Jason Manning, Assistant Professor
Jason Manning is an assistant professor at West Virginia University. He received a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Virginia. Dr. Manning’s research is primarily concerned with the diverse ways in which people express grievances and respond to deviance, a topic known as conflict management or social control. Social control takes on many forms, including gossip, spanking, firing, feuding, suing, imprisonment and execution. Dr. Manning utilizes a theoretical paradigm known as “pure sociology” (developed by Donald Black) to explain variation in social control with it’s location and direction in social space.
Dr. Manning’s dissertation work examines suicide as a kind of social control. Across societies and throughout history, people have resorted to self-destruction to punish, protest, or avoid those who have offended them. Sometimes alleged deviants even execute themselves. Dr. Manning has developed a general theory (forthcoming in Sociological Forum) that specifies the conditions under which social control will take the form of self-destruction. He plans to elaborate on this topic in future publications, and to use his theoretical and empirical work to the larger topic of violent conflict among intimates.
In addition to his work on social control, Dr. Manning maintains a strong interest in the sociology of knowledge, including the study of religion, rumor, and even science itself.
Contact Information
email: jason.manning@mail.wvu.edu
telephone: (304) 293-8237
office location: 316 Knapp Hall
