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Dr Simon Dominic Carter

Profile summary

  • Central Academic Staff
  • Senior Lecturer in Sociology
  • Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
  • School of Hist, Rel St, Soc, SP&C
  • Sociology
  • simon.carter

Web links

Professional biography

I originally was a research chemist working in the automotive industry and then in environmental protection. After studying at the Open University, I returned to fully time higher education to complete a PhD at Lancaster University.  After this, I worked at the MRC Medical Sociology Unit, Glasgow University, where I spent a period on secondment to the MRC Public Communications Group in London.  This was followed by a period working as a medical sociologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.  In 2005 I took up a post in the Department of Sociology at the Open University.

Research interests

I have research interests in Science and Technology Studies especially as applied to issues of health and medicine. I have recently completed a historical study examining the cultural turn towards the sun and sunlight in early twentieth century Europe and this research provides an analysis of the roles that sunlight played in the mediation of such notions as health, pleasure, the body, gender and class. I also have conducted research into critical approaches to the public understanding of science as applied to health issues. Recently I have been working on an ESRC funded study into how biosecurity interfaces with other concerns in our globalised world. I have research interests in the impact of wearables and digital health.

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Teaching interests

Module Chair of Making social worlds: security, conduct and attachment (DD308), Working on production of new PG foundation module "Principals of Social and Psychological Inquiry" (D801).

Impact and engagement

I am The Managing Editor of the BSA-funded "Cost of Living Blog" about-about the politics, economics and sociology of health in times of austerity.

Publications

Digital technologies and the biomedicalisation of everyday activities: the case of walking and cycling (2018-04-18)
Carter, Simon; Speed, Ewen and Green, Judith
Sociology Compass, 12, Article e12572(4)
Doctors in space (ships): biomedical uncertainties and medical authority in imagined futures (2016)
Henderson, Lesley and Carter, Simon
Medical Humanities, 42(4) (pp. 277-282)
The domestication of an everyday health technology: a case study of electric toothbrushes (2013-11)
Carter, Simon; Green, Judith and Thorogood, Nicki
Social Theory and Health, 11 (pp. 344-367)
Biosecurity and the topologies of infected life: from borderlines to borderlands (2013-10)
Hinchliffe, Steve; Allen, John; Lavau, Stephanie; Bingham, Nick and Carter, Simon
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 38(4) (pp. 531-543)
The medicalization of sunlight in the early twentieth century (2012-03-01)
Carter, Simon
Journal of Historical Sociology, 25(1) (pp. 83-105)
Michael Marmot: facts, opinions and affairs du coeur (2009-08-01)
Carter, Simon
International Journal of Epidemiology, 38(4) (pp. 914-916)
General practitioners' perceptions of chronic fatigue syndrome and beliefs about its management, compared with irritable bowel syndrome: qualitative study (2004-06)
Raine, Rosalind; Carter, Simon; Sensky, Tom and Black, Nick
British Medical Journal, 328 (pp. 1354-1357)
An experimental study of determinants of group judgments in clinical guideline development (2004)
Raine, Rosalind; Sanderson, Colin; Hutchings, Andrew; Carter, Simon; Larkin, Kirsten and Black, Nick
The Lancet, 364(9432) (pp. 429-437)
Signifying across time and space: a case study of biomedical educational texts (2003-03)
Carter, Simon and Michael, Mike
Sociology of Health and Illness, 25(2) (pp. 232-259)
The facts about fictions and vice versa: public understanding of human genetics (2001)
Michael, Mike and Carter, Simon
Science as Culture, 10(1) (pp. 5-32)
Pathological Lives: Disease, Space and Biopolitics (2016-12-10)
Hinchliffe, Steve; Bingham, Nick; Allen, John and Carter, Simon
RGS-IBG Book Series
ISBN : 978-1-118-99759-8 | Publisher : John Wiley and Sons | Published : Chichester
Rise and Shine: Sunlight, Technology and Health (2007-04)
Carter, Simon
ISBN : 9781845201319 | Publisher : Berg Publishers Ltd | Published : Oxford, UK
Leagues of sunshine: sunlight, health and the environment (2012-12-01)
Carter, Simon
In: Gorsky, Martin and Berridge, Virgina eds. Environment Health and History (pp. 94-112)
ISBN : 9780230233119 | Publisher : Palgrave | Published : London
Health and security (2008)
Carter, Simon and Davey Smith, George
In: Carter, Simon; Jordan, Timothy and Watson, Sophie eds. Security: Sociology and social worlds (pp. 145-178)
ISBN : 9780719078118 | Publisher : Manchester University Press | Published : Manchester, UK
Here comes the sun: shedding light on the cultural body (2003-10)
Carter, Simon and Michael, Mike
In: Thomas, Helen and Ahmed, Jamilah eds. Cultural bodies: ethnography and theory (pp. 260-282)
ISBN : 631225846 | Publisher : Blackwell | Published : Oxford, UK
Security: Sociology and social worlds (2008)
Carter, Simon; Jordan, Tim and Watson, Sophie eds.
ISBN : 9780719078118 | Publisher : Manchester University Press | Published : Manchester, UK
Conduct: Sociology and social worlds (2008)
McFall, Liz; Du Gay, Paul and Carter, Simon eds.
ISBN : 9780719078132 | Publisher : Manchester University Press | Published : Manchester, UK
The Mercy: Mental Health, Seafaring and Mythical Voyages (2018-02-27)
Carter, Simon
Cost of Living Blog
The Doctors’ Trial: 70 years on from the Nuremberg Code (2017-11-01)
Carter, Simon
Cost of Living Blog
Forensic Architecture and Violence (2017-07-27)
Carter, Simon
Cost of Living Blog
Three Weeks in June and One Night in November (2016-12-14)
Carter, Simon
Cost of Living Blog
‘Narcos’ and the ‘War on Drugs’ (2016-10-05)
Carter, Simon
Cost of Living Blog
Scientists (mis)understanding the public(s), again! (2016-03-09)
Carter, Simon
Cost of Living Blog
Watching the Detectives: Epigenetics and Ethics (2015-11-27)
Carter, Simon
Cost of Living Blog
Public Health and Behaviour Change: from naïve sociology to naïve psychology (2015-09-04)
Carter, Simon
Cost of Living Blog
We are all Dr Strangelove now (2015-02-20)
Carter, Simon
Cost of Living Blog, UK.
Abandoned but not forgotten: hospitals, decay and urban exploration (2014-11-28)
Carter, Simon
Cost of Living Blog
Lazing on a sunny afternoon? A historical perspective on risk and sunlight (2014-04-04)
Carter, Simon
Cost of Living Blog
‘BREAKING BAD’: markets, healthcare and drug money (2014-01-31)
Carter, Simon
Cost of Living Blog

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