NYLON was created in 2001 by Craig Calhoun and Richard Sennett of New York University and the London School of Economics. It began as a network of young scholars within the two institutions and collaboration between them. Today, NYLON has expanded beyond its original boundaries – it now includes members from Goldsmiths, Cambridge, and Kent in the UK; from Chicago, Columbia University, CUNY and the New School in the US; and the Wissenschaftszentrum and the Humboldt University in Berlin.

NYLON researchers share a broad interest in culture and qualitative research methods; more, with ways that social processes turn into concrete cultural forms through practical activity. We are thus exploring informal, improvised social practices, as well as the bones of institutions; again, we try to integrate cultural analysis with an understanding of politics and political economy.

NYLON is supported by New York University, London School of Economics, Cambridge University, Goldsmiths College-London and the Watermill Center for the Arts and Humanities.