Skip to main content

Socio-legal Methodological Interrogations (SMI)

Socio-legal Methodological Interrogations: a LatAm-European ECR Network is funded by the SLSA International Collaboration Grant and Max Planck Law, and supported by Universidad de O'Higgins, Chile.

We are pleased to announce the creation of a new international socio-legal network entitled, Socio-legal Methodological Interrogations: a LatAm-European ECR Network, funded by the SLSA International Collaboration Grant and Max Planck Law, and supported by Universidad de O'Higgins, Chile.

This joint initiative, led by Dr. Michael Ashworth (Newcastle University, UK), Dr. Rachel Pougnet (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law, Germany), and Dr. Ignacio Riquelme Espinosa (Universidad O’Higgins, Chile), is the first international collaborative network aimed at bringing together early-career researchers from socio-legal communities in LatAm and Europe to engage in shared discussions of methods and methodologies.

This network builds on recent calls from within UK sociolegal studies to overcome some of the ‘gaps in the scope and remit of socio-legal scholarship’ through greater reflection on questions of methods and methodology (Mulcahy and Cahil-O’Calloghan: 2022, s2). We believe that such reflections can be significantly enhanced through cross-cultural encounters between different socio-legal communities worldwide - and by prominently including the perspectives of junior academics from these communities.

Operating on an equal basis between LatAm and Europe, our network will host in-person methodological workshops aimed at ECRs, including PhD students, in the UK (April 2025) and Chile (2026).  

Our key aims

  1. Provide a forum for ECR/PGR capacity building around socio-legal methods and methodologies.
  2. Promote research collaborations between LatAm and European socio-legal communities and foster exchanges for the future.
  3. Place methodologies and methods at the forefront of socio-legal discussions.

Stay connected

Keep up-to-date with our network on this page. If you have questions or comments, please contact:

 

Michael Ashworth, michael.ashworth@newcastle.ac.uk

Rachel Pougnet, r.pougnet@csl.mpg.de 

Ignacio Riquelme Espinosa, ignacio.riquelme@uoh.cl

 

We look forward to hearing from you.