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Policy Ontologies; Working Across Theory and Practice

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Venue: Online

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A Birkbeck School of Law Policy, Practice and Activism Cluster event.

In the second of the Policy Ontologies virtual event series, we continue to engage with what it means to research, think, and write ontologically, as it relates to policy, institutional and state enactment. The context to the event is policy and legislation processes and implementation, in relation to social policy and welfare. 

Attendees across all career stages, including postgraduates, are welcomed. Spaces are limited. Registration is essential and a link to access the event online will be sent upon registration.

The first half of the event will be devoted to speaker talks, and the latter half to discussion and reflection.

Keynote Speakers 

(Titles are provisional)

Dr Anne-Marie Fortier, Professor of Sociology at Lancaster University (UK) 

Uncertainty as a mode of governing and its (ontological) implications on citizenship

Dr Tess Lea, Professor of Anthropology and Cultural Studies, Department of Gender and Cultural Studies, the University of Sydney 

In conversation with Tess Lea, on the publication of her new book, Wild Policy
Lea, T. (2020). Wild Policy: Indigeneity and the Unruly Logics of Intervention. Stanford: Stanford University Press

kylie valentine, Research Director and Associate Professor, Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW Sydney (Australia) 

Against complexity: notes on the policy ontologies of ‘vulnerable clients’

In Conversation Participants

Dr John Clarke, Professor Emeritus (Social Policy) The Open University (UK), Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow, 2019-2021

Dr Rachael Dobson, Lecturer, Department of Criminology, School of Law, Birkbeck, University of London

Dr Hanna Hilbrant, Assistant Professor of Social and Cultural Geography, Department of Geography, University of Zurich (commencing March 2020)

Dr Shona Hunter, Reader and Director of Research Degree Programmes, Carnegie School of Education, Leeds Beckett University (UK)

Theme of the Event

See the Policy Ontologies Project for further information about project aims and previous event information and resources.

Keynote Speakers

Dr Anne-Marie Fortier’s research focuses on governing practices that seek to stabilise identities in the face of migration. Her publications include Uncertain citizenship: life in the waiting room (2021; Manchester Uni Press), Migrant Belongings: Memory, Space, Identity (2000) and Multicultural Horizons: Diversity and the Limits of the Civil Nation (2008).

Dr Tess Lea is an anthropologist who specializes in organizational ethnography and the anthropology of policy, across housing, health, infrastructure and creative industries. Her book Wild Policy: Indigeneity and the Unruly Logics of Intervention (2020; Stanford University Press) introduces new ways of thinking about policy ontologies across both theory and practice.

kylie valentine works at the Social Policy Research Centre at UNSW Sydney (the University of New South Wales), where she conducts research on social disadvantage and exclusion. Her research interests include using methods and concepts from science and technology studies in policy research, and evaluation research on integrated service delivery and programs for children and families. 

For further details please contact Rachael Dobsonr.dobson@bbk.ac.uk 

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