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Dr Keith Spiller

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Post Doctoral Research Associate

You can email Dr Keith Spiller directly; but for media enquiries please contact a member of The Open University's Media Relations team.

Staff profile

See below for Dr Keith Spiller's:

Biography

I am currently working as a research associate on the project ‘Talking Liberties: New Uses in Consumer Data in the UK’. The aim of this research has been to identify whether consumer data are being used for security profiling in two key industries: financial services and travel. The project engages with public debates and issues concerning the prevention and management of risk, crime and terrorism in the UK today.
 
I completed a PhD in human geography at Durham University, looking at some of the meanings and understandings created in and around moments of buying and selling food at farmers’ markets. However, during the past three years my research focus has developed and now concentrates on issues of surveillance and monitoring. The key theoretical thrust of this focus is informed by Surveillance Studies and this focus has given me the opportunity to get to know and work with leading researchers in the field of surveillance. In addition, I have been working on a collaborative surveillance project with researchers based at Toronto University (Canada), the University of Alberta (Canada) and the University of Bergen (Norway).
 
I have also worked on projects looking at an historical account of consumption as an agent of modernity and social change (examining Irish Department Stores 1920-60), and the fortification of identity through consumption practices in African-owned shops by recently arrived immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees to Dublin.

Research interests

My research interests focus upon surveillance, monitoring, regulation, globalisation, migration and spaces of consumption and food.

Impact and engagement

My research looking at the Taste of Food at farmers' markets has featured on the BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18522656

 

I  recently recoded a podcast looking at migration regulations in the UK and the consequences of these for Non-EEA students attend UK universities. See

http://www8.open.ac.uk/researchcentres/osrc/podcasts/migration

 

Areas of expertise

  • surveillance, monitoring, regulation and spaces of consumption

Current projects

Publications

Journal papers
Spiller, K  (2012)  'It tastes better because … consumer understandings of UK farmers’ market food', Appetite, vol. 59, issue 1, pp. 100-107. Abstract
Spiller, K, Linehan, D  (2006)  'Beacons of modernity': department stores, modernity and the urban experience in mid-twentieth century Ireland', Irish Geography, vol. 39, issue 2, pp. 143-158.
Spiller, K  (2001)  'Little Africa'; Parnell Street, food and Afro-Irish identity', Chimera, vol. 17, pp. 37-43.
Book chapters
Spiller, K  (2010)  ''Something different for the weekend' - alterity, performance, routine and proficiency at farmers' markets in the northeast of England', Interrogating Alterity: Alternative Economic and Political Spaces, Farnham, Ashgate. Abstract
Spiller, K  (2010)  'Something for the weekend' - the alterity of farmers' markets in the north east of England', Fuller, D, Jonas, A and Lee, R (eds) Alternative Spaces of Economy, Society and politics: interrogating alterity, London, Ashgate.
Conference papers
Ball, KS, Spiller, K, Dibb, S, Meadows, M, Daniel, EM  (2010)  'Making surveillance messy: a conceptual discussion', Fourth Biannual Surveillance and Society/SSN Conference, City University, London, UK. Abstract
Meadows, M, Ball, KS, Daniel, EM, Dibb, S, Spiller, K  (2010)  'Transferring the ‘War on Terror’ to the private sector: practice perspective on organisational tensions', Strategic Management Society 30th Annual International Conference, Rome. Abstract
Spiller, K  (2007)  'Affecting taste: farmers' markets, food and the role of affect in choosing what we eat', Theorising Affect Conference, Durham University, 10-11January.
Spiller, K  (2007)  'To eat or not to eat: the role of touch in choosing food at a farmers' market', Conference of Irish Geographers, Dublin, 11-13 May.
Spiller, K  (2006)  'Something different for the weekend' - the alterity of farmers' markets', RGS-IBG Annual Conference, London.
Spiller, K  (2005)  'Face to face: the social embeddedness of farmers' markets in the North East of England', RGS-IBG Annual Conference, London.
Spiller, K  (2004)  'Buying in the Open': informal consumption in Tobago', Geographical Imaginations, Durham University.
Spiller, K  (2004)  'The social embeddedness of consumption practices on the streets and in the markets of Tobago: 'globalization from below'', Graduate Discussion Paper, Durham University.
Spiller, K  (2003)  'The Irish department store: consumption, modernity and desire', Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, New Orleans.
Other
Spiller, K  (2007)  'Farmer' markets', Geography Review, vol. 21, issue 1, pp. 38-39.