{"podcast":{"title":"New Books in British Studies","slug":"new-books-in-british-studies-6600","podcast_index_feed_id":6600,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/LIT4185533436","website_url":"https://newbooksnetwork.com/category/peoples-places/british-studies/","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/12ba5f1e-ee6e-11e8-b4fe-e3ef39923847/image/321372bbf566e77f150e66c39d797e13.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"New Books Network","episode_count":1823,"summary":"This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠newbooksnetwork.com⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: ⁠https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/⁠ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/british-studies","last_synced_at":"2026-07-01T18:21:14.905597+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-british-studies-6600"},"episode":{"title":"Alex Law, \"The Roots of Sociology: Scottish Enlightenment and the Civilising Process\" (Routledge, 2026)","slug":"alex-law-the-roots-of-sociology-scottish-enlightenment-and-the-civilising-process-routledge-2026","published_at":"2026-06-02T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-british-studies-6600/alex-law-the-roots-of-sociology-scottish-enlightenment-and-the-civilising-process-routledge-2026","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-british-studies-6600","url":"https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK8557640641.mp3","audio_url":"https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK8557640641.mp3","summary":"The thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment have often been claimed for sociology. But, what does it mean to say these thinkers were sociologists, or at the very least precursors to the subject? Does it, for example, mean that intellectuals of 18th Century Scotland had the same concerns as we do today? Alternatively, does it mean we should think of sociology as an elite discipline, developed by men who were attached to power, albeit with some often critical insights? In turn, if we accept these thinkers as doing something distinct, how can this sociologically be explained? These are the questions which animate Alex Law’s The Roots of Sociology: Scottish Enlightenment and the Civilising Process (Routledge, 2026). Structured around two sections, Sociology and the Scottish Enlightenment, as well as Sociology of the Scottish Enlightenment, Law sees these thinkers as thinking through what Elias would later call the civilising process. He so doing he explores how questions of state formation, violence and emerging commercial society structured their interest and how the particular position of Scotland, a stateless nation experiencing rebellion, provided the space for what he calls their ‘pre-sociology’. In our podcast we discuss how Law’s attempt to see the Scottish Enlightenment thinks as concerned with the civilising process differs from other attempts to claim them for sociology, the legacy of the Act of Union for these writers and how one became a thinker in these times. We also discuss why Adam Smith is, for Law, an ‘ambivalent’ figure for sociology and what we can learn from these writers about the scope and historical insight sociology should have. Your host, Matt Dawson is Professor of Sociology at the University of Glasgow and the author of G.D.H. Cole and British So…","meta_description":"The thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment have often been claimed for sociology. But, what does it mean to say these thinkers were sociologists, or at th…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":5651,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-british-studies-6600/episodes/alex-law-the-roots-of-sociology-scottish-enlightenment-and-the-civilising-process-routledge-2026/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-british-studies-6600/alex-law-the-roots-of-sociology-scottish-enlightenment-and-the-civilising-process-routledge-2026.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}