Professor Mike Gane

  • Emeritus Professor of Sociology
MIke Gane

Mike Gane was a founder member of the Department of Social Sciences at Loughborough when it was established in 1972.  He took a BA in Sociology at Leicester University, 1968, and then a PhD at the London School of Economics. He returned to Leicester 1971-2, and then to Loughborough in 1972 and was subsequently Senior Lecturer, Reader and Professor of Sociology. He became Emeritus Professor at Loughborough University in 2008

Since 2008 he has published among other things,

  • ‘The Paradox of Neo-liberalism’ (Durkheimian Studies, 2009, vol 15, pp 20-25)’
  • ‘Durkheim’s Theory of Violence’ (ISSJ, 2010, ed  S R Mukherjee pp 41-50),
  • Symbolic Exchange (A Baudrillard Dictionary, ed R Smith. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010 pp 210-213),
  • ‘The Emergence of French Sociology: Durkheim and Mauss’ (The History of Continental Philosophy, ed A. Schrift 2010, vol 3, pp 87-110),
  • ‘Baudrillard’s Radicalisation of Fetishism’ (Cultural Politics, 2011, vol 7. no 3, pp 371-90),
  • Jean Baudrillard  (The Virilio Reader, ed. J. Armitage, 2013 pp 36-8),
  • ‘Auguste Comte and the Persistence of Metaphysics’ (Discipline Filosofiche, xxiii, 1, 2013, pp 207-227).
  • ‘The Cultural Logics of Neoliberalism’  (Cultural Politics, 2015, vol 11, no 1.).

And reviews including ‘Auguste Comte: An Intellectual Biography, vol 3’ by Mary Pickering (The English Historical Review, Oct. 2011, pp 1216-17), ‘French Post-War Social Theory’ by Derek Robbins (Durkheimian Studies, 18, 2012, pp 140-1), ‘Baudrillard and Theology’ by James Walters (in the LSE Review of Books, January 24th , 2013),   Cours de Philosophie Positive (Leçons 46-51), by Auguste Comte (Revue Européenne des Sciences Sociales, 5, 1, 2013  pp. 276-8.),   ‘The Education of David Martin. The Making of an Unlikely Sociologist’. (in: LSE Review of Books, March 18th 2014), and ‘Neoliberal Culture: Living with American Neoliberalism’, (in Cultural Politics, 10, 1, pp 120-213).

He was interviewed in IJBS, 2014, vol xi, 1, ‘Sociology, Politics, Academia’.

He has a continuing interest in British and French social theory and philosophy, and is currently working on the emergence, development and critique of neo-liberal governmentality and culture; and the relation between history, theory, fact and fiction in nineteenth and twentieth century social sciences.

Books (single authored)

  • On Durkheim’s Rules of Sociological Method, 1988 Routledge pp 193 0-415-00251-6 /  0-415-04252-6   
  • Baudrillard, Critical and Fatal Theory, 1991 Routledge pp 243 0-415-03774-3 / 0-415-03775-1
  • Baudrillard’s Bestiary: Baudrillard and Culture, 1991 Routledge pp  184 0-415-06306-x / 0-415-06307-8 eBook  0-203-41362-x
  • Harmless Lovers?  Gender, Theory and Personal Relationships, 1993 Routledge pp 229 0-415-09448-8 / 0-415-09449-6
  • Jean Baudrillard: In Radical Uncertainty. 2000 Pluto pp vii +118 0-7453 1636 0 / 0-7453 1635 2
  • French Social Theory.  2003 Sage pp xi + 207. 0-7619 6830 x/ 0-7619 6831 8
  • Auguste Comte, 2006 Routledge pp xv + 158  0415385431/0415385423

Books (multi-authored, and co-authored)

  • Reform or Revolution? (with J Gardiner) 1976,Open University Press 0-335-07161-9
  • Patterns of Inequality, (with A Blowers) 1976, Open University Press 0-335-07160-0
  • Ideological Dilemmas (co-authored with M Billig et al), 1988 Sage pp 180 0-8039-8095-7
  • [With N. Gane] Introduction: Symbolic Exchange and Death Today.  In: J. Baudrillard Symbolic Exchange and Death, Sage, 2016, pp 1-14
  • Comte and His Liberal Critics: From Spencer to Hayek.  In: Andrew Wernick (ed) The Anthem Companion to Auguste Comte. London: Anthem, 2017,  pp. 205-225.
  • The ‘68 Disobedient Generation’ and the Rise of ChiVirLa.    In: Jose Esteban, and Bridget Fowler and Luis Gomes (eds).  Time, Science and the Critique of Technological Reason: Essays in Honour of Herminio Martins.  Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2018.
  • The Origins of the Sociology. In: Claeys, Gregory (ed) The Cambridge Companion to Nineteenth-Century Thought.  Cambridge, CambridgeUniversity Press. 2018.

Books: edited

  • Towards a Critique of Foucault, 1986 Routledge pp 179 0-7102-0764-6
  • Ideological Representation and Power in Social Relations, 1989 pp  224 Routledge 0-415-02861-2
  • The Radical Sociology of Durkheim and Mauss, 1992 Routledge pp 229 0-415-06422-8 / 0415-06423-6 eBook 0-203-16001-0
  • Baudrillard Live: Selected Interviews, 1993 Routledge pp 22 0-415-07037-6 / 0-415-07038-4 eBook 0-203-41585-X
  • Foucault’s New Domains (with T Johnson), 1993 Routledge pp 223 0-415-08660-4 / 0-415-08661-2
  • Jean Baudrillard: . [ed and intro, 4 vols] Sage 2000 0-7619-6832-6
  • Roland Barthes  [ed and intro, with N Gane, 3 vols] Sage 2004 0-7619-4952-6
  • Umberto Eco [ed and intro, with N Gane, 3 vols ] Sage, 2005 1-429-0174-X

Recent publications

  • The origins of neoliberalism: Modelling the economy from Jesus to Foucault by Dotan Leshem, Columbia University Press, 2016. In: Contemporary Political Theory, 2017, 16, 3, pp. 426-29.
  • Journey to Isidore: Auguste Comte’s Utopian Method. In: Revue Européenne des Sciences Sociales, 2016, 54, 2, pp. 43-67.
  • [With N. Gane] Introduction: Symbolic Exchange and Death Today.  In: J. Baudrillard Symbolic Exchange and Death, Sage, 2016, pp 1-14.
  • The origins of neoliberalism: Modelling the economy from Jesus to Foucault by Dotan Leshem, Columbia University Press, 2016. In: Contemporary Political Theory, 2017, 16, 3, pp. 426-29.
  • Ludicity, Intelligence and Power: Jean Baudrillard’s Unfinished Project. In: Lo Sguardo, Rivista di Filosofia, 2017, 23, 1, pp 299-312.
  • Comte and His Liberal Critics: From Spencer to Hayek.  In: Andrew Wernick (ed) The Anthem Companion to Auguste Comte. London: Anthem, 2017,  pp. 205-225.
  • Postmodernism and Postmodernity.  In: Gavagai Philosophy Journal, 2016, 2, 186-7.
  • The Holocaust and Humanity: Bauman at the Limit.  In:  Cultural Politics. 2017 Vol 13, 3, 288-92.
  • Postmodernity.    In:  Encyclopaedia of Social Theory Edited by Bryan Turner, Wiley, 2017.
  • The New Foucault Effect. In: Cultural Politics, 2018, vol. 14, 1, 119-27.
  • The ‘68 Disobedient Generation’ and the Rise of ChiVirLa.    In: Jose Esteban, and Bridget Fowler and Luis Gomes (eds).  Time, Science and the Critique of Technological Reason: Essays in Honour of Herminio Martins.  Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2018.
  • The Origins of the Sociology. In: Claeys, Gregory (ed) The Cambridge Companion to Nineteenth-Century Thought.  Cambridge, CambridgeUniversity Press. 2018.