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Visiting
scholars award - Further details
DEPARTMENTS
THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AND INTERNATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
Economics and International Development is primarily
an economics-based department, but also includes representatives
from other social science disciplines involved in the study of international
development, such as anthropology, sociology, politics and international
relations. All members of the Department are research active. Most,
but not all, of the research activity of the Department falls into
three areas:
· public finance
· international development
· the environment
There is a strong applied, policy-relevant focus in nearly all of
the Department’s research in these areas. As indicated in
the key themes, below, there are considerable overlaps among some
of the research interests in these areas. Several members of the
Department also have interests in the history of economic thought
and policy. There is a history of research collaboration with the
Department of Social and Policy Sciences.
Research Centres
Two University Research Centres are based in the Department: the
Centre for Development
Studies (CDS) and the Centre
for Public Economics. Members of the Department are also major
participants in the University-wide International
Centre for the Environment and in the Centre for Economic Psychology.
These provide a focus for research activity, co-ordinating applications
for research funding, and providing seminars and more informal networks.
In addition, the Department has combined with the Department of
Social and Policy Sciences to establish the Institute for International
Policy Analysis (IFIPA), to provide co-ordination for graduate studies
and research related to international policy issues. The staff submitted
to the RAE Outlets in Social Policy (5), Management (5) and Development
Studies (4--highest grade awarded). In addition to the ESRC Research
Group (2002-7) on ‘Poverty, Inequality and the Quality of
Life in Developing Countries’, other large grants have been
recently completed, and further large applications are underway.
New staff will have, or be expected to develop, strong research
profiles either complementing our present profile (including the
ESRC Research Group focus) or taking us in new directions. The further
work of these Centres, in conjunction with the Department of Social
and Policy Sciences, will be supported by the successful joint Science
Research Infrastructure Fund (SRIF) bid to refurbish part of our
joint building as a 'state of the art' research facility with workstations
for researchers handling large data-sets, and additional team work
research space and communications.
Current Research Interests
As a general guide to the present portfolio of research interests
across our 3 main categories:
Public Finance key themes:
· the formation and implementation of tax policy in the UK
· the reform and design of tax and social security systems
in developing and transitional economies
· conflict and complementarity in private and public provision
of social goods
· citizen perceptions of taxation and public expenditure
· corruption and tax evasion
International Development key themes:
· strategies for social development
· livelihoods and poverty analysis
· socio-economic security and social protection
· good governance and poverty elimination
· NGOs and the pursuit of collective action
· the economics of intergenerational equity
· the analysis and design of local management systems for
equitable natural resource use in developing societies
· the political economy of micro-finance
· agricultural support services and rural development
· the efficacy of aid
Environment key themes:
· valuing environmental damage
· external costs of the energy cycle
· exhaustible resource pricing
· “green taxes”
· “green accounting”
· environmental policy in transitional economies
· trade and the environment
· financial markets and the environment
· fisheries and coastal management
However, it must be emphasised that some members of
the Department have other, more specific research interests outside
these three headings, which can be identified from the entries for
individual staff members below.
Undergraduate Courses
The Department offers three undergraduate programmes: Economics,
Economics and Politics, and Economics and International Development.
The third programme was offered for the first time in 1999; building
on a knowledge base in economics, its objective is to equip students
with an interdisciplinary understanding of the recent development
of the world economy. Students in all three programmes have the
opportunity to spend twelve months (the third year of the programme)
on placement with a government department, a commercial organisation,
or overseas agency. Our student entry has increased significantly
in recent years. The Department recently gained 24/24 in the Economics
and Politics HEFCE Subject Review.
MSc Courses
The Department is currently responsible for the MSc programmes in
International Development, Economics / Economics (Development),
and the ESRC recognised Masters in Research (International Development).
The Department is also involved, through IFIPA, in a new MSc in
Globalisation and International Policy Analysis.
The MSc in International Development explores contemporary
understandings of the problems confronting developing countries
and the efforts that are being made to resolve them. It develops
students’ skills in independent criticism and enquiry, which
can be applied to policy analysis and practical problem solving.
As well as taught courses, the programme includes a supervised dissertation.
It attracts between 30-40 postgraduates each year. Its teaching
is reinforced by a Visiting Professor in Global Governance, Pierre
Landell-Mills (recently of The World Bank). (For more details, see
http://www.bath.ac.uk/econ-dev/postgraduate.htm#id)
The Masters in Research (International Development) is conducted
as part of a family of such programmes in the Faculty, with specialist
teaching from the International Development team. It will prepare
students through philosophy of social science, methodology, development
units and 'learning by doing' projects to become research competent
and continue research based studies through PhDs as well as entering
research based careers. (For more details, see http://www.bath.ac.uk/econ-dev/postgraduate.htm
http://www.bath.ac.uk/econ-dev/mres.htm
)
Until this year, the Department has delivered a MSc
in Fiscal Studies. While we retain the expertise to convene short
courses on this material, recruitment has declined for full length,
residential, Masters in the subject. However, given the overall
reputation of the Department, our desire to expand postgraduate
activity and evidence of demand, in September 2002 the Department
launched a new MSc in Economics, and MSc in Economics (Development).
We expect to add an MSc in Economics (Environment), given appropriate
staffing. This programme will only recruit candidates with strong
Economics first degrees, developing their micro and macro skills
to an advanced level alongside econometrics, quantitative analysis
and public sector, development and environment options. We see it
as important preparation for economics based careers requiring advanced
analytic competences, and may lead into PhDs or possibly a D (Econ).
(For more details, see http://www.bath.ac.uk/econ-dev/economics.htm)
The MSc in Globalisation and International Policy
Analysis (taught in association with the Department of Social and
Policy Sciences) recognises that with the growth of global interdependence,
the national policy arena is increasingly giving way to the international.
The programme is concerned with the strategies and policies of governments,
business corporations and other actors in 'civil society'. It asks
how far they are mutually consistent and what areas of conflict
exist or are likely to emerge: for example in terms of social needs
of ordinary people, or environmental sustainability. It considers
what international frameworks could serve to reduce these emerging
conflicts. It explores the implications of these issues for the
boundaries between public and private responsibility. Its work is
reinforced by a new Visiting Professor of Corporate Citizenship,
Malcolm MacIntosh. (For more details, see http://www.bath.ac.uk/ifipa/gmipa.htm)
Research Students
The Department has an active group of MPhil and PhD students working
in all three of our main research areas. They come from the UK,
Europe and around the world. We are keen to encourage more PhD students
in economics, and are considering the introduction of a D(Econ)
as a professional doctorate for those candidates, often already
in work, already holding Masters level degrees or very strong first
degrees, and seeking career upgrades. (For more details, see http://www.bath.ac.uk/econ-dev/postgrad-apps.htm).
To date, many of our PhD students have been development specialists,
outside economics.
THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL AND POLICY SCIENCES
The Department of Social and Policy Sciences (DSPS)
comprises about 20 academics and researchers in social policy, sociology,
and social work. The head of department is Dr Nick Gould (Reader
in Social Work) and the professorial group comprises Ian Gough,
Jane Millar and Graham Room.
The department has a strong research record and all
staff are active in research, both in collaboration with each other
and with colleagues from other universities and research centres.
The department's continuing excellence in research
was recognised when it was once again awarded a grade 5 rating by
the Social Policy panel in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise.
Our research is focused on contemporary issues in
social policy, sociology and social work. There is a strong comparative,
cross-national element to much of our research, and we are linked
via the Institute for International Policy Analysis with the Department
of Economics and International Development.
Our research is divided into three main areas as set
out below. The first two are organised within the Centre for the
Analysis of Social Policy (CASP). The third focuses specifically
on comparative and international research and is located in the
Institute for International Policy Analysis (IFIPA).
1. Work, family and welfare: new social divisions
and social exclusion
· Families and communities
· Labour markets and the employment relationship
· The welfare state, the life course and social exclusion
2. The transformation of the welfare state:
delivering services in new welfare states
· Social security and welfare to work.
· Health and social services
· The ‘Third Way’ under New Labour.
· The new analytics of social policy
3. European and Global Social Policy
· Comparative European research in social and
employment policy
· Global social policy
Further details of the third research group (taken
from the 2001 RAE submission) follow:
Comparative social policy: from European to global
social policy
Key research staff: Peter Cressey, Ian Gough, Nick Gould, Theo Papadopoulos,
Graham Room
Total research grants awarded 1996-2000: £324k
This research group is led by Room and Gough, building
on their longstanding work in European social policy and international
welfare comparisons. Members of DEID are also involved in this programme.
Substantial research grants have been received from the Department
for International Development (DfID) and the CEC (Leonardo, TACIS).
It divides into the following sub-groups.
Comparative European research: unemployment
benefit and labour de-commodification (Papadopoulos), social assistance
regimes and social assistance reform in southern Europe (Gough),
the implementation of new technology in social work (Gould). Country
studies include Papadopoulos on social insurance and family policies
in Greece and Giuliano Bonoli’s work on pension reforms in
France and Switzerland. In Central and Eastern Europe, Gough has
written on enterprise welfare in Russia. Colleagues from DEID have
also contributed: Roger Bowles has investigated tax policy, tax
evasion and tax corruption in transitional countries (in Underground
Economies in Transition) and Colin Lawson has researched a range
of issues from poverty and survival strategies in Albania, through
the political economy of health reform in Slovakia and its neighbours,
to the evaluation of tax and social security reform in the Czech
Republic using microsimulation modelling.
The social dimension of the European Union:
Cressey studies the impact of the European Works Council directive
on the practices of British companies and of the shift from ‘Maastricht’
to ‘Luxembourg’ on the ‘social dimension’
more generally. Gough and Room have contributed to theorising and
evaluating the European ‘social model’ in the Social
Quality in Europe project. The Journal of European Social Policy,
founded by Room and now edited by Gough, published over 50 articles
on comparative European social policy, single country studies and
supranational issues during the period, plus twenty European Briefings.
We are active participants in the European Research Institute, a
Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at Bath with funding from the EU.
Both Gough and Lawson have directed the ERI during this period.
Global social policy. This has developed
within the flagship programme on Social Policy in Developing Countries,
funded (£353k) by the DfID over the period 1999-2001 and co-directed
by Wood and Gough. It is undertaking conceptual research on welfare
regimes (Gough), globalisation and social exclusion (Room), needs
and rights (Gough) and the inter-generational bargain (Collard),
and is operationalising these ideas in developing countries and
in transnational contexts. A first volume on insecurity and welfare
regimes in developing countries will be published shortly.
Research postgraduates:
The Department has a flourishing research postgraduate programme,
with about 20 PhD students. We have pioneered a series of intensive
international doctoral schools (Bath 1998, Toronto 1999, Turku 1999,
Bath 2000). These bring together staff and research postgraduates
from five countries in Europe (utilising a Socrates Intensive Programme
grant) plus Canada (utilising funding from the EU-Canada Programme
for Co-operation in Higher Education). 33 students attended the
Bath 2000 School, including a new delegation from Taiwan. We continue
to enjoy a high success rate in obtaining ESRC studentships and
a good completion rate.
Postgraduate teaching
There are currently about 50 students pursuing taught Masters Programme.
These include:
· MSc in Social Research, which provides both a free-standing
masters programme in research methods and a starting point for students
going on to doctoral study. This is also validated for the GSCC’s
advanced award in social work.
· Master of Research in European Social Policy, an ESRC-approved
research training programme
· MSc in International Policy Analysis (MIPA), a new degree
offering a menu of forms of international learning in the second
semester.
· MSc in Business and the Community, a programme offering
students from a range of backgrounds the opportunity to study various
social dimensions of business in an area of increasing policy and
political interest.
THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
The Department is part of the Faculty of Humanities
and Social Sciences, which also includes Social and Policy Sciences,
Economics and International Development, Education, and Modern Languages
and International Studies.
The Department is the home of the Directors of three
research centres;
· The Centre for Economic Psychology (Professor Alan Lewis)
[This has been phased out this year, but the research field remains
a key strength of the dept]
· The Science Studies Centre (Professor David Gooding).
· The British WHO Field Centre for the Study of Quality of
Life is also located in the Department under the direction of Professor
Suzanne Skevington.
Two other research units are closely associated with
the Department.
· The Pain Management Unit is a joint collaboration between
the University and the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases;
its work is in research, clinical and educational aspects of pain.
· The Mental Health Research and Development Unit is a collaboration
between the University and the Bath Mental Health Care NHS Trust,
and does research on mental health, especially substance abuse.
The Directors of both Units (Dr Chris Eccleston and
Professor Richard Velleman) are members of the Department. Members
of their Units (25 people in all) are affiliated to the Department.
There are thirteen members of academic staff, of whom
eleven are full-time teaching members of the Department. There are
also a number of Visiting Fellows associated with the research activities
of the Department and with the various Centres.
The Department is supported by a Placement Tutor,
an administrative officer, three secretaries, an Experimental Officer,
and several other technical staff who are centralised in the Faculty
and serve all the departments. The Department is in the process
of developing its resources extensively.
The Department is currently developing the technical infrastructures
and support a submission to HEFCE for B funding.
The Department of Psychology is a growing, research-active
group which is responsible for several degrees;
· BSc in Psychology with Sociology (BSc in Psychology from
2000). Current intake 85 per year.
· Masters Degree in Health Psychology, established in 1996,
current numbers 16
· Masters Degree in Science, Culture and Communication started
1998, current numbers 15
· Masters Degree in Applied Social Psychology which began
in 1999, current numbers 13
· Masters Degree in Human Communication and Computing began
in September 2000. This is a joint programme with the Dept of Computer
Science. Current numbers 16
· Masters of Research in Psychology, an ESRC-approved research
training programme
· Undergraduate BSc/B Eng Degrees in Psychology and Communications
Engineering/ Communications Engineering and Psychology began in
2001. This is a collaboration between the Department and the Department
of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
· There are currently 23 postgraduate research students.
Several students work in multidisciplinary fields.
Research
All members of the Department are actively engaged in research and
publication, and in collaborative national and international networks.
In the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise, the Department members
formed part of the RAE submission of related departments in the
University, as we do not currently have the critical numbers to
fulfil the agenda of the Psychology panel. These departments were
graded 5* - Pharmacy and Pharmacology (health psychologists), 5
- Education (science communication and culture) and 5 - Management
(economic psychology)
Research Areas of the Department
Communications:
• science technology and society: the relationship between
culture and science/technology, the public understanding of science,
the process and impact of innovation
• the interface between human and machine, the use and development
of technology, information representation, processing and use, simulation
and modelling
• language, discourse, media and culture, the social construction
of meaning, imagery, representation and rhetoric
Links with: Science Studies Centre, Royal Institution, national
and international organisations concerned with research on science
and society and scientific and technological innovation. Other departments
interested in communication, international organisations concerned
with research on communication, social construction, critical theory,
and consciousness.
Health
• health beliefs, health-related values, quality of life,
and the relationship of these to health conditions and to personal,
social and economic wellbeing
• implementation and evaluation of health interventions, therapies
and education, health-related practices
• management of chronic health conditions, pain, addiction,
mental health
Links with: WHO Field Centre for the Study of Quality of Life, Mental
Health Care Research and Development Unit, Pain Management Unit,
Institute of Health and Medicine, local, national and international
health authorities and bodies, international organisations concerned
with pain, health promotion and health care research and management.
Social Beliefs and Values
• mapping of values and their correlates; the relationship
between values within and across value domains, lifestyles and ideologies,
economic, political, spiritual, ethical and environmental values
• the application of values; values, beliefs, behaviour and
decision-making processes, connectionist modelling of decision-making
• the origins of values, values development and education,
discursive and cultural processes in values
Links with: Centre for Economic Psychology ICE, international organisations
relating to economic psychology, political psychology, moral and
ethical education research groups.
Four methodological approaches are represented in the Department:
Social Cognitive – includes approaches that
focus on the structure of individual beliefs and representations.
Social Constructionist/Discursive – includes approaches that
focus on how meaning is socially constructed through discursive
processes.
Cognitive Process – includes a focus on how mental processes
function, including connectionism and brain functions.
Cultural - includes a focus on cultural construction, cultural variation
and cultural context.
• Science Studies Research The Science Studies Centre exists
to further research and training in the historical and social studies
of science and technology, with particular reference to cultural
change.
• Areas of particular interest are the history, philosophy
and sociology of experimentation, computer modelling and simulation,
the social impact of science and technology, the sociology of scientific
knowledge, and the study of cultural representations of science
and of public understanding and beliefs about science.
• Science studies has a history of being multidisciplinary,
and currently the Department members involved in this field are
developing connections with biologists, mathematicians, engineers
and linguists in the University, as well as with other social scientists.
• Research in this area takes an empirical approach to the
study of scientific practices and of language and communicative
behaviour, particularly in relation to the interface of science
and culture, and issues around science communication. Our methods
are informed by a broadly constructivist theoretical approach and
by an historically informed recognition of the transformative effects
of new technologies. Thus, in addition to placing ethnographic and
archive work alongside laboratory studies, surveys, interview data
and textual analysis, our approach utilises methods based on new
computational tools for modelling and analysis.
• Health-Related research Good working relations exist locally
for research. The university’s Institute for Health and Medicine
coordinates many health activities.
• The health psychologists work with the World Health Organisation,
and with the International Association for the Study of Pain.
• They currently hold grants with inter alia, the Wellcome
Trust, the South West Regional Heath Authority and Glaxo-Wellcome.
A £2.8m grant (5 years) has just been gained between Professor
Skevington and members of the Departments of Social and Policy Sciences
and Economics and International development to research Poverty,
Inequality and Quality of Life.
• The health psychologists in the department hold appointments
with local clinical institutes. Associations are particularly strong
with the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, the Bath
Mental Health Care Trust, and the Drugs and Alcohol Advisory Bureau.
Members of the group direct the Pain Management Research Unit (Christopher
Eccleston), the joint Avon & Western Wiltshire [Bath] Mental
Health Care NHS Trust and University of Bath Unit (Richard Velleman)
and the WHO Centre for the Study of Quality of Life in the UK (Suzanne
Skevington)
• In addition to the psychologists involved in health-related
research in the Department, several people in the Faculty have interests
in medical sociology, health policy and health economics.
• There are widespread interests in health across the University
in the Departments of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, Biology and Biochemistry,
and in the Department of Medical Sciences which provides research
links with the clinical research institutes in local hospitals and
clinics in the city. A Chair in Public Health, and closer research
affiliations with General Practitioners have expanded the horizons
for research in health psychology locally. Thriving academic developments
in Sports and Exercise Science, and the rapid expansion of international
sports facilities on the campus promise closer collaboration with
sports scientists in the next few years.
• We are developing our cognitive research interests
particularly in relation to connectionist modelling of decision-making,
and on attention and automaticity. These are currently being developed
in relation to several fields including health-related behaviours,
and to pain and to dementia.
• We have strong research interests in visualisation and representation.
• Our links with the Computer Science Department are facilitating
the development of work on interactive systems design and on communication.
• Communication – broadly defined – is a central
interest of the Department, reflected in our research interests
and also in our teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate
levels. We are part of a three-department initiative to develop
a university Institute for Communications Research as part of which
we have obtained a £400,000 SRIF grant to develop three laboratories
for communications research.
• We have a strong tradition of research and teaching in social
psychology, and economic psychology, with interests in theory (particularly
decision-making, and also social construction of meaning), in methodology
(we use both qualitative and quantitative methods in both research
and teaching) and in applications.
• Our work in economic and political psychology is widely
recognised as innovative.
• We are particularly developing work on practical decision-making,
and one of our areas of growing interest is economic issues, and
issues around the environment.
• Research and teaching in the social psychological aspects
of communication are well-established.
Much of the Department’s research is conducted in collaboration
with partners in other departments in the University, with local
and national institutions, and through international connections.
Department members hold, or have recently held, research grants
from the funding councils, from the Home Office, education and health
authorities, charities, and drug companies.
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Scholars Award - Further Details
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