British Sociological Association Sociologists Outside Academia Group: Reflections and Experiences of Working in the Public, VCFS and Private Sector. A presentation from the BSA Annual Conference 2013.

1. Sociologists Outside Academia
3 April 2013
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Reflections and Experiences of Working in
the Public, VCFS and Private Sector

2. Sociologists Outside Academia
Mark Carrigan
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3. Theory and Practice in Mental
Health
Geraldine Mason
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Or: How I Became Interested in
Carers

4. Influences in the University of Essex
Sociology Department
• Supervised by Professor Joan Busfield. Her research focussed on psychiatry and mental disorder. Books: Managing Madness:
Changing Ideas and Practice (1986), Men, Women and Madness (1996). President, British Sociological Association, 2003-5.
• A large and inclusive department; over half of postgraduate students had non-sociology first degrees, and staff were recruited
from other disciplines. Karl Figlio (my tutor at the Association for Group and Individual Psychotherapy), Ken Plummer, John
Walshe and Ian Craib set up an MA in Sociology and Psychotherapy and went on to develop the Centre for Psychoanalytic
Studies. Mary McIntosh had written a paper ‘The Homosexual Role’ which became ‘the foundational argument for the
contemporary sociology of homosexuality’ (Ken Plummer). Her book (with Michele Barrett) ‘The Antisocial Family’ argued that
‘the normative ideology of the standard nuclear family excluded and marginalised many people’.
• Ian Craib worked at Essex from 1973 until his death in 2002. Ian’s engagement with psychoanalysis led to him becoming a
group psychotherapist in the NHS and writing Psychoanalysis and Social Theory: The Limits of Sociology (1989). His book, The
Importance of Disappointment (1994) criticised the proliferation of specialist therapies as pandering to the illusion that ‘we
could create identities of our own choosing’ (Michael Roper). Ian believed that these therapies ignored the ways in which
unconscious desires resisted change, and diluted the reality of relationships: ‘the links with other people, in all their dreadful
complexity, are all we have’.
• Ian saw the purpose of higher education as humanist rather than instrumental: ‘For some people education is a value in itself,
something to be sought after because the more educated we are, the more civilized we become. Through education we become
better people, more sensitive, able to appreciate the true and the beautiful, able to find sophisticated pleasures in the world.’
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5. A Sociologist In and Outside
Academia
Ceridwen Roberts
Department of Social Policy and
Intervention
University of Oxford
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6. Education
 University of Sussex 67-70- BA History
 University of Bristol 70-71 – Postgraduate
Diploma in Social Science [Sociology]
 Imperial College, Industrial Sociology Unit,
University of London- postgraduate research 71-74
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7. Career
 75-78 Lecturer 1n Industrial Sociology – Trent Polytechnic
 78- 92 Department of Employment
 Senior Research Officer, Social Science Branch,
 Principal Research Officer, Employment Market Research Unit
 Principal, Research Administration,
 Principal Research Officer, Social Science Branch
 92-01 Family Policy Studies Centre – Director
 01-now University of Oxford. DSPI- Senior Research Fellow
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8. Why I Left Academia
 I missed being in a research unit
 Research was not very sophisticated or
prioritised
 I found teaching only partially stimulating [16
hours a week contact time]
 I wanted to return to London
 I was specifically attracted to the idea of
working in Social Science Branch as I knew of
its reputation
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9. The Joys and Challenges
[this very much reflects my experience]
JOYS
 Access to resources in research budgets
 Demand for research – customers
 Policy relevance of research
 Potential immediacy of results
 Not having to write refereed articles
 Team / collaborative working
 Interdisciplinary
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10. And Challenges
 Having to develop customer “appetite”
 Living in an “alien” environment – an outsider
 Managing the relationship with policy customers and
Ministers
 Not having enough resources [voluntary sector]
 Learning to write simply, clearly without sociologese
 Have a wide range of sociological knowledge and skills
 Not being able to be a subject expert
 Having to be quantitatively competent
 Keeping in touch with academic developments
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11. The Type of Work I Have Done
 Managed large research programmes which I have designed and
part commissioned – 5 years running a DE programme of 13
projects total cost in current terms over £2 million
 Joint principal investigator of a national social survey [with
OPCS] “Women’s Lifetime employment” 1980 published 1984.
 Research reviews
 Re-written commissioned external research reports
 Contributed to departmental reports including to Select
committees, PQs
 Used research in policy briefings and monographs aimed at
parliamentarians, practitioners, the media and the general
public
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12. Managing a Professional Identity as
a Sociologist
This is more difficult outside academia but even more essential
both to keep up with sociological knowledge and to benefit
from peer support.
How to do it?
 See yourself as a professional not just a technician
 Join relevant learned societies eg BSA and also those
organisations /groups for social scientists outside academia
SRA, Laria, etc.
 Read some journals
 Go to conferences and seminars regularly both to get
information but also to meet others
 Contribute to journals/ conferences and seminars
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13. Finally
 I have enjoyed nearly 40 years working as a sociologist
in a variety of settings
 I am also committed to using Social Science to help
people understand the society they live in.
 I hope others will have the same rich experiences over
their working life as sociologists and am happy to help
in any way I can
 Ceridwen Roberts
 ceridwen.roberts@btopenworld.com
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14. Patsy Staddon, PhD
Becoming a Sociologist at 65
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15. Becoming a sociologist at 65
 My background as a ‘recovered alcoholic’—a service user
 Problems with conventional treatment and AA
 First involved in research as service user steering group
member
 Funded by AWP to do own research—basis for PhD
 Developed interest in authenticity and alcohol ‘disorder’
(Staddon 2009)
 Getting blasted, annihilated—wiping out learnt
behaviours—sometimes road to self-understanding
especially for women
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16. Where My Research Road Led
 Action-based, service user controlled research
into what improved support for women with
alcohol issues
 ‘Unconditional positive regard’ (Rogers 1975) –
 WIAS—service user controlled organisation
 Ongoing research and community action
 Continue to advise on national research projects
 Some lecturing at Bristol and Plymouth
 Challenge conventional understandings of
‘alcoholism’
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17. Favourite Publications
 Staddon, P. (forthcoming June 2013) ‘Theorising a social model of ‘alcoholism’: service
users who misbehave’ in Mental health service users in research: a critical sociological
perspective, ed. Staddon, P., Bristol: Policy Press.
 Staddon, P. (2012) ‘No blame, no shame: towards a social model of alcohol dependency -
a story from emancipatory research,’ Social Care, Service Users and User Involvement:
Building on Research, Carr,S. and Beresford, P., Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
 Staddon, Patsy ‘Many Roads to Recovery’, Big Issue January 10 2011Staddon, P. (2009)
'Making Whoopee'? : An exploration of understandings and responses around women's
alcohol use, PhD thesis, Plymouth University, Plymouth. (Online) Available at
http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/415. Accessed 12 December 2012.
 Staddon, Patsy. (2005) ‘Labelling Out’, in special issue of Journal of Lesbian Studies,
2005,vol.9,Issue 3. pp. 69-78. Also co-published in Making Lesbians visible in the
substance use field, ed. Elizabeth Ettorre. New York: Haworth Press.
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18.  Questions?
 Thoughts?
 Insight?
 Collaborate?
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19.  Presentation available from:
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