Office hours:

Appointment via e-mail

Office hours: Monday 11:30 - 12:30 / Tuesday 11:30 - 12:30

Office: Room B349, Third floor, Amory Building, Streatham Campus

Please note that requests for references must be confirmed with me first

Research interests

• Classical and modern social and cultural theory
• Historical sociology / cultural sociology from an historical perspective
• Cultural representation - in particular, representations of Italy and the Italians in English and later British culture from a longue-duree historical perspective
• Sociology of Art and culture
• Cultural globalisation, inter-change and translation
• Social theory, sociology and social work

Cultural Sociology of Cultural Representation

My current work explores how analytic frames and theoretical concepts taken from the ‘sociology of culture’ and ‘cultural sociology’ can be brought together to go beyond orthodox conceptions of and approaches to cultural representation within sociology and the social sciences more broadly. The monograph, published with Routledge, is entitled:

Cultural Sociology of Cultural Representations: Visions of Italy and the Italians in England and Britain from the Renaissance to the Present Day. 

www.routledge.com/Cultural-Sociology-of-Cultural-Representations-Visions-of-Italy-and-the/Thorpe/p/book/9780367030223

Endorsements for the book

‘This book is a signal achievement of cultural sociology, reconstructing and interpreting the collective representation of "nations" and "civilizations" at a macro level and over shifting historical time. Thorpe shows, not only how British thinkers understood "Italy" in terms of the binary code of good and evil, but how that signification inverted in the wake of the English Reformation. An original and compelling work.’

- Jeffrey C. Alexander, Lillian Chavenson Saden Professor of Sociology, Yale University, USA.

 ‘Just as Marx turned Hegel on his head, so too does Christopher Thorpe comprehensively upend 40 years' worth of conventional thinking in the post-Saidian interdisciplinary study of cultural representations. He thereby provides a radically new interpretation of how the British have understood Italy and the Italians over hundreds of years. The book should appeal to sociologists who want their predictable paradigms shaken, and to historians, of Anglo-Italian relations and much else, who want their field cleared of idealising bourgeois obfuscation.’

– David Inglis, Professor of Sociology, University of Helsinki, Finland.

Editorial work and professional affiliations

I am an editor for the journal Cultural Sociology (Sage): es.britsoc.co.uk/welcome-for-five-new-editors-of-cultural-sociology/

I am a member of the British Sociological Association

Monographs

Thorpe, C. (2023) Cultural Sociology of Cultural Representations: Visions of Italy and the Italians from the Renaissance to the Present Day. London: Routledge. www.routledge.com/Cultural-Sociology-of-Cultural-Representations-Visions-of-Italy-and-the/Thorpe/p/book/9780367030223

Thorpe, C. (2017) Social Theory for Social Work: Ideas and Applications. London: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Social-Theory-for-Social-Work-Ideas-and-Applications/Thorpe/p/book/9780415826402

Books – co-authored

Inglis, D. with Thorpe. C. (2012 1st ed. / Dec. 2018, 2^nd ed. / Jul. 2024, 3rd ed.) An Invitation to Social Theory, Cambridge: Polity.

Recently translated into Chinese as: Inglis, D., & Thorpe, C. (2022). 社会理论的邀请. The Commercial Press.

Books – edited

Inglis, D., Thorpe, C. and Gimlin, D. (2007) Food and Society: Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences, 4 vols., London: Routledge.

Refereed journal articles

Inglis, D. and Thorpe, C. (2023) 'Towards a Cultural Sociology of the Uses of Classical Literature: Deploying Literary Representations of Rome and the Romans in England between the 15th and 18th Centuries', Classical Literature, 1(1): 49 - 65.ojs.bilpub.com/index.php/cl/article/view/115/100

Inglis, D. and Thorpe, C. (2023) 'Beyond the 'inimitable' Goffman: from 'social theory' to social theorizing in a Goffmanesque manner', Frontiers Sociology, 8. doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2023.1171087 

Inglis, D., Thorpe, C. and Almila, A. M., (2023) ‘Masks /Cosmopolitanism / Hospitality: On Facial Politics in the Covid-19 Era’, Revista Portugesa de Filosofia, 78(4): 1511 – 1532 https://www.publicacoesfacfil.pt/product.php?id_product=9164

Thorpe, C. and Inglis, D. (2022) 'What's Up With Cultural Sociology? From Bourdieu and the Mainstream to 'Productive Weirdness', Cultural Sociology, 16(3): 318 - 337. https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755221112625

Thorpe, C., Jaworsky, N., Lo, M-C. M., Morgan, M., Ushiyama, R. (2022) ‘Visions for Cultural Sociology in Uncertain Times’, Cultural Sociology, 16(3): 305 – 317. https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755221098834

Thorpe, C. (2019) ‘Reconsidering Cultural Representation with Field Theory: Continuity and Change in the Discursive Construction of Italy and the Italians from 1680 to 1830’, Journal of Cultural Analysis and Social Change, 4(1): 1 - 15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.20897/jcasc/5845

Thorpe, C. and Inglis, D. (2019) ‘Do 'Global Generations' Exist? From Mannheim to Beck and Beyond’, Youth and Globalization, 1(1): 40 - 64. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/25895745-00101003

Inglis, D. and Thorpe, C. (2019) ‘Catwalk Catholicism: On the Ongoing Significance of Federico Fellini's Ecclesiastical Fashion Show’, Religions, 10(9): 520.

Thorpe, C. (2017) ‘Comments on Claudio E. Benzecry, Monika Krause and Isaac Ariail Reed’s Social Theory Now: Social Theoretical Dialogue and Development in America from a British Perspective’, Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, 18(3): 350 – 357. https://doi.org/10.1080/1600910X.2017.1395350

Thorpe, C. (2011) ‘The Dual-Edged Sword of Sociological Theory: Critically Thinking Sociological Theoretical Practice’, Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, Vol., 12 (2):  215 – 228. https://doi.org/10.1080/1600910X.2011.555704

Thorpe, C. (2009) ‘Beyond ‘La Dolce Vita’: Bourdieu, Market Heteronomy and Cultural Homogeneity’, Cultural Sociology, 3(1): 123 – 146. https://doi.org/10.1177/1749975508100674

Thorpe, C. (2008) ‘Imagining Italy and the Italians in the 'Age of Machinery': Spectres of Industrial Modernity in the Italianate Visions of John Ruskin and D.H. Lawrence’, Journal of Anglo-Italian Studies, Vol. 9. pp. 79 – 106.

Thorpe, C. (2008) ‘The Distinguishing Function of Europe: attitudes towards and perceptions of Europe and the European Union among young Scottish adults’, Perspectives on European Politics and Society, 9(4): 499 - 513. https://doi.org/10.1080/15705850802416945

Book chapters

Thorpe, C. (2020) ‘(Re-)Imagining Social Theory for Social Work’ in Webb, S. (Ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Critical Social Work. Oxford: Routledge. ISBN: 1138578436 (hbk)

Inglis, D. and Thorpe, C. (2020) ‘Translation Encounters and the Histories of Globalization’, in Bielsa, E. and Kapsaskis, D. (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Globalization, London: Routledge, pp. 13 - 26.

Thorpe, C. (2013) ‘Critical Strategies for Implementing a Relational Sociological Paradigm: Elias, Bourdieu and Uncivilized Sociological Theoretical Struggles’, in C. Powell and F. Deplteau (eds.) Conceptualizing Relational Sociology: Ontological and Theoretical Issues, Vol. 1. London: Palgrave MacMillan.

Thorpe, C. (2013) ‘The Poetics of Travel in Byron and Shelley: Translating Italian Experience into Artistic Distinction’, in A. Yarrington and S. Villani (eds.) Travels and Translations: Anglo-Italian Cultural Transactions. Rodopi B.V,pp. 181 – 203 https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789401210164/B9789401210164-s013.xml

Thorpe, C. (2010) ‘Crime and Society’, in C. Yuill and A. Gibson (eds.) Sociology for Social Work. London: Sage.

Thorpe, C. (2010) ‘Sociology for Social Work: An Overview’, in C. Yuill and A. Gibson (eds.) Sociology For Social Work, London: Sage.

Popular sociology texts

Thorpe, C. (2020) ‘Sociology’ in H. Wilkinson (Ed.) The Visual Encyclopaedia. London. DK.

Thorpe, C. and Yuill, C. (2018) Heads Up Sociology. London: DK. (Translated into a wide range of languages and sold internationally)

Loxley, D., Thorpe, C. and Yuill, C. (2015) The Sociology Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained London: DK.

Encyclopaedia entries

Thorpe, C. (2017) ‘Leo Strauss’, The Encyclopaedia of Social Theory. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell Books.

Thorpe, C. (2017) ‘Vilfredo Pareto’, The Encyclopaedia of Social Theory. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell Books.

Thorpe, C. (2017) 'Jean-Paul Sartre', The Encyclopaedia of Social Theory. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell Books.

Book reviews

Thorpe, C. (2023) 'Jeffrey Alexander and Cultural Sociology', European Journal of Social Theory journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13684310231199709

Thorpe, C. (2023) 'Critically Appraising Bourdieu and Marx: Practices of Critique', Journal of Classical Sociology, 24(1): 95 - 102 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1468795X231202868

Thorpe, C. (2022) 'The Heavens and the Earth: Graeco-Roman, Ancient Chinese, and Medieval Islamic Images of the World', Glocalism: Journal of Culture, Politics and Innovation, 1 glocalismjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Thorpe_gjcpi_2022_1.pdf

Thorpe, C. (2021) 'Durkheim and After: The Durkheimian Tradition, 1893 - 2020', European Journal of Social Theory, 25(3): 496 - 500. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13684310211046892

Thorpe, C. (2020) 'Andrea Cossu and Matteo Bortolini's Italian Sociology, 1945 - 2010: An Intellectual and Institutional Profile', Journal of Cultural Analysis and Social Change, 5(1): 09. www.lectitopublishing.nl/Article/Detail/review-of-andrea-cossu-and-matteo-bortolinis-italian-sociology-1945-2010-an-intellectual-and-8411

Thorpe, C. (2020) 'What Makes A Social Crisis? The Societalization of Social Problems', Cultural Sociology, 14(4): 204 - 205. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1749975520922160

Thorpe, C. (2019) 'Nietzsche and Sociology: Prophet of Affirmation', European Journal of Social Theory, 23(1): 113 - 118. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1368431019880159

Thorpe, C. (2019) 'Manet: A symbolic Revolution and Classification Struggles: General Sociology, Volume 1 Lectures at the College de France', Journal of Cultural Analysis and Social Change, 4(1): 07. www.lectitopublishing.nl/download/manet-a-symbolic-revolution-and-classification-struggles-general-sociology-volume-1-lectures-at-the-5850.pdf