How to do sociology with… body mapping

Bodies have long interested sociologists as sociomaterial formations, made up of human as well as nonhuman processes. But how do we study these bodies? And what does a study of bodies do over our more usual sociological concern with subjects and their objects?

In this workshop, we will explore mapping as a way of studying bodies – where they get their (in)capacity to feel, act, and even perhaps think – in terms of their relations with others. Using a projected image of the body, and engaging in sensorial activities like walking, we will map the everyday practices and habits that keep bodies together and where they may fracture and reform. By putting representation and intervention in tension, we will reflect on how these kinds of participatory practices might disrupt our given notions of subjectivity and objectivity, and help us to respond to different ways of being and kinds of bodies for more inclusive, egalitarian futures.

Preparation: please bring items/objects/images from home that say something about how you do the everyday, which you may wish to use or reflect on in your mapping. We will provide all the other necessary materials for the session.

Dr Fay Dennis is a Wellcome Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths, where she employs ethnographic and arts-based methods to explore the sociomaterial production of harms facing people who use drugs