Dr Rachael Dobson

Overview

Biography

I am guided by the central principle to work across theory, policy and practice, for the purposes of social and racial justice. This is reflected in my experiences across research, academic, teaching and practice fields.

I think critically about policy; what it is, how it is made, and how it links to practice. My work cuts across critical policy studies and critical social policy and is interdisciplinary, informed by onto-epistemic, critical feminist, critical race, anthropological and psychosocial frameworks.

I focus on policy-making and implementation, public service institutions, cultures, identities and experiences, and human power, agency and resistance. I am especially interested in statutory actors working in different locations and with diverse remits, from local authorities to the civil service.

I was recently awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship for 'Where Is The Power? Policy Ontologies In Theory and Practice' (2021) and am lead for international academic network The Policy Ontologies Project and empirical study The Understanding Policy Project.

As an academic I have held lectureships at the University of Leeds, Kingston University and now Birkbeck, University of London, Visiting Fellowships at the University of New South Wales and University of Sydney.

I have over a decade’s experience of editorial, referee and learned society activity. I am member of the editorial collective for Critical Social Policy, a highly ranked, peer reviewed journal that provides an international forum for debate on social policy and welfare issues from socialist, feminist, anti-racist and radical perspectives. I have been twice elected to the Social Policy Association, most recently as Honorary Secretary. 

Qualifications

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, HEA, 2019

Web profiles

• The Policy Ontologies Project
• Twitter

Administrative responsibilities

• Postgraduate Admissions Tutor, Criminology Programmes

Visiting posts

• ESRC Visiting Fellowship, University of New South Wales, 04-2009 to 07-2009
• WUN Visiting Fellowship, University of Sydney, 04-2011 to 06-2011

Professional activities

Editorial Collective, Critical Social Policy

Professional memberships

• Social Policy Association

• White Spaces Network.

• BSA Psychoanalysis & Psychosocial Study Group

• Women, Crime & Criminal Justice Network

• Homeless Link

Honours and awards

• Research Fellowship, Leverhulme , June 2021

ORCID

0000-0003-4716-745X

Research

Research interests

• Critical Policy Studies, Critical Social Policy
• Policy-making, Policy implementation
• Policy and welfare practice
• Human power, agency, resistance
• Public service institutions, cultures, identities and experiences
• Theoretical and methodological approaches: onto-epistemic, critical feminist, critical race, relational, emotions, reflexive, psychosocial
• Empirical foci: Civil Service, The Local-State (local authorities, non-profit sector), Homelessness

Research overview

My research contributes to critical and cultural approaches to policy-making. Drawing on onto-epistemic frameworks, I think critically about policy; what it is, how it is made, and how it links to practice.

To that end, I theorise the role of policy actors in the making-of policy phenomena like states, governments, institutions, policies and human actors themselves. And I think about relationships between these different phenomena to understand potential for resistance and social change through everyday, conscious and unconscious, social practices and actions.

As part of this work, I am currently undertaking empirical research, The Understanding Policy Project. Supported by a Leverhulme Research Fellowship award, the study uses qualitative methods to investigate how senior civil servants conceive of the interventions they are involved with, and their own sense of place and power in policymaking processes.

Previously, my research has brought critical policy perspectives to homelessness studies, in exploring interventions with vulnerable adults with ‘complex needs’, encompassing policy, legislation, models of support and everyday practices. I have been especially interested in experiences in lower status, under-professionalised, materially fragmented and ‘dirty work’ sectors. 

Theoretically and methodologically, my research is informed by critical feminist, race, postcolonial, anthropological, psychosocial, affect and cultural studies.

Research Centres and Institutes

• Member, White Spaces Network

Research clusters and groups

• Member, Policy, Practice and Activism Cluster (Law School)

Research projects

Supervision and teaching

Supervision

Supervisions within Birkbeck:

3

I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students who are interested in undertaking research in any of my areas of research interest.

Critical Policy Studies, Critical Social Policy

Social Policy, Social Welfare

Policy-Making, Policy Implementation

Policy and welfare practice

Public service institutions, cultures, identities and experiences

Human power, agency, resistance

Empirical foci: Civil Service, The Local-State (local authorities, non-profit sector), Homelessness

Theoretical and methodological approaches: onto-epistemic, critical feminist, critical race, relational, emotions, reflexive, psychosocial

Current doctoral researchers

• ABIGAIL JACKSON

  Nature of supervision:

  Joint Principal Supervisor, Feb 2021 onwards

  Title of thesis:

  Lost Property: Examining Dispossession in East London

Doctoral alumni since 2013-14

• BECKA SEGLOW HUDSON

  Nature of supervision:

  Joint Principal Supervisor, Jan 2020

  Title of thesis:

  Sick and Surplus: Personality Disorder, Political Economy and the Production of Subjectivity in British Prisons

  Description:

  This project looks at the construction of the mental disorder, 'personality disorder', widely considered to be the most overrepresented mental disorder in British prisons. The research looks at how this diagnosis is constructed and assessed, particularly through psychometric and risk assessments. It also considers how these tests factor into decision making about people's sentences, management and release. Becka has a background in anthropology and uses ethnographic methods in her research, alongside other tools. The project is historically informed, looking at the development of British prisons and psychometric tools used to assess those held in prison in British history, including in the British Empire. 

  Awarded:

  2024

• EMMA YAPP

  Nature of supervision:

  Joint Principal Supervisor, Jul 2023

  Title of thesis:

  The Double-Edged Sword: Trauma, Mental Health, and Sexual Violence Testimony in England and Wales

  Awarded:

  2024

Teaching

My teaching is driven by the imperative to work across theory, policy and practice. It is research-led and interdisciplinary, cutting across policy, criminology, sociology, socio-legal, psychosocial, housing and urban studies. I have developed teaching programmes for policy-makers, practitioners and students at access, undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Presently, I convene two modules: Policy, Power & Social Change (undergraduate) and Understanding Crime (undergraduate). Policy, Power & Social Change introduces students to social, cultural and onto-epistemic approaches to policy-making and resistance. Understanding Crime introduces students to key issues and theories in criminology.

I have previously convened two modules: Influencing Public Policy (postgraduate) and The Criminalisation of Welfare (undergraduate). Influencing Public Policy introduces students to critical approaches to policy-making. The Criminalisation of Welfare examines the construction and regulation of social problems and ‘problem people’ through policy and legislative interventions.

I deliver guest lectures on three postgraduate modules: Contemporary Issues in Criminal Justice (Department of Criminology), Research Methods (Law School) and Independent Research (Department of Psychosocial Studies).

Teaching modules

• Policy, Power and Social Change (Level 5) (LACN029H5)
• Contemporary Issues in Criminal Justice (LADD059S7)
• Understanding Crime (LALA146S4)

Publications

Business and community

Outreach

I am experienced in facilitating 'Communities of Practice' (CoPs) with 'local-state' organisations, meaning, local authority departments (housing, homelessness, adult social care, social work) and non-profit organisations. 

CoPs bring together different organisations and professionals to meet a shared vision to improve outcomes for the users of services. 

This activity reflects my long-standing engagement with institutional barriers to policy and legislation implementation (Dobson, 2019). 

CoPs surface these issues and develop proposals to achieve practical change through training, knowledge building and the sharing of everyday practices.