Fully funded PhD opportunity: Power

individual

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

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	'Power' How power is exercised here ...

[The above is my addition, and is not an endorsement]

Power as a social determinant of health inequalities (supervised by Mhairi Mackenzie and Sharon Greenwood at the University of Glasgow and Dr Gerry McCartney, Head of the Scottish Public Health Observatory at Public Health Scotland).

This PhD aims to deliver academic and policy learning about how power shapes health and health inequalities at a societal level and methodological learning about collaborative autoethnography as a means of generating data from/with elite participants. The findings will be used to develop learning materials for those engaged in the health inequalities field and to contribute to Public Health Scotland’s ongoing work programme in understanding power as a fundamental driver of health inequalities (HI).

In its proposed focus and methodological approach, the PhD draws on three ideas within the health inequalities literature:

• Power is not properly understood as a determinant of health and HI – it appears as a relatively amorphous concept whose multiple mechanisms have not been sufficiently delineated; this means that potential policy levers remain obscured.
• Those working within HI themselves sit within power structures and, as such, are a group whose understanding of power is important to explore. They have opportunities to influence policy debates, experience barriers created through power structures and, it is argued, despite commitment to resolving the problem, themselves benefit from the so-called ‘poverty industry’.
• Researching concepts such as HI with professional elites is difficult when professionals have well-practiced repertoires of responses.

There is evidence that using non-standard research approaches in the field of HI can bring original perspectives to bear.

Using a novel methodological approach (collaborative autoethnography) the study will:

• Explore how academic/policy elites working within the HI field:

1. Understand the mechanisms through which different types of power impact on health outcomes and HI.
2. Reflect on and conceptualise the power which they deploy or otherwise benefit from within their own personal/professional lives.

• Generate learning about hidden and actionable levers of power relevant to HI. 
• Develop learning sets for use with professionals in the HI field.
• Generate learning about researching with elite participants.
  

https://www.sgsss.ac.uk/studentship/power-as-a-social-determinant-of-health/

Mhairi Mackenzie,
Professor of Public Policy,
Urban Studies, School of Social & Political Sciences, University of Glasgow,
Email: mhairi.mackenzie AT glasgow.ac.uk

AND:

Deputy Director (Studentships and External Communications) of the Scottish Graduate School Social Sciences: Doctoral Training Partnership
Sgoil Cheumnaichean Saidheans Sòisealta na h-Alba: Com-pàirteachas Trèanaidh Dotaireachd
University of Edinburgh


A selection of recently published papers:

Mackenzie, M., Skivington, K., Fergie, G. (2020) “The State They’re In”: Unpicking Fantasy Paradigms of Health Improvement Interventions as Tools for Addressing Health Inequalities. Social Science & Medicine. 256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113047

Mackenzie, M., Gannon, M., Stanley, N., Cosgrove, K., Feder, G. (2019) ‘You certainly don't go back to the doctor once you've been told, “I'll never understand women like you.”’ Seeking candidacy and structural competency in the dynamics of domestic abuse disclosure. Sociology of Health & Illness 41(6): 1159-1174. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12893

Mackenzie, M., Bradley, L., Gannon, M., Cosgrove, K., Barton, D., Feder, G., Stanley (N) (2019) What might normalisation process theory bring to policy implementation studies? Learning lessons and uncovering questions through a case study of the profound implementation failure of a new policing policy’. Social Policy & Administration 53 (3): 449-463 DOI: 10.1111/spol.12467

Mackenzie, M., Hastings, A., Babbel, B., Simpson, S. and Watt, G. (2017) Proportionate universalism as a route to mitigating health inequalities? Exploring political, policy and practice uncertainties in times of austerity. In: Fee, D. and Kober-Smith, A. (eds.) Inequalities in the UK: New Discourses, Evolutions and Actions. Emerald Publishing Limited. ISBN 9781787144804,

Mackenzie, M., Collins, C., Connolly, J., Doyle, M. and McCartney, G. (2017) Working-class discourses of politics, policy and health: 'I don't smoke; don't drink. The only thing wrong with me is my health'. Policy and Politics, 45(2), pp. 231-249. (doi:10.1332/030557316X14534640177927)

Mackenzie, M., Hastings, A., Babbel, B., Simpson, S. and Watt, G. (2017) Tackling and mitigating health inequalities – policymakers and practitioners 'talk and draw' their theories. Social Policy and Administration, 51(1), pp. 151-170. (doi:10.1111/spol.12154)

My source: POHG