I am a Research Fellow within the
Department of Applied Social Science at the
University of Stirling.
My main interest lies in elites and understanding the mechanisms by which individuals are able to operationalise their
social advantage. I'm particularly interested in two areas
- Elite theory - Understanding who governs institutions and the implications of their power. My interests are in non-corporate
elites, such as the directors of quangos.
- Social mobility - Elite theory developes ideas of how the advantaged maintain their position through their practices. My
interest is in examining the reverse of this, understanding the relationship between the masses and higher social positions,
as well as understanding if the socially disadvantaged reproduce their own social positioning akin to elites and examining
why this should occur.
This research has developed strong knowledge and awareness of Social Network Analysis (SNA) and Quangos. SNA is my preferred
methodology, although I am increasingly utilising more traditionally quantitative skills.
Projects and interests
This is an ESRC funded project (RES-062-23-2497) examining social interactions by occupational positions.
It merges together two existing methodologies.
Social Interaction Distance (SID) can explore occupational stratification, producing measures such as
CAMSIS (Cambridge Social Interaction and Stratfication) scales which assign numerical scores to job titles which enable
quantitative analysis of the impact of occupational position on a multitude of social factors.
Social Network Analysis (SNA) can examine the interaction patterns between members of different occupations to
understand more thoroughly the structure of how relationships develop.
Funded by the ESRC Together, these methodologies can create a measure of the occupational stratification within a society,
with a score assigned to each job title, using social interaction patterns. They can then analysis the underlying structure
which produces such scores to advance our knowledge of how occupational stratification develops.
This project will explore multiple types of relationships (marriage, friendships, flatmates and so on)
in many countries and across multiple time-points. It aims to advance our understanding of how occupational interaction
patterns are formed and identify patterns reproducing inequalities across time and national borders. The role of the expansion
of higher education is just one of the areas the research will focus on.
My thesis was entitled 'The Social Networks of the Public Elite' and looking at the board members of 187 UK quangos
to examine who was governing these boards. Quangos are extra-governmental agencies, performing roles which have
a governmental function but remain free from party politics. These quangocrats are independent of governmental
interference, self-selecting fellow members and thereby allowing opportunities for a self-serving elite to position
themselves at the centre of these boards. The thesis built upon arguments in the existing literature which
claim there is opportunity for elite rule and examines whether this has been operationalised.
The thesis can be downloaded as a PDF by clicking here.
I undertook an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Stirling to further my ideas and produce a series of
journal articles from the research.
I co-authored a paper entitled The End of the
English Cultural Elite? with Andrew Miles and Mike Savage from
Cresc
at the University of Manchester, where I completed my PhD studies.
The paper was included in the 2008 Remembering Elites monograph published by Sociological Review. This compared the
composition of cultural elites in the 1960's to the 2000's, arguing their composition had widened and fragmented, but through
widening their small social circles rather than branching out to wider social groups.
I undertook an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Stirling to further my ideas and produce a series of
journal articles from the research.
Academic Influence Amongst the UK Public Elite, published in Sociology explored the role of academics on quangos.
It argued whilst commentators have lamented a decline in the power of professors to inform and engage with policy makers, academics
remain strongly represented on quango boards, especially those which are closest to channels of informal networked
governance. This paper was covered in
Times Higher Education
Further papers, still trawling through the review process, look at:
- The relationship between Scottish directors and quangos operating in areas of non-devolved powers
- The social capital of quango board members and the implications of this on social policy agendas
- A methodological article on the necessarity for multi-dimensional data for analysing boardroom interlocks.
I presented papers examining quango board members at various conferences at seminars throughout the UK, Europe and the USA.
Full details of my publications and conference papers can be found by clicking here