Professor Sarah Pink
biography : publications : workshops & talks : links
I joined the Department in 2001. I am a member of the Sociology group and a co-founder of the Loughborough Qualitative Digital Research Lab (LiQUiD Lab). During the academic year 2010-2011 I am Visiting Scholar at the IN3 (Internet Interdisciplinary Institute) at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, in Barcelona (http://in3.uoc.edu/opencms_portalin3/opencms/IN3/index.html) and I am currently a member of the executive board of the International Visual Sociology Association (IVSA) http://www.visualsociology.org/
My theoretical and ethnographic work, rooted in social and visual anthropology is usually interdisciplinary and sometimes has applied implications. My current research focuses on themes relating to digital and visual media, the senses, activism, sustainability and energy in urban and domestic contexts. In relation to these themes, my theoretical work develops questions around concepts of place, practice and phenomenology. I am very interested in methodological innovation, both in my work on visual, digital and sensory methodologies and in terms to the development of new routes to ethnographic knowledge and representation. I enjoy collaborating with colleagues from across academic disciplines – from the social sciences and humanities, to engineering and with artists – and I am always open to discussing new ideas for interdisciplinary work. I also have a long term interest in applied and public social science and strongly believe that bridges should be built between theoretical scholarship and applied practice. I have developed this in my own work and in collaborative projects and and also in publications that draw together fields of applied visual interventions.
I also have research expertise in gender, media, home, material and visual culture, urban social movements and I am happy to consider supervising research students working in any of these areas as well as those noted above, as well as those developing visual, sensory and other innovative methodologies.
I am currently involved in projects linking with the themes of digital media and sustainability and using visual, digital and sensory ethnography methods
At Loughborough I am part of the LEEDR (Low Effort Energy Demand Reduction)project http://www.leedr-project.co.uk/ I am leading the ethnographic strand of this interdisciplinary study, which aims to develop digital media interventions through which householders can reduce their energy consumption.
In Barcelona I am developing research (with John Postill http://johnpostill.wordpress.com/) about social media and activism. Here we are seeking to understand how activists are using social media are part of their activist practices.
I continue to develop theoretical work around questions relating to visual, digital and sensory themes, and questions concerning everyday life and theories of practice and place: my next single author book, to be published by Sage, draws on 10 years of research to explore the question of Situating Everyday Life: practices and places. I continue to pursue these and other questions through my current ethnographic projects.
Other work in progress reflects on methodological developments. I am currently editing the forthcoming book Advances in Visual Methodology, also with Sage, and with Dylan Tutt and Andy Dainty I am co-editing a volume about Ethnographic Research in the Construction Industry to be published by Routledge, which was inspired by our earlier collaborative work.