Programme full

Thursday 16 April 2014 13:30 - 15:00
PAPER SESSION 5
This paper draws on research carried out as part of the Leverhulme Trust programme 'Making Science Public', in
conjuction with the Department of Computing Science at the University of Sheffield. It examines how a framework of
'Responsible Research and Innovation', particularly its requirements for inclusive upstream engagement, may be
incorporated into the development of robots for elder care, and how this is co-evolving with other policies promoting
innovation in health and social care. Through empirical research carried out amongst stakeholders, scientists and
members of the public, I will explore different understandings of 'robot' and 'robotics' in this context, as well as
interpretations of 'responsibility' and 'care'. The intention is to contribute to the broad fields of science and technology
studies, STI policy, bioethics, and robotics, as well as to furthering RRI scholarship through clarifying the way(s) in
which it is being interpreted and employed by real world actors in emerging scientific fields.
Dear Jo: Researching Trust and Empathy Online
Brownlie, J., Shaw, F.
(University of Edinburgh)
This paper draws on a study which is part of the transdisciplinary project, A Space for Sharing and a Shared Space,
funded by the ESRC through EMoTICON - a programme set up to explore trust and empathy online. Specifically, it
focuses on the way in which emotional distress is discussed and engaged with through email support provided by
Samaritans. In doing so the paper engages with the challenges of transdisciplinary working, the ethics of researching
emotional lives online and the conceptual and methodological reading for emotions. Samaritans presents an
interesting case study because, although best known for its telephone helplines, since 1994, the organisation has also
been providing support via email and now answers some 20,000 messages per month. As volunteers are anonymous,
users are encouraged to email 'Jo' at Samaritans. While existing research suggests users are more critical of this
service than Samaritans telephone service, demand for the email service continues to grow (Samaritans, 2013). Most
recent research on emotional distress and suicidal expression online has been concerned with twitter and online
support forums (Horne and Wiggins, 2009); this study offers a different lens - the closed virtual space of email
interaction - through which to reflect on these other platforms and the digital expression of trust and empathy.
Social Divisions/Social Identities
M228, GEORGE MOORE BUILDING
‘She Gets Herself around a Bit, Doesn’t She?’’ : Hyperfemininity, Excess and Promiscuity on the Girls’ Night
Out
Nicholls, E.
(Newcastle University)
Within a so-called 'post-feminist' society, many current conceptualisations of femininity position women as able to
adopt the pleasure-seeking, assertive definitions of sexuality traditionally reserved for males. The re-appropriation of
the word 'slut' - for example through the Slutwalks - may represent a move away from traditional conceptualisations of
'respectable' femininity and sexuality as controlled and restrained. However, this paper will consider the ways in which
these traditional conceptualisations still limit the abilities of young women to redefine femininities on a girls' night out in
Northeast England. Drawing on 26 in-depth interviews undertaken for my ESRC-funded PhD research, I will examine
the ways in which processes of othering allow some young women to lay claim to respectable femininity through
positioning others as 'slutty' in terms of dress and/or behaviour. Whilst many of the young women are beginning to
question the meaning of the word 'slut' and to trouble or challenge the assumptions that associate hyperfeminine or
'excessive' ways of dressing with slutty behaviour, the pervasive power of the term continues to enable and constrain
particular behaviours and identities as women seek to distance themselves from deviant, hypersexualised identities
within the spaces of the Night Time Economy. Women frequently negotiate complex and shifting territory in spaces
where a degree of sexualised dress and behaviour is now expected and normalised as a dimension of contemporary
femininity, but it is all too easy to cross the unstable boundary and be labelled as 'slutty', 'too feminine' or 'too much of
a girl'.
Is Metal Less Sexist than the Mainstream?: Interpreting British Women Hard Rock and Metal Fans' Talk about
Sexism
Hill, R.
(University of Leeds)
BSA Annual Conference 2015 188
Glasgow Caledonian University