Quick Links:
>Allotment Work
Examines allotment production in relation to our idea of work. See Growing Your Own (conference paper from 2010 Ethnography Symposium).
>Project
Skive
Looks interactively at how we waste time at work. Featured at No Time To Lose & Futuresonic, on ABC Melbourne & BBC Radio 5 and in Creative Approaches to Research.
>Web2.0 & Creative Resistance
Explores workblogging as a clandestine critique of the contemporary labour process. See Hiding Out (doctoral dissertation), Diary
of a Working Boy (in Ethnography) and Organizational Coping Strategies (in Trust and Technology).
>Other Multimedia Projects 5Pointz examines the relationship between outside and inside artists at a legal graffiti spot.
Crisis
and Renewal reflects on Benjamin using Rimbaud's poetry.
I am a sociologist based at The City University of New York (CUNY), where my research focuses on work, with a particular emphasis on resistance and work-life boundaries.
I recently obtained my Ph.D. in sociology from CUNY Graduate Center, writing a dissertation entitled Hiding Out: Creative Resistance Among Anonymous Workbloggers, which looks at workers who reclaim time from the labour process in order to pursue their own intellectual and artistic projects. I also have a Master’s degree in engineering and economics from Oxford University and professional experience working in industry/academia with a focus on organizational development and information technology.
My work is broadly inspired by my experience as a dot.com era web designer in the long-hours culture of the US, and my concern that the UK -- where I was born -- is heading toward a similar culture of self-exploitation, at great social and ecological cost. As an activist and educator, I am fascinated by the intersection between ethnography, new media and social change, and this is strongly reflected in my research and teaching.
Currently, I am an Assistant Professor of Sociology at LaGuardia Community College (CUNY), where I teach multimedia-enhanced courses that incorporate ethnographic methodology and writing-intensive pedagogy. Until September 2011 I will be based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, where I will undertake a study of allotment work.