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Dr Rebecca Whiting

Staff photo

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

Staff profile

See below for Dr Rebecca Whiting's:

Biography

Rebecca Whiting is a Research Associate working for Helen Roby on the EPSRC funded Digital Brain Switch project. 

Rebecca recently completed a post-doctoral research post in the Department of Organizational Psychology at Birkbeck, University of London. This was a collaborative project with Katrina Pritchard mapping the language of age at work using Web 2.0 data (blogs, tweets, online articles and reader comments, YouTube videos etc). The research was funded by the Richard Benjamin Trust. 

Rebecca finished her PhD at Birkbeck in 2012 and her thesis looked at the discursive construction of age and older worker identity in job search websites.

Research interests

Rebecca’s research interests include the social construction of identity, particularly age identity, and in unpacking issues around various intersections between different (sometimes conflicting) identities in a variety of work contexts. She is also interested in qualitative research methodologies and the particular challenges of using Web 2.0 data and visual analysis.

Publications

Journal paper

  • Pritchard, K and Whiting, R (2012) ‘Autopilot? A reflexive review of the piloting process in qualitative e-research’ Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management, 7: 3, 338 – 353

Conference papers

  • Pritchard, K and Whiting, R. 'Extending e-research? Reflections on engaging with the visual in Web 2.0 data'. Paper accepted in the Research Methods SIG, British Academy of Management Conference, September 2013

  • Pritchard, K and Whiting, R (2013) Do you see what I see? Going beyond chronology by exploring images of age at work. Paper presented at the BPS Division of Occupational Psychology Annual Conference. 9-11th January 2013 (Chester)

  • Pritchard, K and Whiting, R (2012) Tracking and trawling: Theorising ‘participants’ and ‘data’ in qualitative e-research.  Paper presented at Research Methodology stream at BAM, September 2012. WINNER: BEST DEVELOPMENTAL PAPER AWARD.
  • Whiting, R and Pritchard, K (2012) The discursive construction of ‘generations’ at work: Process and practice amongst web-based organizational actors. Paper presented at 10th International Conference on Organizational Discourse, July 2012.
  • Whiting, R and Liefooghe, A (2012) Victims of others’ success: Processes of subjectification on job search websites. Paper presented at 10th International Conference on Organizational Discourse, July 2012
  • Pritchard, K and Whiting, R (2012) Gender and Generations.  Paper presented at Gendered Ageing at Work: Beyond the ‘Double Jeopardy’.  Gender, Work & Organization, 7th interdisciplinary conference, June 2012.
  • Whiting, R & Liefooghe, A. Older worker identity: Towards a theory of aged organizations. Paper presented at 6th International Conference on Discourse, Communication and the Enterprise (DICOEN VI); Hong Kong; 8-10th September 2011
  • Whiting, R. Towards a theory of aged organizations. Paper presented at 71st Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, San Antonio, Texas, USA; 15-16th August 2011.
  • Whiting, R & Liefooghe, A. The demographic crisis: How older workers became differently different. Paper presented at 9th International Conference on Organizational Discourse: Crises, corruption, character and change; Amsterdam, 14-16th July 2010
  • Whiting, R & Liefooghe, A. Metaphoric Transformations of Older Workers: Dinosaurs, Wise Owls & Wrinklies. Paper presented at 8th International Conference on Organizational Discourse: Translations, Transformations and Transgression; London: 23rd-25th July 2008
  • Whiting, R & Liefooghe, A. Deconstructing the older worker: Managerial discourses on age. Paper presented at 4th International Conference on Discourse, Communication and Enterprise (DICOEN IV) Nottingham: 10-12th September 2007
  • Whiting, R & Liefooghe, A. Age Matters: A Discursive Analysis of the Older Worker. Paper presented at 7th International Conference on Organizational Discourse: Identity, Ideology and Idiosyncrasy; Amsterdam: 26-28th July 2006

 

Impact and engagement

Rebecca is a Senior Associate Analyst with Linguistic Landscapes Ltd and has undertaken a number of consultancy projects applying discourse analysis to organizational issues including for the NHS Institute, American Express, Prostate Cancer UK, Oxfam and the Department of Health.

External contributions

Rebecca is an Associate Research Fellow (and Teaching Fellow) in the Department of Organizational Psychology at Birkbeck, University of London. She continues to collaborate with Dr Katrina Pritchard in their Age at Work research programme. 

You can follow their work via their research blog  http://ageatwork.wordpress.com/ and on Twitter @Ageatwork

Rebecca's PhD was awarded Joint Winner of the Best PhD Thesis prize in the Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics at Birkbeck, University of London in 2013.

Areas of expertise

  • Discourse analysis
  • Visual analysis