Thinking In Between

Ethics and Ethnography (Catherine Pope, Nicola Mackintosh, Shadreck Mwale, and Fawn Harrad-Hyde)

In this episode of Thinking In Between, we welcome four experienced ethnographers working in health and social care research: Professor Catherine Pope (University of Oxford), Professor Nicola Mackintosh (University of Leicester), Dr Shadreck Mwale (University of West London), and Dr Fawn Harrad-Hyde (University of Leicester), to discuss: - The particular value of ethnography as a research approach - Issues encountered when ethnographic research plans are reviewed during research governance processes - Learning from the "Ethics and Ethnography" symposium, held at the University of Oxford in March 2025 - What can ethnographers do now when navigating research governance? - Where is change possible moving forward?

Knowledge is Power, Ian Hacking, and Racialisation (Sara Paparini)

This episode of Thinking In Between hears from Dr Sara Paparini, a medical anthropologist and Senior Lecturer in Public Health and Equity at the Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary University of London. Sara's research began in HIV but has expanded to applying critical public health and anti-racist lenses to many other areas. Sara shares three big ideas with us in this episode: 1. Knowledge is Power - "Lucky Valley: Edward Long and the History of Racial Capitalism" by Catherine Hall (Cambridge University Press, 2024) and "Medicalizing Blackness: Making Racial Differences in the Atlantic World, 1780-1840" by Rana Hogarth (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017), 156-157 2. Ian Hacking on "Making People Up". The particular lecture that Sara discusses is Kinds of People: Moving Targets [https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/2043/pba151p285.pdf], which he presented at the British Academy in 2007. Another key text is "The Taming of Chance" by Ian Hacking (Cambridge University Press, 2014) 3. Racialisation - a particular malevonent form of "making people up", which Sara uses Hacking's work to understand. Sara shares from "Abolition Geography: Essays Towards Liberation" by Ruth Wilson Gilmore (Verso, 2022)

Helen Bamber, Legacies, and "From the Horse's Mouth" (Sam Miles)

Our guest today is Dr Sam Miles, Reader in Social Science at Barts and the London Medical School, Queen Mary University of London. He leads social science teaching across the medical school. Today, he talks about what it's like to work in that role, and shares three ideas who have most influenced his work and thinking: 1) Helen Bamber: a remarkable leader and human rights advocate 2) Legacies: particularly through Sam's work on the children's author David Rees, who died from HIV/AIDS 3) Learning "From the Horse's Mouth" - who do you choose to teach and to learn from?

Social Pedagogy, Act Early, and Urban Childhoods (Claire Cameron and Deniz Arzuk)

In this episode, we're joined by Professor Claire Cameron and Dr Deniz Arzuk from the Social Research Institute in University College London. They bring three ideas that have shaped their work and thinking: 1) Social Pedagogy [https://sppa-uk.org/]is a discipline common in much of continental Europe that reframes professional "care" provided to children, focusing on ethics, justice, meaningful activities, and relationships. 2) Act Early [https://actearly.org.uk/] is a research study about "early life changes to improve the health and opportunities for children living in areas with high levels of child poverty". Here, Claire and Deniz describe learning from working closely with local councils, and what counts as evidence. 3) Urban Childhoods [https://uclpress.co.uk/book/urban-childhoods/] is a forthcoming book (UCL Press, 2025) edited by Claire, which explores "Growing up in inequality and hope". In this part of the discussion, Claire and Deniz how the sociology of childhood adds value to public health and urban studies.

Problematisation, Ontological Politics, and Science and Technology Studies (Kari Lancaster)

In this episode, we speak to Professor Kari Lancaster from the University of Bath. Kari speaks about her career journey so far, coming from performance studies to policy studies and then into science and technology studies (STS) "sideways". Kari is recognised for contributing empirical social science research in her specific fields of focus (drugs and addiction, and infectious disease including hepatitis C, HIV, and Covid-19). In this episode - which also took place as a live seminar - Kari shares three ideas that have shaped her thinking and research: * Problematisation (Carol Bacchi, Michel Foucault) * Ontological politics (John Law, Annemarie Mol) * Coming to science and technology studies (STS) "sideways"