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Sociology Research

 

Professor Darin Weinberg

Professor Darin Weinberg received a BA in Sociology and Communications from the University of California, San Diego in 1984; an MSc in Social Philosophy from the London School of Economics in 1985, and PhD in Sociology from U.C.L.A. in 1998. After teaching for three years at the University of Florida, he joined the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (now HSPS) as a University Lecturer in 2000. He held a Lindesmith Fellowship for Drug Policy Studies, from the Lindesmith Center of the Open Society Institute in 2000-2001. He has been a Fellow of King's college since 2001, and a Reader in the Department of Sociology since 2012.

In 2011 Darin won the Melvin Pollner Prize in Ethnomethodology from the American Sociological Association's Section on Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis for his book Of Others Inside and the Outstanding Article Award from the Social Problems Theory Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. In 2018 Darin again won the Melvin Pollner Prize in Ethnomethodology for his book Contemporary Social Constructionism.

Watch Prof. Weinberg's Saul O. Sidore Memorial lecture at the University of New Hampshire,"Towards an Ecological Understanding of Addiction" and his presentation at ArtsaHealing 2022.

Research Interests

Addiction, Diagnosis, Social Constructionism, Ethnomethodology, Sociology of Health and Illness, Sociology of Science

Teaching

Courses:

SOC13: Health, Medicine and Society

Key Publications - Books

Weinberg, Darin. 2024. On Addiction: Insights from History, Ethnography and Critical Theory. Durham, NC: Duke University Press

Bell, Ann V., Annemarie Jutel, Darin Weinberg and Jessica Young, eds. 2024. The Sociology of Diagnosis. Oxford: Wiley

Weinberg, Darin. 2014. Contemporary Social Constructionism: Key Themes. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Winner of the 2018 Melvin Pollner Prize awarded by the American Sociological Association's Section on Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis. Reviewed in: British Journal of Sociology, Sociology

Herring, Jonathan, Ciaran Regan, Darin Weinberg, and Phil Withington, eds. 2013. Intoxication and Society: Problematic Pleasures of Drugs and Alcohol. London: Palgrave 

Drew, Paul, Geoffrey Raymond, and Darin Weinberg, eds.. 2006. Talk and interaction in social research methods. London: Sage 

Weinberg, Darin. 2005. Of Others Inside: Insanity, Addiction, and Belonging in America. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, Winner of the 2011 Melvin Pollner Prize awarded by the American Sociological Association’s Section on Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis. Finalist for: The Phillip Abrams Memorial Prize, British Sociological Association; and The Sociology of Health and Illness Book Prize, British Sociological Association. Reviewed in: Addiction; American Ethnologist; Canadian Journal of Sociology; Contemporary Sociology; Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law; Sociology of Health & Illness, Symbolic Interaction.

Weinberg, Darin, ed.. 2002. Qualitative Research Methods. Malden, MA: Blackwell Journal 

Key Publications - Book Chapters

Weinberg, Darin. 2023. “Three Problems with the Addiction as Akrasia Thesis that Ethnography Can Solve.” In Against Better Judgment. Edited by Nick E. Evans and Patrick McKearney. Oxford: Berghahn Books, pp. 50-69

Weinberg, Darin. 2022. “Toward an Ecological Understanding of Addiction.” In Evaluating the Brain Disease Model of Addiction. Edited by Nick Heather, Matt Field, Antony Moss and Sally Satel. London: Routledge, pp. 373-383

Weinberg, Darin. 2022. “Garfinkel, Social Problems and Deviance: Reflections on the Values of Ethnomethodology.” In Harold Garfinkel and Ethnomethodology: Legacies and Prospects. edited by Douglas W. Maynard and John Heritage. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 227-251

Weinberg, Darin. 2021. “Constructionism.” In Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, 2nd Edition. Edited by George Ritzer and Chris Rojek.

Weinberg, Darin. 2019. “The Varieties of Social Constructionism.” In The Sage Encyclopedia of Social Research Methods. Edited by Paul Atkinson, Sara Delamont, Melissa Hardy, Malcolm Williams. London: Sage

Key Publications - Journal Articles

Bell, Ann, Annemarie Jutel, Darin Weinberg, Jess Young. 2024. “The Sociology of Diagnosis: Critical Distance.” Sociology of Health and Illness. 46(S1): 1-7

Weinberg, Darin (with Yishai Barth). 2024. “The Diffusion of Diagnosis and its Implications for the Epistemology and Ontology of Disease.” Sociology of Health and Illness. 46(S1): 76-91

Weinberg, Darin. 2022. “The Particularity of Freedom and Recovery from Addiction in Practice: On the Therapeutic Limitations of Generalizing Addiction Science.” International Journal of Drug Policy.

Weinberg, Darin. 2021. “Freedom and Addiction in Four Discursive Registers: A Comparative Historical Study of Values in Addiction Science.” History of the Human Sciences

Weinberg, Darin. 2021. “Diagnosis as Topic and as Resource: Reflections on the Epistemology and Ontology of Disease in Medical Sociology.” Symbolic Interaction

Weinberg, Darin. 2019. “Psychosomatic Subjects and the Agencies of Addiction.” BMJ Medical Humanities. 45(2): 162-8

Weinberg, Darin. 2013. "Post-humanism, Addiction and the Loss of Self-Control: Reflections on the Missing Core in Addiction Science." International Journal of Drug Policy. 24(3): 173-181 

Weinberg, Darin. 2011. “Sociological Perspectives on Addiction.” Sociology Compass. 5/4: 298- 310 

Weinberg, Darin. 2009. “On the Social Construction of Social Problems and Social Problems Theory: A Contribution to the Legacy of John Kitsuse.” American Sociologist. 40(1-2): 61-78. Winner of the 2011 Outstanding Article Award from the Social Problems Theory Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems.

Weinberg, Darin. 2002. “On the Embodiment of Addiction.” Body & Society. 8(4): 1-19 

Weinberg, Darin. 2000. “‘Out There’: The Ecology of Addiction in Drug Abuse Treatment Discourse.” Social Problems. 47(4): 606-21 

Weinberg, Darin. 1997. “Lindesmith on Addiction: A Critical History of a Classic Theory.” Sociological Theory. 15(2):150-61

Awards

Melvin Pollner Prize awarded by the American Sociological Association's Section on Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis, 2018.

Melvin Pollner Prize awarded by the American Sociological Association’s Section on Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis, 2011.

Outstanding Article Award from the Social Problems Theory Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, 2011.

Finalist for: The Phillip Abrams Memorial Prize, British Sociological Association, 2006; and The Sociology of Health and Illness Book Prize, British Sociological Association, 2007.

Job Title:
Professor in Sociology, Fellow and Director of Studies at King's College
Darin Weinberg
Contact Information:

Study at Cambridge

About the University

Research at Cambridge