Research
Sexuality and relationships are
focus of new centre
Drawing on a long tradition of pioneering research in the field, the
Department of Sociology has launched a new Centre for Intimate and
Sexual Citizenship (CISC).
The Centre, founded and directed by Dr Róisín Ryan-Flood and Professor Ken Plummer, will look at theory and
carry out research. It also holds fortnightly seminars providing a forum
for the discussion of new work in numerous areas including family
practices, relationships, and patterns of family change.
Dr Ryan-Flood explained: ‘Much pioneering research
on sexualities and intimate life originated at Essex in the early 1970s,
which has always been at the forefront of work on lesbian and gay
studies, inequalities, and intimate citizenship. The concepts of
“intimate citizenship” and “sexual citizenship” refer to the ways in
which sexual identities and inequalities, as well as wider aspects of
intimate life such as new reproductive technologies and new family
forms, are mediated by citizenship. The new Centre will continue the
tradition of work in these fields at Essex.’
CISC seminars are held fortnightly on Wednesdays
between 1pm and 2pm in room 6.348. Further information is available at:
www.essex.ac.uk/sociology/cisc.
Survey development opens up new research
possibilities
Researchers using the
British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) can now gain a better
understanding than ever before of how our lives are affected by where we
live.
Over the past year ISER, which has run the
BHPS since 1994, has released a range of geographical identifiers about
the location of BHPS households for all the currently available waves of
BHPS data. These range from Local Authority Districts to Postcode Grid
References which indicate the position of a household’s postcode to the
nearest metre.
The development is likely to be of
considerable interest to researchers looking at the effect that
neighbourhood environment has on people’s changing lives. The
information includes things like measures of deprivation, air
pollution, the location of telephone masts etc.
While some of the geographical identifiers
may be downloaded from the ESDS/UK Data Archive website after agreeing
to five confidentiality conditions, a special license agreement is
required for the more detailed geographical identifiers such as Wards.
Postcode Grid References will be accessed using
Secure Data Service
which offers secure remote access for approved researchers.
Birgitta Rabe, who has created the geo-indicators as
part of her own ongoing research into the effects of neighbourhood
quality on residential mobility, said: ‘This really is a very exciting
development for researchers who are interested to get a better
understanding of how our lives are affected by where we live. I expect
that the data release will stimulate lots of interesting new research
using the BHPS.’
Also in the printed March edition of Wyvern:
- Bookshelf
- Scientists make important discovery in gene regulation
