Ros Williams and Regulating Time Workshop

Ros Williams was invited to speak at an event at the University of Kent organised between Kent Law School and SATSU here at York. This was a workshop exploring the issue of temporality as it pertains to the creation of regulation (broadly conceived). 

In amongst papers about indigenous epistemologies of ownership in the US's electronic mortgage registration system (MERS), the importance of Greenwich Mean Time in the British imperial project of maritime sovereignty and modernity, I was asked to talk about issues arising from my own thesis. 

My paper explored how the public umbilical cord blood bank contends with the regularly updated professional standards intended to regulate the clinicians who use the collected tissue. The collection managers must anticipate future clinical need, typing and diagnosing tissue beyond current clinical expectations, and regularly appraising older stock. This anticipatory logic, as I call it in the paper, demonstrates the temporal rhythm of a repository of tissues collected in the past, maintained in the present, and of potential use in the future. 

See more info here: http://www.kent.ac.uk/law/time/index.html

Impact - Houses of Parliament POSTnote on Vegetative and Minimally Conscious States

Three pieces of research by Celia Kitzinger (University of York) and Jenny Kitzinger (Cardiff University) have been cited in the Houses of Parliament Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology POSTnote on "Vegetative and Minimally Conscious States" - see references 72, 73 and 90 on the attached POSTnote.

POST is an office of both Houses of Parliament, charged with providing independent and balanced analysis of policy issues that have a basis in science and technology.  Most parliamentarians do not have a scientific or technological background but science and technology issues are increasingly integral to public policy. Parliamentarians are bombarded daily with lobbying, public enquiries and media stories about science and technology. POST's aim is to help parliamentarians examine such issues effectively.  

You can see the full directory of POSTnotes here.  http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/offices/bicameral/post/publications/postnotes/

Jobcentres and Interaction

The Department of Sociology at York is delighted to announce the publication of the latest paper to come out of a study of interactions in UK Jobcentres, funded by the Department for Work & Pensions in 2007-2009.  The paper forms part of a Special Issue on "Labour Market Policy at Street Level"  in the latest volume of Social Work & Society.  It can be accessed at: http://www.socwork.net/sws.

The full project was a highly successful collaboration between Roy Sainsbury and Annie Irvine of the Social Policy Research Unit and Paul Drew and Merran Toerien of Sociology at York.  The full project report can be accessed at: http://php.york.ac.uk/inst/spru/pubs/1742/ 

Merran Toerien, Clare Jackson and Paul Chappell: NIHR grant Award

Many congratulations to Merran (PI), Clare and Paul Chappell who have been awarded an NIHR grant 'Evaluating nuanced practices for initiating decision making in neurology clinics'.

Merran Toerien (PI)

Clare Jackson

Paul Chappell

Dave Beer - A new article on big data, everyday neoliberalism and the productive power of systems of measurement.

Dave Beer has had a new article published open access in the journal Big Data & Society. The piece, which is titled 'Productive Measures: Culture and Measurement in the Context of Everyday Neoliberalism', uses football as a case study for exploring the power of big data. The piece uses football to explore how systems of measurement shape behaviour, decisions and produce outcomes. The findings though stretch far beyond football. The piece uses the concept of productive measures to think about the way that data about us shapes culture, society and our everyday lives. This article builds upon and extends some of the ideas that can be found in his earlier book Popular Culture and New Media: The Politics of Circulation, which was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2013.


You can read the new article on Productive measures for free (it is entirely open access) here http://bds.sagepub.com/content/2/1/2053951715578951

Postgraduate Conference - Myth(s) in Social Science and Humanities

The Sociology Department is proud to present the yearly postgraduate conference - organised by our postgraduates for postgraduates in social science and humanities. Anais Duong-Pedica and Valdimir Rizov have organised the event and focused it upon exploring the variety and richness of the notion of myth. It seeks to create a space where a multitude of disciplines, perspectives, and methods could be discussed critically. The ambivalence and the ambiguity of 'myth' is intentional. Myth is wide and varied - it can be a problematic social construction; it can be the process of creating meaning; it can even be the myth of meaning itself. Thus this conference plans to provide an opportunity for multi/interdisciplinary perspectives and their critical exploration.

A range of postgraduate students (of which 5 are from Department of Socioloy and Centre for Women's Studies) will be presenting papers in four different panels:

- Psychoanalysis and Psychology

- Self, Development, and Narratives

- Politics, Media and Representation

- Culture, Media and Representation

Other highlights will be the three keynote speakers:

• Dr Shano Orgad (LSE) who will present on ambivalent and incomplete imaginings beyong dreams and nightmares
• Dr Vanda Zajko (University of Bristol) will discuss the syncretism of contemporary mythopoesis
• Professor Ivor Gaber (University of Sussex) will analyse media myths and society

For more information, abstracts and biographies and the full programme visit the website

Online registrations are open until April 30^th

Paul Johnson - Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship

Paul Johnson has been awarded a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship for one year to carry out a research project called: “‘Going to Strasbourg’: an oral history of human rights litigation in the European Court of Human Rights.” Paul will take up the Fellowship from Oct 1st 2015.