Profile
Professor Charles Masquelier
Associate Professor (Sociology)
(+44) 01392 722828
Amory 318
My research rests on a core principle, namely that explaining how power relations shape institutions, practices, norms and values making up society is – or at least ought to be – an essential component of sociological research. Sociology is, as I see it, a progressive force in society: one critical of systemic oppression and at the service of envisioning alternative futures.
More specifically, I am interested in rethinking sociological critique so as to maximise its transformative potential. I do so by updating and revising critical theory, probing neoliberal forms of domination, conceptualising collective forms of emancipation and rethinking socialism. I pay particular attention to the relationship between the human and more-than-human world in collective emancipation. I have sought to show, and intend to continue highlighting, the role Cole’s libertarian socialist alternative can be expected to play in breathing new life into socialist thought.
My areas of interests are:
- critical theory (Marxism, Western Marxism, Bourdieu, intersectionality theory)
- social movements (their evolution and potential for large-scale social change)
- emancipation (and the relationship between the human and more-than-human world)
- socialist theory (its different forms – statist vs. libertarian - and contemporary relevance)
- environmental sociology (political economy of sustainability)
- worker cooperatives (how they operate, the way they mediate the more-than-human world and potential role in large-scale social change)
- neoliberalism (its social consequences and how to adapt critique to this stage of capitalist development)
Media contributions
I wrote a piece remembering the Marxist sociologist Erik Olin Wright for The Conversation UK:
My views on the 2015 Labour Party's leadership contest were solicited for the online magazine Economy Watch:
http://www.economywatch.com/features/Left-wing-Candidate-Corbyn-is-likely-Labour-Leader0911.html
My views on the 2022 French Presidential were solicited as part of a debate on France 24 (Francois Picard show):
In this interview I discuss the critical theory of the Frankfurt School:
Research interests
My research is interdisciplinary, crossing over the disciplines of sociology, politics and philosophy. I identify as a critical social theorist and environmental sociologist. As a critical theorist I treat the sociological imagination as a prism through which power relations and social injustices are exposed, probed and resisted. I have done so by exploring the complex intersections of structures of power and domination under present-day conditions and imagining a future beyond those structures. The aim has been to lay the conceptual groundwork for collective transformative action. My book on neoliberalism and my forthcoming book Intersectional Socialism could be seen as complementary : the former formulated a critique of capitalism and the latter an alternative to it.
As an environmental sociologist, I build on my theoretical work to examine closely the intersection of the human and non-human world. I am paying specific attention to the farming community and farmers’ attitudes towards nature. The empirical work I will undertake as part of the
RENEW project will develop an empirical basis for imagining new socio-economic practices that will not only help inform policy but also feed into my own theoretical work and the conceptualisation of a political economy of sustainability.
Research supervision
I am keen to supervise doctoral students in the following areas: social theory, political theory, political sociology
... and more specifically:
critical theory, society-enviornment relationship, socialist thought, critique of and resistance to neoliberalism, social movements, worker cooperatives
Research students
I am currently supervising the following students:
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(with Margherita Pierracini) David McKeown - Emancipatory Sustainability: The Satoyama Initiative (with Ilan Pappe) Lara Fricke - Framing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in post-Holocaust Germany |
External impact and engagement
Media contributions
I wrote a piece remembering the Marxist sociologist Erik Olin Wright for The Conversation UK:
https://theconversation.com/envisioning-real-utopias-from-within-the-capitalist-present-remembering-erik-olin-wright-110646
My views on the 2015 Labour Party's leadership contest were solicited for the online magazine Economy Watch:
http://www.economywatch.com/features/Left-wing-Candidate-Corbyn-is-likely-Labour-Leader0911.html
In this podcast produced by Exeter students I discuss socialism, intersectionality and utopia:
My views on the 2022 French Presidential were solicited as part of a debate on France 24 (Francois Picard show):
Modules taught
- SOC1020 - Contemporary Society: Field and Case Studies
- SOC2105 - Contemporary Capitalism, Critique and Resistance
- SOC2110 - Consumption and Society
- SOCM027 - Social Theory
Biography
BA (Sussex), MA (Sussex), DPhil (Sussex)
I joined the Sociology, Philosophy and Anthropology Department in September 2016. Prior to this, I held a post of Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Surrey.