Dr Shawn Bodden
Job Title
Research Fellow
Research interests
Background
I am a social geographer with expertise in community spaces, civic engagement, and sustainbility. I specialise in participatory research, working alongside community groups to investigate research questions about how to create and sustain spaces for communities to gather, learn from, and support one another.
I am particularly interested in public sector and civil society data economies, and the strategies developed by community organisations to document, measure, evidence, and finance charitable activities. This has also led me to examine changing understandings of ‘the public good’ in historical and cross-cultural contexts. In previous research projects, I have studied civic activism in Hungarian community centres, practices of public space co-design, and advocacy around seasonal mental health. I am committed to community-engaged and problem-led research that works with community members and practitioners to develop new resources for sharing and sustaining informed and inclusive civic cultures and public institutions.
Current Research
Tool Libraries as Hubs for Low-Energy Lifestyles
This pilot project is being co-developed with partners from the Edinburgh Tool Library, Transition Scotland, and the Scottish Communities Climate Action Network to understand the ongoing and historical organisation of Tool Libraries as innovative forms of low-carbon infrastructure. The project will consider how understandings of 'public good' are developed, revised, and evidenced as Tool Libraries are established in different local communities.
Everyday Talk and Energy Demand
This research is investigating the role of everyday interactions in mediating perceptions and uptake of energy demand reduction initiatives, with a focus on the existing and potential roles of community leaders to facilitate informed and empowered local and trans-local 'just transition' networks.
Previous Research
Living with SAD: Practicing Cultures of Seasonality to 'Feel Light' Differently
Studied lived experiences of Seasonal Affective Disorder and strategies for biosocial solidarity among climate- and season-affected communities. Outcomes and details about the project's interdisciplinary collaboration across geography, psychiatry and the arts is available on the project website.
Future of the High Street
Studied public space co-design strategies within a pilot project trialling creative interventions to reimagine possible futures of UK high streets. A project overview is available on the Edinburgh Future Institute's project webpage.
Works in progress: The practical accomplishment of activist spaces and political projects in Budapest
Doctoral research investigating the everyday organisational activities and strategies of community centres and activist group in Budapest, Hungary. Building on in depth interaction analysis of community events, activist meetings, and public protests, it examines how affordances and obstacles to political agency are negotiated in practice. The research is presented in my publicly accessible thesis.
Academic Influences
My research draws on a range of interdisciplinary scholarship with an interest in the social and political significance of everyday interaction, especially:
- Ordinary Language Philosophy: Stanley Cavell, Hannah Pitkin, Veena Das, Toril Moi
- Ethnomethodology & Conversation Analysis: Harold Garfinkel, Harvey Sacks, Charles Goodwin, Stanley Raffel
- Geographies of Public Life: Clive Barnett, Eric Laurier, Doreen Massey, Torsten Hägerstrand
- Intellectual History: Ian Hunter, Quentin Skinner, Carlo Ginzburg, Albert Hirschman
- Activist Scholarship: Jane Addams, Grace Lee Boggs, Ervin Szabó