SYMPOSIUM: Dorothy Smith and the Social Organisation of Knowledge

The Institute of Advanced Studies presents a one-day symposium dedicated to the work of Dorothy Smith, an internationally renowned scholar whose work focuses on the application of a feminist perspective to sociology and institutional ethnography (IE).

Dorothy Smith’s Sociology for Women (1987) was the inspiration for research into the everyday/everynight world of work. She is a lifetime student of the social organisation of knowledge, and the developer of the ‘institutional ethnography’ approach that is used in practical applications to policy and workplaces in Europe, North America and Australia. Positioned beyond ethnomethodology and Marx, her feminist-inspired work develops a ‘sociology for people’ that shows us the everyday workings of power and discourse so that we might fruitfully understand and challenge them. Other books include The Everyday World as Problematic: A Feminist Sociology (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987), for which she received the John Porter Award in 1990; The Conceptual Practises of Power: A Feminist Sociology of Knowledge (University of Toronto Press, 1990); Texts, Facts and Femininity: Exploring the Relations of Ruling (Routledge, 1990); and Writing the Social: Critique, Theory and Investigations (University of Toronto Press, 1998).

The morning sessions will examine from where IE has come, with the afternoon sessions dedicated to consider the applications and implications of IE. Dorothy Smith will provide closing comments.

Full Symposium registration - $ 30

Concession (Students, Unemployed) - $10

More information about this event and a registration facility is available at the IAS website www.ias.uwa.edu.au