Sociology, Environment and Architecture Study Group

Introduction

Activities

The group meets once or twice a year, normally for one-day conferences, and at the BSA Annual Conference.

The convenor welcomes suggestions and proposals from BSA members for future meetings of the group.

Your help is needed to re-vitalise the BSA's Environment and Architecture Study Group!

The group was set up in 1980 by Tony King and Ian Robinson, and has been run for some years by Tim Brindley of De Montfort University. It has had a broad sociological remit encompassing architecture and environment issues, including land-use planning, and has attracted a wide variety of academic interests and multi-disciplinary approaches. Unfortunately, interest and energy have waned over the last couple of years, and the group is currently inactive.

There is a consensus that in a rapidly changing global context spawning new and diverse interests in environmental issues from a rnage of political, professional and academic interests, it is vital that the BSA retains this focus and maintains the study group. The BSA itself has responded to change and increasingly is recruiting a more diverse membership from people whose entry to sociology as a discipline is rooted in combined academic studies and training for vocational roles, such as town & country planning & human geography. This opens up exciting possibilities for linking up with practitioners in the wide field of environmental studies and maintaining a valuable interplay of ideas and experiences to the benefit of an enriched sociological discourse.

Dr Mike Casselden, a member of the BSA and a chartered town planner undertaking various volunteering activities and personal research work at his home in Newcastle, has offered to be an interim convenor, initially exploring contact and communication electronically via a  discussion group and website. Hopefully, the intention would be to keep all existing members of the Study Group on board and encourage an exchange of reciprocated ideas and research interests, a kind of praxis to feed research and practice with positive outcomes. He belongs to the new organised group of BSA members who have no academic home and is hopeful that various other professional groups with a related professional interest in sociology may be recruited to the BSA.

With a concerted effort by BSA members who share an enthusiasm for developing this kind of focus, there is no reason why the group should not be reinvigorated. If you would like to be part of this project, please contact Mike or Tim - hopefully, if there is enough interest we can restore an annual group meeting to next year's conference and contribute to its theme.

Contact the Convenor

Professor Simon Guy

School of Environment and Development

University of Manchester

Humanities Bridgeford Street Building

Oxford Road

Manchester

M13 9PL

Send and email.