Just announced: I'm being given the International Sociological Association's Award for Excellence in Research and Practice. This award is given once every 4 years; it's a great honour. My thanks to the ISA! And to the many, many colleagues & friends I have worked with, over the years.
The social science I value is engaged in the world, it doesn't watch from a distance. It's empirical and utopian. It's willing to explore questions ranging from personal life to global empire. It doesn't flinch from issues of violence and power. But it also asks how new and better possibilities emerge.
As I argue in The Good University, intellectual work needs co-operation. I've been privileged to work with many people on problems that truly matter. Decoding the multiple forms of inequality, and building a postcolonial social science, are steps towards a just and sustainable world.
