Research foci
Science, technology and medicine
Work on the sociology of science and technology has a very long and eminent pedigree at York. Work in this area remains extremely strong and is now primarily concentrated in the Science and Technology Studies Unit (SATSU).
Andrew Webster is Director and Nik Brown Deputy-Director. The work of SATSU (originally founded in 1988 and based at York since 1999) has a wide remit but in recent years it has concentrated on the sociology of the biosciences and new medical technologies, securing funding from the EC as a Marie Curie Training Centre in this area. SATSU has been notably successful in attracting large amounts of ESRC funding and was the base for the ESRC/MRC Innovative Health Technologies (IHT) Research Programme (2000-06) and, more recently, the ESRC Social Science Stem Cell Initiative (SCI) (2005-09) both directed by Andrew Webster. SATSU has a complement of 14, including research staff and doctoral students and a number of Associate Fellows.
Within SATSU, Nik Brown is doing innovative work on new medical technologies and the sociology of expectations. Andrew Webster is carrying out research on stem cells and the implementation of pharmacogenetics and public confidence in informatics systems. Brown and Webster's book - New Medical Technologies and Society (Polity, 2004) - shows how contemporary medical technologies are reshaping the human life course, and indeed the very ideas of life and death. Andrew Webster's Health, Technology and Society: A Sociological Critique (Palgrave, 2007) broadens this work and shows how novelty is managed in clinical, corporate and state-based health care.
Graham Lewis works on science and technology policy and is one of the leading UK contributors to the sociology of pharmacogenetics and related genetics-based technologies.
Paul Rosen divides his time between academia and a consulting business but focuses on issues of environmental sociology in collaboration with SATSU and the Stockholm Environment Institute at York.
Lena Eriksson has done work on the management of dissent in science and the construction of expert status, as well as in standardisation processes in the field of human embryonic stem cells.
Amanda Rees is a sociologist and historian of science, who works mainly on the history of field science, especially primatology. In her recent work she has demonstrated the investments at stake and assumptions underpinning the scientific controversy around primate infanticide.
Sarah Nettleton is a medical sociologist and the Senior Editor (Medical Sociology) of the international journal Social Science and Medicine. She has recently completed an ESRC funded project - graded as 'outstanding' - that demonstrated how lay people use e-health resources for children with chronic illnesses. She is currently completing an ESRC funded project examining the emotional and embodied lives of doctors.
Darren Reed has done work on age and technology development, with a particular focus on inclusive design, as well as stakeholder relations and interface design in large transport management systems. He is particularly interested in incorporating novel creative methodologies into technologies studies.