About Ken

KEN PLUMMER was born in April 4, 1946 in Palmers Green, London) and taught sociology for thirty years at the University of Essex from 1975.

I took early retirement in 2005 because of the need for a liver transplant.  During my formal working life I worked primarily in ten areas of sociology:

  1. lesbian, gay and queer studies
  2. a sociology of critical sexualities
  3. a sociology of suffering
  4. pragmatism and symbolic interactionism;
  5. documents of life as a research method;
  6. the sociology of story telling/ narrative theory
  7.  intimate citizenship;
  8. critical humanism as method, theory and politics;
  9. general sociology and theory;
  10. criminology, deviance, stigma, control  and labelling

After my illness, I spent some time writing about  my illness. See My Multiple Bodies

I was the founder editor of the journal Sexualities (edited it from 1996 to 2012), and the author of several textbooks: Sociology: The Basics and Sociology: A Global Introduction.

In my ‘semi-retirement’, I still write a little from time to time including; Imaginations 50 Years of  Essex Sociology; and Cosmopolitan Sexualities;    Narrative Power and Critical Humanism. 

I have written a series of  ‘Manifestos’ that you can now find  under the page marked Manifestos.

You can find a few of my recent articles under the page marked Selected Articles.

You can find a few more recent presentations under the page marked Presentations.

Some of my other diversions can be found under the page marked Fascinations.

Since 1978, I have lived in Wivenhoe, Essex, England with my life partner and ‘bestest friend’, Everard Longland

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