Joshua Richards
PhD Student
Email: joshua.richards@manchester.ac.uk
Background
BA (Hons) Sociology (Class I) University of Durham
MSc Sociological Research (Distinction) University of Manchester
My main research interests lie within the sociology of personal life, relationships and the lifecourse, with a specific focus on the role that privacy, trust, self-disclosure and intimacy play within the creation and maintenance of relationships as well as personal and social identity. I am also interested in social research methods, particularly new developments in qualitative research methods, including new technology.
Working title of thesis
Shared Houses, Shared Lives: privacy, intimacy and self-disclosure and their role in the negotiation of relationships in houses of multiple occupation.
Current Activities
My ESRC funded PhD research aims to consider how privacy plays a role in our interpersonal relationships within the specific context of houses of multiple occupation – more commonly known as shared houses. I am currently carrying out fieldwork within Manchester interviewing residents about their relationships and experiences within shared houses in order to gain an insight into how people frame their interactions with others in relation to such aspects as space, domestic life, work, information and biography. The data will be used to explore the issues of privacy and intimacy that are played out in order to start the development of a wider idea of privacy’s role in social life which has been a neglected concept within sociology in terms of empirical research.
Teaching Assistant 2009/10:
- SOCY10440 – Researching Culture and Society
- SOCY10912 – Work, Organisations and Society
- SOCY20981 – Work, Economy and Society
Papers and presentations
Conference paper:
- ‘Privacy: a right without definition?’: ‘Whose Rights? How Right?’, University of Warwick, March 2010