Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
Congratulations to professors Parker and Ashencaen Crabtree in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences on the publication of their latest paper ‘Wisdom and skills in social work education. Promoting critical relational social work through ethnographic practice.’
Reference:
Bournemouth University leads the Kosovo-strand of a major four-year AHRC ‘Global Challenges’ project titled ‘Changing the Story‘. This project aims at supporting the building of inclusive civil societies (CSOs) with, and for, young people in five post-conflict countries. It asks how the arts, heritage, and human rights education can support youth-centred approaches to civil society building in Cambodia, Colombia, Kosovo, Rwanda and South Africa. The Kosovo strand benefits from an established track record of collaboration with University of Prishtina (Co-I) and Stacion: Centre for Contemporary Arts in Prishtina as well as several arts-based civil society organisations in the country. The BU-led strand focuses on formal and informal civic education through the arts in Kosovo, to be explored locally by a Postgraduate Research Assistant, attached to University of Prishtina, through a critical review and proof of concept exercise during the first year. In support, BU is contributing a fully-funded PhD scholarship under the title ‘Imagining New Futures: Engaging Young People Through Participatory Arts in Post-Conflict Kosovo‘, which is currently being advertised.
International collaborative activities commenced last week in collaboration with an internationally-acclaimed CSO partner in Dorset, devoted to developing global youth citizenship through culture and the arts. The award-winning Complete Freedom of Truth project (TCFT), with which BU collaborated already previously, kindly offered a one-week residency to Albert Heta, Director of Stacion: Centre for Contemporary Arts in Prishtina. This residency brought together a group of artists, workshop leaders and young people from across the UK between February 12 and 16 in Bridport. Albert’s visit from Kosovo was funded by the AHRC and facilitated by BU’s new Research Centre ‘Seldom Heard-Voices: Marginalisation and Society Integration’ of the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences (FHSS). Together with Albert, some of the Centre’s members also participates in the events organised by TCFT, exchanged experiences and discussed best practice of working with young people of various background through the arts towards social justice. TCFT has a long history of working with young people, internationally, starting in post-conflict Srebrenica in 2008. Based on our observations during one week in Dorset, including of the issues selected as important by the young UK-participants during this period, we are currently reflecting on the extent to, and ways in, which arts-based interventions with a given set of young people in one specific socio-cultural context and its underpinning conceptualisations (such as of empowerment or vulnerability of, and pressures on, young people) can or cannot be transferred to another, such as that in which young people in Kosovo negotiate their aspirations.
Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers
sssievers@bournemouth.ac.uk
Photo credit below: Robert Golden
Kosovo strand activities begin via a global youth citizenship project
Congratulations to Dr. Hyun-Joo Lim Senior Lecturer in Sociology at BU who has just written an interesting piece on human rights issues faced by North Korean female defectors in China in The Conversation. You can access this article by clicking here!
Well done!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Congratulations to Dr. Mastoureh (Masi) Fathi, FHSS Lecturer in Sociology, who has been appointed to the editorial board of Sociological Research Online. Sociological Research Online is a peer-reviewed online sociology journal looking at current social issues, and it is in its twenty-second year.
Well done!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
This week saw the publication of the latest issue of the internet-based journal Sociological Research Online. In this issue Dr. Pramod Regmi and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen published a book review of Balanced Ethics Review: A Guide for Institutional Review Board Members written by the American academic Simon Whitney. [1] In doing so they continue the tradition of FHSS scholars contributing to the research ethics debate. For example, Regmi and colleagues recently had a paper accepted on their insights into research in low-income countries in the journal Developing World Bioethics.[2] Whilst a 2012 FHSS-led paper stressed that researchers conducting research in low-income countries need to apply for research ethics approval to the relevant local authority, if national legislation requires one to do so.[3]
Looking better a little further back, Professor Emerita Immy Holloway wrote about the researcher who may have (potentially) conflicting roles namely those of researcher and health care professional.[4] Whilst a combination of midwifery researchers in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) highlighted the problems faced by practitioners doing research in their field of practice with perhaps the risk of blurring professional and research ethics, as balancing competing ethical concerns between protecting research participants and over-managing the ethical process can be problematic.[5-6] The latter issue of management and regulation of research ethics has recognised as getting more and more cumbersome and bureaucratic.[7-8]
Two further publications by Prof. Ashencaen Crabtree have added to the pool of FHSS publication on research ethics.[9-10] The first one, a book, addressed the problematic issue of gate-keepers in research together with the ethics of critical observation of abuse (potential or actual), as well as the ethics of advocating on behalf of research participants.[9] The second paper covered issues around working with research participants who are regarded as ‘vulnerable’ in a study into the context of care and patient/service user experiences.[10]
Whilst Prof. Parker has highlighted the benefits and dangers of using email and the Internet for social and health research.[11] An even newer research approach is the use of discussion boards as sources of data, which brings its own ethical dilemmas.[12]
In 2010-11 Prof. Parker and colleagues explored in two separate papers the contested meanings and difficulties associated with informed consent, highlighting challenges raised by an almost unquestioned acceptance of biomedical research ethics in social research and questioning whether potential ‘harm’ is different in this context.[13-14]
Prof. Hundley and colleagues discussed the ethical challenges involved in conducting a cluster randomised controlled trial, where getting informed consent can be complication.[15] Whilst it is worth reminding researchers that in issues of informed consent during pregnancy and childbirth one has to consider the potential for harm to two participants.[16]
References
Having been at BU for three months, I thought I should introduce myself to the research community in the University and take this opportunity to tell you about some of my research interests so that anyone ploughing similar furrows can get in touch with a view to future collaboration.
Dual trained in sociology and nursing (a fact reflected in my neologistic job title), my interests span social sciences and health. Coming from a School of Nursing and Midwifery, a lot of the work I am bringing with me to BU tends towards the clinical end of the spectrum, but I am really excited by the prospect of being able to re-engage a lot more deeply in the social scientific aspects of health and care.
In terms of substantive topics, my main focus is on palliative care (for example, I have been doing a lot of work around support for patients and loved ones dealing with cancer cachexia or wasting). I also do work on supportive care for cancer patients and survivors (a current example of the kind of thing I am involved in here is a qualitative study using Habermasian critical theory to examine patients’ experiences of care while taking oral chemotherapy, and how those experiences affect medication concordance).
In addition, I am interested in arts-based therapies (I recently led a randomised controlled trial of the effectiveness of music therapy for young people with behavioural and emotional problems). The subject population of this trial is indicative of the eclecticism of my interests, which include maternal and child care. Another example of this interest is the work I’m doing with colleagues in Brazil and the UK seeking social media solutions to Brazilian women’s health problems in the first year after giving birth.
Bringing together arts-based therapy and palliative care, I am currently involved in a feasibility study looking at whether music therapy is effective in reducing anxiety in hospice patients who are reaching the end of their lives (or more precisely, looking at whether a full RCT would be effective in evaluating whether music therapy is effective).
As a person trained initially in qualitative research who drifted into the dark realms of trialling, I am aware of the strengths and weaknesses of these differing approaches. I am also deeply interested in how they can be used in combination. I do a lot of methodological work grounded in critical realism, which aims to develop and encourage novel approaches to evaluation research that are capable of robust measurement of outcomes, comprehensive analysis of processes, and critical evaluation of human consequences.
I think that’s probably enough exposure of my chronically dilettantist approach to knowledge acquisition, so I’ll end by saying that if any of this interests you, it would be great to have a conversation.
Best wishes, Sam
A specia
l guest at the screening will be the actor Lin Blakley who played “Abigail” as an adult in RUFUS STONE, and who has lately been seen as Pam Coker, a major role, in EastEnders. 
Harry Kershaw, who played young “Rufus”, will also try to join us if he can. He has been very busy since filming with us with roles in the West End and on film, and has a performance that very night. Fingers crossed.
Watching the film with theatre projection is a special treat, if you’ve never experienced it this way before. The Shelley is atmospheric and exciting as well. Mary Shelley watched performances from her deathbed through a window in the theatre that still exists today!
After the half hour screening, there will be short Q&A with the audience. Then, as Joni Mitchell penned it so well, “If you want me, I’ll be in the bar”. We will retire to the renovated bar area for drinks and nibbles. It is here that you will have the chance to meet and chat with some of the representatives of educational, statutory and community organisations who have made an impact on their communities with their own screenings of RUFUS STONE over the past five years.
And this is in no way a swan song! RUFUS STONE will then move on to the University of Tampere in Finland on the 25th of November as the Keynote at their Social Psychology Conference.
It is important that you book soon for the Shelley, as places are limited.
Directions to the Shelley Theatre on the Eventbrite site.
Watch the Trailer for RUFUS STONE: https://vimeo.com/43395306
Thanks and looking forward to seeing you at the screening,
Kip
From a scholar in Vienna:
Congratulations to Prof. Ann Brooks in FHSS on the publication of her latest book Genealogies of Emotions, Intimacies and Desire: Theories of Changes in Emotional Regimes from Medieval Society to Late Modernity. The book has a Foreword by David Konstan (NYU) and it is published by Routledge.
Prof. Linda McKie who is professor of Sociology at Durham University gave an excellent paper today in FHSS on Revitalising Spatial and Temporal Frameworks in the Analysis of Unpaid Care and Paid Work. Her paper highlighted that published data have documented the persistence of the gender pay gap for all women with evidence of a deepening gap following maternity leave. These data generated numerous analyses on segregation and discrimination in education and working life and the many ways in which unpaid care for children, family members and elders remains a dominant factor in everyday gendered inequalities. Often little comment was made on women’s crucial role in reproducing generations many of whom will fund future pensions and services through their taxation. These intergenerational reciprocities are generally ignored in favour of the immediate time considerations for employers, workers and families with the need to generate profit, or income and resources for household or business survival.
In her seminar Prof. McKie revisited the analytical frameworks of ‘caringscapes’ and ‘carescapes’. In earlier work, it was asserted that both offer analytical potential to enhance analyses of the temporal and spatial dynamics of caring and working over the lifecourse in different places. Caring, critical to human flourishing and evident in many aspects of women’s lives, is captured in ‘caringscapes’. The framework of ‘carescapes’ explores the relationship between policies and services as determined by employers, the state and capital. Both frameworks are informed by feminist theorising and spatial and temporal perspectives on identifying and analysing how women perceive, engage with, and reflect on, the demands and pleasures of combining informal caring and paid work. 
Yesterday Prof. McKie led a well-attended workshop for FHSS staff on preparing for the REF. She offered insight into various REF processes as well advise on strategic planning and the importance of networking. Prof. McKie has been a sub-panel member of the Research Excellence Framework 2014 (REF) Sub-panel 23: Sociology for the period 2010-2014.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Yesterday the Research Blog featured a post on open science, what it entails and how it is different to open access. In a recent interview conducted by OpenAire, open science veteran Ulrich Herb shares the main findings of his research on the extent of open research practices in the discipline of sociology, as well as his wider thoughts on the history and future of the Open Science movement. This interview originally appeared on the OpenAIRE portal here.
What do you understand by the term “Open Science”? Is it a cohesive phenomenon?
Open Science, as I understand it, is the area of Open Knowledge that deals with scientific information. Open Knowledge, in turn, is knowledge that can be used, edited and distributed according to Open Source principles. The ideal of Open Science is to make all objects involved in the research cycle openly accessible in this sense.
Open Science, as generally understood, is mainly about the objects or items of scientific work, such as text, data and software, but also includes “Open Review” (of text, data and possibly code), as well as “Open Metrics” as scientific para-information. Review and metrics are crucial since they often don’t merely report on the impact of science but can actively steer it as scientists often strongly orient their actions towards such evaluative criteria. In Open Review and Open Metrics the focus is less on OA to research products per se, but on transparency in the evaluation and assessment of scientific work. However, ideally reviews and the raw data that underlies metrics should also be made openly accessible.
You studied the state of play of Open Science in Sociology. What were your main findings?
OA to journal articles is well established in Sociology. This is especially true for the German-speaking world, where it is strongly promoted by journals that often allow the published versions of articles to be made available in Green OA at the end of an embargo period or even make them Open Access themselves. In addition, Closed Access journals usually have liberal OA policies as regards Green OA. Gold OA journals in Sociology very rarely charge APCs; where they do so, charges are low. On the other hand, OA to book publications is very weak in Sociology. I attribute this to a lack of professional brand building among OA book publishers. OA books will likely become more standard as established publishers develop OA options or a disciplinarily-accepted publisher develops organically from the sociological community.
OA to research data and research software is almost non-existent in Sociology, in both the German-speaking countries and the rest of the world. There is a dearth of disciplinary training, as well as a lack of positioning by the community, for example occurs through the issuing of statements as commonly occurs in other subjects.
However, incentives to move towards data-sharing that exist in other disciplines are unlikely to be effective in Sociology. Data citations are not widespread in Sociology, probably as a result, firstly, of less emphasis in general on citations as a measure of impact than in STM subjects, and secondly because domains like theoretical Sociology do not produce data at all. Sociologists, more than natural scientists, seem still to consider data to be intellectual property and fear loss of control and misuse in regards to making data OA. Finally, Open Review and Open Metrics are very rare in Sociology.
What results where most surprising for you?
I was positively surprised by the prevalence of OA to literature in Sociology. However, I was disappointed to find such limited use of Open Review. Peer review is thought more problematic in Sociology than in STM subjects. This can be attributed to a few factors. To give just one example, Sociology is less concerned with what Schimank und Volkmann term “puzzle-solving”, so much as with discussion of fundamental principles. In addition, Sociology sometimes deals with ideologically charged issues that imply deep ethical/moral disputes. But since its review practice is problematic, Sociology could especially benefit from the transparency of the Open Review, because this allows checks to be placed on the objectivity of assessment.
The rarity of OA to data and software was surprising in a negative sense as well. Social science data is especially well-suited for secondary analysis. Open Data also has an ethical dimension: for example, the re-use of qualitative data derived from surveys with victims of abuse, would free such people from multiple requests for information regarding these events. And considering Sociology’s widespread use of the open-source statistics framework R, including its open repository infrastructure, mean that the scarcity of OA to research software in Sociology is disappointing. In sum, Sociology could benefit greatly from all the areas of Open Science, yet has yet to take up this potential.
How does Sociology most differ from other fields as regards the uptake of Open Science?
Besides the prevalence of OA to literature, the most striking difference is the level of hesitancy to Open Science that exists among sociologists, despite the potential benefits I just described and the good infrastructural conditions, for example, provided for Germany by GESIS or the R-environments. I think this can, however, be partly explained by the inherent characteristics of the discipline. There are, for example, important sub-disciplines like theoretical sociology which deal with scientific reflection upon the discipline itself and hence do not produce any data or software itself. Another particularity is the privacy issue: Sociology frequently uses very sensitive data whose non-anonymized disclosure is of course impossible, but which are worthless in an anonymized form.
Where do you see Science Open in five years? What are the main challenges to come?
Fueled by increasingly stringent funder policies and mandates, OA to sscientific objects like text, data and software will continue to increase. This will also be true for books, albeit to a lesser extent than for journal articles. As for Open Review, I am more skeptical. Although I myself like the idea, I don’t think open peer review will establish itself in Sociology. In metrics, I would like to see a proliferation of metrics whose data and parameters are openly visible and re-usable and can be read via open APIs. However, I rather suspect that commercial actors such as Elsevier and Thomson Scientific for citation or MacMillan as a provider of Altmetric or Ebsco as a provider of PLUM will prevail. It is to be assumed that those providers won’t open up their data. I hope that Sociology takes up Open Science to most fully realize its potential, albeit with the caveat that Open Science must be adapted to the aforementioned disciplinary specificities.
BASA students at West Howe’s Henry Brown Centre.
Over the past few weeks, students on BA Sociology and Anthropology (Faculty of Health and Social Sciences at BU) have been carrying out ethnographic studies in West Howe, Bournemouth. As part of a focus on expanding undergraduate opportunities to conduct first hand research, students have designed their research projects collaboratively with local groups and organisations based in West Howe.
A short drive from Talbot campus, West Howe comprises a large post-war council estate, and faces a number of contemporary challenges in terms of employment, education, health and well being. It is also a green, spacious and welcoming community, with many active local initiatives aiming to improve quality of life for people in the area. Some aspects of its pre-World War Two history as a rural farming community remain present in its contemporary physical environment, combining with the modernist 1950s vision of suburban public space expressed in the architecture and street design. Local people’s experiences of the transition of the area from a largely rural hamlet to a modern housing estate, involving rapid population increase and large scale construction, was captured beautifully in two oral history books published in the 1980s – West Howe Proper and West Howe Too!
From an early point in their research projects, BU students invested time in building relationships with people in West Howe, working collaboratively with local schools, churches, children’s centres and volunteer groups to identify their key research questions, think through issues of research ethics, and use appropriate methods to gather relevant data, including participant observation, interviews, surveys and focus groups. Many student projects were inspired by the activities of local organisations, residents and volunteers, and the possibilities of engaged ethnography to produce findings that are locally useful and make a difference to people’s lives.
Next Thursday 3rd December students will be presenting their research findings to the community and inviting their engagement, comment and discussion. Themes of the research projects include: primary school education, children’s play and recreation, access to employment, perceptions of addiction, wellbeing and social support, social mobility and transport. Interested BU colleagues are also welcome to attend – please email Dr Rosie Read know if you plan to come (email: rread@bournemouth.ac.uk).
Event details:
Thursday 3rd December, 10am-1pm. Fernhealth Play, Verney Road, Bournemouth BH11 8DA.
This afternoon Prof. Jonathan Parker introduced the final of three session in the Executive Business Centre under the title ‘Enhancing social life through global social research: Part 3. Social science research in diverse communities’. This session was well attended and coveredwas a wide-range of interesting social science research topics.
Professor of Sociology Ann Brooks started off the session with her presentation on ‘Emotional labour and social change.’ She was followed by Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen who gave an overview of research in Nepal. FHSS PhD student Andy Harding introduced his thesis research into ‘Information provision and housing choices for older people.’ At this point Prof. Brooks gave her second talk on ‘Risk and the crisis of authenticity in cities’. Social Anthropologist Dr. Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers spoke about her research on ‘Reconciliation and engaged ethnography in the Balkans.’ Dr. Hyun-Joo Lim highlighted her study on ‘North Korean defectors in the UK’ and the session was completed by Dr. Mastoureh Fathi who presented her analysis of parenting books for Muslim parents in the UK.
This was the last day of the ESRC Festival of Social Science at which Bournemouth University was extremely well presented!
Thank you to my colleagues for organising this and the ESRC for funding the events!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
(medical sociologist)
BU Professor Ann Brooks has been made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS).
Ann Brooks is Professor of Sociology at Bournemouth University since January 2015. Ann has held senior positions in universities in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand and has held visiting fellowships and scholarships in Singapore and the USA. She was a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Health and Community at Plymouth University in 2014 and was previously a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore and a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. She is author of Academic Women (Open University Press, 1997); Postfeminisms: Feminism, Cultural Theory and Cultural Forms (Routledge, 1997); Gender and the Restructured University (Open University Press, 2001); Gendered Work in Asian Cities: The New Economy and Changing Labour Markets (Ashgate, 2006); Social Theory in Contemporary Asia (Routledge, 2010); Gender, Emotions and Labour Markets: Asian and Western Perspectives (Routledge, 2011) and Emotions in Transmigration: Transformation, Movement and Identity (Palgrave 2012) (with Ruth Simpson). Recent books include: Consumption, Cities and States: Comparing Singapore with Cities in Asia and the West (Anthem Press, 2014) (with Lionel Wee); Popular Culture, Global Intercultural Perspectives (Palgrave, 2014); and Emotions and Social Change: Historical and Sociological Perspectives (Routledge, New York, 2014) (edited with David Lemmings). Her latest book is: Genealogies of Emotions, Intimacies and Desire: Theories of Changes in Emotional Regimes from Medieval Society to Late Modernity (2016 Routledge, New York).
Further information on this year’s new Fellows can be found here!
Congratulations!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Get some of these interesting presentations in your diary now ‘Enhancing social life through global social research’:The social sciences at BU. For details click here!
Three sessions:
Part 1. Young people and development
Part 2. Ethnographies of religion & cultures
Part 3. Social science research in diverse communities
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
The ESRC website lists its Festival events for 2015 and amongst the interetsing events is a record number of BU events! The full list can be found on the ESRC webpages, click here!
Pathways to impact: part deux!
This event aims to engage participants who attended a previous one-day ESRC Festival of Science event which took place in 2012 entitled, “Pathways to Impact: ageing, diversity, connectivity and community”.
Children will have the chance to take part in a creative mapping exercise using coastal artefacts and pictures to create their own sensory and emotional maps of the topic, starting with the question of ‘how does it make me feel to be here?’
Older people are increasingly at risk of falling victim to financial scams that target vulnerable people, including mass marketing fraud via post, telephone or email and doorstep fraud.
This event will give practitioners, agencies and members of the public, the opportunity to come together to learn more about the threats posed.
This event asked the question:
Bournemouth University Dementia Institute (BUDI) will bring dementia awareness to life through running creative activities including a performance from the BUDI Orchestra – made up of people affected by dementia and musicians – poetry and technology such as IPads and Nintendo Wii.
Are British children disadvantaged compared to children in other Western countries? An analysis of data from global sources compares the standards of mortality, poverty and health funding for children and adults in Britain vs. those in 20 other Western countries.
One year ago, in October 2014, the UK Government introduced major changes to the Copyright Law with the aim of promoting innovation and creativity. These included a range of exceptions and limitations benefiting users as well as educational and cultural institutions.
These exhibitions run over the course of three days presenting a showcase of Bournemouth University research projects demonstrating our research impacts on social and community wellbeing and our concern for diverse groups and work with a wide variety of stakeholders.
A group of researchers from Bournemouth University are researching the lived experience of students entering higher education from and in ‘non traditional’ contexts. By bringing together research, educational practice and students as research co-creators, a unique lens is created through which to observe the question.
The 5-a-day campaign went global after a recommendation from the World Health Organisation that we should all be eating a least 400g of fruit and vegetables per day. Variations on this message are repeated in countries all across the world. But does the message cause more confusion than good?
These exhibitions run over the course of three days presenting a showcase of Bournemouth University research projects demonstrating our research impacts on social and community wellbeing and our concern for diverse groups and work with a wide variety of stakeholders.
These exhibitions run over the course of three days presenting a showcase of Bournemouth University research projects demonstrating our research impacts on social and community wellbeing and our concern for diverse groups and work with a wide variety of stakeholders.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Prof Judy Wajcman will be the second speaker in the Distinguished Social Scientists Public Lectures Series tonight in Festival of Learning. The lecture is based on her new book Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism.
Those who attended Prof. John Holmwood’s presentation on last Monday on ‘The University, Democracy and the Public Interest’ will agree that the Distinguished Social Scientists Public Lectures Series started with a great and challenging presentation.
Tonight’s session is free and will be in the Barnes Lecture theatre at Talbot Campus starting at 18.00.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Tomorrow Prof. John Holmwood (University of Nottingham) will be the first speaker in the Distinguished Social Scientists Public Lectures Series at Bournemouth University. The topic of his presentation tomorrow at 18.00 at Talbot Campus will be ‘The University, Democracy and the Public Interest’. The Distinguished Social Scientists Public Lectures Series was idea of Prof. Ann Brooks. There are still places left for Monday 13th, click and book here!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
FHSS
Twitter @EvanTeijlingen
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