Apologies for Cross Posting: Please forward to anyone you feel may be
interested – Thanks.

PhD Research Studentship – UMIST, Manchester, UK
(Part of a 3 Year funded Research Project )

This research project will provide funding for a student to conduct a three
year PhD (includes fees, subsistence, and funding for attendance at
conferences and workshops), within an academic setting which has a 5* (RAE)
rating and a recognised ESRC PhD programme.

Starting Date:  September/October 2001

Contact me (either by email [log in to unmask] or to the address
below) for more information or with a copy of your CV.

Research
This three year project seeks to draw on the conceptual tools underlying
ANT/sociology of translation (Latour, Callon, Law), the notion of
governmentality (Foucault), issues relating to representation, and the way
in which contemporary approaches to organizing are increasingly seen to
rely on particular forms of rationality, notions of information and the
role of IT in overcoming spatial and temporal boundaries. Furthermore, this
project also seeks to investigate the growing reliance on the use of
information for revealing instance of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ practice and the
changing regime of trust from practitioners to managers/auditors, and from
experts to documentary evidence (Power 1994).

An appreciation of the theoretical approaches and/or health care would be
useful but by no means essential, as this could be developed as part of the
three year research programme. However, the applicant should have a good
first degree.

Background
A loss of order and control has been a major concern associated with the
move from asylum-based care to Care in the Community. More specifically,
this is seen to relate to the process of releasing those previously
detained within institutions into society. This has been particularly
evident within sensationalised media stories focusing on the number of
violent acts committed by those deemed to be mentally ill, who now reside
in the community. In addition, government sponsored reports have
highlighted a range of concerns associated with the poor recording and
documentation of clinical care, a lack of coordination and communication
between the multidisciplinary teams, and a limited degree of accountability
and control. Information Technology and information-based procedures have
been viewed as providing part of the solution to deal with this apparent
lack of social order and control, while also providing a system of informed
choice and empowerment. This has emerged in the form of initiatives such as
the Care Programme Approach (CPA), computerised care management systems,
the Supervision Register, and the establishment of guidelines, standards,
frameworks and models of good practice. Thus, the growing emphasis on
information management is apparent in the various reports and papers
produced by the current government (e.g. provision of accurate and instant
information to ensure that patient care and the performance of the NHS is
improved, an EHR for every person in the country, and instant access 24
hours a day in every hospital and GP’s surgery).  Through an ethnographic
style of enquiry (e.g. participant observation, examination of documentary
evidence, interviews, etc.) this research seeks to investigate the various
management and clinical tools adopted within mental health care which seek
to assess and represent both patients and mental health work. At a
theoretical level this project therefore seeks to examine the complex ways
in which subject/object positions, practices, technologies, and beliefs may
be presupposed and constituted within this specific area of enquiry, and in
relation to the various issues discussed above.

Dr Chris McLean  UMIST, PO Box 88, Manchester, M60 1QD