Some rather interesting BNIM-suitable direction s below

Best wishes
 
Tom

 
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for critical and radical geographers
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Matt Baillie Smith
Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2011 5:01 PM
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Subject: PhD studentships in Social Sciences at Northumbria University

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/prospecti
vepgrs/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.