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Elaine Coburn is assistant professor of sociology in the
department of International Communications and a researcher
associated with the CADIS (Centre d’analyse et
d’intervention sociologiques under director Michel Wieviorka),
at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS).
She obtained her PhD from Stanford University in 2002 as a
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
four year doctoral fellow, and was a postdoctoral research
fellow at the EHESS, funded by the French Ministry of
Research. She is on the international board of the
peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary Socialist Studies Journal (www.socialiststudies.com).
Main areas of
scholarly interest
a. sociological theory, Marxist political economy and critical
realism
b.
economic globalization and
transformations of capitalism
c.
alternative globalization
movements and resistance
d.
critical approaches to social
science methods
Specific areas of scholarly interest
1.
Sociological theory, including the classical theories of
Marx, Weber and Durkheim, as well as contemporary thinkers
like Foucault, Habermas, Bourdieu and Dorothy Smith. A
particular interest in Marxist political economy, including
contemporary contributions by William K. Caroll, Stephen
Gill, G.A. Cohen, and others, as well as critical realism as
an ontological and epistemological approach with elective
affinities to Marxist political economy eg., Andrew Collier,
Andrew Sayer, Bob Jessop...
2.
Transformations in the world capitalist system, particularly
the recent phase of neoliberal globalization and current
changes ‘beyond neoliberalism’. The ways in which these
transformations, linked with structural crises in
capitalism, affect but are also fostered by international
financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund,
World Bank and World Trade Organization, as well as other
organizational and social actors, including states,
mainstream economists, etc.
3.
Political movements resisting and challenging the
inequalities and injustices arising within the world
capitalist system. Mapping and explaining the emergence,
promise and limits of the ‘alterglobalization’ movement,
from the Zapatista uprising to the World Social Forum, as
well as the transformation of participating social actors eg.,
the evolution of the Council of Canadians from a more or
less exclusively national actor to a national actor with
strong transnational presence.
4.
Challenges to traditional social science methods, especially
around issues of ‘informed consent’. Empirical and scholarly
attempts to move beyond the liberal, deracinated person
imagined in mainstream, traditional forms of consent (and
also informing mainstream ‘human rights’ discourse) to
recognize the profoundly social character of human
existence eg., as in the work of Tuhiwai Smith and the rich
ethnographic studies of the negotiation of consent in
cross-cultural medical contexts by Joseph Kaufert.
Recent publications
Recent publications review Marxist insights into the
‘alterglobalization’ movements, and consider the effects of
neoliberal globalization on health, higher education and
women. Book reviews critique recent contributions to the
understanding of globalization and alterglobalization social
movements, social democractic states and human rights (see
links to publications, below).
Papers-in-progress
Current papers include the following works in progress:
a.
an analysis of the role of organic intellectuals in
fostering (post) neoliberal justifications for contemporary
capitalism, using an institutional ethnographic approach
b.
a description and analysis of contemporary challenges to the
World Trade Organization’s legitimacy by actors in the
‘alternative globalization’ movement, as well as the WTO’s
and participating states’ structural and discursive
reactions
c. a synthesis of currently dispersed literatures
describing resistance to liberal ideas of ‘personhood’, from
interpersonal negotiations around consent in medical
settings to broad international movements re-inventing human
rights as social rights, etc.
d. a review of the main ways classical and
contemporary sociological theories have variously
conceptualized, on the one hand, the ‘subject’, the actor
and agency and, on the other, ‘history’ or social structure.
Consideration of the ways that this conceptual tension
reflects and seeks to make sense of actually-existing
tensions between actorhood and (unthinking) social
reproduction.
Teaching Philosophy
"In my courses, I emphasize the importance of classical and
contemporary sociological theory for helping to make sense
of contemporary social structures. How do central social
structures, like contemporary capitalism, enable and
constrain us – our choices, our successes and failures, even
our most intimate thoughts? How can we understand ourselves
as embedded in social relationships that vary over time and
within and across national contexts? For example:
·
how did the idea of ‘human
rights’ arise? how is the notion of a ‘human rights victim’
the product of struggle and subject to ongoing challenge,
including by those officially recognized as ‘human rights
victims’? (course on ‘Contemporary Ideologies’)
·
what would a truly
democratic media look like? in what ways is the alternative
media ‘field’ in Vancouver, British Columbia democratic and
in what ways does it fall short? how does this compare to
contemporary ‘mainstream’ media? (course on ‘Media
Sociology’)
·
how can we carry out
reflexive, critical social science? for example, how does
the social location of the researcher affect the generation
of social science data? in what ways has ‘objective’
scientific research been bound up with the colonial project
and what does this suggest about the hazards of carrying out
ethical research in contemporary cross-cultural contexts?
(course on ‘Social Science Methods’)
Classes emphasize participation by students in small and
large group discussions, based on evidence that students
learn best when explaining and clarifying ideas with others,
rather than listening. My overarching aim is to encourage
critical thinking about our own taken-for-granted ideas and
about the ‘natural’ ways that our social relationships are
organized – and to think creatively about how our social
world could be organized, more justly and more
fairly.
Professor Coburn has taught the following courses:
Contemporary Ideologies, Social Science Methods (for MA
students), Media Sociology, and Globalization and the Media.
Professor Coburn may be reached via the email below or at
coburn@stanfordalumni.org. |
Degrees:
