Transformations

Any attempt to describe the content and rationale of a ‘transformations’ hub is bound to be limited by the very nature of its subject – transformations !. Transformations implies a concentration on the nature of change, and an evaluation of its qualities and depth (or superficiality). The transformations hub situations a number of projects that are drawn together by a common characteristic – that they are subjects in motion, and subjects where debate and discussion suggests disagreement about the notion of what that change is and what its outcomes will be. Transformations allows us to consider subjects in flux, but also reminds us that the very characterising of a subject as in flux already involves preconceptions about the subject and the nature of the perceived change it is undergoing. This makes the hub a site of some dynamics projects, exploring ethics, politics, culture, environment and identity, with an ingrained sense that we should not only examine the subject in flux, but our own relationship to and evaluation of that subject. Intellectuals committed to understanding transformations are themselves an agent in characterising these transformations and so propagating how they are understood, and sometimes more directly agents in the transformation itself.

The transformation is therefore an open space for those who want to explore ideas, to question convention, to test their positions and to grapple with problems of interpretation and evaluation. It is a focal point for global networks for those convinced we will only understand transformations by stepping outside our localities, disciplines and comfort spaces. It centres on transformations – best understood in flux, as change and movement (but rigorously questioned) – in a way that opens the space for not only the idea or analysis developing from conventional and established positions, but new, innovative and creative thinking.

The activities of the hub – research networking, conferences, seminars, collaborative research and funded research projects and publishing – is committed to the notion that intellectual enquiry is central to understanding our changing world and the transformations happening around us. It is also committed to a philosophy that whilst disciplinary and descriptive studies offer perspectives on transformations, inter-disciplinary and critical approaches offer greater insight and vision. These projects are quite explicitly spaces where different disciplines, theories, perspectives and approaches collide, engage and develop a synergy. Whilst the hub leader (and where relevant the project leader) will give leadership within this space, the intention is that the network in each project, and perhaps across projects, will self-generate ideas and initiatives for development.

Hub Leader

Paul Reynolds is Hub Leader for the Transformations Hub.  Paul is Reader in Sociology and Social Philosophy and also Programme Leader in Sociology and Social Psychology in the Department of Social and Psychological Sciences atEdge Hill University in Lancashire in the United Kingdom.

Paul may be contacted via email by clicking here.

Get Involved

The Hub is a centre of activity for all the various projects which presently take place within it. We welcome your involvement and interaction; you may choose to become involved as little or as much as you like.

The Hub Leaders run a blog which discusses issues and themes arising from all the projects within the Transformations Hub. The blog will be available from 1st March 2009. You will be able to access the blog by clicking here.

During the course of 2009 a number of email discussion groups will come in to existence, one for each of the projects we run. These will be listed here as soon as they ready along eith details on how to subscribe.

From April 2009 there will be a series of eForums where people can share resources, access information and get involved in on-line discussions.

And from July 2009 we will be launching a Repository Wicki which will aim to become a comprehensive collection of materials and resources relating to the themes and issues covered by the hub and its projects.