BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Public Guest Seminar - What (or who) has changed? Reflections on 
 ‘revisiting’ an English Town  - Ben Bradford\, Evi Girling\, Ian Loade
 r and Richard Sparks
DTSTART:20240502T160000Z
DTEND:20240502T180000Z
UID:TALK213283@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Professor Joe Murray
DESCRIPTION:We have conducted two studies of the same research site – th
 e town of Macclesfield in north-west England - a quarter of a century apar
 t. Macclesfield is a town of some 53\,000\, about 20 miles south of the ne
 arest large urban centre\, Manchester. Our previous study of crime-talk in
  the town\, conducted between 1994 and 1996\, resulted in a book-length ac
 count of how worries about crime featured in local social relations in the
  mid-1990s (Girling et al. 2000\, Crime and Social Change in Middle Englan
 d). We returned in 2019\, following a quarter of a century of technologica
 l\, socio-economic\, cultural and political change that included the digit
 al revolution\, austerity\, migration\, Brexit\, greater climate conscious
 ness\, and – shortly after we commenced our research - the Covid-19 pand
 emic. We returned with a view to using the town\, a place of relative affl
 uence and relative safety\, but with its share of social problems\, arguab
 ly a kind of English ‘Middletown’\,  as a site for exploring what it m
 eans to be and feel secure in Britain today.  We were interested in findin
 g out what troubles afflict the daily lives of differently situated people
  across the town and what actions they take\, or demand from responsible a
 uthorities\, to deal with the things that threaten them. How might we thin
 k about the relation between these two enquiries\, and what are the dilemm
 as of returning? How does change – in the place\, relevant socio-politic
 al contexts\, the intellectual environment\, the trajectories and outlooks
  of the research team – impinge on how we make sense of the relation bet
 ween harm (rather than just crime)\, everyday security and place? In this 
 paper\, we consider some of the theoretical\, methodological and substanti
 ve questions raised by our experience of these two studies and\, in so doi
 ng\, reflect on the value and limits of revisiting as a sociological pract
 ice.\n\nPlease register attendance via our website: https://www.crim.cam.a
 c.uk/events/public-guest-seminar-what-or-who-has-changed-reflections-revis
 iting-english-town
LOCATION:Seminar room\, Institute of Criminology Sidgwick Site
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR