Dr Kath Bassett
Lecturer

Profile

Biography

• PhD (University of Edinburgh)
• MA (University of York)
• BA (Pacific University)

Kath is a Lecturer of Sociology and a Research Consultant on an ESRC-funded project associated with the Edinburgh Futures Institute. Previously she has worked as a Lecturer in the Centre for Women’s Studies at the University of York and in the Department of Sociology at Pacific University.

Their research utilises/focuses on:

• Ethnographic, Qualitative & Digital Methods
• ANT, Foucauldian & Posthuman Feminist Theories
• Digital Technologies, Locative Media Platforms & Algorithmic Governmentality
• Cities, Cultural-Economic Development & Tourism
• Emotions, Affect & the Psy Disciplines
• Masculinities & Transgender Issues/Politics

They convene the PG module ‘Introduction to Qualitative Methods & Data Analysis’, and teach on ‘Themes & Issues in Contemporary Sociology’ and ‘Understanding Social Media’. Additionally, they teach on the UG modules ‘The Racial State’ and ‘Undergraduate Dissertation.

To learn more about Kath, check out their website.

Publications

Selected publications

MCFALL, L., BASSETT, K., MCGOWAN, A., and DOYURAN, E.B. (2023) ‘Socio-material adaptations and the role of ‘digital affective’ premises in a pandemic city’ in Trompette, P. (ed.) Market Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [FORTHCOMING]

BASSETT, K. (2023) ‘TripAdvisor as a Geo-Pastoral Technology’.Tourism Geographies. [FORTHCOMING]

STEWART, E.A., NONHEBEL, A., MOLLER, C. and BASSETT, K. (2022) ‘Doing our bit: solidarity, inequality, and COVID-19 crowdfunding for the UK National Health Service’. Social Science & Medicine.

BASSETT, K. (2018) ‘Metagaming: Playing, competing, spectating, cheating, trading, making and breaking videogames’. New Media and Society, 20(6): 2226-2228.

WHITEHEAD, J.C., BASSETT, K., FRANCHINI, L. and IACOLUCCI, M. (2015) ‘The Proof is in the Pudding: How Mental Health Practitioners View the Power of ‘Sex Hormones’ in the Process of Transition’. Feminist Studies, 41(3): 623-650.

For other publications, check out Kath’s website + blog.

Research

Overview

Kath’s broader sociological project is concerned with understanding (inter)relationships of power, and especially tracing the organisation, enactment, and social life of ‘governmentality’. Over the years this focus has informed projects on the role of: mental health practioners in the transgender clinical encounter (2010-2012) and prisoner re-entry therapeutic encounter (2013-2015); and – in the case of their doctoral thesis and current research activities – digital platforms in urban, cultural-economic life and tourism (2016-present).

Within these projects, they have forged an ANT, Foucauldian, and Posthuman Feminist-inspired approach to understanding privilege and marginality via attending to the ‘social ontologies’ (categorisations and prioritisations) mobilised by institutional gatekeepers and other important mediators which make a difference in the lifeworlds of classed, raced, and gendered bodies during their movement from one place to another (both figurativly and literally).

Their doctoral thesis examined the ways that TripAdvisor mediates urban placemaking and demonstrates how exercising agency in environments where this platform governs is a complex, collective, and more-than-digital endeavour. To complete this project, they spent three years assembling an ethnographic case study centred on the development of an Edinburgh-based touristic scene, analysing its becoming as a ‘cultural ordering’ which articulates necessarily and in complex ways with locative media platforms.

The ethnographic approach and digital methods they developed within this project have also been adapted to develop the ‘COVID Arcadia’ project (funded by the Scottish Funding Council) and the ‘Granton Waterfront Development’ project (funded by the ESRC Local Acceleration Fund). While the former project sought to understand the role that digital platforms played in cultural-economic recovery by independent businesses in Edinburgh during the COVID-19 pandemic, the latter currently seeks to apply some of these insights to guide urban regeneration via attending to and developing community-based ‘tool kits’ meant to address the digital conditions associated with gentrification.

For other research activities, check out Kath’s website.