Introduction to live methods revisited: the roots and conjuncture of live methods

In this introduction to Live Methods Revisited, we reflect upon the conjuncture in which Live Methods was originally published as a way of contextualising and appraising its legacy. In doing so we focus on an aspect of Live Methods which has had less attention – the politics of methods. Live Methods offered a reassertion of the promise and potential for sociological practice through reimagining methods, in the face of a proclaimed crisis of empirical sociology. Resultantly, it made an important intervention into how sociological research methods are practised, understood and written about. Following the 10-year anniversary of its publication, the reflections on the legacy of Live Methods have taken on greater meaning, in a different kind of crisis, that of Higher Education. The dire impacts of marketisation have borne directly upon the institution in which Live Methods was created, marking this special section in The Sociological Review as offering a critical reflection and an act of preservation of the distinct contribution of Goldsmiths Sociology. We reflect upon the role of Live Methods in the current political conjuncture and how it may, in renewed ways, offer different kinds of interventions to help navigate and creatively resist this contemporary crisis.