UoS Social Sciences anniversary publication

Making change happen.

50 years of Social Sciences

I am delighted to introduce this publication celebrating 50 years of Social Sciences at Southampton. With a worldleading research portfolio and a track record of outstanding teaching, we have much to celebrate.

Half a century ago, our academics laid the foundation for today’s school; while the higher education landscape has changed enormously since then, their research-driven approach still underpins our work. We continue to be worldleaders in core areas of research established in those early years, such as econometrics, social statistics and sociology, and newer areas of expertise have emerged including gerontology, demography and international relations.

The lifetime of Social Sciences has seen enormous changes in many aspects of life and society, with new challenges and opportunities including globalisation, demographic change and the rise of digital technology. Our research continues to anticipate and respond to UK and global trends, addressing contemporary issues such as an ageing population, cybercrime, migration, political disengagement and gender equality.

We have also developed our approach to teaching, adopting innovations such as virtual learning and providing hands-on learning opportunities to enrich our students’ experience and employability. Our graduates have gone on to successful careers, many using their new-found skills to effect change around the world.

Whatever new challenges emerge in the next 50 years and beyond, Social Sciences at Southampton will remain at the forefront of analysis and debate, providing crucial evidence to inform policy change.

Professor Derek McGhee Head of Social Sciences

Contents History 04 50 years of excellence 06 Developments across the disciplines

Research 08 Centres of research excellence 10 Excellence in doctoral research 11 Maximising our impact 12 Social sciences in the digital age

Alumni 14 Social sciences people

Our global influence 18 Global influence map

Innovative teaching 20 Bringing learning to life 22 Enterprising solutions 24 Embracing advances in learning

50 years of excellence Our research connections span the globe, generating fresh insights into some of today’s biggest issues, including migration, economic uncertainty and demographic change.

Fifty years ago the first cohort of students graduated from the newly established Social Sciences department at Southampton.

Their education was influenced by forward-thinking academics with a focus on research and teaching excellence, innovation, impact and collaboration – concepts that remain the bedrock of our approach today.

The evolution of Social Sciences The study of social sciences at Southampton began as early as 1919, when the first economics lecturer was appointed, with sociology introduced from the 1920s. The early faculty was small, but by the 1950s was gaining a reputation for its research.

It was during the early 1960s that Social Sciences as we know it today began to evolve.

In 1962/3 the Faculty of Economics was renamed the Faculty of Social Sciences and

entered a period of rapid growth. A key player at this time was David Rowan, whose legacy includes the establishment of an interdisciplinary approach to study and research – now the norm in universities, but ahead of its time in the 1960s. Ivor Pearce, appointed in 1962, was another major influence. He played a significant role in steering the department’s direction with the world-renowned Southampton Economic Model Building Unit.

1970s 1972 O ur social statisticians are instrumental in setting up the World Fertility Survey, a major social research programme that collects data from more than 60 countries

1965 Around 50 students graduate from the new Social Sciences department

Timeline

1965

Social Science Research Council SSRC established (later becoming the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)) eath penalty is abolished D in Great Britain

1967

bortion and homosexuality A legalised in the UK

artin Luther King 1968 Massassinated eil Armstrong becomes first 1969 Nman to walk on the moon

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1975 S ocial Sciences moves into the newly built offices in Building 58

1971

Decimal currency introduced in the UK

1972

Five Oxford colleges break 750 years of tradition and admit women

1974

The contraceptive pill is made available to single women

1976

Britain experiences one of the hottest summers on record

1979

Margaret Thatcher is elected Prime Minister, the first woman to hold the office

In the early 1960s the department was taking an applied approach to sociology and key figures such as John Martin and Gordon Trasler were establishing an emphasis on criminology and penology within Social Sciences’ programmes. Other notable arrivals in the early 1960s include John Smith, a sociology professor, and politics professor Joseph Frankel, whose focus was on international relations and foreign policy. These outstanding scholars were also keen to take their research

into the real world, establishing an enduring impact-led culture.

By 1964 there were seven divisions in Social Sciences: Economics and Economic Theory, Commerce and Accountancy, Sociology and Social Studies, Economic Statistics, Politics, Econometrics and Psychology. While in more recent years psychology and business have moved into their own departments, Social Sciences had largely taken the shape we recognise today.

We are in the

top 1%

of global universities

1980s 1980s The Centre for International Policy Studies is established, with funding from the Social Science Research Council (now the ESRC) 1983 S ocial Sciences holds the first of a series of annual lectures in honour of renowned sociologist TH Marshall. Over the years speakers have included such eminent sociologists as Professor Lord Anthony Giddens, Professor Zygmunt Bauman and Professor Mike Savage 1989 Launch of the first ever undergraduate degree in population science

1983

First flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger

1985

Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior is attacked by the French government after protests over nuclear testing in the Pacific British Telecom announces the retirement of Britain’s red telephone boxes

1990s

2000s

1990 The Mountbatten Centre for International Studies is formed within Politics – it later takes on the role of secretariat to the United Nations Nuclear Non-proliferation Organisation

2003 The Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute is founded

Late The Social Statistics Research Centre 1990s is established following a £1.35m award from the Joint Infrastructure Fund

1995 1997

Barings, the UK’s oldest investment bank, collapses after securities broker Nick Leeson loses $1.4bn speculating on the Tokyo stock exchange Labour returns to power in the UK for the first time in 18 years. Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister

2008 Centre for Research on Ageing is launched – a key centre in Social Sciences crash two hijacked 2001 Terrorists airliners into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York Twelve members of the European Union adopt the Euro as a common currency Obama is elected the first 2008 Barack black President of the United States

Diana, Princess of Wales dies in a Paris car crash

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Developments across the disciplines Our interdisciplinary approach encourages innovative research across the social sciences and beyond. We team up with colleagues from a range of specialisms including computer science, engineering and management science.

Politics and International Relations Undergraduate teaching of international relations began in 1964 and the first postgraduate degree was introduced a year later. The division’s research direction was influenced by the appointment of Professor Raymond Plant in 1979; he was involved in a wide range of areas including rights, welfare, justice, modern political thought, political philosophy, electoral systems and citizenship.

Current research continues to reflect many of these themes, as well as addressing burgeoning issues such as environmental politics and global governance. Academics also continue to introduce innovative learning opportunities for students, for example by enabling undergraduates to take part in real-world research projects within a range of partner organisations.

Economics A major early development in economics was the foundation of the department of Econometrics, which reinforced the statistical

2010 Launch of the Population and Geography BSc from a volcanic eruption in 2010 Ash Iceland leads to the closure of The Prime Minister Gordon Brown announces the introduction of full-body scanners at UK airports The country is endeluged by heavy snowfall and endures its worst cold spell since the winter of 1981–82

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New appointments in the 1970s brought a range of interests into Economics and it continues to branch into new fields – today’s projects range from the motivations behind philanthropic behaviour to the economic impact of migration.

Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology Our impact-focused approach in these disciplines stretches back to the 1940s and continues today with academics contributing to policy in a broad range of fields, including population change, work and organisations, social cohesion and welfare. There is also a focus on methodological innovation. Current research into crime and social cohesion is informing a government commission on sex in prisons and providing evidence for police and

2012

2014

The first ever Web Science undergraduate degree programme begins

The quality of Social Sciences’ research receives recognition in the Research Excellence Framework 2014, with a top five UK ranking and our research environment in Social Policy, Criminology, Demography, Gerontology and Sociology rated 100% world-leading

2012

airspace over most of Europe

1967

quantitative approach adopted across the different subject areas. From the mid-60s to mid-70s the econometric model project was held in high regard and was unique at the time for its collaborative approach.

1967

The Bank of England agrees to extend its quantitative easing programme by £50bn

magnitude earthquake 2014 Ais 4.1recorded under the

The Royal Navy’s first female warship commander, Commander Sarah West, takes up her post on HMS Portland

1972

Great Britain finishes tenth in the medal table of the 2014 Winter Paralympics

1974

Plans are unveiled by the Met Office for a £97m supercomputer to study weather and climate

Bristol Channel

crime commissioners on the effectiveness of crime reduction techniques.

The division hosts a number of prestigious research centres including three funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (see page 8 for more details) and the crossdisciplinary Work Futures Research Centre.

Social Statistics and Demography From its earliest days, Social Sciences has been at the forefront of developments in social statistics. In the 1970s, Graham Kalton, one of the most famous social statisticians of his time, established the department’s emphasis on social surveys – an area in which it would later become a world-leader.

Ian Diamond, who went on to become the Chief Executive of the ESRC, was a key player in establishing the demography programme, which offered the first ever training of its kind at undergraduate level.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s Southampton pioneered new methodologies

2014 Criminology officially starts for undergraduate and postgraduate study 519 students graduate with a Southampton Social Sciences degree

2014

The Church of England adopts legislation paving the way for the appointment of women bishops A British-led Moon mission – Lunar Mission One – is announced

and new approaches to understanding society, with ongoing work in two fields of study in particular – census statistics (conducted as part of a longstanding partnership with the Office for National Statistics) and reproductive health, particularly in developing countries.

Gerontology Changing demographics saw an increasing interest in gerontology, putting Social Sciences at the cutting edge of research addressing the challenges of an ageing population.

Gerontology became a department in its own right a decade ago, and the Centre for Research on Ageing was set up in 2005 as a hub for interdisciplinary research and postgraduate teaching in this field. In 2009 the department began a pioneering programme of distance learning masters courses.

Today’s research is investigating many of the implications of ageing in the UK and around the world, including studies in developing countries.

2015 Social Sciences has 120 academic staff – up from 16 when the department was first established

2015

London’s population hits a record high of 8.6 million and is forecast to reach 11 million by 2050

1997

The government announces the first NHS patients to be diagnosed through genome sequencing Charles, Prince of Wales goes on an official four-day tour of Ireland with a controversial meeting with Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams

A life’s work Meet econometrician Raymond O’Brien, Social Sciences’ (and the University’s) longest-serving staff member. He arrived at Southampton in 1964 and spent many years in the role of Senior Lecturer.

Ray retired in 2008 but continued as a part-time lecturer and more recently as an Academic Visitor.

“When I joined, my starting salary was £1,125,” Ray says. “There has been a lot of inflation since then!” Ray moved into the new econometrics department and was involved in the early work on the econometric model. He says: “It was a good place to be as there were more econometricians here than was common in other universities.”

Perhaps the biggest transformation during the course of Ray’s working life has been the advance of digital technology.

Early in his career, calculations were made using punch cards fed into ‘the’ computer – a machine in Mathematics that filled a large room and took 12 hours to process results. Now Ray uses powerful computer software on his PC for statistical work. “It’s an awful lot better now in terms of what you can do,” he comments.

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Centres of research excellence Social Sciences is proud to host several specialist centres funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) – a significant acknowledgement of our world-leading work. Our three ESRC research centres span all aspects of the research process and have an international reputation and reach, while our ESRC Doctoral Training Centre supports talented PhD students across the social sciences disciplines. To ensure our research has an impact beyond academia, we have established Public Policy@Southampton to bring our findings to the attention of decision-makers.

Skilling up the research community

Providing access to research data

Understanding population change

The ESRC National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) is all about the ‘how to’ of research. Launched in 2004, it aims to promote a step change in the quality and range of methodological skills and techniques used by the UK social science community and to support methodological innovation.

The recently established ESRC Administrative Data Research Centre for England is pioneering and managing researchers’ access to complex sets of de-identified, linked data.

Today’s communities are in constant flux, with changing patterns of migration, fertility, family and household dynamics and ageing interacting to create the society we live in.

Since its formation in 2009, the ESRC Centre for Population Change has been investigating the extent, drivers and implications of these changes to develop appropriate policy responses – ranging from provision of services for school children through to the design of pension schemes for today’s increasingly mobile population.

It does this through a programme of training and capacity building. It also drives forward methodological development through its own research programme.

Every other year the Centre runs a three-day conference – the Research Methods Festival.

Held in the UK, it is a truly international event that brings together speakers and participants from all over the world. They can learn about research methods at a range of levels, from a basic understanding of interviews and surveys, to complex ways of working across linked datasets and the new challenges presented by online data.

The NCRM is a partnership between Social Sciences at Southampton and two other institutions with international reputations in methodological research and training – the University of Manchester and the University of Edinburgh.

Government departments and agencies routinely gather information during their day-to-day activities, covering a range of areas including health, education, social security and tax. “The Centre brings together these datasets in a secure environment, with personal information removed, and will enable academic researchers to track people’s activities and behaviours in real time,” says Professor Ros Edwards, Social Sciences Director of Research and Enterprise. “A new venture for the University and for policy makers, this will be an incredibly powerful tool that will have a huge impact on policy in the future.”

Led by Southampton, the Centre is run in collaboration with University College London, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Office for National Statistics.

Its projects use methods ranging from in-depth qualitative studies that enable us to discover more about underlying individual demographic behaviour, to complex statistical and economic modelling.

The UK’s first research centre on population change, it brings together expertise from five UK universities, the National Records of Scotland and the Office for National Statistics and is funded by the ESRC.

2009 Formation of the ESRC Centre for Population Change

2004 The ESRC National Centre for Research Methods is launched

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How to get to 100 and enjoy it In research, the significant issues affecting every person’s life are often hidden behind abstract figures such as the number of births, the mortality rate or net migration. To bring this demographic information to life, the Centre for Population Change brought a unique interactive exhibition to seven UK cities, working with the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and Population Europe.

Professor Jane Falkingham OBE, the Centre’s Director and Dean of Social and Human Sciences, says: “It is estimated that one in three UK children born in 2014 will live to be 100 years old.

We wanted to get people to think about what an ageing population might mean in the long term for themselves and their communities.”

‘How to get to 100 and enjoy it’, the exhibition presented the latest population research in an easy-to-understand format. Over 5,000 visitors explored how our population is changing through interactive games, quizzes, pictures, interviews, graphs and texts. They were invited to consider their chances of living to 100 and the ways in which factors like early life, lifestyle and work affect these chances.

The exhibition attracted significant media coverage, including a special edition of BBC Breakfast that included live interviews with Jane and a series of features exploring changing attitudes to old age and society.

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Excellence in doctoral research Social Sciences’ excellence in research and training was recognised in 2011 when it was selected to host an ESRC Doctoral Training Centre (DTC).

One of only 21 ESRC DTCs across the UK, and one of just a few awarded to a single university rather than a collaboration, the DCT is a significant endorsement of the quality and standing of our work.

Every year the DTC runs a competitive process for 18 ESRC-funded studentships, attracting applications from students of the highest calibre from all over the world.

Around half the DTC’s current students are from outside the UK; they come from more than 18 countries including China, Canada, Russia, Uganda, Pakistan, Germany and Chile.

The students are exploring issues across the spectrum of the social sciences, including migration, ageing, finance and risk, work, sex, climate change, health and gender equality. Projects topics range from why social enterprises fail to the role of trust after civil conflict, and from educational outcomes in Uganda to environmental issues in Western Australia.

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Fisheries and food security Twin sisters Fiona and Alison Simmance (pictured), both ESRC DTC scholars, are undertaking complementary research investigating the role of inland fisheries for food and nutritional security in Malawi. Through their research they hope to contribute a deeper understanding of the value of inland fisheries to food security.

Following fieldwork in Malawi in 2014, Alison (from Social Sciences) and Fiona (from Biological Sciences) presented their research at this year’s United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization inland fisheries conference in Rome. This groundbreaking conference addressed for the first time the challenges and opportunities for freshwater fisheries on a global scale.

“It is great that as twin sisters we could share this experience together and complement each other’s research,” says Alison. “It was really important in deepening our understanding of the supply of fish in Malawi and its important contribution towards improving food and nutritional security across the country.”

“It is great that as twin sisters we could share this experience together and complement each other’s research."

Alison Simmance ESRC DTC scholar

Maximising our impact Throughout Social Sciences’ history, addressing real-world issues through research has been a priority for our academics.

In recent years, Public Policy@Southampton has been offering additional support to make this happen, helping researchers bring their findings to key decision-makers and encouraging policy debate.

Public Policy@Southampton is an external-facing public engagement team that works to increase the reach and impact of the University’s research. Social Sciences was behind its creation in 2012; as well as championing Social Sciences’ own research it offers a service across the University’s disciplines.

Gender equality at work: encouraging policy debate A programme of research into gender equality in the workplace, led by Professors Pauline Leonard and Susan Halford within the University’s Work Futures Research Centre, was one of the first to receive support from Public Policy@Southampton.

Pauline says: “We began working with Public Policy@Southampton in 2013 with an event at the House of Commons to debate the state of play regarding gender equality at work. It was attended by leading thinkers on gender equality who took part in a thought-provoking panel discussion and audience question and answer session.

“Since then we’ve been working on a critical policy review looking at the current position in terms of gender equality policies and why progress has stagnated. From this we have produced a policy briefing which we are about to launch with support from Public Policy@Southampton, again at a House of Commons event. The briefing sets out the areas that key stakeholders want policy-makers to address to ensure gender equality in the workplace becomes a reality.

“We are inviting policy-makers to hear from an exciting range of speakers on the topic, including Baroness Prosser (life peer and former Deputy Chair of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights), Ceri Goddard (Director of Gender at The Young Foundation), Lena Levy (Head of Labour Market Team, Confederation of British Industry) and Scarlet Harris (TUC Women’s Officer).

“As part of Public Policy@Southampton, our aim is to use our research to make a real contribution to the knowledge on which new policies are formulated.”

The team runs internal competitions, inviting researchers to apply for funding and support for engagement programmes.

It also works with projects that have made provision for engagement activities in external funding bids. “We offer expertise and support, helping researchers to arrange briefing events to bring their findings to the attention of policy-makers, MPs, practitioners and other influencers,” says Erin Downey, Public Policy Coordinator.

2012 Social Sciences establishes Public Policy@Southampton

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Social Sciences in the digital age Over the lifetime of Social Sciences, digital technology has advanced in ways that would have been unimaginable to our students and academics in the 1960s. With 3.6 billion users and counting, the World Wide Web has extended rapidly into almost every sphere of life, including commerce, politics, friendships and even criminal behaviour.

The Web is both social and technical, evolving through an iterative relationship between people and technology. This interplay puts Social Sciences at the forefront of research exploring the economic, social, political and technical opportunities and challenges it raises.

Understanding the Web This is demonstrated by our key role in the pioneering discipline of Web Science at Southampton. Susan Halford, Professor of Sociology, explains: “Social Sciences has been closely involved in the development of Web Science at Southampton. There was a recognition that the Web was growing so fast and in so many unexpected ways that the strengths of many disciplines were needed to understand this remarkable phenomenon.”

Susan is a Director of the Web Science Institute, which was established in 2013 to provide a hub for research and education in this burgeoning field. It launched the UK’s first ever Web Science undergraduate degrees and hosts the Centre of Doctoral Training’s 60 current PhD students located in Social Sciences; they are investigating issues including cyber security, digital literacy, revenge porn and the online trade in prescription drugs.

Susan’s own research has looked at how the Web is changing from a Web of documents to a Web of machine-readable data, and the sociological and technological implications of this change. Her paper on the future of the Web, co-written with colleagues from Health Sciences and Electronics and Computer

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Science (ECS), won the prestigious SAGE prize for Innovation and Excellence in Sociology.

This is one of numerous Web-related research projects being conducted by our academics, ranging from the development of new online forms of citizen participation to real-time social media analytics.

Privacy and consent Privacy is one of the big issues raised by our everyday use of the internet. Economics researchers, working with ECS, are using focus groups and online surveys to explore people’s attitudes to privacy within the digital economy, how much users understand about the way their data is used whether the policies in place to protect privacy are effective.

Dr Michael Vlassopoulos, Associate Professor in Economics, says: “The ‘digital footprint’ left by our online activity has become a commodity, used by companies to personalise users’ online experience based on their preferences as well as for targeted advertising. But the use of this data is not always transparent, and that’s what makes users uneasy. They may not be sure whether their data will be shared with third parties, for example.”

The research, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, will have implications for online business models.

“As consumers become more sensitive to the fact that their data is being collected and monetised, businesses will have to consider their approach to digital consent and data collection,” comments Michael.

Tackling cybercrime Our research is also investigating the darker side of the Web. From email scams to attacks on government systems, computer crime is a growing global threat. Research suggests that 78 per cent of large UK organisations have been attacked by an unauthorised outsider and the cost of cybercrime in the UK alone is estimated at £27bn.

Researchers from Criminology are involved in cutting-edge projects that are helping security organisations and industry to fight cybercrime.

A recent study by Dr Craig Webber, with computer scientists at Southampton and the Serious Organised Crime Agency, gained new insights into the structure of online forums set up to trade stolen credit card information.

By highlighting the importance of trust between criminals in the operation of these underground social networks, the study has informed law enforcement agencies’ policing tactics.

Working with several interdisciplinary Southampton research groups, Craig is also involved in projects examining the security implications of the digital currency Bitcoin and the policing of cybercrime, working with the National Crime Agency, GCHQ, businesses and police agencies.

“Social Sciences has been closely involved in the development of Web Science at Southampton. There was a recognition that the Web was growing so fast and in so many unexpected ways that the strengths of many disciplines were needed to understand this remarkable phenomenon."

Susan Halford Professor of Sociology; Co-Director of the Web Science Institute

2013 The Web Science Institute is established to provide a hub for research and education

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Social Sciences people Our longstanding reputation for excellence has attracted generations of talented students to Social Sciences. Inspired by our academics and equipped for the future by our expert teaching, they have gone on to rewarding and successful careers. Find out how they are making a difference around the world in academia, industry and the public sector.

Gladys Okosun BSc Economics, 2014 Gladys is an Associate in Private Company Services at Deloitte UK. “The course was really challenging and encouraged me to develop important problem-solving skills. A couple of things that really stand out were the University’s efforts to give students a head start in the competitive jobs market with their Excel Placements, and investment in facilities such as Economics’ Bloomberg suite.

“I had the best of both worlds; an academic experience that has enabled me to interact with some of the best fellows in teaching and research and grow intellectually, balanced with a very active social life thanks to the vast array of societies on offer.”

We equip our graduates for success

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“Whether you’re left, right, centre or anarchist, I think learning about how decisions are made and where power lies through a little bit of practical involvement is a really great learning experience."

Jon Sopel BBC North America Editor

Jon Sopel

Professor Jennifer Mason

Matthew Taylor

BSc Politics and Sociology, 1981

BSc Sociology, 1983

BSc Sociology, 1983

Jon is a presenter and correspondent for the BBC News channel and BBC One in the UK and a lead anchor on BBC World News. During his career he has covered many significant world events. While at Southampton, Jon was actively involved in student politics.

Jennifer is Professor in Sociology at the University of Manchester, where she cofounded the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives. She is Vice Chair of the ESRC Research Committee and Chair of the ESRC Grants Delivery Group.

“Understanding how decisions are made – the compromises that you have to make and the deal-making that goes on – is as relevant if you are sitting round a cabinet table and dealing with a multi-billion pound budget as it is if you are sitting in the Students’ Union general purposes committee.

“My time at Southampton is particularly special to me because I came to higher education at the age of 23, through a ‘non-standard’ route.

I left school without doing A levels and went into a secretarial job, but soon realised this wasn’t what I wanted to do. So I applied for a place at the University, did an A level in evening class and re-sat my maths O level.

Matthew became Chief Executive of the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) in 2006.

Prior to this, he was Chief Adviser on Political Strategy to the Prime Minister. He has written numerous articles and is a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4’s Moral Maze.

“Whether you’re left, right, centre or anarchist, I think learning about how decisions are made and where power lies through a little bit of practical involvement is a really great learning experience.

“The best parts of my job are being in places where you think a little bit of history is unfolding, and you’re there and you’re watching it. Being in Rome when the Pope died, hundreds of thousands of people flocking in total silence. The fall of Margaret Thatcher, and more recently the formation of the coalition government. I was on air the day the news broke that Rupert Murdoch was shutting the News of the World – that was tremendously exciting.”

“Southampton took a chance on me and offered me a place. I was incredibly excited.

I didn’t think I was the kind of person who would do a degree – it was something no one in my family had done. It felt like a real privilege.

“I was very excited by the subject of sociology and the staff in Social Sciences were fantastic.

They encouraged me and made me feel that perhaps I was the kind of person who could do this. I particularly remember my personal tutor, Professor Jon Clark, as well as Professors Graham Allan and Joan Higgins, who were great teachers and massively enthusiastic.

“The approach to teaching in Social Sciences helped me to develop the capacity to ask challenging and critical questions about the social world and not to take things for granted.

Once you’ve learned how to do that you can apply that mode of critical analysis to anything.”

“Looking back, I can trace the beginnings of my intellectual life, my political life and life as a public speaker and broadcaster back to the three years I spent in Southampton.

“I really enjoyed my degree course and I had great lecturers. One in particular – the late Professor Jon Clark – had an enormous influence on me. Inspired by him, I went from going through the motions to wanting to be really good. I got a first in the end, and I put this almost entirely down to Jon. He also helped me to apply for a place at the University of Warwick to do an MA in industrial relations, which was a very sought-after course.

“I’m proud that during my student years I got very involved in the city and particularly in local politics – I became a Labour party activist in the Derby Road area. Derby Road at that time was a very vibrant place – a red-light district and a melting pot with a strong Asian community as well as the student community. I now live in an affluent part of south London and, as a sociologist, it’s not nearly as interesting as that area of Southampton was in the 1980s.”

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“When I started at the University I wanted to change the world and end extreme poverty.

I’ve had some fabulous opportunities to work with great people to pursue this ambition."

Howard Taylor Vice President and Managing Director of the Nike Foundation

Howard Taylor

Professor Fiona Steele

Dr Philomena Nyarko

BSc Population Studies, 1992

MSc Social Statistics, 1993; PhD Social Statistics, 1996

PhD Social Statistics, 1999

Howard is Vice President and Managing Director of the Nike Foundation, which works to unleash the unique potential of adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves and for the world. Before that he worked for the Department for International Development (DFID), including roles in Sierra Leone, India and Ethiopia, and in the office of two Secretaries of State.

“I originally applied to read law at Southampton, but took a life-changing gap year working in a school in south India before starting university. This was my first exposure to extreme poverty at scale. I changed my degree to Population Studies, which was new and felt right for me as it combined the study of global issues, population and development alongside learning practical skills in statistics and economics.

“When I started at the University I wanted to change the world and end extreme poverty.

I’ve had some fabulous opportunities to work with great people to pursue this ambition, particularly with DFID and more recently with the Nike Foundation. We have a great mission, the ‘Girl Effect’ (www.girleffect.org), which is about unleashing the unique potential of 250 million adolescent girls living in extreme poverty around the world, so that they lift themselves, their families, communities and countries out of poverty.”

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Fiona is Professor in Statistics at the London School of Economics.

“After a BSc in Mathematics and Statistics, I was looking for an MSc course which offered training in more advanced statistical techniques with applications in the social sciences. Social Statistics at Southampton was then a relatively young department and the first to offer an MSc in Social Statistics in the UK. It was during the MSc that I developed a keen interest in data analysis, and got my first taste of multilevel modelling, an emerging area at the time which was to develop into my main research interest in my subsequent career.

“I was fortunate to be awarded an ESRC PhD studentship. I received excellent guidance from my supervisor, Professor Sir Ian Diamond.

“I owe much to past and present members of the Social Statistics group at Southampton for sparking my interest in the social sciences and for the first-rate training I received. Since those formative years, I have gone on to enjoy a rich and varied career developing and applying statistical methods to answer a broad range of research questions, from the impact of unemployment on men’s mental health to the factors influencing where people live.”

Philomena was appointed Government Statistician in her home country of Ghana in 2013, following a period as Deputy Government Statistician. Before that she was Head of the Demographic Surveillance System at the Navrongo Health Research Centre and taught at the Regional Institute for Population Studies at the University of Ghana.

“It was a pleasure as well as a challenge to teach students when I became a Lecturer and later Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana.

I was able to bring together all the knowledge and skills I had acquired during my studies at Southampton and the research positions I held at other institutions and transfer some of that knowledge to others. While I was at the Navrongo Health Research Centre, I was able to use my statistical knowledge to help others at the Centre to make their research more rigorous. Providing ideas and support for research designs and sampling strategies as well as helping researchers to analyse their results has been a very satisfying part of my career.

“I believe that health is very central to human development, and I am proud to have furthered knowledge in this area, and to serve my country in the role of Government Statistician.”

“Southampton has shaped my career, partly thanks to the really good links it has – the Centre for Research on Ageing is based here and there are strong links with the third sector.

“There is a really rich array of experiences you can gain here, in terms of interaction with the lecturers, opportunities to further your own work and opportunities to move into relevant sectors after your education.”

Marcus Green PhD Gerontology, 2014; Social and Economic Research Manager, Age UK

Our people have a passion to change the world

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Our global influence

Through her key role in the What Works Centre for Crime Reduction, Professor Jenny Fleming is helping decision-makers to make evidence-based choices about crime reduction

Professor Asghar Zaidi’s Active Ageing Index monitors factors such as health, wellbeing and social engagement among older people across Europe to inform government policy interventions

Through teaching, research and international partnerships, Social Sciences has a global reach.

The last 50 years have seen increasing globalisation and new challenges for the planet that have shaped our research direction. Our academics, who come from many different countries, are involved in numerous international partnerships and conduct research worldwide. Maternal health policies in Africa, the migration debate in Europe and gender issues in India are just some areas tackled by our projects.

From social enterprise challenges to overseas field trips, we also provide our students with a wealth of international opportunities.

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Dr Pia Riggirozzi, a specialist on global governance, is part of an international research team examining regional health policies in southern Africa and South America to enhance poverty reduction

More than 28,000 online learners from countries worldwide have joined our Web Science MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) Professor Traute Meyer has investigated European migration and social rights in the context of pension reform

Professor Jackie Wahba’s research into the benefits of temporary migration for migrants’ home countries has informed Egyptian government policy and been used by key international organisations

Dr Ming-Chin Monique Chu is examining contemporary challenges on Chinese supremacy and their ramifications for international politics

Professor Sabu Padmadas is working with the government of the Sultanate of Oman on a research programme to monitor social data including family cohesion, employment and young people’s values

Professor Zoe Matthews and Professor Nyovani Madise are making a significant contribution to maternal and child health policies in the developing world including studies in Africa and India

Professor Maria Evandrou, Dr Gloria Langat and Professor Jane Falkingham are seeking to improve the lives of older people living in poverty in Nairobi slums by gaining a better understanding of resilience

Dr Toby Miles-Johnson’s research with the Australian Research Council aims to develop best practice in reducing prejudice motivated crime

Over the years our staff have joined us from countries including Canada, East Africa, Jamaica, Poland, Sri Lanka and India.

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Bringing learning to life Taking the learning experience beyond the library and the lecture theatre, our curriculum has developed in recent years to give students the opportunity to put their learning into context and gain real-world experience in their field of study.

Policy formation in Brussels A field trip to Brussels gives second-year Politics and International Relations undergraduates a unique insight into European policy-making.

Introduced in 2014 as part of the Politics and Governance of the EU module, the trip includes visits to the main EU institutions, such as the European Parliament, Commission and Council of the EU. Students also visit some of the key stakeholders that work with the European institutions, such as UNICEF and Eurochild.

This gives them an invaluable opportunity to talk to EU policy-makers, practitioners and advocacy groups who shape the EU decision process.

Jevgenia Kisselenko, who took part in the field trip in 2014, says: “It has made my passion about the EU even stronger and formed my dream to be part of the legislative process of the Union.

It is one thing to study EU institutions, but another thing entirely to see it for yourself, feel the atmosphere and talk with the people who work there.”

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Seeing life behind bars Students with an interest in penology have the chance to see prison life for themselves on visits organised by Lecturer in Criminology, Dr Alisa Stevens.

training prison, and Haslar Immigration Removal Centre near Portsmouth – a place of detention for people awaiting removal from the UK.

The visits are available to both undergraduate and masters students, giving them a flavour of the prison environment. It allows them to talk to prisoners and staff about aspects of prison life, their experiences and their views on the effectiveness of prison.

Alisa says: “What all the visits have in common is that they come at a point in the course when students have learned about theories of imprisonment and penal policy, enabling them to compare or contrast the theory with the reality they see and what they learn from talking to staff and prisoners.

The visits encompass prisons with different functions. For example, undergraduates have visited HMP Winchester, a category B local prison built in the traditional Victorian style, as well as the resettlement-focused category D Ford (‘open’) prison in West Sussex. Postgraduate visits have included HMP Coldingley, a longer-stay category C

“It’s impossible for students to really appreciate the impact of issues such as overcrowding, for example, until they’ve seen for themselves the size of cells that prisoners share and talked with them about how they cope with life in such a small space.”

Putting research methods into practice Each year BSc Population and Geography students have the chance to take part in an international field trip. As well as being a valuable opportunity to put qualitative and quantitative research methods into practice, it offers students a unique life experience and an insight into another culture.

This year, 29 second-year students from the Applied Population Research Methods module visited Accra in Ghana for a week-long programme. The trip built on the success of a visit to India in 2014, and was hosted in association with the University of Ghana’s Regional Institute for Population Studies, with which Southampton demographers have strong links.

Dr Claire Bailey, Senior Teaching Fellow in Social Statistics and Demography, says: “We intentionally take students to a place with a different cultural context so that they appreciate the impact this can have on the way they work in the field – for example, whether the questions they are asking are culturally appropriate – and also the way cultural differences can impact on the data itself.”

The students worked with a set of existing survey data on urban health and poverty.

Conversations with original survey participants during a visit to the Ga Mashie slum district helped bring this data to life and put it into context. Students also tried doing their own qualitative research by conducting narrative interviews with students on the University of Ghana campus.

“The experience raised logistical and practical issues that gave students a better idea of the realities of working in the field – from working in hot temperatures to ensuring the confidentiality of survey participants in a culture with a different concept of privacy,” says Claire. “They learned a lot about doing interviews that you can’t learn from a book – about building rapport, managing ethical consent considerations, analysing their subconscious bias when selecting participants.

This is all designed to be useful preparation for their dissertation projects.”

Student Harriet Lofthouse says: “It was an absolute privilege to have the opportunity to go to Ghana and meet some of the best demography academics in West Africa.

Everything we learned within the module was relevant and felt even more valuable because we could apply it to the field.”

Population and Geography students have the chance to take part in an international fieldtrip Social Sciences 50th Anniversary

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Enterprising solutions With its roots in Social Sciences and a University-wide reach, social innovation is encouraging students to find creative solutions to social problems. Dr Pathik Pathak, Faculty Director of Social Enterprise and University Director for Social Entrepreneurship, talks about the development of Southampton’s distinctive approach.

“We are consolidating what we do into a Social Innovation Lab – a space that encourages experimental thinking where students, staff and the public, private and third sectors can come together, generate new ideas and test them out."

Dr Pathik Pathak Faculty Director of Social Enterprise; University Director for Social Entrepreneurship

Q

What are the origins of social entrepreneurship at Southampton?

When I arrived at the University in 2010, social entrepreneurship had been around in higher education for several years and there was a growing interest within Social Sciences to introduce it here. It aligned well with the University strategy, as it’s fundamentally linked to creative thinking, employability and giving students a distinctive experience. It is also a way of leveraging the University’s world-class research for social benefit.

We started with small-scale projects and things have mushroomed since then.

We are based in Social Sciences and many of our programmes are open to students across the University’s subject areas. We now have a Social Enterprise curriculum innovation module and several University-wide initiatives, including international challenges. I’m also co-supervising our first PhD student studying social entrepreneurship.

Q

How has your approach evolved?

Initially social enterprise was our focus, based on a model that married charity and business.

Our thinking has moved on in the last two years and we now have a more open-ended approach, focusing on social innovation – which is the process of coming up with solutions to social problems. We want students to immerse themselves in an issue and then design sustainable and effective solutions. Sometimes that will result in a social enterprise, but the solution might be better suited to a public service innovation or a non-profit approach.

It’s important not to be prescriptive.

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Q

What sorts of issues is social innovation helping to tackle?

We recently held a challenge event to address the issue of social isolation among older people.

This brought together a panel of researchers from the University’s Centre for Research on Ageing and representatives from the voluntary sector and local government who discussed the issue in an open forum. Students were then asked to come up with ways to tackle the issue.

We’re now preparing to address the problem of worklessness in challenge events during the next academic year.

Later this year we will also be repeating our successful international challenge – this time in Delhi, where students will be asked to look at issues relating to women’s empowerment.

Q

re there examples of successful social A enterprises combining social innovation and Southampton research?

Some of our students’ ventures have been extremely successful. One example is SanEco, which is running in Kenya and Uganda and was conceived by our Enactus students. It uses toilets made from majority-recycled materials to convert human waste into fertiliser. This was based on research conducted in Engineering.

Q

What does the future hold?

One of the next frontiers is to diversify so that we can offer more opportunities to postgraduates. We are also consolidating what we do into a Social Innovation Lab – a space that encourages experimental thinking where students, staff and the public, private and third sectors can come together, generate new ideas and test them out.

Curriculum innovation Social Enterprise is one of a number of modules specifically designed by Social Sciences for the Curriculum Innovation Programme (CIP). Part of the University’s pioneering approach to flexible learning, CIP modules are open to undergraduates from different disciplines, giving them an opportunity to broaden their learning and enhance their skills.

The interdisciplinary nature of Social Sciences means we are well placed to contribute to the programme. Our academics, working with colleagues from different subject areas, have designed CIP modules such as Global Health, which examines the global impact of infectious diseases and lifestyle-related health conditions, and Understanding Modern China, which offers insights into the core issues that China faces in sustaining its development into the 21st century. Other Social Sciences CIP modules include Work and Employment in Theory and Practice, Economics with Experiments, and Health Policy and Economics.

Professor Peter Smith, Emeritus Professorial Fellow in Economics and former academic lead for the Curriculum Innovation Programme, comments: “Social Sciences has contributed strongly to the success of this University-wide programme, which enables students to customise their learning, encourages them to make connections across disciplines and enhances their employability.”

2010 Dr Pathik Pathak introduces social entrepreneurship to the University’s programmes

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Embracing advances in learning Advances in digital technology have changed the educational landscape, with virtual environments and online tools opening up a range of learning opportunities. Social Sciences has been quick to adopt these new approaches and continues to lead the way in incorporating new technologies into its degree programmes.

Our degrees incorporate cutting-edge approaches

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Making study possible anywhere, any time

Economics experimental laboratory

Our online masters course in gerontology is enabling students from all over the world to benefit from Social Sciences’ high-quality teaching.

Experimental economics is a cutting-edge field within the wider discipline of economics.

Dr Helen Paul explains: “The global financial crisis has demonstrated the weakness of restricting ourselves to very basic models of human behaviour. We want to encourage our students to think beyond simple theories and models, using a variety of techniques to get a more subtle view of economic decision-making.”

The MSc Gerontology (Distance Learning) enables people to study in their own time and combine academic studies with other obligations, such as work and family care.

The programme is delivered through online lectures, electronic reading materials and interactive resources that are accessible at any time. Students are supported by tutors via email and Skype. They also have the opportunity to come together on an optional four-day residential course at Southampton.

Ugandan student Teddy Nagaddya says: “ Studying long distance is an amazing thing. You’re able to access quite a number of reading materials that I wouldn’t be able to in my own country and to share ideas with students from other parts of the world. That really enriches your understanding of the discipline.

“The programme has been designed to be research focused, with lots of things to do with qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. For people like me coming from a developing country with a rapidly growing population of older people, this is exactly what we need.”

Opal Bernard studied the course from her home in Jamaica. She says: “It’s very convenient because I’m able to stay with my family and continue working. You can listen to the lectures at your leisure. You have to be organised, but you get a lot of guidance from the lecturers here and I’m in constant contact with them.”

In the Economics experimental laboratory students can run experiments to look at how people make economic decisions in the real world – ie not always entirely rationally and not always with a complete set of information, which is the assumption usually made in neoclassical models.

“This helps students understand the important link between psychology and behavioural economics – knowledge that can be incredibly useful in a range of economic contexts, from government agencies to the financial markets,” adds Helen.

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Bloomberg terminals Students with an ambition to work in the financial sector can get a head start thanks to Economics’ Bloomberg suite, which provides access to the same sophisticated real-time computer terminals that are used by City of London financiers.

The Bloomberg terminals enable students to see current and historical share prices as well as a range of other indicators that a real-world trading company would use.

As well as providing valuable research material, this gives students experience in handling information coming through simultaneously on different screens.

Jean-Yves Pitarakis, Professor of Economics, says: “Bloomberg terminals are widely used by professional traders both in the City and across the world to monitor and analyse stock; a knowledge of the systems will be invaluable for graduates who are aiming for a career in finance.�

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Using social media Our Politics lecturers are using a range of digital media to assess students’ progress, give them experience of communicating their research and encourage dialogue. For example, second-year students on the Research Skills in Politics and International Relations module take part in a hands-on research project with an external organisation. As well as a written report, they are assessed based on a short YouTube video, the aim of which is to present their findings to a lay audience. Students have also podcasted critical interviews with eminent social science researchers, blogged about their research and engaged in Twitter debates relating to specific modules.

Simulating global politics While we can’t give students work placements as world-leaders, we can help them to experience the dynamics of international relations through the use of Statecraft.

This online simulation helps students test out theories of international relations in a virtual world, in which they can trade, negotiate, go to war or do anything else that states do.

2013 The Bloomberg Trading Suite opens to students and staff

Over a period of weeks, small teams of second-year students on the Theories of International Relations module are given Statecraft activities to put the abstract concepts they are learning about into practice.

Each week a number of events happen within the virtual world, and the teams discuss how to handle these during seminars. They are also asked by their tutors to talk about the decisions they make in relation to different international relations theories.

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www.southampton.ac.uk/socsci50 alumni@southampton.ac.uk Follow us @ UoS_FSHS

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