Dr Shawn Bodden
- Affiliate Researcher for ESRC ‘Living with SAD’ (School of Geographical & Earth Sciences)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5905-5714Research interests
I am a geographer of political culture, which I understand as referring to the ongoing and ordinary practices, material resources and spaces people use to organise, justify and revise social life.
My research combines ethnomethodological studies of interaction with long-term and participatory ethnographic fieldwork to understand and, where possible, contribute to communities’ efforts to respond to social challenges and to build a more just, more tolerant society. My conceptual approach is particularly indebted to the thinking of the late Clive Barnett, and I see my research as contributing to his programme of research into the geographies of public reasoning. My interest in the ordinary dimensions of political and social life often leads me to look in unusual places, where political questions might be taken for granted or dismissed: I have accordingly conducted research on a diverse range of topics including Hungarian community spaces; conflicts (and convivialities) between humans and pigeons; evaluation in urban co-design projects; and the rationalities of rioters (how they work out what to do).
Current work
In my current post at the University of Glasgow, I am junior researcher on the Living with SAD project. Our team is investigating the lived experiences of Seasonal Affective Disorder in Scotland and the ongoing struggle to gain recognition of this experience.
Future work
Building on interests that have developed over my previous research as well as my experience as a long-time volunteer at the Edinburgh Tool Library, I am developing a research project to investigate the experience of communities operating and using Tool Libraries and other Share-and-Repair initiatives. I am particularly interested in two questions that I see as eminently practical and philosophical: how do communities negotiate the meaning and worth of new cultural and political practices in their local contexts, and how do they learn from examples and experiences of other communities elsewhere?
Research Snapshot
Topics: political culture, community space, projects, practical reasoning, evaluation and justification, relationships with the environment, seasonality, Hungary and Central Europe, birds and ‘feral’ animals, illustration
Approaches: ethnography, ethnomethodology, interaction analysis, ordinary language philosophy, pragmatism
Please do get in touch if you find any mutual interests or curiosities!
Publications
2024
Bodden, S. , Lorimer, H., Parr, H. and Williams, C. (2024) SAD geographies: making light matter. Progress in Human Geography, 48(5), pp. 595-613. (doi: 10.1177/03091325241252846)
Bodden, S. (2024) Talking politics, doing theory. Dialogues in Human Geography, (doi: 10.1177/20438206241278734) (Early Online Publication)
Bodden, S. , Lorimer, H. and Parr, H. (2024) In a positive light? Experiencing Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and the promise of biosolidarity. Social and Cultural Geography, (doi: 10.1080/14649365.2024.2347873) (Early Online Publication)
Bodden, S. , Lorimer, H. and Parr, H. (2024) Feeling SAD: embodied geographies of seasonal affective disorder. In: Spaces of Mental Health and Well-Being. Routledge. (Accepted for Publication)
2023
Bodden, S. (2023) Working through our differences: The limits of ontology in the ordinary lives of critical geographical theory. Dialogues in Human Geography, (doi: 10.1177/20438206231221618) (Early Online Publication)
Bodden, S. (2023) The public lives of pigeon passengers: how pigeons and humans share space on a train. In: Petri, Olga and Guida, Michael (eds.) Winged Worlds: Common Spaces of Avian-Human Lives. Series: Routledge human-animal studies series. Routledge: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY, pp. 136-150. ISBN 9781032369716 (doi: 10.4324/9781003334767-11)
Bodden, S. (2023) Lviv’s uncertain destination: a city and its train terminal from Franz Joseph I to Brezhnev. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 64(3), pp. 378-380. (doi: 10.1080/15387216.2021.1929371)[Book Review]
Bodden, S. , Lorimer, H. and Parr, H. (2023) Wintering Together: A Toolkit for Building Your Own Wintering Well Community. [Research Reports or Papers]
2022
Bodden, S. and Elliott, J. (2022) Finding space for shared futures: exploring methods for co–evaluation in urban co–design projects. Edinburgh Architecture Research, 37, pp. 90-104. (doi: 10.2218/ear.2022.6657)
Bodden, S. , Finlay, A., Lorimer, H., Parr, H. and Williams, C. (2022) Winter Worries: Understanding Experiences of Seasonal Affective Disorder in the UK through the 2022 'Big SAD Survey'. [Research Reports or Papers]
Bodden, S. (2022) A work-in-progress politics of space: activist projects and the negotiation of throwntogetherness within the hostile environment of Hungarian politics. City: Analysis of Urban Trends, Culture, Theory, Policy, Action, 26(2-3), pp. 397-410. (doi: 10.1080/13604813.2022.2055930)
2021
Bodden, S. and Ross, J. (2021) Speculating with glitches: keeping the future moving. Global Discourse: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Current Affairs and Applied Contemporary Thought, 11(1-2), pp. 15-34. (doi: 10.1332/204378920x16043719041171)
Articles
Bodden, S. , Lorimer, H., Parr, H. and Williams, C. (2024) SAD geographies: making light matter. Progress in Human Geography, 48(5), pp. 595-613. (doi: 10.1177/03091325241252846)
Bodden, S. (2024) Talking politics, doing theory. Dialogues in Human Geography, (doi: 10.1177/20438206241278734) (Early Online Publication)
Bodden, S. , Lorimer, H. and Parr, H. (2024) In a positive light? Experiencing Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and the promise of biosolidarity. Social and Cultural Geography, (doi: 10.1080/14649365.2024.2347873) (Early Online Publication)
Bodden, S. (2023) Working through our differences: The limits of ontology in the ordinary lives of critical geographical theory. Dialogues in Human Geography, (doi: 10.1177/20438206231221618) (Early Online Publication)
Bodden, S. and Elliott, J. (2022) Finding space for shared futures: exploring methods for co–evaluation in urban co–design projects. Edinburgh Architecture Research, 37, pp. 90-104. (doi: 10.2218/ear.2022.6657)
Bodden, S. (2022) A work-in-progress politics of space: activist projects and the negotiation of throwntogetherness within the hostile environment of Hungarian politics. City: Analysis of Urban Trends, Culture, Theory, Policy, Action, 26(2-3), pp. 397-410. (doi: 10.1080/13604813.2022.2055930)
Bodden, S. and Ross, J. (2021) Speculating with glitches: keeping the future moving. Global Discourse: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Current Affairs and Applied Contemporary Thought, 11(1-2), pp. 15-34. (doi: 10.1332/204378920x16043719041171)
Book Sections
Bodden, S. , Lorimer, H. and Parr, H. (2024) Feeling SAD: embodied geographies of seasonal affective disorder. In: Spaces of Mental Health and Well-Being. Routledge. (Accepted for Publication)
Bodden, S. (2023) The public lives of pigeon passengers: how pigeons and humans share space on a train. In: Petri, Olga and Guida, Michael (eds.) Winged Worlds: Common Spaces of Avian-Human Lives. Series: Routledge human-animal studies series. Routledge: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY, pp. 136-150. ISBN 9781032369716 (doi: 10.4324/9781003334767-11)
Book Reviews
Bodden, S. (2023) Lviv’s uncertain destination: a city and its train terminal from Franz Joseph I to Brezhnev. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 64(3), pp. 378-380. (doi: 10.1080/15387216.2021.1929371)[Book Review]
Research Reports or Papers
Bodden, S. , Lorimer, H. and Parr, H. (2023) Wintering Together: A Toolkit for Building Your Own Wintering Well Community. [Research Reports or Papers]
Bodden, S. , Finlay, A., Lorimer, H., Parr, H. and Williams, C. (2022) Winter Worries: Understanding Experiences of Seasonal Affective Disorder in the UK through the 2022 'Big SAD Survey'. [Research Reports or Papers]
