Brian Alleyne | University of Cambridge (original) (raw)

Books by Brian Alleyne

Geeks, hackers and gamers share a common ‘geek culture’, whose members are defined and define the... more Geeks, hackers and gamers share a common ‘geek culture’, whose members are defined and define themselves mainly in terms of technology and rationality. The members of geek culture produce and circulate stories to express who they are and to explain and justify what they do. Geek storytelling draws on plots and themes from the wider social and cultural context in which geeks live. The author surveys many stories of heated exchanges and techno-tribal conflicts that date back to the earliest days of personal computing, which construct the “self” and the “enemy”, and express and debate a range of political positions.

Geek and Hacker Stories will be of interest to students of digital social science and media studies. Both geeky and non-technical readers will find something of value in this account.

"We are invited to think about the now ubiquitous everyday practices of interpreting and producin... more "We are invited to think about the now ubiquitous everyday practices of interpreting and producing narratives across a range of modalities. The result is a text that inspires readers to think in new ways about narratives, invites them to analyse narrative texts available on the Web and, for those who wish, suggests how best to employ specialist software."
- Ann Phoenix, Institute of Education, University of London

"It’s high time we have a book like this. Brian Alleyne has managed to produce the best, clearest, and most comprehensive overview of narrative theory for social scientists I have yet to see. I wish I’d had access to a book like this when I was a student. It would have made my life so much easier. It will surely become the universally recognised go-to book on the subject."
- David Graeber, London School of Economics & Political Science

Narrative is a fundamental means whereby we make sense of our own lives and of the world around us. The stories we tell, and are being told, shape our identities, relationships and world-views. In a rapidly changing digital society where blogging and social networking have become fundamental communication channels, the platforms for the creation and exchange of all kinds of narratives have greatly expanded.

This book responds to the dynamic production and consumption of stories of all kinds in popular and academic cultures. It offers a comprehensive discussion of the underlying philosophical and methodological issues of narrative and personal narrative research as well as applying these to the current digital landscape. The book provides practical guidance on data management and use of software for the narrative researcher.

Illustrated with examples from a range of fields and disciplines as well as the author’s own work on hacking cultures and cultural activism, this title is a must for anyone wanting to learn about narrative approaches in social research and how to conduct successful narrative research in a digital age.

'Innovative, engaging and exciting. Anyone who has any doubts about the strength and power of con... more 'Innovative, engaging and exciting. Anyone who has any doubts about the strength and power of contemporary British sociology should read this book.'

Steve Taylor, Chair, BSA Publications Committee

This book interrogates the ideas and practices of the New Beacon Circle's activists as relatively stable elements in the fast-changing scene of contemporary radical politics. Highlighting how biography and self representation have important cultural, theoretical and political implications, Alleyne succeeds in making an original contribution to a growing literature on autobiography as a rich resource for understanding social and political theory. He also provides an engaging account of a neglected area of British Activism. This book will be of interest to social anthropologists, sociologists, and anyone interested in the history of British activism or race and ethnic studies.

Online Papers by Brian Alleyne

English Political Catchwords, 2024

https://englishpoliticalwords.wordpress.com/2024/01/10/culture-war-part-1/

A few months ago, the British journal Sociology published an article titled "Challenging Cod... more A few months ago, the British journal Sociology published an article titled "Challenging Code: A Sociological Reading of the KDE Free Software Project". Eager to find out what a 'sociological reading' of KDE entails, Dot editor Oriol Mirosa rushed to contact the article's author, sociologist Brian Alleyne, who graciously and patiently agreed to be the subject of an interview

Computational Culture, 2021

Review essay centred on Charlton D. McIlwain, Black Software: The Internet & Racial Justice, from... more Review essay centred on Charlton D. McIlwain, Black Software: The Internet & Racial Justice, from the AfroNet to Black Lives Matter. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2019

Published Papers and Book Chapters by Brian Alleyne

The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, 2021

Hacking emerged in the 1960s at university computer science laboratories in the United States whe... more Hacking emerged in the 1960s at university computer science laboratories in the United States where researchers and engineers developed innovative techniques of creating and modifying computer software. The field of hacking has since expanded globally to encompass network intrusion, free and open-source software, cybercrime and cyberterrorism, hacktivism, civic hacking, and culture hacking.

Geek and Hacker Stories: Code, Culture and Storytelling from the Technosphere, 2018

A personal reflection on my experience as a lifetime geek.

Cambridge Handbook of Social Problems, 2018

This paper introduces the ideas and practices of digital technology enthusiasts who fall under th... more This paper introduces the ideas and practices of digital technology enthusiasts who fall under the umbrella of 'hackers'. We will discuss how their defining activity has been constructed as a social problem and how that construction has been challenged in different ways. The paper concludes with several policy suggestions aimed at addressing the more problematic aspects of computer hacking.

SAGE REsearch Methods Online, 2018

This case study is based on ethnographic work I carried out on a free and open source software pr... more This case study is based on ethnographic work I carried out on a free and open source
software project. My observation and participation as a user of the software informed the work that was central to the case, as did my online observation. I also analyzed a series of interviews of software developers that had been conducted by a member of the software project, which were published on the project's website. My work combined online ethnography with traditional participant observation. There is a great deal written on the methodologies of both online ethnography and participant observation: what is distinctive about this case study is that it shows how to use both approaches. The case study stresses specific steps, ranging from formulating research questions, through data gathering online and in person, and analysis and writing up. The case study offers advice on software tools that are helpful for mixed-mode online/in-person ethnography.

Media Diversified, 2017

A majority of ethnic minority British people who voted in the 2016 EU referendum, voted to remain... more A majority of ethnic minority British people who voted in the 2016 EU referendum, voted to remain. This is a challenge to glib claims that Brexit was mainly a reaction by the excluded working class, since most ethnic minority British voters are working class. I argue that ethnic minority voters voted against the xenophobic and nationalist elements in the Leave campaign.

dot.kde.org, 2012

A few months ago, the British journal Sociology published an article titled "Challenging Code: A ... more A few months ago, the British journal Sociology published an article titled "Challenging Code: A Sociological Reading of the KDE Free Software Project". Eager to find out what a 'sociological reading' of KDE entails, Dot editor Oriol Mirosa rushed to contact the article's author, sociologist Brian Alleyne, who graciously and patiently agreed to be the subject of an interview. Read on to learn more about Brian, sociology, and the significance of KDE for the social sciences.

Sociology, Jan 1, 2011

Free, Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) challenges the norms and relations of the capitalist... more Free, Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) challenges the norms and relations of the capitalist software industry that is at the core of network society. Many people involved in FLOSS see themselves as activists in a new social movement. The article discusses the KDE (Kool Desktop Environment) project as a FLOSS case study. KDE is one of several projects intended to bring ease of use of a graphical user interface (GUI) to various free operating systems. (The operating system is the underlying software on top of which sit applications we use directly such as web browsers or word processors.) The article considers the KDE project from three broad perspectives — ‘cosmological’, technical, and organizational — in order to examine the expressed world-view and technical organization of the project through an established sociological approach to activism and social movements.

Beyond Boundaries: CLR James and Postnational …, Jan 1, 2006

In this essay I discuss the hybrid approach to culture and politics found in the work of C.L.R. J... more In this essay I discuss the hybrid approach to culture and politics found in the work of C.L.R. James—an amalgam of Marxism and anti-colonialism, informed by a cultural consciousness shaped most strongly by European classics and English literature. I argue that James’s work is humanist because it centred on human needs and creative potential, as well as universalist because it sought to articulate a vision of history that encompassed all of humanity, whilst remaining aware of the contradictory and often exclusionary ways in which humanism and universalism have developed as designs for life. I label James a critical humanist because he held fast to a vision of a better society, whilst criticising the more unsavoury aspects of Eurocentric variants of humanism. Since the 1960s, in particular, many critics have cast doubt on humanism’s claim to speak on behalf of all people, exposing universalist rhetoric as disguise for domination and exploitation. Without denying these trenchant criticisms of humanist ideas, I will argue that James’s work suggests that there is much worth salvaging in the humanist project.

Imprints: a Journal of Analytical Socialism, 2003

What can CLR James's lifework teach us in 2002? The publication of Farrrukh Dhondy’s long-awaited... more What can CLR James's lifework teach us in 2002? The publication of Farrrukh Dhondy’s long-awaited book on James life and work provides us the opportunity to reflect on the impact and relevance of this peripatetic radical writer and activist.

Britain’s non-white population has formed and worked with complex, sometimes contradictory, and o... more Britain’s non-white population has formed and worked with complex, sometimes contradictory, and often potent forms of cultural capital in shaping and re-shaping their space in the British nation. Academic as well as policy recognition of the complexity of Britain’s racialised minorities has manifested itself in the widespread belief among the liberal elite, that Britain is becoming a ‘multicultural society’. That multiculture is most often conceived as a judicious, or heinous (depending on your p0litcal outlook) mix of ethnic identities and communities. This perspective, whether from the liberal left or the xenophobic right, obscures more than it reveals (Alleyne 2002). In particular it obscures the political and intellectual work that underlies the negotiated and ever-contested emergent partially multicultural reality of Britain today. That reality has come about in part through political and cultural work, negotiation and contestation.

Published 2006 in the Encyclopedia of Social Theory, ed by Harrington et al, Routledge.

Geek and Hacker Stories will be of interest to students of digital social science and media studies. Both geeky and non-technical readers will find something of value in this account.

Steve Taylor, Chair, BSA Publications Committee

English Political Catchwords, 2024

https://englishpoliticalwords.wordpress.com/2024/01/10/culture-war-part-1/

Computational Culture, 2021

The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, 2021

Geek and Hacker Stories: Code, Culture and Storytelling from the Technosphere, 2018

A personal reflection on my experience as a lifetime geek.

Cambridge Handbook of Social Problems, 2018

SAGE REsearch Methods Online, 2018

Media Diversified, 2017

dot.kde.org, 2012

Sociology, Jan 1, 2011

Beyond Boundaries: CLR James and Postnational …, Jan 1, 2006

Imprints: a Journal of Analytical Socialism, 2003

Published 2006 in the Encyclopedia of Social Theory, ed by Harrington et al, Routledge.

Caribbean narratives of belonging: fields of relations, …, Jan 1, 2005

Racism in the Global African Experience, Jan 1, 2006

In the media, state and private sector institutions, there is a growing if often contested, recog... more In the media, state and private sector institutions, there is a growing if often contested, recognition, that Britain is ‘multicultural society’. This recognition is often manifested in vague references to ‘ethnic community’. This recognition is underpinned by academic research, policy development and activism. The key players in this scenario are liberal and left-liberal members of the intelligentsia: in the arts, media and academia, as well as figures in the public sector. Many of these are ethnic minorities themselves. Some have made their careers in the race relations field. Ideas of multiculturalism have had some influence on public debate, on education, and on public policy, but acceptance of cultural diversity has seldom risen above a ritualistic, and on the part of the White majority, sometimes condescending acknowledge of ethnic difference. It is now de rigueur for leaders of major political parties to be seen at the annual Notting Hill Carnival, reputedly Europe’s largest street festival; and one government minister is reported to have claimed (with no irony apparently) that a sign of Britain’s multiculturalism is that the national dish is now chicken tikka Masala. Even as eminent a scholar as Professor Parekh, in a 1999 public lecture, lapsed into celebrating culinary diversity as evidence of multiculturalism (think of anthropological reflections on eating the Other).

History Workshop Journal, Jan 1, 2007

Obituary of the activist and writer, John La Rose.

Ethnic and racial studies, Jan 1, 2002

The paper poses the question: what are the epistemological consequences of an unreexive use of t... more The paper poses the question: what are the epistemological consequences of an unreexive use of the concept of community as the privileged container of cultural difference? The argument is made that contemporary notions of ethnic minority communities as deployed in ofcial and demotic discourse have a complex history which may usefully be traced through classical sociological and anthropological thinking on the idea of community as connoting the premodern and non-Western. This is supplemented by a discussion of the contribution of ideas from these disciplines to contemporary imaginings of ethnic difference in ‘multicultural’ Britain.

Ethnic and racial studies, Jan 1, 2002

The events in Britain since the beginning of the new millennium starkly and dramatically reect t... more The events in Britain since the beginning of the new millennium starkly and dramatically reect the continued salience of racial and ethnic difference. In media, political and academic discourse, the struggles over nationhood and multiculturalism, the duties of citizenship and the right to cultural expression, similarity and difference have been played out against global and national backdrops, and across many local stages. The articles in this
volume aim to explore the contours of this changing terrain, and suggest new avenues for research and theorization. They are primarily an engagement with British debates and events, but seek to place these within a broader global and diasporic context. The aim of this introductory article is to sketch the background to the events that surround the production of
these articles, to outline a broad conceptual overview of the current academic debates and to explore the links between each contribution.

Interventions: international journal of postcolonial …, Jan 1, 1999

The mass culture and information technology industries - infomedia - are at the leading edge of t... more The mass culture and information technology industries - infomedia - are at the leading edge of the processes of globalization. These infomedia industries are organized by and in the interest of northern elites as part of the unequal global balance of power and resources. But infomedia, provided they are subjected to searching critique, do offer to cultural activists resources that may be turned toward radical democratic projects. Both CLR James and Theodor Adorno brought a radical humanist consciousness to bear on the mass culture industries in the USA in the immediate post war period. Though their conclusions differed, their analyses taken together can provide cultural activists with effective tools for reading both the pitfalls and potentials of the emergent infomedia industries.

Small Axe, Jan 1, 1998

Anthony Bogues's Caliban's Freedom: The Early Political Thought of C.L.R. James takes up the cudg... more Anthony Bogues's Caliban's Freedom: The Early Political Thought of C.L.R. James takes up the cudgels against the kind of Eurocentric consciousness which does not accept that people from outside the centres of the capitalist world system can engage in theory and philosophy as subjects. In response, Bogues locates his study of James's work simultaneously within a radical Caribbean/radical black tradition, and within classical Marxism. His reading of James starts from the standpoint that the Caribbean was created by the expansion of the Atlantic system - the West; its development was and is intricately tied in to that system; so too the intellectual history of the region is intricately tied in to that of the wider West - as James' life and work demonstrates.

NVivo Virtual Conference 2021, 2021

Whilst it is accepted that qualitative data analysis software is useful for doing narrative resea... more Whilst it is accepted that qualitative data analysis software is useful for doing narrative research, the term narrative itself has myriad meanings across the social sciences, which can make it difficult to design and implement narrative research projects. This paper addresses this difficulty by specifying narrative research from a sociological perspective before going on to show what NVivo offers to such narrative research. The paper opens with an overview of how NVivo can help to realise two approaches to narrative research in the social sciences: analysis of narrative where we code and classify text segments and whole texts; and narrative analysis, where we construct a narrative report from various source materials.

This presentation is based on ongoing work; in the talk I explore three issues: 1. Southern tech ... more This presentation is based on ongoing work; in the talk I explore three issues:
1. Southern tech Histories - the main concepts and questions that guide my work;
2. Caribbean Speculative Fiction and pan Caribbean poetics;
3. Vignettes from a surprising history of Computing in the Caribbean.

The Register Lectures, 2017

Brian Alleyne, of the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths discusses how geek and hacker culture... more Brian Alleyne, of the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths discusses how geek and hacker culture has always tended to fracture along techno-tribal lines. As a former programmer turned sociologist, Brian is the perfect guide to the, let's say, heated exchanges and tribal conflicts that reach back to the earliest days of personal computing, through games console flamewars, Mac vs PC, Android vs iOS, and the ongoing Linux vs everything else.

Brian will show how these platform war stories construct the "self" and the "enemy" and how these stories display features of "schismogenesis" – in this case a process of mutually reinforcing amplification of minor differences into major divide

4 Minute video on the Financial Times. Former hacker, Cal Leeming reflects on hacker motivation, ... more 4 Minute video on the Financial Times. Former hacker, Cal Leeming reflects on hacker motivation, and I say a bit on how to understand hacking.

Podcast: On 18 February 2015, I gave a talk at the Institute for Social Research, Birkbeck Colleg... more Podcast: On 18 February 2015, I gave a talk at the Institute for Social Research, Birkbeck College, on how and why I wrote Narrative Networks, and about narrative research m ore generally.

BBC Radio 4, 2002

Laurie Taylor is joined by the poet and one-time sociologist Linton Kwesi Johnson, who this week ... more Laurie Taylor is joined by the poet and one-time sociologist Linton Kwesi Johnson, who this week joins Jean-Paul Satre, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf as a Penguin Modern Classic author and Brian Allyne, lecturer in sociology, Goldsmiths College, University of London.

They discuss the social and political concerns that have underpinned his work for the past three decades.

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, 2019

History workshop journal, 2007

John La Rose was a political and cultural activist, poet, writer, publisher and Chairman of the G... more John La Rose was a political and cultural activist, poet, writer, publisher and Chairman of the George Padmore Institute and Archive. His life and work had impacts on several continents, but it is arguably in Britain that he had his greatest influence. La Rose was born in 1927 into a ...

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, Nov 3, 2018

Goldsmiths Research Online. Goldsmiths - University of London. ...

Geek and Hacker Stories, 2018

SAGE Publications, Inc. eBooks, Dec 31, 2017

Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks, Nov 3, 2018

Political issues are ever present in geek culture even though many geeks claim to be outside poli... more Political issues are ever present in geek culture even though many geeks claim to be outside politics and concerned mainly with technology, which many geeks claim is politically neutral. There is a strong streak of libertarian individualism in geek culture—especially in the USA—that is suspicious of traditional forms of political expression and organisation, whether on the Left or the Right. This chapter draws together many of the themes and narrative forms from the stories examined in previous chapters. This chapter outlines three political perspectives that are influential in geek culture: cyber-utopianism, techno-libertarianism, and techno-anarchism; examines the distinctive narrative strategies that are associated with each perspective; and looks at how geek stories use these to try to resolve tensions around democracy and meritocracy.

SAGE Publications, Inc. eBooks, Dec 31, 2017

University of Toronto Press eBooks, Mar 1, 2007

There is joy in geek culture: the excitement of receiving a new gadget, viewing an unboxing video... more There is joy in geek culture: the excitement of receiving a new gadget, viewing an unboxing video, loading software onto a smartphone which was not really designed to run that software in the first place. Then there is a geek ‘gold standard’, which involves fine-tuning of the latest Linux distribution to get it to work on hardware not specifically designed for it. Curiosity is related to joy. Joy comes from the satisfaction of curiosity and overcoming technical challenges.

In this essay I use a case study of a cultural activist project in order to explore the value of ... more In this essay I use a case study of a cultural activist project in order to explore the value of autobiographical narrative for sociological understanding of the cultural politics of postwar Caribbean settlement in Britain In presenting the following account, I am seeking an interpretative understanding of a group of persons and their milieu. My account, typically for the human sciences, is bound in a double hermeneutic: my own descriptions and interpretations are interwoven with the descriptions and interpretations of my informants. Three ideas shape my approach in what follows: imagination, the life seen as a project, and praxis. ‘Writing culture’ is among other things, an exercise in imagination. Even if we are not greatly concerned with the problem of other minds and whether we can know them, we must confront the fact of ethnographic work as partly to do with creating narrative, and thus with textual rendering of the workings of our imagination. In his classic text, The Sociological Imagination, C. W. Mills held that the central problem to which social science should address itself is the relation between 'private troubles' and 'public issues'; this relation is complicated by modernity's strict separation of public from private spheres.

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Mar 19, 2018

Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 1999

This article was downloaded by: [ ] On: 13 July 2011, At: 11:48 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd ... more This article was downloaded by: [ ] On: 13 July 2011, At: 11:48 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK ... Publication details, including ...

I discuss how I constructed a life history of writer, activist and publisher John La Rose (1927 –... more I discuss how I constructed a life history of writer, activist and publisher John La Rose (1927 – 2006), based upon a series of interviews I carried out with him in 1996-97, in which he narrated different aspects of his life story. This work was mainly a narrative analysis, in that I used an explicit narrative form - the life history - as the vehicle for organizing my research material and also for reporting the research to a wider audience.

This working paper connects earlier work to more recent developments. It calls for a re-imaginat... more This working paper connects earlier work to more recent developments. It calls for a re-imagination of hacking against the backdrop of late capitalist network society. Hacking is discussed in terms of open and clandestine practices, ‘hacktivism’, and hardware hacking. The paper concludes by sketching the outlines of an integrated sociological understanding of hacking, one which can account for the varied representations and practices that constitute hacking in the contemporary world.

Ashis Nandy, in his book, 'The Tao of Cricket', claimed that cricket was an Indian game accidenta... more Ashis Nandy, in his book, 'The Tao of Cricket', claimed that cricket was an Indian game accidentally discovered by the English; after reading Daniel Miller’s 'Tales from Facebook', I would suggest that Facebook is a Trinidadian application accidentally invented by Mark Zuckerberg of the USA. A prolific social anthropologist, Miller has written a book about Facebook use in the Caribbean island of Trinidad, having previously published studies of capitalism, modernity, and Internet use based on fieldwork in the same location.