Programme full

Wednesday 15 April 2015 11:00 - 12:30
PAPER SESSION 2
acts of resistance. In so doing the investigation analyses how and why they stigmatise some state-corporate practices
as criminal.
Asylum, Harm and Structural Violence: Women's Experiences of Seeking Sanctuary
Canning, V.
(Liverpool John Moores University)
As research and reports by Women for Refugee Women (2012; 2014), Freedom from Torture (2009), Southall Black
Sisters (2011) and Asylum Aid (2011) have substantively documented, asylum is not gender neutral. Women
commonly flee sexual or gendered violences, are primarily responsible for child dependents, and face barriers to
domestic or sexual abuse support services which can impact on an individual's claim as part of a Particular Social
Group (Canning, 2011; 2014a). Simultaneously, legislations (for example the Convention on Torture) often overlook
the trajectories of violence women may be subjected to, and gender guidelines routinely fail to respond to women's
asylum claims appropriately.
This paper reflects on feminist activist research with women seeking asylum in Merseyside, as well as interviews in
Copenhagen and the North West of England with psychologists, psychotraumatologists, case workers and rape
support counsellors. In doing so, it addresses key impacts of sexual violence and torture on women fleeing
persecution. It sets these considerations as a background for understanding ways in which the impacts of violence
can be compounded by the process of seeking asylum, and the inequalities faced by refugees if granted sanctuary.
Focussing specifically on women, this paper adopts three key approaches: social harm, structural violence and
feminist criminology, to problematise the treatment of women fleeing sexual violence, torture and persecution and
seeking asylum in these two regions.
BOUNDARIES, BORDERS & VIOLENCE
Science and Technology Studies
W525, HAMISH WOOD BUILDING
Culture Meets Technology: Biography, Boundaries and Distinction in the Shifting Social Worlds of Perfume
(Progression or Regression?)
Wainwright, S.
(Brunel University London)
This paper answers recent calls for the cross-fertilisation of STS and Cultural Sociology by using concepts from these
fields to explore the shifting cultural and technological worlds of a neglected yet salient major global industry: perfume.
I draw on standard fragrance chemistry textbooks (Curtis & Williams, 2001; Sell, 2006), historians' examinations of the
cultures of commercial scents (Jones, 2010; Reinarz, 2014), and particularly superstar perfumer's insider accounts of
the modern fragrance industry (Malle, 2011; Elena, 2012) to outline the transformations of the ubiquitous modern
perfume market into celebrity, mass, and niche sectors. I employ three interrelated perspectives to understand these
changes: boundary-work (STS), distinction (Cultural Sociology) and biography (Sociologies of Technology and of
Culture). I also draw upon perfume websites, such as Fragrantica (400,000+ members), to discuss three case studies
- and here I use the markers of brand, price, distribution, bottle, advertising, and perfumer to examine boundaries,
distinction and biography in action. My three examples are: Celebrity: Purr – Katy Perry, £20, Argos, purple cat bottle,
Katy in a cat-suit, unknown perfumer. Mass: Uomo – Valentino, £58, John Lewis, ornate bottle, suave man in Venice,
Oliver Polge. And Niche: French Lover – Frédéric Malle, £155, Liberty London, plain bottle, no adverts, Pierre
Bourdon. Participants in the seminar will be encouraged to smell all three perfumes – for a life-changing existential
experience? To conclude, I claim the social worlds of perfume enables researchers to transpose culture, technology,
art and science into a new 'sensuous and sensual' sociological key.
The Choice Not to Engage: The Formation of the Post-Soviet Scientific Diaspora
Karaulova, M.
(University of Manchester)
International scientific mobility is a highly evident global phenomenon. Greater shares of faculty in the UK now have
experience of international migration. One of the forms in which 'migrant capital' is utilised in scientific practice is the
formation of diaspora networks. This research investigates explicit and implicit diaspora formation and utilisation
BSA Annual Conference 2015 102
Glasgow Caledonian University