Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social congratulations, both co-editors and authors #sssi #emca #interaction 082
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 11/12/2025“Every single moment is implicated in all of time” A real treat, as usual, to welcome Barbara Adam back to Cardiff. Essential ideas for thinking open futures. 110
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 08/12/2025As a result of working through my degree and some of my postgraduate, I can size a suit for someone by eye, measure and pin for tailoring, and know how to measure for a kilt. Should have written about it. The ethnography would’ve been called Measurement and Method… 0101
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 07/12/2025Among our growing list of “other duties” in our job spec, it seems we’re now supposed to be part of the marketing department. We understand the shifting recruitment landscape, but it’s yet another problem we’re expected to solve by ourselves. Not to mention the risks that come with the exposure. 020
Reposted by Rob SmithMatthew Hodson @matthewhodson.bsky.social · 05/12/20252.5 million people with HIV have lost access to life-saving treatment as a result of Trump’s cuts to the global HIV programme. It’s estimated that this has already resulted in an additional 100,000 AIDS deaths this year. 56126
Reposted by Rob SmithMaxwell Modell @maxwellmodell.bsky.social · 05/12/2025Awesome talk from Dr Patricia Jimenez at the EMCA Doctoral Network. Patricia did an amazing job at penetrating the question of why we do membership categorisation analysis and how it can help us understand members' situated sense-making practices. Great data on classrooms and lay definitions of AI 041
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 04/12/2025Dr Patricia Jimenez presenting on the uses and troubles with MCA across her projects on members’ sense-making practices. Questions of producing adequate descriptions of occasioned patternings of categorial orders. #EMCA #MCA 0142
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 02/12/2025All set for three days of Intro to MCA (sponsored by the WGSSS) and a meeting of the EMCA Doctoral Network. Huge thanks to Patrik Dahl for his organisational prowess. Schedule includes bonus pun for the MCA heads. #EMCA #MCA 2161
Rob Smith @robinjsmith.bsky.social · 02/12/2025A great write up on the life and liveliness of the “Manchester” EM Reading Group. As Phil says, it’s rare to find space to really talk and think in modern academia. I don’t get to go as often as I’d like, but like any favourite place that one has, knowing it’s there makes things a little better. 041