I had the pleasure of presenting my research at @eui-eu.bsky.social on technicization and the governance of male circumcision in global health policy, as part of a
@civica.bsky.social initiative.
The paper is available open access: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
@lsemethodology.bsky.social
graphic that reads 'we're hiring: LSE Fellow in Qualitative Methods'
🎓️ We're hiring an LSE Fellow in Qualitative Methods
We are seeking to appoint an individual with established research interests and teaching experience in qualitative methods🧑🤝🧑
Applications close👉️ jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...
New publication: Studying Knowledge: An Analytical Guide for International Politics.
This chapter offers a practical toolkit for more rigorous research: clarify core concepts, structure your research design across 6 dimensions, and avoid common pitfalls.
DM for access. @lsemethodology.bsky.social
Abstract for the preprint "Computational Discourse Analysis: A Methodological Framework": "Computational Discourse Analysis is an emerging methodological approach that bridges discourse analysis with quantitative text analysis and natural language processing. While computational discourse analysis is gaining traction across a growing number of case studies, this momentum has not yet been matched by the development of dedicated methodological resources. This article addresses this gap by developing a methodological framework that makes sense of the diverse and scattered works falling under the scope of computational discourse analysis to legitimise this innovative approach and make it accessible to a broad audience. I begin by tracing the methodological traditions that underpin computational discourse analysis: discourse analysis and quantitative text analysis/ natural language processing. I then identify two primary modes through which it is currently practised: “mixed-method” computational discourse analysis and “text-as-discourse” computational discourse analysis. Building on this foundation, I address terminological and practical confusions and clarify what computational discourse analysis is and is not. Finally, I outline the core rationale and key benefits of adopting a computational discourse analysis approach: enhanced rigour, greater efficiency, and increased analytical value. In doing so, the article provides conceptual grounding for a broader methodological conversation at the intersection of qualitative and computational text analysis."
New preprint ✨
Computational Discourse Analysis is taking off—but how it bridges discourse analysis & NLP/QTA is often confusing.
Here, I clarify what it is (and isn’t) & outline two main approaches to make it more rigorous and accessible.
Would love thoughts & feedback! osf.io/preprints/so...
Happy to announce the 1st ever @isanet.bsky.social conference in South Asia in August 2026. Hosted in Colombo, Sri Lanka, we welcome proposals from scholars based in and/or studying South Asian politics & international relations, but also broader global themes ofc www.isanet.org/Conferences/...
Day3️⃣ of the NRMP 5th Anniversary Highlights🧁
From @audreyalejandro.bsky.social at @lsemethodology.bsky.social comes a topic that everyone can reflect on, #reflexivity. Learn more about your bias and applying these realizations to your research 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s43...
Crucial resource here from the world expert on reflexivity in social science research
Title: The future of reflexivity in practice: building a collective methodological agenda by Audrey Alejandro -Reflexivity is increasingly recognized as a cornerstone of high-quality research, yet methodological guidance on how to do reflexivity in practice remains limited. Drawing on emerging initiatives to operationalize reflexivity, three priorities for advancing a collective agenda are identified — turning reflexivity into a teachable, actionable set of methods.
🔭 What’s the future of reflexivity & how do we put it into practice? New article in @natrevmethodsprimers.nature.com
I argue for three priorities 1) evaluation criteria 2) studying reflexivity as a socio-cognitive phenomenon 3) adapting it across research traditions
OA: rdcu.be/eX79L
Advertising picture of the ISPOLE seminar with the title of the presentation "Speaking Climate into the World: Conceptualizing and Operationalizing Climatization" with the picture of Audrey Alejandro and Benjamin Chemouni. The seminar takes place 10-12-2025 12h45-14h sandwiches at 12h15 LECL B290
Interested in how climate discourses shape social life and politics? Happy to present my new project about climatisation with @bchemouni.bsky.social this week at @uclouvain.bsky.social 🤓
@lsemethodology.bsky.social @granthamlse.bsky.social
People sit at the front of a classroom in a panel format. Photo credit: Matteo Maria Galizzi
"Are we measuring the right things in the social sciences?"
At an LSE Open Research Panel this week @audreyalejandro.bsky.social said "so many of the tools we rely on to assess research quality are really just proxies, yet our methodological standards drop when we evaluate our own profession"
The workshop "Computational Social Sciences meets Qualitative Research" at #LSE last week was exceptional 🤩Now preparing the Special Issue that is going to be 🔥 so watch this space. Thank you to all the participants and chairs for your great insights and the amazing vibe.
📭 Just published: The Case for Asking “What Is This a Case Of?”
My students pushed me to write this — maybe yours will find it useful too.
Curious what you think!
#caseselection #methodology #researchdesign #researchmethods
www.audreyalejandro.com/the-methodol...
@lsemethodology.bsky.social
@eapower.bsky.social
@slewth.bsky.social
@floriangkern.bsky.social
@liviosilva.bsky.social
@bchemouni.bsky.social
@jojukao.bsky.social
@kenbenoit.bsky.social
@uuujf.bsky.social
@skdreier.bsky.social
The workshop "Computational Social Sciences meets Qualitative Research" at #LSE last week was exceptional 🤩Now preparing the Special Issue that is going to be 🔥 so watch this space. Thank you to all the participants and chairs for your great insights and the amazing vibe.
A pull up banner next to a plant
A doorway with a poster and people stood inside a room
People sat around a table in a grand room
Day Two of our Computational
Social Science Meets
Qualitative Research workshop has begun and we’re in the iconic Shaw Library 📚⚡️
@lsedatascience.bsky.social
It’s Day One of our Computational Social Science Meets Qualitative Research workshop ✍️
We kicked things off with the first paper from @audreyalejandro.bsky.social @dandekadt.bsky.social 💡
@audreyalejandro.bsky.social will be presenting her work on "Reflexivity in Practice" tomorrow, by the Interpretive Methodologies and Methods Group of the American Political Science Association💡
➡️ www.interpretivemethods.com/upcoming-eve...
The secret is that one deceptively simple question addresses all of these problems at once: “What is this a case of?”. This isn’t just a philosophical musing — it’s a powerful, generative tool that can supercharge your research approach. Asking this question yields four key benefits: 1. It forces you to situate your project within a broader universe of comparable cases, leading to more rigorous case selection. 2. It helps you identify conceptual anchors for your literature review beyond case-specific sources. 3. It pushes you to develop a conceptual toolbox that sharpens your analysis. 4. It allows you to make a double contribution — both to those interested in your empirical case and to those working on broader conceptual or theoretical questions. In short, asking “What is this a case of?” is a strategic, epistemological, and practical move. It transforms a descriptive project into an analytical one — bridging your phenomenon and theory to produce richer, more meaningful results.
📭 Just published: The Case for Asking “What Is This a Case Of?”
My students pushed me to write this — maybe yours will find it useful too.
Curious what you think!
#caseselection #methodology #researchdesign #researchmethods
www.audreyalejandro.com/the-methodol...
@lsemethodology.bsky.social
Thank you for the invitation. It was great!
Pic of villa engler
Very nice location for our 4th DiMES workshop today with @audreyalejandro.bsky.social. Thanks to @jojukao.bsky.social for organizing and @dennmis.bsky.social for setting us up in Villa Engler @freieuniversitaet.bsky.social
www.polsoz.fu-berlin.de/en/soziologi...
Summer is there with a new issue of the European Journal of International Relations- Vol. 31, issue 2!
🧵In this thread you can find all the articles included:
📚Read the full issue here: t1p.de/0grt2
🧵4/10
“Conceptualizing technicization: the history of the medicalization of male circumcision” by @audreyalejandro.bsky.social
t1p.de/7u0eo
Abstract to the article "Conceptualizing technicization: the history of the medicalization of male circumcision" : How does social actors’ engagement with the technical dimensions of world politics—from material infrastructures to modeling, engineering, bureaucracy, and discourses of expertise—bring about specific social configurations and political effects? To answer this research problem, International Relations scholars have growingly mobilized the idea of technicization to investigate the relationship between knowledge, governance, socio-political reproduction, and social change. However, despite this interest, technicization has been neither conceptualized nor theorized. I argue that this absence limits our understanding of how technicality affects world politics and leads to the literature taking depoliticization as the default interpretation. To address this issue, this article develops three conceptualizations of technicization by distinguishing between the theoretical traditions underpinning this idea across social sciences. I introduce to International Relations the concept of technicization as desociologization based on the Habermassian concepts of technique and practice, which I distinguish from technicization as depoliticization (Weberian) and technicization as disciplinarization (Foucauldian) most commonly encountered in the literature. I illustrate the utility of disentangling these approaches through the case study of the history of the medicalization of male circumcision and its use as a global health anti-HIV policy since 2007. Overall, this article lays solid theoretical foundations for a more structured conversation about knowledge- and discourse-related processes dealing with the technical dimensions of world politics and beyond.
🔥 New article "Conceptualizing technicization: the history of the medicalization of male circumcision" published with @ejir.bsky.social in #openaccess: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
@lsemethodology.bsky.social
#Technique #malecircumcision #expertise #Weber #Foucault #Habermas #VMMC
❤️❤️❤️Amazing! Thank you so much for sharing!! 🤓
Table synthesising the three conceptualisation of technicization introduced in the article
I develop three conceptualisation of technicization:
1. Technicization as depoliticization (Weberian)
2. Technicization as disciplinarization (Foucauldian)
3. Technicization as desociologization (Habermassian)
It is my first paper that is really a #socialtheory / #politicaltheory paper 😍🤓
Conclusion Throughout its history, male circumcision has remained a social practice embedded in and productive of social norms, for example relating to the management of sexuality. During the first stage of its medicalization, male circumcision was explicitly associated with such social/moral roles. It is during the remedicalization of male circumcision that it became technicized (in the Habermassian sense)—presented as a socially neutral procedure while continuing to perform some of its pre-medicalized social roles and acquiring new ones. On the one hand, the medicalization of male circumcision does not fit a case of technicization as depoliticization. Male circumcision has traditionally been the remit of initiatory and religious authorities before becoming the remit of medical experts, without being the object of public debate. On the other hand, the medicalization of male circumcision does not fit a case of technicization as disciplinarization either. Medicalized male circumcision has been used as a tool of social organization long before the emergence of modern states and their techniques of power—i.e. its non-technicized roles produce social order while pre-existing the emergence of modern forms of governmentality. Moreover, the relation between technicization and knowledge in this case does not follow the Foucauldian model. Rather than regulating behaviors by making an object of governance visible through knowledge, the practice is promoted while knowledge about it is either missing or non-consensual.
I illustrate the interest of theorising and disentangling these conceptualisation of #technicisation based on the case study of the history of the medicalisation of male circumcision.
Yes, have you published on discourse?
graphic that reads 'we're hiring: LSE Fellow in Qualitative Methods. Applications close: 27 April 2025. For more information and to apply, please visit www.jobs.lse.ac.uk'
We're also hiring an LSE Fellow in Qualitative Methods👏
We are seeking to appoint an individual with established research interests and teaching experience in qualitative methods 🌎
For more info and to apply➡️ jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...
