Iain Wilkinson is  a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research. See the rest of the Sociology team. His research attempts to document and explain how people’s experience of ‘the problem of suffering’ changes through history and between societies.  He is interested to explore the potential for the incidence of human suffering  to operate as a force of social and cultural change. This brings a focus to occasions where encounters with the problem of suffering are involved in changing people’s  beliefs and attitudes. It also concerns an attempt to understand how cultural perceptions of human suffering are implicated within the actions taken in response to the needs of others.

These interests have inspired him to investigate the cultural history of modern humanitarianism and humanitarian social movements.  Here he is concerned to understand the social and cultural conditions that give rise to humanitarian moral feelings as well as role played by the cultural politics of compassion in public life.  He is also tracing the impact of humanitarianism upon the culture of sociology. In particular he has developed an interest in the extent to which understanding  the human social condition requires the cultivation of bonds of ‘social sympathy’.  These issues are explored in various publications addressed to problems of ‘social suffering’ and in studies that explore the potential  for documents of human suffering to be fashioned as a distinct form of social inquiry.  

Iain’s research involves him working across a range of fields that include developments in sociological theory, the sociological of health and illness, the sociology of humanitarianism, the sociology of the body and emotions, the sociology of risk and anxiety, the sociology of mass media and the history of sociology.

Find me:

On Academia
Visit my website

Books 

• Wilkinson, I. and Kleinman, A. (2012 forthcoming) A Passion for Society: Essays on Social Suffering,
• Wilkinson, I. (2010) Risk, Vulnerability and Everyday Life, London: Routledge
• Petersen, A. and Wilkinson, I. (eds) (2008) Health, Risk and Vulnerability, London: Routledge
• Wilkinson, I. (2005) Suffering: A Sociological Introduction, Cambridge: Polity Press
  

  For this work I was awarded the 2006 Sociology of Health and Illness Prize - an annual award for the book making the most significant contribution to the sub-discipline of medical sociology / sociology of health and illness

• Wilkinson, I. (2001) Anxiety in a Risk Society, London: Routledge 

Editorships of Special Editions of Journals

• Wilkinson, I. (ed) (2006) Health Risk and Society, Special edition: Social Suffering & Health Risk, London: Taylor & Francis
• Anderson A., David, M., and Ettorre, E., Wilkinson, I., (eds) (2002) New Genetics and Society, Special Edition: Taking Genetics Seriously, London: Carfax Publishing

Articles 

• ArticlesWilkinson, I (2013 in press) The Provocation of the Humanitarian Social Imaginary,  Visual Communication, 12(3)
• Wilkinson, I (2013) The Problem of Suffering as a Driving Force of Rationalization and Social Change British Journal of Sociology, vole 64(1): 123-141
• Wilkinson, I (2012) With and Beyond Mills: Social Suffering and the Sociological Imagination Cultural Studies ↕ Critical Methodologies 12(3):182-91
• Breeze, B. Gouwenberg, B. Schuyt S, and Wilkinson I. (2011) Does public policy make sense in promoting philanthropic funding?  The case of EU Universities, Public Management Review 13(8): 1-17.
• Wilkinson, I. (2010) ‘Grasping the Point of Unfathomable Complexity: The New Media Research and Risk Analysis’, Journal of Risk Research 13(1-2): 19-28. 
• Wilkinson, I. (2006) 'The Problem of Suffering as a Problem for Sociology’, Medical Sociology Online 1(1): 45-7. 
• Wilkinson, I (2006) ‘Editorial: Health Risk and Social Suffering’, Health Risk and Society, Special edition: Social Suffering & Health Risk, 8(1):1-8.
• Wilkinson, I (2004) ‘The Problem of Social Suffering: The Challenge to Social Science’, Health Sociology Review Vol. 13(2): 1-15.
• Anderson A., David, M., and Ettorre, E., Wilkinson, I., (eds) (2002) Introduction: Taking Genetics Seriously’, New Genetics and Society, Special Edition: Taking Genetics Seriously, David, M  & Wilkinson, I. (2002) 'Critical Theory of Society or Self-Critical Society?', Critical Horizons, 3(1): 131-158
• Wilkinson, I (2001) 'Thinking with Suffering', Cultural Values, 5(4):421-444
• Morgan, D. G. & Wilkinson I. (2001) ‘The Problem of Suffering and the Sociological Task of Theodicy’, European Journal of Social Theory, 4(2):199-214
• Wilkinson, I (2001) ‘Social Theories of Risk Perception: At Once Indispensable and Insufficient, Current Sociology, 49(1):1-22
• Wilkinson, I. (1999) 'Where is the Novelty in our Current 'Age of Anxiety'?'  European Journal of Social Theory, 2(4):445-67
• Wilkinson, I. (1999) 'News Media Discourse and the State of Public Opinion on Risk.' Risk Management: An International Journal,1(4):21-31

Research reports 

• Breeze, B. Wilkinson, I Gouwenberg B. & Schuyt, T. (2011) Giving in Evidence: Fundraising from Philanthropy in European Universities, Brussels: European Commission

Book chapters

• Wilkinson, I (2013 forthcoming) ‘The New Social Politics of Pity’, M. Ure and M. Frost (eds) The Politics of Compassion, London: Routledge
• Wilkinson, I. (2012) ‘Cosmopolitanism and Humanitarianism’, in Delanty, G. (ed) Routledge International Handbook of Cosmopolitan Studies, London: Routledge 
• Wilkinson I (2011) ‘Social Suffering and Human Rights’ In Cushman, T. (ed) Routledge International Handbook of Human Rights, New York: Routledge
• Wilkinson, I. (2011) ‘Social Suffering and the New Politics of Sensibility’, in Delanty, G. and Turner, S. (eds) Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Social and Political Theory, London: Routledge
• Wilkinson, I. (2011) ‘Ulrich Beck’ in Ritzer G. and Stepnisky, J. (eds) The Wiley-Blackwell Blackwell Companion To Major Social Theorists, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell 
• Wilkinson I (2009) ‘Emile Durkheim’. Fifty Key Thinkers in Criminology, London: Routledge
• Wilkinson I. (2007) 'On Bauman's Sociology of Suffering: Questions for Thinking", in Elliott, A (ed) The Contemporary Bauman: A Critical Reader, London: Routledge 
• Wilkinson I. (2006) 'The Psychology of Risk' in G. Mythen and S. Walklate (eds) Beyond the Risk Society: Critical Reflections on Risk and Human Security, Open University press/Mcgraw Hill 
• Wilkinson I. (2006) ’Ulrich Beck', in Scott, J. (ed) Key Sociologists, London: Routledge 
• Wilkinson I. (2006) Entries on 'Ulrich Beck', 'Risk' and 'Reflexivity' in A. Harrington, B. Marshall and H. P. Muller (eds) The Routledge Encyclopaedia of Social Theory, London: Routledge

Research interests

Iain Wilkinson’s research attempts to document and explain how people’s experience of ‘the problem of suffering’ changes through history and between societies.  He is interested in the potential for the incidence human suffering to operate as force of social and cultural change. This brings a focus to occasions where encounters with the problem of suffering are involved in changing people’s  beliefs and attitudes. It also concerns an attempt to understand how cultural perceptions of human suffering are implicated within the actions taken in response to the needs of others.

These interests have inspired him to investigate the cultural history of modern humanitarianism and humanitarian social movements.  Here he is concerned to understand the social and cultural conditions that give rise to humanitarian moral feelings as well as role played by the cultural politics of compassion in public life.  He is also tracing the impact of humanitarianism upon the culture of sociology. In particular he has developed an interest in the extent to which understanding  the human social condition requires the cultivation of bonds of ‘social sympathy’.  These interests are explored in various publications addressed to problems of ‘social suffering’ and in studies that explore the potential  for documents of human suffering to be fashioned as a distinct form of social inquiry. 

These interests involve him working across a range of fields that include developments in sociological theory, the sociological of health and illness, the sociology of humanitarianism, the sociology of the body and emotions, the sociology of risk and anxiety, the sociology of mass media and the history of sociology.

Supervision 

Iain is particularly keen to supervise research students with interests relating to any of the above.If you are interested in studying at the University of Kent, please email him to arrange a meeting to discuss your research proposal.  

In recent years he has supervised projects on Norbert Elias’ theory of the civilizing process, the social practice  of compassion in everyday life.,the sociology of utopia in relation to intergenerational developments in leftist politics,  the social experience of isolation  in remote island communities, and the impact of experiences of  volunteering on young people’s notions of citizenship, and new forms of on-line humanitarian activism.

Current

As part of his contribution to teaching on the undergraduate programme in Sociology, Iain convenes the core first year sociology modules (SO337 Sociology of Everday Life and SO337 Fundamentals of Sociology). He also convenes the core second year sociological theory module  (SO500 Sociological Concepts and Theories).  For the taught Sociology MA programme he convenes a module on ‘Social Suffering’ (SO885).

Honorary positions

• Visiting scholar to the Department of Anthropology, Harvard University 2008-9.
• Visiting scholar to the Department of Anthropology, Monash University, 2009.

Professional activities

• Member of the International Assessment Board (IAB) of the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS) 2011, 2012 & 2013
• Member of the Executive Committee of the British Sociological Association 2003-7.
• Member of the Editorial Board of Health Risk and Society 2006-
• Member of the Editorial Board of Sociology 2002-6
• Member of the International Advisory Board of European Journal of Social Theory 2007-
• Member of the Editorial board of Blackwell Sociology Compass 2007-
• Founder and convenor of the British Sociological Association study group on Risk and Society 2001-2007

Editorships of special editions of journals

• Wilkinson, I. (ed) (2006) Health Risk and Society, Special edition: Social Suffering & Health Risk, London: Taylor & Francis
• Anderson A., David, M., and Ettorre, E., Wilkinson, I., (eds) (2002) New Genetics and Society, Special Edition: Taking Genetics Seriously, London: Carfax Publishing