Manchester Metropolitan University

About: Manchester Metropolitan University is a education organization based out in Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 5435 authors who have published 16202 publications receiving 442561 citations. The organization is also known as: Manchester Polytechnic & MMU.

Combining Work and Study: an empirical study of full‐time students in school, college and university∗

Abstract: Increasing proportions of students in full‐time education are routinely combining work with study which muddies the waters of the school‐to‐work transition. It is no longer appropriate to divide education and work and it is more useful to conceptualise the school‐to‐work transition as part of a life‐time learning process of transferable skills accrual. In a work experience undertaken for economic and social reasons students learn to reconcile the conflicting demands of work and study. Given the funding crisis in higher education and the likely exemption of young people from the National Minimum Wage, students can be expected to become even more entrenched as cheap and flexible labour. ∗A revised version of the paper presented at the ILM Conference 1997 ‘Understanding the school‐to‐work transition’ 16‐17 June, Aberdeen.

Reflexivity, the Picturing of Selves, the Forging of Method

Abstract: This article addresses alternative models for a reflexive methodology and examines the ways in which doctoral students have appropriated these texts in their theses. It then considers the indeterminate qualities of those appropriations. The paper offers a new account of reflexivity as “picturing,” drawing analogies from the interpretation of two very different pictures, by Velazquez and Tshibumba. It concludes with a more open and fluid account of reflexivity, offering the notion of “signature,” and drawing on the work of Gell and also Deleuze and Guattari in relation to the inherently specific nature of “concepts” situated in space and time.

The bone in the throat: some uncertain thoughts on baroque method

Abstract: The paper conjures some possibilities for a baroque method in qualitative educational research. It draws on work across a range of disciplines that has detected a recurrence of the baroque in the philosophical and literary texts of modernity. A baroque method would resist clarity, mastery and the single point of view, be radically uncertain about scale, boundaries and coherence, and favour movement and tension over structure and composure. It would open up strange spaces for difference, wonder and otherness to emerge. The paper uses baroque exemplars such as trompe l’oeil painting and the cabinet of curiosities to pose methodological questions about analysis, representation and meaning. The obstructive potential of the baroque might, it is argued, help post‐foundational research resist the bureaucratic reason that animates education policy and research. As the ‘bone in the throat’ of closure‐seeking systems, the baroque offers a hopeful figure for a productively irritating method.

The Spectre of Promiscuity: Gay Male and Bisexual Non-monogamies and Polyamories

Abstract: Wide-ranging research suggests that partners in gay male and bisexual relationships do not necessarily expect monogamy, or see it as an important issue. Although the frequency of gay male and bisexual non-monogamous partnerships tends to be widely acknowledged in social science literature, these relationships have rarely been explored in more detail. By providing rich empirical data, thoughtful analysis and theoretical debate, this book makes a significant contribution to the sociological literature on sexual and intimate relationships. More specifically it explores the diversity of gay male and bisexual relationship practices in the context of heteronormative citizenship and intra-social movement conflict, and highlights the complexity of power relations that circumscribe queer people's relationships and sexual lives. Written in an accessible and engaging manner, The Spectre of Promiscuity provides important insights for further studies on sexual culture, discourse, citizenship, politics and ethics.