Let's Get Organised: Practicing and Valuing Scientific Work Inside and Outside the Laboratory

Over the past thirty years there has been a significant turn towards practice and away from institutions in sociological frameworks for understanding science. This new emphasis on studying \'science in action\' (Latour 1987) and \'epistemic cultures\' (Knorr Cetina 1999) has not been shared by academic and policy literatures on the problem of women and science, which have focused on the marginalisation and under-representation of women in science careers and academic institutions. In this paper we draw on elements of both these approaches to think about epistemic communities as simultaneously practical and organisational. We argue that an understanding of organisational structures is missing in science studies, and that studies of the under-representation of women lack attention to the detail of how scientific work is done in practice. Both are necessary to understand the gendering of science work. Our arguments are based on findings of a qualitative study of bioscience researchers in a British university. Conducted as part of a European project on knowledge production, institutions and gender the UK study involved interviews, focus groups and participant observation in two laboratories. Drawing on extracts from our data we look first at laboratories as relatively unhierarchical communities of practice. We go on to show the ways in which institutional forces, particularly contractual insecurity and the linear career, work to reproduce patterns of gendered inequality. Finally, we analyse how these patterns shape the gendered value and performance of \'housekeeping work\' in the laboratory.Women, Science, Laboratory, Epistemic Community, Organisation, Value, Work, Career, Housekeeping

Supporting wellbeing in school

DApp Ed PsyResilience research suggests that supportive school environments can positively impact on the ecological systems within which children and young people develop, with a particular focus on their wellbeing. Taking this idea to a broader, systemic perspective, literature also suggests for children and young people to enhance feelings of wellbeing, it is extremely important that staff working within our schools are supported in meeting their own basic needs. Self Determination Theory (SDT) emphasises the importance of satisfying three basic psychological needs for life long psychological growth and wellbeing: Autonomy, Relatedness and Competence. The ideas presented within these three papers are relevant in today’s society where the level of wellbeing experienced by individuals can impact on staff attrition rates within our schools, as well as academic success and positive life opportunities for children and young people. Chapter 1 – The Systematic Review focuses on the impact of non-parental mentors used within schools in building resilience and enhancing feelings of wellbeing for children and young people. A quantitative approach was taken to synthesise the findings from six papers. The papers suggest those who demonstrated greater gains in terms of their resilience related outcomes had positively connected relationships with their mentors. However, outcome measures used within these papers varied greatly. Chapter 2 – The Bridging Document describes the journey from the systematic review to the empirical research. My ontological and epistemological positions are considered in relation to how they shaped my methodology and chosen methods. The importance of ethical practice, including being a reflexive practitioner is also described within this chapter. Chapter 3 – The Empirical Research follows on from the systematic review which highlighted a gap in applying one theoretical perspective to an understanding of wellbeing within schools. It indicated the wellbeing of children and young people can be influenced by the wellbeing of those who care for them. Five participants from two schools, took part in reflective discussions with a partner, over a six week period, before in depth reflective interviews were conducted. A theory driven analysis was applied to identify how the psychological needs suggested within SDT might be met through reflective discussion with a relatively close and connected partner; their associated feelings of wellbeing were also explored. Findings suggest that reflective discussions with a focus on the exploration of psychological needs, detailed within SDT, can support positive feelings of wellbeing among school staff. Implications for how this might be used in school, in addition to the role for Educational Psychology are explored. As this was conducted on a small scale, it highlighted the importance of conducting similar research with a wider range of staff in schools to allow generalisations to be made

Affective practices, care and bioscience: a study of two laboratories

Scientific knowledge-making is not just a matter of experiments, modelling and fieldwork. It also involves affective, embodied and material practices (Wetherell 2012) which can be understood together as 'matters of care' (Puig de la Bellacasa, 2011). In this paper we explore how affect spans and connects material, subjective and organisational practices, focusing in particular on the patterns of care we encountered in an observational study of two bioscience laboratories. We explore the preferred emotional subjectivities of each lab and their relation to material practice. We go on to consider flows and clots in the circulation of affect and their relation to care through an exploration of belonging and humour in the labs. We show how being a successful scientist or group of researchers involves a careful choreography of affect in relation to materials, colleagues and others to produce scientific results, subjects and workplaces. We end by considering how thinking with care troubles dominant constructions of scientific practice, successful scientific selves and collectives

Architecture and utopia, 2015

No abstract available

Let's Get Organised: Practicing and Valuing Scientific Work Inside and Outside the Laboratory

Abstract Over the past thirty years there has been a significant turn towards practice and away from institutions in sociological frameworks for understanding science. This new emphasis on studying 'science in action&apos

Women and science: what's the problem?

In recent years the issue of gender and SET (science, engineering, and technology) careers has become prominent in policies and debates in the UK. This paper explores the ways in which equalities solutions pertaining to women and science are locked into a narrow stock of taken-for-granted assumptions about the nature of the problem. Drawing on Foucauldian models of the productive nature of discourse, we examine the proliferation of reports and initiatives which frame the issue and critically discuss their institutional consequences including gender audits and gender experts, and the ways in which raising the profile of women in science also involves reinscribing feminine difference

Conversatorio con Lisa Garforth=Conversation with Lisa Garforth

Julia Ramírez-Blanco conversa con Lisa Garforth, autora del libro Green Utopias y especialista en utopías medioambientales. Con ella, hablamos acerca de las posibles maneras de definir las ecotopías, y cómo estas se manifiestan tanto en la literatura como en distintas formas de práctica social. Julia Ramírez-Blanco interviews Lisa Garforth, author of the book Green Utopias and specialist in environmental utopias. With her, we talk about the possible ways of defining ecotopias, and how they manifest themselves both in literature and in different forms of social practice. http://re-visiones.net/audio/Entrevista-Lisa-Garfoth.mp