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Dr Owen Abbott
(he/him)
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Teams and roles for Owen Abbott
Lecturer
Overview
I am a Lecturer in Social Sciences at Cardiff University. I joined Cardiff University on a Leverhulme fellowship in January 2022, having previously been a lecturer at the University of York and the University of Manchester. Before that, I completed my PhD in Sociology at the University of Exeter in September 2017. My research mainly focuses on the sociology of morality (with a particular emphasis on everyday practice), sociologies of the self, and relational sociology. My research has culminated in the completion of a book entitled The Self, Relational Sociology, and Morality in Practice, published in 2019. This book won the BSA Philip Abrams Memorial Prize 2020 for best first and sole-authored book in sociology.
My Leverhulme fellowship project involved an empirical study into forgiveness in personal relationships, an area of research that has so far gone largely untouched by sociologists. This continues my interest in the moral features and dynamics of everyday personal lives.
This interest is also extended through my ongoing participation in The Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives (University of Manchester). Together with Morgan Centre colleagues, I co-authored a book entitled Masking in the Pandemic: Materiality, Interaction, and Moral Practice, which explores the sudden flux of face coverings in our lives and interactions from March 2020.
My second monograph, Social Theorists of Morality: Essay in Moral Agency, was published in 2025. This book provides a collection of critical essays on key social theorists whose work has informed sociological approaches to morality, with each essay setting out what the theorist's contribution to sociological understandings of morality is, how they have been used in sociology and adjacent disciplines, and what the limitations of their arguments might be from the perspective of contemporary sociological understandings of morality.
Publication
2025
- Abbott, O. 2025. Social theorists of morality: Essays on moral agency. Palgrave Studies in Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity. Palgrave. (10.1007/978-3-031-75181-3)
2024
- Abbott, O. 2024. A sociology of forgiveness in relationships: Why the sociology of personal life should be interested in forgiveness. Families, Relationships and Societies (10.1332/20467435Y2024D000000012)
- Abbott, O. 2024. A sketch of a pragmatist account of the relational constitution and enactment of moral agency. In: Vandenberghe, F. and Papilloud, C. eds. New Directions in Relational Sociology. Palgrave
2023
- Abbott, O., May, V., Woodward, S., Meckin, R. and Gilman, L. 2023. Masking in the pandemic: Materiality, interaction, and moral practice. Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. (10.1007/978-3-031-45781-4)
- Abbott, O. 2023. W. E. B. Du Bois's forgotten sociology of morality: Contesting the foundations and informing the future of the sociology of morality. Sociological Review 71(5), pp. 957-975. (10.1177/00380261221138207)
- Abbott, O. 2023. Interactive universalism, the concrete other, and discourse ethics: a sociological dialogue with Seyla Benhabib’s Theories of Morality. European Journal of Social Theory 26(3), pp. 335-353. (10.1177/13684310221129522)
- Abbott, O. and Burkitt, I. 2023. Moral identity, identification and emotion: a relational and interactive approach. International Review of Sociology 33(2), pp. 326-348. (10.1080/03906701.2023.2242648)
2022
- Abbott, O. 2022. Between Durkheim and Bauman: a relational sociology of morality in practice. In: Henig, D., Strhan, A. and Robbins, J. eds. Where is the Good in the World? Ethical Life between Social Theory and Philosophy. New York, US: Berghahn Book, pp. 60-76.
2021
- Balmer, A., Meckin, R. and Abbott, O. 2021. The temporal uses of moral things: Manifesting, anchoring and conserving caring relations within the sensorium. Sociology 55(3), pp. 619-640. (10.1177/0038038520959263)
2020
- Abbott, O. 2020. The self as the locus of morality: A comparison between Charles Taylor and George Herbert Mead's theories of the moral constitution of the self. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 50(4), pp. 516-533. (10.1111/jtsb.12258)
2019
- Abbott, O. 2019. The self, relational sociology, and morality in practice. Palgrave Studies in Relational Sociology. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
2017
- Abbott, O. 2017. The social self, social relations, and social (moral) practice. PhD Thesis, University of Exeter.
2016
- Abbott, O. 2016. Posthumanist perspectives and the Chernobyl Disaster: Dances of agency, temporal emergence, and disaster risk management. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters 34(2), pp. 231-249.
2015
- Abbott, O. 2015. The self and morality in Mead: : The Problems with the ‘I’ and the ‘Me’. InterCultural Philosophy: philosophy in its cultural context 1, pp. 84-102.
Articles
- Abbott, O. 2024. A sociology of forgiveness in relationships: Why the sociology of personal life should be interested in forgiveness. Families, Relationships and Societies (10.1332/20467435Y2024D000000012)
- Abbott, O. 2023. W. E. B. Du Bois's forgotten sociology of morality: Contesting the foundations and informing the future of the sociology of morality. Sociological Review 71(5), pp. 957-975. (10.1177/00380261221138207)
- Abbott, O. 2023. Interactive universalism, the concrete other, and discourse ethics: a sociological dialogue with Seyla Benhabib’s Theories of Morality. European Journal of Social Theory 26(3), pp. 335-353. (10.1177/13684310221129522)
- Abbott, O. and Burkitt, I. 2023. Moral identity, identification and emotion: a relational and interactive approach. International Review of Sociology 33(2), pp. 326-348. (10.1080/03906701.2023.2242648)
- Balmer, A., Meckin, R. and Abbott, O. 2021. The temporal uses of moral things: Manifesting, anchoring and conserving caring relations within the sensorium. Sociology 55(3), pp. 619-640. (10.1177/0038038520959263)
- Abbott, O. 2020. The self as the locus of morality: A comparison between Charles Taylor and George Herbert Mead's theories of the moral constitution of the self. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 50(4), pp. 516-533. (10.1111/jtsb.12258)
- Abbott, O. 2016. Posthumanist perspectives and the Chernobyl Disaster: Dances of agency, temporal emergence, and disaster risk management. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters 34(2), pp. 231-249.
- Abbott, O. 2015. The self and morality in Mead: : The Problems with the ‘I’ and the ‘Me’. InterCultural Philosophy: philosophy in its cultural context 1, pp. 84-102.
Book sections
- Abbott, O. 2024. A sketch of a pragmatist account of the relational constitution and enactment of moral agency. In: Vandenberghe, F. and Papilloud, C. eds. New Directions in Relational Sociology. Palgrave
- Abbott, O. 2022. Between Durkheim and Bauman: a relational sociology of morality in practice. In: Henig, D., Strhan, A. and Robbins, J. eds. Where is the Good in the World? Ethical Life between Social Theory and Philosophy. New York, US: Berghahn Book, pp. 60-76.
Books
- Abbott, O. 2025. Social theorists of morality: Essays on moral agency. Palgrave Studies in Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity. Palgrave. (10.1007/978-3-031-75181-3)
- Abbott, O., May, V., Woodward, S., Meckin, R. and Gilman, L. 2023. Masking in the pandemic: Materiality, interaction, and moral practice. Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. (10.1007/978-3-031-45781-4)
- Abbott, O. 2019. The self, relational sociology, and morality in practice. Palgrave Studies in Relational Sociology. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Thesis
- Abbott, O. 2017. The social self, social relations, and social (moral) practice. PhD Thesis, University of Exeter.
Research
My main research areas are:
- Sociology of morality, with a specific focus on everyday moral practice and the moral features of personal lives.
- Forgiveness, specifically forgiveness in personal relationships, but also the cultural settings and interactional processes of forgiveness.
- Social theory, specifically moral theories, relational and interactional approaches to sociology, and pragmatism. I have written on a number of social theorists and philosophers for my second monograph (Social Theorists of Morality), including:
- W.E.B. Du Bois
- Jane Addams
- G. H. Mead
- Alasdair MacIntyre
- Carol Gilligan
- Seyla Benhabib
- Kwame Anthony Appiah
- Jonathan Haidt
Teaching
I am course convener and lecturer on Live Theory (3rd year).
I also teach on Contemporary Inequalities (2nd year), Becoming a Social Scientist (1st Year), Foundations of Contemporary Criminology (1st year), and Theories of Crime and Punishment (1st year).
Biography
Honours and awards
Winner of the British Sociological Association Philip Abrams Memorial Prize 2020 for best first and sole-authored book.
Awarded for Abbott, O. (2019) The Self, Relational Sociology, and Morality in Practice.
Runner up of Outstanding Published Article Award Competition 2023 in the American Sociological Association section on Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity.
Awarded for Abbott, O. (2022) ‘W. E. B. Du Bois's Forgotten Sociology of Morality: Contesting the Foundations and Informing the Future of the Sociology of Morality’.
Academic positions
2024-present: Lecturer in Social Sciences, Cardiff Univeristy
2022-2024: Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow, Cardiff University
2021: Lecture in Sociology, University of York
2017-2021: Lecturer in Sociology, University of Manchester
Committees and reviewing
2021: External Examiner for Birkbeck College for a PhD thesis entitled ‘Moral agency analysed as self-enactment in social roles: A productive recast of Dewey’s pragmatist analysis’.
Supervisions
I would be particularly interesting in supervising students interested in personal relationships, everyday lives, morality, and also social theory.
Contact Details
+44 29208 70032
Glamorgan Building, Floor Second floor, Room 2.19, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3WA
Research themes
Specialisms
- Morality
- Forgiveness
- Personal relationships
- Social theory
- Self