List members might be interested in the following fully funded PhD studentships in the Department of Social Sciences at Northumbria University. More information, including on how to apply, can be found at: http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/researchandconsultancy/graduateschool/prospectivepgrs/studentships/sass/
1. East-European Migrants in the UK: Integration & Community Cohesion (Ref: SS1)
Principal Supervisor: Dr Adel Pasztor. Although migration is not a new phenomenon in the history of the UK, the large inflow of East-Europeans after the EU enlargement in 2004 saw migration-related issues dominating the media, politics and the public debate. While there is a growing body of research on A8 migrants who settled in the UK after the EU accession, the bulk of this research focuses on the migration patterns and experiences of Poles. Thus the role of this research will be to examine the experiences of smaller - yet unstudied - East-European groups (such as Slovaks, Hungarians, Rumanians etc) in order to identify whether they integrate into the larger Polish communities (or build communities of their own) and its effects on social cohesion.
2. Experiencing the Disability Benefits System (Ref: SS2)
Principal Supervisor: Professor Alan Roulstone. The growth in numbers of disabled people on incapacity related benefits and the engrained nature of worklessness has spawned a great deal of policy attention. Changes to benefit regimes, the mooting of a universal credit and the renewed emphasis on paid work are all key features of recent welfare reforms. The PhD programme would explore the experiences of welfare reform from disabled people’s own standpoint rather than privilege a statutory provider viewpoint. User-centred or participative research methods would be adopted and a high degree of sensitivity and a non-judgemental research approach are absolutely essential. The successful applicant will examine the origins, shape and impact of reform of welfare change at a macro-level of policy analysis, whilst examining the social and behavioural impact of benefits change at a person, family and community level. The programme will aim to unearth intended and unintended consequences of welfare reform and to look at how change can best be delivered into the 21st century in a searching yet enabling way.
3. International Volunteering, Development and Diaspora (Ref: SS3)
Principal Supervisor: Dr Matt Baillie Smith. The growing popularity of international volunteering has been accompanied by a shifting relationship to development and the inclusion of an expanding range of social groups. Developed in partnership with the world’s leading international development agency working through volunteering, Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), and Professor Nina Laurie (Newcastle University), the aim of this studentship is to investigate international volunteering amongst diasporic communities in the global North. This will particularly involve mapping patterns of engagement amongst diasporic communities, exploring the impacts of the volunteering in the global South, as well as in communities in the global North, and analysing the types of connections such volunteering produces. The project will consider what is distinctive about international volunteering amongst diasporic communities, and what lessons can be drawn for understanding and conceptualising international volunteering and development more broadly.
4. The Processes of Prisoners’ Affective Experience of Creative and Artistic Activities (Ref: SS4)
Principal Supervisor: Dr Charlotte Bilby. Prisons are required to look after offenders with humanity. If we accept that an element of humanity is the need and desire to express ourselves in, sometimes, a non-verbal and creative manner, then we must also acknowledge that this demands the provision of artistic and spiritual activities in the prison estate. The aim of this project is to critically investigate the effect and processes of taking part in an artistic or creative activity while in prison, and to consider the impact of the affective and emotional experience on prisoner behaviour in prison and on release. This project will consider offenders’ narratives of participation and experience as well considering how evaluative research tools might be developed by organisations running these interventions.
5. Volunteers as Volunteer Managers (Ref: SS5)
Principal Supervisor: Professor Irene Hardill. The focus of this proposed PhD is those individuals in the voluntary and community sector (VCS) variously known as Volunteer Managers, Volunteers Co-ordinator, and Volunteers Organisers. Volunteer Managers sit at the interface between volunteers, organisations that involve volunteers and policies that promote unpaid voluntary work, including the Big Society. Volunteer managers themselves are seeking voice and recognition, via the Association of Volunteer Managers. The overarching aim is to advance empirical and conceptual understanding of the work of volunteer managers; using qualitative methods to map their journeys and feminist heuristics to understand the meanings and configurations of paid and unpaid work. The research will also examine the process by which organisations come to the decision to have volunteers as volunteer managers.
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