+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Posted Mon, 7 Apr 2003 11:05:56
This message was forwarded through MEDSOCNEWS.
If you wish to make an announcement or publicise
an event then please send the text to:
[log in to unmask]
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: "Shove, Elizabeth" <[log in to unmask]>
CHANGING HABITS:
THE TECHNOLOGY AND PRACTICE OF TOOTH BRUSHING IN INDIA AND THE UK
Supervisors: Dr Elizabeth Shove and Professor Lucy Suchman, Department of
Sociology, Lancaster University and Dr Simon Blyth, Unilever research -
oral care.
This fully funded ESRC CASE studentship is ideally suited to applicants
wanting to pursue a PhD in the sociology/anthropology of material culture
and practice and/or in science and technology studies. See the ESRC's web
site for a description of CASE studentships, and for details of eligibility
and postgraduate support (http://www.esrc.ac.uk).
The purpose of the studentship, based at Lancaster's 5* sociology
department, and designed in collaboration with Unilever, is to better
understand the re-writing of ordinary habits and the mechanisms of rapid
and incremental change. This summary outlines key features of the
studentship project. Further details including the full project proposal
are available from Joann Bowker ([log in to unmask]) and on the
sociology department's web site (http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/sociology).
Conceptual focus.
This studentship provides an opportunity to bring together concepts from
science and technology studies, material culture, and anthropology in
exploring the fate and future of the same very simple device - the
toothbrush - in the UK and India. As well as investigating the
relationship between technology and practice under contrasting social
conditions and contexts, the research examines the rapid and incremental
embedding of habit through close scrutiny of an everyday artefact and the
practices associated with it.
Why the toothbrush?
Tooth brushing is associated with images of hygiene, personal appearance,
smell, freshness and sensation. Though the practice is well established in
the UK, its purpose is subject to continual re-definition. Cosmetic
rationales have, for example, added to and sometimes supplanted medical
(health) motivations.
In India, whilst a relatively high proportion (60%) of the population clean
their teeth once per day (1998 Unilever Habits and Attitudes Data),
practices and products used differ widely across the country. In this
context, toothbrushes and pastes and the theories and institutions of
dental health associated with them, exist alongside other technologies
(like the cleaning stick, misvak/datun, pastes of ash, and tooth powders)
and concepts of social, spiritual and physical well-being.
On all these counts, the practice of tooth brushing is ideally suited to
the investigation of historical, contemporary, and cross-cultural change.
Research Questions
Driven by the ambition of showing how tooth brushing becomes normal, and
how rationales evolve in these two societies, four research questions are
especially important:
* To what extent do toothbrushes (and attendant technologies of
toothpastes, powders etc.) "script" or configure users' habits and practices?
* How is the "global" technology of tooth brushing appropriated in
contrasting cultures?
* Can the process of normalisation and the routinisation of habit be
analysed and described in similar terms in the two countries?
* How and why does the meaning of "the same" socio-technical practice
change over time?
Method and approach
The project will involve literature reviews, analysis of advertising
material, interviews with experts and professionals in India and the UK;
and a cross-cultural and cross-generational study of tooth-brushing habits
again in India and the UK. The research will involve two stays in India,
one of two and one of eight weeks.
Applying for the studentship
In addition to completing a standard Lancaster University application form,
applicants should prepare a three-page research plan explaining how they
would tackle this project and what experience and expertise they would
bring to it. Further details are available from Joann Bowker 01524 593148
or Elizabeth Shove 01524 594610.
**********************************************************************
1. To change your email address send a message to:
[log in to unmask]
2. To suspend yourself from the list, whilst on leave, for example,
send an email to [log in to unmask] with the following message:
set medsocnews nomail
3. To resume email from the list, send the following message:
set medsocnews mail
4. To leave medsocnews, send an email to [log in to unmask] with the message:
leave medsocnews
5. Further information about the medsocnews discussion list, including list archive,
can be found at the list web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medsocnews.html
**********************************************************************
|