Title: Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC)
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: CRESC is concerned to bridge interests in culture, mainly focused in humanities disciplines, and those with economic, social and political processes, predominantly located in the social sciences. This is especially pressing since the contemporary re-making of global capitalism involves a new role for cultural processes, for instance in claims about the significance of 'knowing capitalism'. We interrogate these claims methodologically and substantively. Methodological issues: It is widely recognised that research methods expertise is a central strategic concern for numerous stakeholders: academic researchers, the ESRC, and to numerous user constituencies. ESRC investments in methods have tended to hive methodological expertise from core debates in the social sciences, leading to methods being deployed by specialist communities which encourage a view that methods are 'tools'. By contrast, theoretical currents in the UK rarely engage with these methodological concerns, even in areas, such as in network thinking, in concerns with time and temporality, and in complexity theory, where there appear to be overlaps. CRESC offers a distinctive orientation to methods which applies them to specific research projects, yet also explicitly explores the theoretical and methodological assumptions that they carry. We have four specific methodological interests in (a) narrative, (b) visualisation and (c) social networks and (d) socio-cultural materialities. Substantive applications We embed our methodological concerns in a series of substantive applications, which allow us to reflect on the methods themselves, as well as their role as agents of social change. The exemplars we propose address issues of major current interest, and lend themselves to widespread media and public interest. We identify four major areas where we will collectively contribute to debate. Global change - CRESC's work is part of a revisionist current within the study of globalisation, which seeks to 'spatialise' conceptions of change. Our concern to think global change through resolutely situated projects, yet in a way that allows us to co-ordinate our local studies, rather than simply evoking specific case studies, will permit us to make major strategic interventions around our understanding of global change processes. We are especially concerned with material interventions, such as in engineering practices, which seek to make both physical and social connections. Finance and Acquisitiveness - The shift of income, wealth and resources to the very rich is one of the most important global trends of the past two decades, yet is currently dramatically under-researched in the UK and internationally. This is remarkable in view of the potential significance of these processes in generating social polarisation and distant elites who are not socially responsible. Stratification - Currently social science analyses of stratification focus on economic and social indicators and have not been able to recognise the significance of cultural processes in the generation of social inequality. Our CCSE project has emerged as a major benchmark study and we plan to work with leading international partners in a concerted international collaboration to develop a more culturally sensitive framework for the analysis of stratification. Cultural interventions in citizenship - There is growing strategic interest in how cultural interventions are significant in a range of policy settings, such as in criminal justice settings or through the interventions of cultural institutiuons. This initiative challengs preconceptions that culture is primarily to be understood for its non-instrumental aspects, and emphasises the need to develop research on the interface between cultural and social processes. We will explore the significance of such interventions through a mapping of the historical formation of the cultural sector.


Research activity codes: 1.5 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (UNDERPINNING);1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE