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NEW ESRC PROFESSORIAL FELLOWS The ESRC is pleased to announce the appointment of seven fellowships under the Professorial Fellowship Scheme 2012-13. The scheme is designed to support leading social scientists working in the UK, by providing them with the freedom to pursue their own innovative and creative research ideas. The new fellows are Professor
Matthew Watson from the University of Warwick, Professor Orazio Attanasio from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Professor Beverley Skeggs from Goldsmiths, University of London, Professor Joel Felix from the University of Reading, Professor Mark Harvey from the University of Essex, Professor Elizabeth Meins from the University of York and Professor Celia Lury from the University of Warwick. Professor Matthew Watson’s fellowship
will explore the ways in which the market economy has become embedded in our everyday experiences. Director of the ESRC Centre for
the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy, Professor Orazio Attanasio’s fellowship will look to research child development in low-income families in Latin America and South-East Asia. Professor Beverley Skeggs’ fellowship
will explore the relationship between Value and value by looking at two domains: the Digital Domain where friendships are harvested by companies to generate economic value; and prosperity theology where the relationship between values and values is in a tight loop. Professor Joel Felix’s fellowship will
investigate the fiscal origins of the French Revolution. Professor Mark Harvey is the
Director of the Centre for Research in Economic Sociology and Innovation. His fellowship will focus on how different parts of the world are dealing with climate change, the depletion of finite energy and material resources such as oil, and a growing population with increasing and changing demand for food.
Professor Elizabeth Meins’ fellowship will look to develop and evaluate an
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intervention package which will help improve parents’ mind-mindedness – the ability to ‘tune in’ to what their baby might be thinking or feeling. The intervention will consist of an animated film, short book and smartphone app. Professor Celia Lury is Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies at the University of Warwick. Her fellowship will allow her to investigate how methods of social research enact the world, and how they are evaluated by those who use them and by those whose activities they measure. She will also investigate whether these methods are remaking the social world through their organisation of constantly changing processes of connecting, converting, ranking and listing. Each of the seven fellows will
make a significant contribution to the development of social science, while also acting as a champion for ESRC and the social sciences, promoting their vital role in addressing current and future issues for modern society and the economy. n
PHASE TWO OF SCOTLAND FELLOWS The ESRC has appointed two new fellows and one new Centre to undertake research to inform the debate in the run-up to the referendum on Scottish independence. The fellows and the Centre will join
seven existing fellows as part of a wider programme of work addressing issues around the Future of Scotland and the UK. The research will provide evidence and analysis across the broad range of issues and policy areas affected by the Scottish independence debate. It will assist in planning across a wide range of areas which will be affected by the outcome of the vote, such as culture and identity, business intelligence and fiscal and monetary policy. The first newly appointed fellow is Professor James Mitchell from the University of Edinburgh. His work will look at the implications of the referendum on the governance of the rest of the UK as well as on local governance in Scotland.
Professor Mitchell says: “While
there has been considerable interest in these issues in Scotland, the implications for the rest of the UK have tended, at best, to focus on a narrow band of issues. There is a need, therefore, to broaden out discussion and to reach out to other parts of the UK to help inform understanding of the wider issues.” The second fellow to be appointed is Professor Brad Mackay from the University of Edinburgh. He will investigate how the constitutional and political uncertainty surrounding the future of Scotland is influencing business decision-making. “The uncertainties caused by a referendum vote on Scottish independence may influence any number of business decisions, such as whether to invest, re-invest, expand, withdraw, locate or relocate business activity within or outside Scotland and the United Kingdom”, says Professor Mackay. Also funded is the new Scottish Centre for Constitutional Change. The centre consists of a consortium of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Stirling and Strathclyde universities as well as the National Institute for Economic and Social Research. Led by Professor Michael Keating, the centre will analyse the longer-term evolution of the Scottish economy and investigate its ability to face future economic, social, demographic and political challenges. “Our centre will focus on two sets of questions: options for constitutional change and their implications, and the response of citizens and social and economic actors to the prospects of change and to change itself”, says Professor Keating. n
www.futureukandscotland.ac.uk
FUTURE OF THE UK AND SCOTLAND
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