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Keywords
Consumption, Critical theory, Cultural theory, Culture and media, Material culture, Mobilities, Social theory, Sociology, Television, Theories of modernity
Research Areas
Social Science
Professor Tim Dant Retired
Emeritus
Bowland North
Lancaster University
Bailrigg
Lancaster
United Kingdom
LA1 4YN
Email: Email Hidden
Tel: +44 1524 594183
Web: www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/centres/cemore
Affiliations
CeMoRe - Centre for Mobilities Research
Mobilities.Lab
- Profile
- Publications
- Projects
Research Interests
Since retiring from my Professorship at Lancaster University in December 2014 I have been pleased to remain a ‘continuing member' of the University. I remain on the supervisory teams of two current PhD students, one working on ‘climate change rhetoric and catastrophe' and another on the impact of ‘legal highs' in rapidly modernising Romania. I have also recently joined the supervisory team for a Phd student who is researching ‘cycling sociabilities'.
Following my period as Head of Department of Sociology (2010-2013) I enjoyed a sabbatical that gave me a taste for reading again. I began a project on formulating a critical phenomenology from the work of Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and Schutz… but so far have only managed to produce essays. One was published online last year taking a phenomenological approach to Theory of Mind and autism (it grew out of my involvement in the Catalyst project at Lancaster), another in the publication pipeline is on ‘guns and morality, taking issue with the Latourian view of materiality. A third draws on the role of bicycle repair videos in a changing material culture to argue for what Hans Jonas calls an ‘imperative of responsibility' towards the stuff we use. I have a further two in draft form taking issue with the theory of ‘extended mind' and the morality of technology that I am working on with a Dutch Emeritus Professor of Tissue Engineering. There are a series of themes in all these bits of writing; things and material culture, cultural mediation, moral responsibility for stuff and technology, theories of mind, perception and human action. Eventually I hope to form these ideas into a critical phenomenology useful in the dying days of late modernity.
Recent publications:
Dant, T (2015) ‘In two minds: Theory of Mind, intersubjectivity and autism', Theory and Psychology, Vol. 25(1), 45-62.
Dant, T. (2014) ‘The Driver and the Passenger' in P. Adey; D. Bissell; K. Hannam; P. Merriman, M. Sheller (eds) Mobilities Handbook, London: Routledge
Dant, T. (2014) ‘True Automobility' in E. Casella, G. Evans, P. Harvey, H. Knox, C. Mclean, E. Silva, N. Thoburn and K. Woodward (eds) Objects and Materials: A Routledge Companion London: Routledge – paper accepted, in press.
Laurier, E. and Dant T. (2012) ‘What else we do while driving: towards the driverless car' in M. Grieco and J. Urry (eds) Mobilities: New Perspectives on Transport and Society, Farnham: Ashgate.
Dant, T. (2012) ‘Seeing Things: Apprehending Material Culture' in I. Heywood and B. Sandywell (eds.) Handbook of Visual Culture, Oxford: Berg.
Dant, T. (2012) Television and the Moral Imaginary: Society and the Small Screen,Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Current Teaching
Selected Publications
Television and the moral imaginary: society through the small screen
Dant, T. 2012 Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 215 p.
Research output: Book/Report/Proceedings › Book
The work of repair: gesture, emotion and sensual knowledge
Dant, T. 31/08/2009 In: Sociological Research Online. 15, (3), p. n/a 25 p.7
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article
The 'Pragmatics' of Material Interaction.
Dant, T. 03/2008 In: Journal of Consumer Culture. 8, 1, p. 11-33 23 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article
2013
Drivers and passengers
Dant, T. 20/12/2013 The Routledge handbook of mobilities. Adey, P., Bissell, D., Hannam, K., Merriman, P. & Sheller, M. (eds.). London: Routledge
Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Chapter (peer-reviewed)
True automobility
Dant, T. 11/07/2013 Objects and materials: a Routledge companion. Harvey, P., Casella, E., Evans, G., Knox, H., McLean, C., Silva, E., Thoburn, N. & Woodward, K. (eds.). London: Routledge, p. n/a
Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Chapter (peer-reviewed)
2012
Seeing Things: Apprehending material culture
Dant, T. 01/2012 Handbook of Visual Culture. Heywood, I. & Sandywell, B. (eds.). Oxford: Berg
Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Chapter (peer-reviewed)
What else we do while driving: towards the driverless car
Laurier, E. & Dant, T. 01/2012 Mobilities: New Perspectives on Transport and Society. Greico, M. & Urry, J. (eds.). Ashgate, p. 223-244 22 p. (Transport and Society)
Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Chapter (peer-reviewed)
Television and the moral imaginary: society through the small screen
Dant, T. 2012 Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 215 p.
Research output: Book/Report/Proceedings › Book
2011
Material Culture
Dant, T. 11/2011 Encyclopaedia of Consumer Culture. Southerton, D. (ed.). London: Sage
Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary
Claude Levi-Strauss
Dant, T. 11/2011 Encyclopaedia of Consumer Culture. Southerton, D. (ed.). London: Sage
Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary
Discourse
Dant, T. 11/2011 Encyclopaedia of Consumer Culture. Southerton, D. (ed.). London: Sage
Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary
Car Culture
Dant, T. 11/2011 Encyclopaedia of Consumer Culture. Southerton, D. (ed.). London: Sage
Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary
Roland Barthes
Dant, T. 11/2011 Encyclopaedia of Consumer Culture. Southerton, D. (ed.). London: Sage
Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary
Fernand Braudel
Dant, T. 11/2011 Encyclopaedia of Consumer Culture. Southerton, D. (ed.). London: Sage
Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary
2009
The work of repair: gesture, emotion and sensual knowledge
Dant, T. 31/08/2009 In: Sociological Research Online. 15, (3), p. n/a 25 p.7
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article
2008
Car culture / car girls.
Dant, T. 2008 Car Girls. Hassink, J. (ed.). New York: Aperture Foundation, 4 p.
Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Chapter
The 'Pragmatics' of Material Interaction.
Dant, T. 03/2008 In: Journal of Consumer Culture. 8, 1, p. 11-33 23 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article
iPod... iCon.
Dant, T. 12/2008 In: Studi Culturali. 5, 3, p. 355-374 20 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article
2007
Windsurfing: an extreme form of material and embodied interaction?
Dant, T. & Wheaton, B. 12/2007 In: Anthropology Today. 23, 6, p. 8-12 5 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article
2006
Materiality and civilization: things and society.
Dant, T. 1/06/2006 In: British Journal of Sociology. 57, 2, p. 289-308 20 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article
2005
Materiality and Society.
Dant, T. 2005 Buckingham: Open University Press. 154 p.
Research output: Book/Report/Proceedings › Book
From passage to parly 2: commodity culture in Benjamin and Baudrilard.
Gilloch, G. & Dant, T. 2005 In: New Formations: A Journal of Culture, Theory and Politics . No 54, p. 139-153 15 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article
2004
The Driver-Car.
Dant, T. 1/08/2004 In: Theory, Culture and Society. 21, 4-5, p. 61-79 19 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article
Recording the Habitus.
Dant, T. 2004 Seeing is Believing? Approaches to visual methodology. Pole, C. (ed.). Amsterdam: Elsevier, Vol. Studie, p. 43-63 21 p.
Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Chapter
2003
Critical Social Theory: Culture, Society and Critique.
Dant, T. 2003 Sage. 165 p.
Research output: Book/Report/Proceedings › Book
Dealing with dirt: servicing and repairing cars.
Dant, T. & Bowles, D. 2003 In: Sociological Research Online. 8, 2
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article
2002
Pictures of the past: Benjamin and Barthes on photography.
Dant, T. & Gilloch, G. 02/2002 In: European Journal of Cultural Studies. 5, 1, p. 5-25 21 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article
2001
By car: carrying modern society.
Dant, T. & Martin, P. 2001 Ordinary Consumption. Gronow, J. & Warde, A. (eds.). 2 ed. London: Routledge, 257 p. (Studies in consumption and markets)
Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Chapter
Fruitbox/toolbox: biography and objects.
Dant, T. 2001 In: Auto/Biography. IX, 1 & 2, p. 11-20 10 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article
2000
Consumption caught in the cash nexus.
Dant, T. 11/2000 In: Sociology. 34, 4, p. 665-670 6 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article
Stars in our eyes?
Dant, T. 2000 In: Things. 12, p. 130-133 4 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article
1999
Material culture in the social world: values, activities, lifestyles.
Dant, T. 1999 Buckingham: Open University Press. 227 p.
Research output: Book/Report/Proceedings › Book
1998
Planning: Applied Rationality or Contingent Practice?
Dant, T. & Francis, D. 1998 In: Sociological Research Online. 3, 2
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article