Projects in 2013

This project, led by Prof Engin Isin, is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant (Institutions, values, beliefs and behaviour ERC-AG-SH2). The project focuses on the interaction between two controversial and contested concepts: citizenship – the process by which belonging is recognised and enacted – and orientalism – the assertion of the superiority of western culture over its eastern counterparts.

Being in the Zone explores the theme of 'peak experience' or 'being in the zone' in music, sport and work. This project is an AHRC funded Research Network, co-investigated by Kath Woodward (OU) and Tim Jordan (King's College London)

The process known as ‘militarisation’ is in urgent need of re-thinking.

As a result of developments such as the Military Covenant campaign, launched in 2007, successive governments have been forced to pay greater attention to the conditions under which service personnel work and the rewards that might be due for those performing military service. There has been a huge increase in media representations of soldiers in training or at work, but very little academic analysis of the effects of maintaining a fully-manned armed force at home.

The Enduring Love? project is a mixed methods study on long-term adult couple relationships. The findings will add an important dimension to understandings of personal and family lives in contemporary society.

Increasing knowledge on how long-term relationships work and the emotional and practical relationship work that goes into sustaining them, will facilitate more effective points of intervention, informing the improvement of policy making, governance and support services, and relationship education.