Exploring
the processes and outcomes of user engagement
Start date: September 2010, 3 years full-time PhD funding
Supervisors:
Professor Lynn Jamieson, Ms
Sarah Morton and Dr
Rose Wiles
The
new ESRC Centre for Population Change (CPC) began its work
in February 2009. It brings together experts from across
the social sciences to carry out research that will lead
to a better understanding of the key drivers of population
change and the implications for economic welfare and social
support at the national, local, household and individual
level. The CPC is a joint initiative between the University
of Southampton and a consortium of Scottish Universities
led by the University of St Andrews, in partnership with
the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the General
Register Office for Scotland (GROS). It is directed by Professor
Jane Falkingham (University of Southampton) and co-directed
by Professor Maria Evandrou, Professor Sue Heath (both at
Southampton) and Professor Paul Boyle (University of St
Andrews).
The
Centre is carrying out research in the thematic areas of:
1. Dynamics
of fertility and family formation; 2. Household change and
living arrangements across the life course; 3. The demographic
and socio-economic implications of national and transnational
migration; 4. Modelling population growth and enhancing
the evidence base for policy.
In Scotland
a number of PhD studentships are being advertised across
five Universities, but all those appointed will be based
together at the General Register office for Scotland (GROS),
Ladywell House, Edinburgh (with some time spent at their
University base). This provides a stimulating setting where
a group of young population researchers can interact together,
with members of GROS and with their supervisors and other
members of the CPC who will visit regularly.
Although
the studentship will be mostly based at GROS, s/he will
also spend time in the Centre for Research on Families and
Relationships and will take part in the Centre's activities.
This
proposed studentship will provide an opportunity to study,
in real time and through the specific case of this programme
of research, the processes of user engagement and associated
outcomes. The resultant thesis will contribute to the growing
academic literature on the relationship between research,
policy and practice and support the ESRC’s strategic
objective of ‘Engagement with Stakeholders and the
Public’. The overall aim of the studentship would
be to explore the processes and outcomes of user engagement.
The
more specific research objectives would be:
•
To document and analyse how academics approach and co-ordinate
user engagement in relation to a specific programme of work
• To identify and observe how networks of users, including
stakeholders and the wide public, are developed
• To examine the processes through which research,
at different stages, is engaged with and utilised across
different sectors and in different contexts
• To identify different criteria for successful engagement
from different perspectives
• To map the process of knowledge transfer and exchange
in order to examine the impact of and outcomes associated
with user engagement in research.
This
will be achieved through case study approach using multiple
methods: observation and participant observation of relevant
meetings and events; analysis of documents; interviews with
stake holders and other key players from different sectors
and media analysis.
ESRC Centre
for Population Change Studentship:
Intergenerational
Relationships, local cultures and men’s orientations
to family formation
Start
date: September 2010, 3 years full-time PhD funding
Supervisor:
Professor Lynn Jamieson
The
new ESRC Centre for Population Change (CPC) began its work
in February 2009. It brings together experts from across
the social sciences to carry out research that will lead
to a better understanding of the key drivers of population
change and the implications for economic welfare and social
support at the national, local, household and individual
level. The CPC is a joint initiative between the University
of Southampton and a consortium of Scottish Universities
led by the University of St Andrews, in partnership with
the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the General
Register Office for Scotland (GROS). It is directed by Professor
Jane Falkingham (University of Southampton) and co-directed
by Professor Maria Evandrou, Professor Sue Heath (both at
Southampton) and Professor Paul Boyle (University of St
Andrews).
The
Centre is carrying out research in the thematic areas of:
1. Dynamics
of fertility and family formation; 2. Household change and
living arrangements across the life course; 3. The demographic
and socio-economic implications of national and transnational
migration; 4. Modelling population growth and enhancing
the evidence base for policy.
In Scotland
a number of PhD studentships are being advertised across
five Universities, but all those appointed will be based
together at the General Register office for Scotland (GROS),
Ladywell House, Edinburgh (with some time spent at their
University base). This provides a stimulating setting where
a group of young population researchers can interact together,
with members of GROS and with their supervisors and other
members of the CPC who will visit regularly.
Although
the studentship will be mostly based at GROS, s/he will
also spend time in the Centre for Research on Families and
Relationships and will take part in the Centre's activities.
This
studentship will be attached to the project Family formation,
intergenerational relationships and local cultures of fertility
and will provide greater depth on one particular aspect
of that project, young men’s orientations to family
formation. Men’s fertility behaviour and attitudes
have received rather less attention than women’s in
recent years; work on gender and fertility often means women
and fertility.
The
project to which this studentship is attached will address
gender, meaning men and women. It will use registration
statistics, census data and longitudinal data to get a picture
of the demographic contexts and variations in fertility
behaviour over the life course of both men and women and
in-depth
interviews to enable gender comparison with respect to factors
influencing fertility behaviour in contrasting localities
with high/low fertility and early/late age at (first) birth.
The studentship will build on this work by gathering additional
data with strategically selected men who are respondents
within
the project seeking supplementary samples of their intergenerational
and peer relationships, to provide greater depth on both
intergenerational father or father-like figure-to-son transmission
and peer-to-peer man-to-man and boy-to-boy transmission
of local culture.
With
assistance form the researchers engaged with the larger
project, the student will seek to recruit the fathers or
grandfathers and sons or grandsons of men already included
in the study and individuals from their friendship network.
Quantitative research has sometimes found that fathers are
likely to have more influence on sons and mothers on daughters,
often explained in terms of the continued social emphasis
on gender difference encouraging children to seek gender-appropriate
attitudes and behaviour (e.g. Bengtson et al. 2002). However,
with a few exceptions (Brannen et al.2004) there is relatively
little qualitative research that attempts to explore cultures
of transmission across generations. Seeking to combine qualitative
analysis of intergenerational transmission and peer to peer
transmission is even more relatively unusual. The topics
to be investigated will include attitudes to partnership,
to having children, to gendered divisions of labour in caring
and providing, to migration and mobility and its implications
for family life, to planning and future orientation and
family life in older age.
V. Bengtson, T. Biblarz and R. Roberts How Families Still
Matter: A Longitudinal Study of Youth in
Two Generations CUP 2002
J. Brannen, P. Moss & A. Mooney Working and Caring in
the Twentieth Century: Change and
Continuity in four-generation families Palgrave 2004
CRFR ESRC Quota Studentship
Exploring the lives of families with young
children over time
Using the Growing
Up in Scotland longitudinal study (or you can propose
a more specific topic within of early years, family and
policy that exploits the longitudinal capacity of this study)
Start date: September 2010, 1+3 or +3, full or part time
Supervisor:
Professor Sarah Cunningham Burley
CRFR is one of the academic partners for the Scottish Government
funded ‘Growing up in Scotland’ longitudinal
study (www.growingupinscotland.org).
Growing
Up in Scotland is a large-scale longitudinal social survey
designed to examine the characteristics, circumstances and
behaviours of children from birth to late adolescence (and
possibly beyond). It will form a central part of the Scottish
Government's strategy for the long-term monitoring and evaluation
of its policies for children, with a specific focus on the
early years. The study is following 8,000 children annually,
across two cohorts. The study allows both cross sectional
and longitudinal analyses to be conducted. This project
will focus specifically on exploiting the longitudinal potential
of the study to explore the lives of families with young
children over time.
The
Growing up in Scotland study has been designed to link closely
with policy concerns, and applicants should have a demonstrated
interest in social scientific analyses relevant to early
years’ policies in Scotland. GUS is different from
other studies in that is has a unique Scottish focus, it
is driven primarily by the needs of policy but will also
provide a valuable resource for the wider research community;
it has a particular focus on the extent to which families
are aware of particular services relating to them and to
what extent they use these services in sectors such health,
education, and childcare; it has an intensive focus on the
early years of children’s lives with less frequent
follow-up at further key stages during a child’s life.
The
areas that this studentship might focus on include the factors
that influence use of and relationships with professionals;
patterns of social support and how these change over time;
home life and neighbourhood and how these influence experiences
of family life.
The
successful candidate will be located with other PhD students
who are using data from the Growing up in Scotland study.
CRFR ESRC Quota Studentship
Ageing
and Families and Relationships
Start
date: September 2010, 1+3 or +3, full or part time
Supervisor:
Dr Heather Wilkinson
Applications
for this studentship are welcomed within a broad focus of
ageing, families and relationships. In particular, the following
themes or areas of work would be especially pertinent:
•
The impact of dementia on families and relationships
•
Families, relationships and ageing with a learning disability
•
Issues of diversity and ageing for families and relationships
•
Models of care to support families and relationships post
diagnosis of dementia
•
Peer support and networks for older people with dementia
•
Living and dying with dementia – supporting families
and relationships
This
studentship will be based at the Centre for Research on
Families and Relationships (www.crfr.ac.uk),
The University of Edinburgh. It will be of particular relevance
to applicants with an interest in interdisciplinary work,
qualitative methods and in the fields of nursing, gerontology,
sociology and social policy.
A
sociological study of the development, regulation and use
of medical technologies (relating to health, illness and
enhancement) in the context of human reproduction
A Wellcome
Trust funded studentship under a Biomedical Ethics Strategic
programme "The Human Body, its Scope, Limits and Future"
in collaboration with The
Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation, University
of Manchester
Start
date: September 2010, 3 years full-time PhD funding
Supervisor:
Professor Sarah Cunningham Burley
This
studentship will be based at CRFR (www.crfr.ac.uk),
University of Edinburgh but the student will have close
links with both the Institute of Science and Technology
Studies (http://www.issti.ed.ac.uk/)
, University of Edinburgh and the Institute for Science,
Ethics and Innovation, University of Manchester (http://www.isei.manchester.ac.uk/).
It will be of particular relevance to applicants with an
interest in interdisciplinary work and the interface between
sociology, law and biomedical ethics in particular. A related
postgraduate qualification would be expected.
The Wellcome Strategic Programme in the Human Body, its
Scope, Limits and Future is a 5-year programme that is supported
by a prestigious Wellcome Trust Biomedical Ethics Strategic
Award. The programme, with a value of more than £800,000,
is led by Professor John Harris and colleagues in iSEI and
Sarah Cunningham-Burley, Professor of Medical and Family
Sociology at the University of Edinburgh. This multidisciplinary
programme will follow five strands of innovative research:
1. Human biomaterials
2. Genethics
3. Reproduction
4. Enhancement
5. Methods in bioethics
This studentship will be linked to the reproduction strand
and contribute to an interdisciplinary understand of the
how current and future medical technological developments
impact conceptions of parenthood and family, constructions
of the human body and its capabilities, and issues of regulation.
The project will link with some of the other core themes,
especially enhancement and methods in bioethics.
Students are invited to think about possible projects within
this wider topic area and include in their statement something
about their interests in the wider Strategic Programme.
