Experimental workers of the world - the labour of human research subjects in the emerging bioeconomies of China and India. China and India have become significant new hubs for domestic and multinational clinical trials, the process by which new drugs are tested for global consumption. Developing the concept of experimental labour, this project will investigate the growing numbers of the poor and uninsured who enrol in clinical trials as a means of making a living.
Policing the border: security, human rights and gender. Women are the fastest growing group undertaking extra-legal border crossing, yet we know little about the gendered character of border enforcement. This project will develop a regulatory framework for border policing that is adaptable to the gender determinants of mobility, human rights and the future challenges of border management.
Governing Climate Futures: The Social and Political Ramifications of Climate Modification. In light of the slow progress of international climate negotiations momentum has been developing behind a range of proposed strategies for manipulating climatic systems. Collectively referred to as ‘geoengineering’, current projects include technologies designed to reflect sunlight away from the Earth and techniques for directly removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Though these techniques may prove ....Governing Climate Futures: The Social and Political Ramifications of Climate Modification. In light of the slow progress of international climate negotiations momentum has been developing behind a range of proposed strategies for manipulating climatic systems. Collectively referred to as ‘geoengineering’, current projects include technologies designed to reflect sunlight away from the Earth and techniques for directly removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Though these techniques may prove to be a cost effective response to global warming, the deployment of these technologies will pose significant social, political and diplomatic challenges. This project will document the international development of geoengineering and will provide critical insights into the wider social and political ramifications of these developments.Read moreRead less
Risk shifting, retirement and low-paid work. This project will respond to the pressing need for greater understanding of the new socio-economic terrain of social risk shifting. The project will situate retirement financing within a discourse of risk shift to households and individuals, which is seeing social roles and identities tied, in cultural as well as monetary ways, into global finance.
Food/body encounters: New approaches and alternative solutions to obesity prevention and policy. There is growing recognition of the need for new ways to tackle the obesity problem, and for forms of intervention that move beyond the limitations of individual behavioural changes. This project provides a paradigm for re-orientating how we have come to know obesity by investigating the cultural and institutional processes that shape everyday food and activity practices. Understanding and intervenin ....Food/body encounters: New approaches and alternative solutions to obesity prevention and policy. There is growing recognition of the need for new ways to tackle the obesity problem, and for forms of intervention that move beyond the limitations of individual behavioural changes. This project provides a paradigm for re-orientating how we have come to know obesity by investigating the cultural and institutional processes that shape everyday food and activity practices. Understanding and intervening in these dynamics of social practice are central to the challenges of reversing trends in the prevalence of obesity.Read moreRead less