PhD Studentship - Contested Conditions: An Exploration of Experience and Understanding May 2020

Sly Saint

Sly Saint

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
The Department of Law and Criminology at Royal Holloway is inviting students to apply for a full-time scholarship for doctoral research.
Contested Conditions: An Exploration of Experience and Understanding

The aim of the project is to gain a greater understanding of the lived experience of contested conditions and the way in which they are framed in contemporary society. Focusing on myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME)/chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia and Morgellons disease, the project will investigate online discussions of these conditions as well as personal narratives and clinicians’ perspectives in order to produce a rounded understanding of the phenomenon. It is anticipated that the project will also incorporate a socio legal aspect, examining the right to health care for the said condition(s) and any challenges to liberty that might emerge during the course of treatment as well as the potential role of advocacy in assisting those living with these conditions.

The successful candidate will be encouraged to refine their own PhD topic within the proposed theme. It is anticipated that the project will take a qualitative approach, incorporating interviews, some creative engagement methodologies and an online component.
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https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/CAC231/p...n-exploration-of-experience-and-understanding
 
There is slightly more here
https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/media/13333/lss-scholarhsip-phd.pdf
Contested Conditions: An Exploration of Experience and UnderstandingThe aim of the project is to gain a greater understanding of the lived experience of contested conditions and the way in which they are framed in contemporary society. Focusing on myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME)/chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia and Morgellons disease, the project will investigate online discussions of these conditions as well as personal narratives and clinicians’ perspectives in order to produce a rounded understanding of the phenomenon. It is anticipated that the project will also incorporate a socio legal aspect, examining theright to health care for the said condition(s) and any challenges to liberty that might emerge during the course of treatment as well as the potential role of advocacy in assisting those living with these conditions.

The successful candidate will be encouraged to refine their own PhD topic, working within the proposed phases, as below:
•Develop an understanding of the competing ways in which contested conditions are currently framed, with a particular focus on the physical vs. mental framings.
•Develop anunderstanding of how contested conditions are experienced and the way in which competing framings impact on daily life.
•Develop a tool kit for use by advocacy groups which could inform current discourse and enable those with these conditions to voice their lived experience.
It is anticipated that the project will take a qualitative approach, incorporating interviews, some creative engagement methodologies and an online component.
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Thanks for the mention @Sly Saint Interesting.....

It would be useful to know the source of funding/sponsorship for this proposal. It seems curious that someone wants to throw £50k at such an ill-defined project. Most prospective PhD candidates already have an idea of how they want to frame their work, rather than adapting their ideas into a prescribed format. However, no doubt someone will take it up. It is funding, after all.

The conflation of all these diseases/conditions into a pre-conceived notion of "contested conditions" will achieve little of value for patients. The social/sociological/clinical objectives are unclear.

The proposed "socio-legal" aspects are examined regularly at considerable length elsewhere in genuine legal research and commentary. Their inclusion seems somewhat superfluous to this undertaking, other than to justify it coming under the surprisingly wide-ranging auspices of RHUL's Department of Law and Criminology.

If any potential PhD candidate approached me with this as a suggested thesis topic, I'd tell them to go away and come back when they have constructed a more sophisticated and tightly designed proposal with some genuine novelty and social/sociological value - and a proper working title! The current parameters barely meet even the most minimal postgraduate standards.

It may be that this is the obligatory external advertising of an opportunity which is already assigned to an individual student and is for appearances' sake only.

[Edited to add:] Just to be clear - sadly, I don't think this particular research will create any significant improvement in the future treatment of ME patients.
 
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