Materialities of Care: Encountering Health and Illness Through Artefacts and Architecture

Special Issue of the journal Sociology of Health and Illness

Chrissy Buse, Daryl Martin and Sarah Nettleton have edited a special issue which has just come out online in the journal Sociology of Health and Illness. The theme of the special issue is Materialities of Care: Encountering Health and Illness Through Artefacts and Architecture http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/shil.2018.40.issue-2/issuetoc] The special issue will also appear as a book, to be released later this year https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Materialities+of+Care%3A+Encountering+Health+and+Illness+Through+Artefacts+and+Architecture-p-9781119499732].

The special issue addresses the role of material culture within health and social care encounters, including everyday objects, dress, furniture and architecture. It aims to makes visible the mundane and often unnoticed aspects of material culture, and to explore interrelations between materials and care practices. The special issue explores these themes in different contexts, including articles focused on hospitals, care homes, hospices, domestic households, streets and stairwells and museums.

The publication builds on an earlier research symposium Materialities of Care: Encountering Health and Illness Through Objects, Artefacts, and Architecture https://www.york.ac.uk/sociology/about/department/2015/materialitiesofcare/], held at York in 2015, supported by the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness http://www.shifoundation.org.uk/], which led to the development of a research network organised by Chrissy Buse and Daryl Martin called ‘Materialities of Care’ http://materialitiesofcare.co.uk/about/] (see also twitter @materialities1). It is an interdisciplinary network which brings together people from a range of disciplines, including: sociology; history; archaeology; architecture; geography and museum studies, as well as museum curators, artists and other practitioners.

Making the Difference Award

Ruth Penfold-Mounce, Daryl Martin and Clare Jackson have received the Making the Difference Award. This award is part of the University wide recognition scheme of excellence among its staff. The award was granted on the basis of the Ruth, Daryl and Clare's work as a team on the implementation of the York Pedagogy (YP).

Ruth Penfold-Mounce

Daryl Martin

Clare Jackson

Katy Mann Benn, part of the ProPel team and a member of University Teaching Committee nominated the team on the basis of 'their sheer hard work, commitment and outstanding achievement in ushering in the York Pedagogy.' The University Teaching Committee working group were ‘very impressed by the work and output’ and the Programme Learning Outcomes and Statement of Purpose for one of the programmes was selected to be used on the York Pedagogy website as an exemplar. 

Katy Mann Benn

Katy described working with the YP team as having been a 'consistently productive experience and have been impressed by the collaborative, diligent and thoughtful approach they have consistently demonstrated. Their ability to engage constructively and meaningfully with the review process has been outstanding. I have been particularly impressed by the dedication of the team and the well-organised, conscientious review that they have enabled. Moreover, they have sought feedback from colleagues across the university to inform their plans to enhance the programmes.'

John Robinson

The leadership demonstrated by the YP team has been widely noted including by John Robinson Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Teaching, Learning and Students who said 

‘I know of the contribution of Clare, Daryl and Ruth indirectly through the reports of the ProPEL team and.... can confirm that it accords with the evidence, and that I judge it to be an excellent appraisal of a team who are making a difference in learning and teaching.’

Many congratulations to Ruth, Daryl and Clare.

Registration open for The Sociology of Contemporary Urban Life

The Sociology of Contemporary Urban Life

Economies |Cultures| Politics| Aesthetics

Thursday 16^th and Friday 17^th June 2016

University of York, UK

This two-day conference, co-organised by the Department of Sociology and CURB (Centre for Urban Research) at University of York, is an attempt to provide a lively, open-minded forum for urban sociologists to gather and discuss the challenges of conducting the craft of urban sociology in a fragmented, hierarchical urban world; an urbanizing planet where the very concept of ‘the city’--traditionally  the unit of analysis for urban sociologists—faces unprecedented levels of scepticism.  The title of the conference is a riff on T.J. Clark's (1984) book on Manet and Paris, The Painting of Modern Life. As such, the conference aims to engage with contemporary urban life in a  critical manner, using a  multiplex of economies, cultures, politics and aesthetics to explore  our contemporary urban experience/s (with or without the city).  The conference will also address the distinctive role that urban sociology has played, does play and may in the future play within the broader academic endeavour of Urban Studies.

Confirmed speakers include:

·         Fran Tonkiss (LSE)

·         Michael Keith (Oxford)

·         Emma Jackson (Goldsmiths, London)

·         Phil Hubbard (Kent)

·         Ayona Datta (Leeds)

·         David Pinder (Roskilde) 

·         Richard Sennett (LSE) (a public lecture given as part of the York Festival of Ideas).

There are also four panel sessions. Full details of the full programme is available here: https://www.york.ac.uk/sociology/about/news-and-events/department/2016/urbansociology/

Registration is £40.00 (full) or £20.00 (student/ postdoctoral) for the full conference. One day rates are also available. The direct link to payment pages is here: https://www.york.ac.uk/sociology/about/news-and-events/department/2016/urbansociology/#tab-2

Final call for papers: The Sociology of Contemporary Urban Life: Economies |Cultures| Politics| Aesthetics

The final call for papers for an exciting event titled ‘The Sociology of Contemporary Urban Life: Economies |Cultures| Politics| Aesthetics’ on Thursday 16th and Friday 17th June 2016 has just been announced.

This two-day conference, co-organised by the Department and CURB (Centre for Urban Research), is an attempt to provide a lively, open-minded forum for urban sociologists to gather and discuss the challenges of conducting the craft of urban sociology in a fragmented, hierarchical urban world; an urbanizing planet where the very concept of ‘the city’—traditionally the unit of analysis for urban sociologists—faces unprecedented levels of scepticism.  The title of the conference is a riff on T.J. Clark's (1984) book on Manet and Paris, The Painting of Modern Life. As such, the conference aims to engage the contours of contemporary urban life in a comparable critical manner, using a  multiplex of economies, cultures, politics and aesthetics to explore  our contemporary urban experience/s (with or without the city).  The conference will also address the distinctive role that urban sociology has played, does play and may in the future play within the broader academic endeavour of Urban Studies.

Several leading urban sociologists have already agreed to speak at this event including Fran Tonkiss (LSE), Michael Keith (Oxford), Emma Jackson (Goldsmiths, London), Phil Hubbard (Kent), Ayona Datta (Leeds), David Pinder (Roskilde) and Richard Sennett (LSE) (a public lecture given as part of the York Festival of Ideas).

However, the intention is also to run a limited number of open streams and will be considering abstracts for papers that connect empirically or theoretically with the four interconnecting themes of the event. 

250 word abstracts should be sent to both Gareth Millington (gareth.millington@york.ac.uk) and Daryl Martin (daryl.martin@york.ac.uk) by Friday 25th March please. Decisions on abstracts will be made the following week. We especially welcome contributions from early career researchers. Registration details for non-speakers will be released shortly.

Materialities of Care conference

On Wednesday September 16^th and Thursday September 17^th, we hosted the Materialities of Care conference, which focused on the role of everyday artefacts (such as objects, dress and furniture) and spaces in the delivery and experience of care. This was an interdisciplinary event, gathering researchers with backgrounds spanning, amongst others, Archaeology, Geography, History, Museum Studies and Sociology. 

The Waiting Room by Carol Von Canon©

Day One presented a series of research papers across these disciplines, as well as a poster exhibition representing the projects of early career and established researchers who are interested in the intersection of material culture and caring practices. Amy Hunter, from the University of Leeds, won a Jury Prize for her conference poster. Day Two took the form of a number of methodological workshops, alongside a wider discussion of plans for the development of a longer term research network arising from the event.

Made possible through the support of the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness, and co-organised by sociologists at York and Leeds, the conference successfully brought perspectives from across the humanities and social sciences into dialogue with each other, and thus laid the ground for a number of research plans for the future. Should you wish to be informed about future events and meetings around this theme, please contactchristina.buse@york.ac.uk or daryl.martin@york.ac.uk, and we will keep you up to date.

Winner of Sociology of Health and Illness 'Mildred Blaxter New Writer Prize'

Many congratulations to Daryl Martin who has just won the journal Sociology of Health & Illness 'Mildred Blaxter New Writer Prize' for the article 'Architecture and health care: a place for sociology' published in the journal (co-authors  Sarah Nettleton, Christina Buse, Lindsay Prior and Julia Twigg). 

The latest edition of Discover Society

Three members of staff have had articles published in the past two editions of Discover Sociology. Their articles can be read online at http://www.discoversociety.org/

Dr David Beer: The invisibility of the recording engineer

Dr Daryl Martin: The thinkbelt: the university that never was

Prof Stevi Jackson published an article in June's edition of the online magazine. Mother/daughter relationships: cultural difference and modernity

Garden Cities of the Future

Daryl Martin offers a response to the recent announcement of a new garden city at Ebbsfleet. In an article for The Conversation, Daryl measures the aspirations for the Ebbsfleet development against the ideals of the original garden cities.

The article is available on line at http://theconversation.com/new-garden-city-at-ebbsfleet-is-thin-veil-over-osbornes-insufficient-housing-policy-24545