Dear Elaine
 
I was very pleased to read you message about your PhD project. I am starting a PhD research project with many similarities. I am member of the Center for Social Innovation for the Institute of Social Work at the Hogeschool Utrecht in The Netherlands. My thesis will be about co-creating knowledge between social workers, citizens and researchers. The field is community work (local social work practice). I am actually searching for the right 'promoters' (super-visors) and consultants for my project and I am very glad that Dr Kip Jones is interested to act as co-promoter (details yet to work out). I know Kip from my visit to Bournemouth earlier this year.
 
I have written a book for social workers Kleine Verhalen. Narrativiteit met multimedia in sociale beroepen (Personal histories
Digital storytelling in social work), 2006, Coutinho Bussum. Please visit the website www.kleineverhalen.hu.nl top find a summary in English on the home page.
 
I also include a paper (written for ISAGA 2007 - see webpage www.ISAGA2007.nl), in which you can read something about my interests in this field. In my work I try to link narrativity to online simulations and other practical instruments in the process of knowledge creating.
 
I'd be very glad to meet you dot discuss possible co-operations and exchange. Would you be willing to be part of my advisory board on my PhD project? Much could be done by mail and internet in this respect.
 
Best regards and looking forward to your reply.
 
Kees
 

Kees J.M. van Haaster

Senior adviseur / Hogeschool Utrecht / Kenniscentrum Sociale Innovatie / p: Postbus 85397 / t:: 030 252 9600 / e: [log in to unmask] / i: www.kleineverhalen.hu.nl

 

Van: Performative Social Science [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Namens Elaine Bliss
Verzonden: dinsdag 25 september 2007 2:12
Aan: [log in to unmask]
Onderwerp: introduction

Kia ora

 

I’d like to introduce myself as a new subscriber to this list.

 

My name is Elaine Bliss.  I have been on the academic staff of the Department of Geography, Tourism and Environmental Planning at the University of Waikato in New Zealand for approximately 10 years.  I started my PhD in November 2006 and am being co-supervised by someone in my department, and two others in the Department of Screen and Media Studies here. 

 

The tentative (very rough) title of my thesis is ‘Digital storytelling, organizations and the creative city: the narrativization of knowledge in contemporary society”.

I will be exploring, in depth, digital storytelling (as ‘defined’ by the model created by the Centre for Digital Storytelling (CDC) in San Francisco) as a method of creating ‘creative’ urban space.  There are some examples of projects like this in North America and the UK that I am looking at, as well as a potential case study in New Zealand.  At this stage, however, I am still working on refining my theory, methods and questions.

 

I was very excited when a friend sent me the link to the film “Social Science finding its Muse” by Ben Malaby & Kip Jones.  It is from there that I found this discussion list. 

 

As part of my PhD research I intend to attempt to theorise digital storytelling, particularly the model created by the CDC, as to its transformative potential as a social science method.  I am obviously still thinking through this, but noticed some synergies between my work and what is happening at Bournemouth University. 

 

I would appreciate any comments, ideas, suggestions, questions, discussion about my research.  And of course I would be very interested in sharing my ideas and thoughts with anyone else working in this area of performative social science, or related fields.

 

Kind regards

Elaine