Media, Birmingham City University
Thesis title:
My research is framed by the context of a collaborative PhD. I am working with a company which uses creativity to produce and communicate data about young people’s lives and enable them to contribute more effectively to cultural and social life.
During my initial research, it became clear that the topic as stated needed to be more specifically defined in terms of the users of digital data and the nature of the data itself. Thus, it is now focused on public sector policymakers as users of data and big data has been joined by small data as objects of study. The site of my investigation is Birmingham, the largest UK city after London. It has a population of more than one million of which approx. 45% are under 30 (2017).
My main research question now is:
In what ways does data-driven public sector policymaking contribute to the social and cultural inequalities of young people and how might young people be assisted to overcome them and redress the power imbalance between them and policymakers?
My subsidiary questions are as follows:
Simon Guentner, Louis Henri Seukwa, Anne-Marie Gehrke, Jill Robinson (eds), : Local Matters: How neighbourhoods and services affect social inclusion and exclusion of young epople in Euroepan cities. Peter Lang 2018
Jill Robinson, Ajmal Hussain, Helen Higson, Gemma Commane, Chapter: The Loft, Birmingham in Sirovatka and Spies: Effective Interventions for unemployed young people in Europe - Social Innovation or Paradigm Shift. Routledge 2018
Paper presented at the IAMCR 2019 Conference in Madrid, Spain July 7 – 11, 2019
Title: Disadvantaged by Data or not? Rebalancing the power dynamics between young people and public sector policymakers.
Paper presented at Conference: DATA POWER;global in/securities, University of Bremen, Germany Sept 12-13 September 2019 -
Title: Data visualisation: reconfiguring power relations between Big Data-riven policymaking and marginalised young people in Panel: Data visualisation at the margins: Missing people, invisible people, imaginary people
Presentation in the Data and the digital economysession at MECCSA 2020 Conference in Brighton, UK
Jan 8 - 10, 2020
Title: : The disruptive power of Small Data: challenging Big Data-influenced public sector narratives around young people’s social and cultural inequalities
Presentations to the young people who form the community with which my collaborative partner Beatfreeks engages.
Discussions with Councillors in Birmingham City Council about my research topic.
The contribution of singing to children's and young people's personal and social competences.
The effects of singing on older people's health and well being
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA)