University of Kent

Research

Interests

Over the past two decades my work has revolved around a concern to embody sociology and social/cultural theory, and to understand the social and cultural implications of what it is to be an embodied being.  There have been three main strands to this project.  Firstly, it has involved a critique of Cartesian influenced, ‘disembodied’ conceptions of sociology which marginalise the corporeal conditions of social action and the bodily consequences of social structures, and an excavation of those traditions that can help us re-embody our conceptions of society.  Secondly, I have sought to contribute towards the establishment of an interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary field of ‘body studies’ which draws on the wide range of resources and debates on corporality that have become increasingly prominent across the social sciences and humanities.  Thirdly, my aim has been to develop original theoretical approaches which enable us to understand more adequately the significance of embodiment to the world in which we live.

Current Projects

• I have recently begun a long term project provisionally entitled World Civilizations: Embodiment, Religion and Culture in collaboration with Philip A. Mellor (University of Leeds) which is exploring the relationship between technological cultures, modernities, and the body pedagogics associated with major world religions.  

Supervision

I have supervised to completion PhD students in a variety of areas including Body Modification; Embodied Experience and Drugs; Sport, Motor Racing and the Civilizing Process; Gender and Organisation; and News Media and the Northern Ireland Peace Process. Projects being undertaken by current students include The Body Pedagogics of Women’s Body Building; 'Deviant' Bodies and Private Spaces; Tattooing and Collective Identities; Ladettes, Binge Drinking and the Nighttime Economy. I coordinate the Body Studies group in the School and students meet together regularly to discuss their work and hear from others researching into cognate areas.

I welcome PhD applications in the following areas:

• The Body (all areas - including sacrifice, pain, eroticism)
• Religion and Social Theory
• Classical Sociology.
• Sport
• Civilizing and Decivilizing Processes (the work of Norbert Elias).

Publications

Recent Books:

2008. Changing Bodies (Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society). Sage Publications Ltd. 216pp. Reviews and Endorsements for Changing Bodies: Review in Sport, Education and Society: ‘[Changing Bodies] confirms [Shilling's] status as one of the most innovative and important figures in the study of body in society in contemporary sociology. For anyone seeking to understand the significance of ‘the body’ in contemporary culture and how it is both encrypted by and encrypts culture, this book is an essential read.. [I]t will help guide scholarship and research agendas for many years to come.’ 'Chris Shilling's exciting new work revisits pragmatism to provide an innovative and compelling theoretical orientation for body studies. At a time when sociology of the body has been fragmenting into niche studies of distinctive bodies, Shilling offers a unifying framework that never sacrifices particularity. Changing Bodies should become a core text for all social science studies of the body' - Professor Arthur W. Frank, Department of Sociology, University of Calgary 'In this new book, Chris Shilling once again seeks to redefine the parameters of the sociology of the body. This is essential reading for all those in search of a sophisticated theoretical and methodological basis for the study of embodied action that resists a simplistic 'inverted Cartesianism' - Dr Ian Burkitt, University of Bradford
2007 Embodying Sociology. Retrospect, Progress and Prospects. (Sociological Review Monograph Series). Oxford; Blackwells. (Editor). 169pp. Reviews for Embodying Sociology, Retrospect, Progress and Prospects. Medical Sociology Online 2008, Volume 3, Number 2 'As a post graduate researcher currently grappling with the issues associated with embodiment in my own research, I found this volume extremely motivating. The broad scope for embodying sociology is well represented through the range of contributions, and the vast possibilities for future work in this area are highlighted. The book will be of specific interest to any researchers or graduate students working on the area of the body and body work, but is also accessible enough to be of broad relevance in our approach to the discipline of sociology on the whole.' Canadian Journal of Sociology 2009, Volume 34, Number 2 'This volume is 'a vivid demonstration of the turn to the material body in theory and empirical research.' Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology 19/5 2009 ‘Shilling’s edited collection is an invaluable response to recent calls for the acknowledgement of the multiple modes through which embodiment is constituted. The collection successfully combines concerns from competing perspectives (e.g. post-structuralism and henomenology)..The chapters represented explore embodiment in the context of recent developments in consumer culture, identity and bio- politics, and build on sociological, feminist and anthropological perspectives in articulating an approach of embodied sociology. A major strength of the collection is the inclusion of both theoretical and empirical chapters, and a focus on the grounding of theoretical advancement in empirical exploration... The chapters outline the utilisation of research methods such as narrative analysis, phenomenological analysis, and ethnography in relation to the examination of what being embodied in a particular way or through particular actions is like. This collection of chapters represents both a theoretical contribution to the development of an embodied sociology, but is also of particular interdisciplinary value to the exploration of methodological concerns in relation to empirical research on embodiment..’
2005 The Body in Culture, Technology & Society. London, Newbury Park and New Delhi. Sage Press/Theory, Culture & Society. vi + 247pp. (Reprinted 2005) Reviews for The Body in Culture, Technology  & Society. Acta Sociologieca  ‘Once in a while a manuscript stops you in your tracks... What we are offered here is no  recovering of old ground but a step change in perspectives on “body matters” that is both innovative and of fundamental importance to anyone working on this sociological terrain...This text is groundbreaking and simply has to be read.’ Sociology 43(1) ‘What I find very useful and without any doubt valuable, not only in Shilling’s The Body in Culture, Technology and Society but in his work in general, is the breadth and profoundness of his discussion about the body…the style Shilling maintains is crucial for further development of the sociology of the body as a discipline, for it provides us with a rich intellectual environment about the body.’ Sociology of Health and Illness, 2008 'For any colleague wanting to have a clear idea of how studies of the body can be empirically grounded as well as theoretically ‘rich’, Chris Shilling’s The Body in Culture, Technology and Society , is the book to read. To my mind it offers the best account thus far of not only how social action is embodied and must be recognised as such but also of how social structures condition and shape embodied subjects in a variety of social arenas. ..This is wonderful insightful ‘stuff’ – the ideas and intricate thoughts of a scholar such as Shilling who has been immersed in thinking about the complexities of the body in society as well as sociology for a number of years.' . Sport, Education & Society ' this is Shilling at his creative best…these are seminal observations of the classical theories  drawn together as never before.  Moreover, as a framework [this monograph] provides a genuinely new and fertile way of reconsidering not just classical sociology but contemporary forms as well.’ Teaching Sociology ‘This is a comprehensive, theoretically sophisticated, and ambitious treatise on the body that draws from, and applies, both classical and contemporary sociological theory in a manner that is innovative and thought-provoking. This book is engaging and thought-provoking, but Shilling's greatest achievement is his ability to illustrate the importance and continued relevance of classical and contemporary sociological theory to real world concerns. It is a book worthy of widespread attention. It reinvigorated my interest in the sociological classics and contained countless nuggets of interesting information that led me to conclude that it would be a worthy book to recommend to a broad sociological audience.’ Theory & Psychology (16/3) suggests that   ‘Shilling’s book (like his earlier The Body and Social Theory) is crucial reading…a further valuable contribution in a field where he has provided so much.’
2003 The Body and Social Theory, 2nd Edition. London, Newbury Park and New Delhi. Sage Press/Theory, Culture & Society. (Includes a new preface, revised material, and a new 16,000 word Afterword). x + 238pp. Reprinted 2004, 2005 [twice]). Reviews for The Body and Social Theory:   Contemporary Sociology ‘firmly establishes the body as a viable topic in social theory, no longer to be forgotton... Furthermore, it provides a fresh perspective on such issues as age, color, class, gender, and health, which are, after all, the stuff of sociology and of life itself.’  The New Scientist  (16.10.93) ‘a great service to contemporary thought’, The Times Higher Education Supplement (19.11.93) ‘offers a cogent account of the relationship between naturalistic and sociological studies of human embodiment and is acutely perceptive of the importance of the complex dialectic between social institutions, culture and biological conditions.’  Choice (Feb. 1994):  ‘Essential to any collection of work on the body, health and illness, or social theory’. The Sociological Review   ‘Chris Shilling has done us all a splendid service in bringing together and illustrating the tremendous diversity and richness of sociological thinking on the topic of human embodiment and its implications...a wide ranging and scholarly piece of work’.
2001 The Sociological Ambition: Elementary Forms of Social and Moral Life. (Joint 50/50 author with Philip Mellor). London, Newbury Park and New Delhi: Sage Press / Theory, Culture & Society Series. 237pp Reviews for  The  Sociological Ambition: Elementary Forms of Social and Moral Life Auto/Biography an ‘excellent book...If sociology is to retain a sophisticated rationality and an ultimate concern for social well-being, plus a commitment to combining scholarly protocols with moral obligations then The Sociological Ambition will be one of its key works.’ Thesis Eleven  ‘comprehensive and erudite’   Journal of Contemporary Religion (Vol. 17, No.3, 2002): ‘The Sociological Ambition is a superb book... It is beautifully written, expertly edited, and renders complex and original ideas entirely accessible... Shilling and Mellor are to be congratulated for having the courage of their convictions to lead us on an exciting and expertly guided pilgrimage through the major shrines... of the sociological imagination... This is a modern classic.’
1997 Re-forming the Body: Religion, Community and Modernity (Joint 50/50 author with P.A. Mellor). London, Newbury Park & New Delhi: Sage Press / Theory, Culture & Society. vi + 234 pp. Reviews for Re-Forming the Body: Religion, Community and Modernity American Journal of Sociology [1999 104(6)]  it ‘enriches the conceptual arsenal for interdisciplinary analysis of political, social, and cultural change...stimulates more nuanced thinking about the cultural and political legacy of the Reformation era’ and ‘manages both to clarify tensions surrounding cultural and social integration in the late twentieth century while underscoring the real historical complexity of modern bodies.’  Sociology of Health and Illness (1998 May):  ‘It is difficult to qualify excitement and enthusiasm for this book. Even those not sold on the importance of the body...will not fail to be impressed by the breadth and synthesis achieved in the analysis of successive re-formations of the body within different forms of cultural and religious life.’ It  judges the book to be ‘an essential text’ and a ‘synthesis of classical sociological concerns with more recent study of body transformation’ which ‘takes us beyond the work of Durkheim’.  Scottish Journal of Religious Studies (19 [1]: 123-143) praises the book for its ‘stimulating and informative account of how the body is “re-formed” in various historical periods’ and its ‘fascinating interweaving of literature’ which offers ‘a whole new genealogy of the body in western thought’ and both ‘enables us to reconceptualise the relation between society, the body and the sacred’, and ‘allows us to find new ways to understand the present condition of our being’.

Articles and Chapters

(since 2001)

• 2011 'Saved from pain or saved through pain? Modernity, Instrumentalization and the religious use of pain as a body technique', European Journal of Social Theory. (joint 50/50 author with P.A. Mellor). Forthcoming.
• 2011  ‘Embodiment, Intoxication and Collective Life: Emile Durkheim on Society and Religion’, The Sociological Review. (Joint 50/50 author with P.A. Mellor).
• 2010 ‘Sociology and the Problem of Eroticism’, Sociology. 44(3) (joint 50/50 author with P.A. Mellor).
• 2010 ‘Exploring the society-body-school nexus: Theoretical and methodological issues in the study of body pedagogics’, Sport, Education and Society.
• 2010 ‘The Religious Habitus. Embodiment, Religion and Sociological Theory’, in B.S.Turner (ed.), The New Blackwell Companion to Religion. Oxford: Blackwell. (joint 50/50 author with P.A. Mellor)
• 2010 'Body pedagogics and the religious habitus:A new direction for the sociological study of religion.' Religion. 40(1): 27-38 (joint 50/50 author with P.A. Mellor).
• 2010 ‘Sociology and the body’, in A. Giddens and P. Sutton (eds.), Sociology. Introductory Readings. Oxford: Polity. pp.262-266.
• 2010  ‘The Undersocialised Conception of the Embodied Agent in Modern Sociology’ reprinted in M. O’Donnell (ed.) Structure and Agency. London: Sage Press.
• 2009 ‘The female body builder as a gender outlaw’, Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise. 1(2): pp.141-159 (with T. Bunsell).
• 2008 'The Challenge of Embodying Archaeology', in J. Robb and D. Boric (eds.), Past Bodies: Body-Centred Research in Archaeology. Oxford: Oxbow Press. pp.145-151 ISBN: 978-1-84217-341-1
• 2008 'Body pedagogics, society and schooling', in J. Evans, E. Rich, B. Davies, and R. Allwood (eds.), Education, Disordered Eating and Obesity Discourse. London: Routledge.ix-xv. ISBN 978-0-415-41895-9
• 2008 ‘Kultura, “Rola Chorego” I Konsumpicja Zdrowia’, in Sztompka, P. & Boguni-Borowska, M. (eds.) Socjologia Codzienności, Warsaw: ZNAK. ISBN 9788324009596
• 2008 'The body in sociology' in C. Malacrida & J. Low (eds.), Sociology of the Body. A Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp.7-13. ISBN: 978-0-19-542548-2
• 2007 ‘Cultures of embodied experience: Technology, religion and body pedagogics’,The Sociological Review. 55(3): 531-549 (Joint 50/50 author with P.A. Mellor).
• 2007 ‘Sociology and the body: Classical traditions and new agendas’, in C. Shilling (ed.), Embodying Sociology. Retrospect, Progress and Prospects. (Sociological Review Monograph Series). Oxford; Blackwells.
• 2006 ‘Body’, in R. Robertson & J.A. Scholte (eds.), Encyclopedia of Globalization. New York: Routledge.
• 2006 ‘Body modification’, in World English Edition of Encarta Encyclopedia. Multi-media, CD Rom, Microsoft Publishers.
• 2005 ‘The rise of the body and the development of sociology’, Review essay, Sociology. 39(4): 761-767.
• 2005 ‘Embodiment, emotions and the foundations of social order: Durkheim’s enduring contribution’, in J. Alexander & P. Smith (eds.) The Cambridge Companion to Emile Durkheim. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.211-238.
• 2005 ‘Culture, the “sick role” and the consumption of health’, in T. Hoikkala, P. Hakkarainen & S. Laine (eds.), Beyond Health Literacy. Youth Cultures, Prevention and Policy. Finnish Youth Research Network / Finnish Youth Research Society. Stakes: Helsinki. pp.25-41. (A slightly revised version of my 2002 article in the British Journal of Sociology).
• 2004 ‘Physical capital and situated action: a new direction for corporeal sociology’, British Journal of Sociology of Education. 25(3): 473-487.
• 2003 ‘Educating Bodies: Schooling and the Constitution of Society’, Foreword to J. Evans, B. Davies & J. Audley (eds.), Body Knowledge and Control. Studies in the Sociology of Physical Education and Health. London: Routledge. pp.xv-xxii.
• 2003 ‘The Undersocialized Conception of the Embodied Agent in Modern Sociology’, (reprinted) in A. Blaikie, M. Hepworth, M. Holmes, A. Howson & D. Inglis (eds.) The Body: Critical Concepts. London: Routledge.
• 2002 ‘Culture, the “sick role” and the consumption of health’, British Journal of Sociology. 53 (4): 621-638.
• 2002 ‘The two traditions in the sociology of emotions’, in J. Barbalet (ed.), The Sociology of Emotions. Oxford: Blackwell. Published as part of the Sociological Review Monograph Series. pp.10-32.
• 2002 ‘Durkheim, Morality and Modernity: Collective Effervescence, Homo Duplex and the Sources of Moral Action’, (reprinted) in P. Beilharz (ed.), Zygmunt Bauman Vol. 3. London: Sage.
• 2001 ‘Embodiment, experience and theory. In defence of the sociological tradition’, The Sociological Review. 49 (3): 327-344.
• 2001 ‘Embodiment, structuration theory and modernity: Mind/Body Dualism and the Repression of Sensuality’, (reprinted) in C. Bryant and D. Jary (eds.), The Contemporary Giddens: Social Theory in a Globalizing Age. London: Palgrove (Joint 50/50 author with Philip A. Mellor), pp.130-146.
• 2001 ‘The Embodied Foundations of Social Theory’, in G. Ritzer and B. Smart (eds.), Handbook of Social Theory. Beverly Hills: Sage, pp.439-457.
• 2001 ‘Durkheim, Morality and Modernity: Collective Effervescence, Homo Duplex and the Sources of Moral Action’, (reprinted) in W.S.F. Pickering (ed.), Emile Durkheim III Critical Assessments. London: Routledge (Joint 50/50 author with Philip A. Mellor).

Teaching

Chris Shilling is Director of Post Graduate Studies (Research), and also convenes and teaches the core  Sociology MA course SO867 Foundations of Sociology as well as contributing sessions to the core MA course SO860 Current Problems in Sociology.  He also convenes and teaches the undergraduate module SO676 Cultures of Embodiment, supervises students studying SO679 3rd Year Dissertation Module, and contributes to other courses. 

Memberships

I am editor of The Sociological Review Monograph Series and also of the journal Sociology of Education Abstracts.  I am also on the editorial boards /  international advisory boards of The Sociological Review, Irish Journal of Sociology, Body & Society, and Sport, Ethics and Society.