A colleague of mine, Chik Collins, at the University of the West of Scotland, has 2 PhD studentships on offer, which I thought may be interesting opportunities for people on the list or their students and colleagues. Both are informed by a critical social science perspective and deal with issues of 'regeneration' and social change. The first is generally about social change, and the second is focused on health inequalities. 

More information is below. Please contact Chik directly if you are interested. He says that part-time teaching may be available to supplement the stipend. 


PhD Studentships.

The University of the West of Scotland achieved the highest possible rating of 4* in six areas in the last Research Assessment Exercise. Following from this considerable achievement and, as part of its continued research expansion, the University is delighted to offer over 60 studentships for PhD study commencing in October 2009.
The Studentship Scheme provides the following benefits for home/EU students:
•    Exemption from the payment of annual fees
•    £6000 annual stipend
An additional annual financial award will also be made to three exceptional applicants. Please note that overseas students can apply for the studentship projects but they will not receive the stipend payment or fee exemption.
For further information and to apply for any of the studentships, please go to: http://www.paisley.ac.uk/research/research-studentships.asp. The first deadline for applications is 8th June 2009.  Therafter, if the studentship remains unfilled, a second deadline of 30th July will apply.


Understanding Social Change: A New Perspective

Description: The purpose of this research project will be to contribute to our understanding of social change. It will explore the potential of an emerging approach to social change – in the form of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory. The precise form of the project will depend on the background and interests of the successful candidate. But it is envisaged that it will focus on the application, critical assessment and development of CHAT in relation to social change in contemporary Scotland. In that case, in broad terms, a suitable project might involve components along the following lines:

•    An assessment of the existing application of CHAT to social change in general, and to social change in Scotland in particular.
•    Elaboration of the potential relevance of CHAT to the issues and problems faced in contemporary Scotland.
•    Exploration of key philosophical and methodological issues raised in seeking to fulfil this potential.
•    One or more case studies in which CHAT is operationalised in relation to social change in contemporary Scotland.
•    An agenda for future work.

The project will be supervised by Dr Chik Collins, Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences. Ideally, students will have encountered CHAT in previous studies and have a grasp of the socio-economic, political and cultural development of contemporary Scotland, but neither is essential.


Developing and Testing a Political Attack Hypothesis in Relation to the “Scottish Effect” in Health Outcomes

Description: The purpose of this project will be to develop, explore and go at least some way towards testing a new hypothesis as to the factors contributing to the ‘Scottish effect’ in health outcomes – an excess of mortality as compared to England. The main existing hypotheses as to the ‘effect’ have been based on poverty and deindustrialisation. Neither has been found adequately to explain the health differential north and south of the border in recent decades.
    The underlying logic of the new hypothesis is that both of the main existing hypotheses – poverty and deindustrialisation – together with other hypotheses which have recently been raised (including inequality, prevalence of damaging health behaviours and relative speed and intensity of deindustrialisation) could usefully be seen as important aspects of a broader, more encompassing, hypothesis.
    This is a ‘political attack’ hypothesis. It involves focusing on the quite specific form of deindustrialisation in Scotland in the 1980s in particular (which is the decade in which the capacity to explain Scotland’s health outcomes specifically in terms of poverty breaks down). This was a politically driven form of deindustrialisation, which was in turn part of a broader strategy of “shock treatment” inspired by Chicago School economics. Deindustrialisation was a core aspect of this policy agenda, but the agenda was much wider and had implications across a wide range of policy areas which impacted upon the everyday lives of working class communities in particular. There are grounds to suggest that the West of Scotland was significantly more exposed to the harmful effects of this agenda than were the worst impacted areas in other parts of the UK, and this provides a basis for developing, exploring and testing a ‘political attack’
 hypothesis.
    The project will be supervised by Dr Chik Collins, Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences.


      

___________________________________
COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion list for community psychology in the UK.
To unsubscribe or to change your details visit the website:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
For any problems or queries, contact the list moderator: Grant Jeffrey ([log in to unmask])