This Week's Café - 22nd Feb at 5pm

We will hear two presentations from Andrew McKechnie and Karen Chalk who are PhD researchers in CPLAN. As usual there will be wine, soft drinks and some food. More information about the speakers and the content of their talks below.

Karen Chalk - Geodemographics and class

"Whoever said the class war was over did not count on the profusion ofwebsites that now take "keeping up with the Joneses" to a new level" (WillPavia, The Times, Feb 4th 2006, p. 11 'Property website reveals what you'rereally worth')

I'm in the second year of an ESRC funded PhD entitled 'Streets Ahead:Neighbourhood, Consumer Culture and Social Classification'. This focuses on theACORN (A Classification of Residential Neighbourhoods) classification -developed by CACI, a marketing company, to 'understand customers, identifyprofitable prospects evaluate local markets and plan public resources' (from theACORN user guide, CACI 2004). However, there is increasing concern about howsuch software - and in particular, its public availability on websites such ashttp://www.upmystreet.com/ * - might influence the future shaping of place. Debatesaround the changing nature of social classification - in particular, itsmeaning, structure and relevance - are highly pertinent. At Postgrad Cafe I willbasically introduce my PhD through ACORN (in particular as seen through the'user guide', www.caci.co.uk/pdfs/Acorn%20Guide.pdf) and through some recentattempts to 'rethink class'.

*If you wish to prepare, find out your ACORN profile here by entering yourpostcode - when the new page comes up, click 'read up on your neighbours' (!)and then below the blue box, 'read the full profile'. Here is your 'ready-madeclass identity' (Burrows and Gane, forthcoming)...

Andrew McKechnie - Physiology, agency and society: Exploring the meaning of the dwelling with reference to physical disability

I am an ESRC funded PhD researcher in the School of City and Regional Planning. My PhD explores the relationship individuals with physical disabilities have with their dwelling, the significance attached to this relationship and why such relationships differ. Whilst much of the literature on physical disability and the meaning of the dwelling focuses on issues of design, by engaging with critical realism the thesis seeks to move beyond the functional reductionist positions presented in the past and assert the necessity of simultaneously exploring the dimensions of physiology, agency and society.

The presentation will draw on in-depth life history interviews of nineteen individuals with a wide range of physically disabilities, discussing methodological issues and presenting a stratified 'three dimensional framework', one that allows space for the consideration of physiology, agency and society in a non-reductionist fashion. In recognising that a combination of mechanisms co-determines the meaning and experience of the dwelling the impossibility of reducing experiences to just one level can be asserted. In doing so it becomes possible to acknowledge experiential diversity in the form of episodic issues, type of impairment, biographical accomplishment, emotional attachments, impact of services etc without disregarding all important issues of design or homogenising experiences.

PostGrad Café Report - Dr. Steven Stanley

On Wednesday 25th January Dr. Steven Stanley gave a presentation centred around his own doctorate thesis, which investigated experiences of PhD students within the social sciences, particularly on the power dynamics between the supervisor and the student. The PostGrad Café presentation concentrated on the PhD self-help guide, a genre which he exposed to a critical analysis located within concepts of power, identity and autonomy. Drawing on Foucault, Fairclough and his PhD supervisor Michael Billig (who featured both theoretically and empirically), Steven situated this genre within the incongruity produced by the clash between the espoused autonomy of ‘independent’ PhD research and the institutional practices, in particular the supervisor, that are set up to govern that independence.

From the perspective of critical psychology Steven analysed a number of PhD self help books, many of them written by supervisors using their own students as sources of data. He emphasised the lack of reflexivity demonstrated by these texts in using the authors own students as the subjects of these works. Steven also highlighted and criticised the tendency of PhD self-help guides to infantilise the reader by adopting the position of patronising parent. He gave the example of the book that directed the student to ‘take a bath’ if they felt stressed by the demands of writing. Steven’s talk stimulated a lively debate amongst the PhD students present. Among the issues raised, which might be followed up in later PostGrad Cafés, were;

* The commodification of higher education
* Methods of discipline and surveillance within academia
* Self-help genres as part of the 'Americanisation' of academia
* Accountability versus surveillance in government sponsored PhDs
* Community consensus as a way of directing research
* The PhD student as a diversified subject
* The bath as opposed to the shower

The next PostGrad Café will be held on Wednesday 22rd February at 5pm in the Senior Common Room, Glamorgan Building. Details will be posted here soon.

The PostGrad Café Team
Mark, Bambo, Andrew and Jamie