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At the request of DC, copied below is an extract from a comment I posted on my previous blog entry.
More details to follow, but anyone interested in either of these two happenings, do let me know!
‘Also, keep an eye out for an invitation I’ll be posting in the next week or so to a symposium on 29th June, Manchester, organised by myself and DB [David Best], from University of West Scotland, supported by the ever-inspiring Mark Gilman and NTA North West. This is the event flagged up by Annemarie in her comment to my post.
The broad aims of the informal gathering (a “coalition of the willing” as DB has put it) is to work towards forming a UK specific research agenda to best support the development of the UK recovery movement.
One on the tangible outputs of the symposium is to inaugurate the “Recovery Academy” – envisaged as a vehicle for supporting UK recovery research and building bridges of recovery by acting as a hub connecting researchers, recovering communities, agencies and practitioners to encourage the development of a shared knowledge / resource base and facilitate the growth of a common, affirmative language of recovery in the UK.
Would be great to have you – and anyone interested – there, if you can make it. I’m hoping to finalise a few last details this week, and will post invite early next.
We’re also exploring the possibility of swiftly following up this with a conference in September at Liverpool Hope – the first annual conference of the “Recovery Academy”… a gathering of researchers, recovery community ambassadors, practitioners, and anyone with an interest in moving the UK recovery movement forward.
Liverpool Hope have kindly agreed to offer (significantly) preferential rates to enable us to keep costs a minimal as possible for the proposed weekend event and to encourage those on limited incomes to attend. In reality, this means sponsorship, and of course also is dependent on the number of delegates who are willing and able to pay the (cost-only) conference fee. In the current economic climate, this will be challenging – but not impossible… I’ll keep you posted!’
For those interested in my own research, in response to some questions from DC and in the same comment:
I’m coming to end of my second year part-time, but in reality have been formally researching this for over 3 years. To that end, I’m about 40,000 words into my thesis. I’m hoping to move to full-time in September, which will give me a good 2 years to complete and submit my thesis.
In terms of methodology, my research is theoretical – rooted in the classic “critique of ideas” approach often used Arts and Humanities. Here’s an edited extract from my recent funding application to the Arts and Humanities Research Council – It might help give you a better idea of my research.
“My research represents a continuation of academic interest developed during my undergraduate studies in the ambiguity surrounding the concept of spirituality. In order to advance a robust concept of “spiritual technologies” to help clarify the academic uncertainty surrounding the concept of spirituality, it became clear that my professional interest in addiction, spirituality, and recovery represented an area of advantageous and unexplored source material: the converging discourses of addiction and recovery have yet to be engaged with the academic study of spirituality.
Furthermore, the emerging academic field of addiction and spirituality currently lacks a critical dimension and is dominated by quantitative and qualitative studies of patterns of religiosity in the “addict” as a subject. My research project will thus be positioned as a natural evolution in this nascent area of study.
The central research question of my interdisciplinary research project is ‘What can the journey from “addict-self” to “spiritual-self” tell us about the nature of spirituality contemporarily?’ In order to focus and delimit the boundaries of this project, I have conceived of two clear, distinct, and mutually contingent research goals as a response to my central research question.
First, in a development of Michel Foucault’s account of ‘technologies of the self’, a concept of ‘spiritual technologies’ will be proposed as a tool for reframing spirituality discourse to avoid some of the ambiguities that presently characterise the field.
Second, I will offer a critical analysis of the emerging field of addition and spirituality – founded on the analytic approach of Foucault, and augmented by contemporary critical material, in particular the field of critical psychology and recent studies in the sociology of religion.’
I’ll unpack some of this in some upcoming blog posts…”
Stephen B.
This is all great news. I’ve left long comment on DavidB’s blog which has worn me out for yours – also been editing all morning.
GREAT to have you on board!
Yep Stephen, your thesis sounds really exciting to me, thank god i dont have to do the work on it like you are, cant wait to read it (no pressure) lol.
The recovery academy sounds fantastic too as i believe without the recovery research it is very difficult to influence policy and practice so i am 100% behind you all and offer my time to help in any way I can.
Big hug and as DC says GREAT to have you here xxx
Great… so how do I join? :)
You are doing a sterling job and I look forward to meeting you on 29th to exchange ideas. I have been wanting to get involved in research for many years now, and this could be just what I have been waiting for. Keep up the good work!
Ste, it’s really good news that you and David are at the helm of this great idea. I’m looking forward to this event a lot. The work of a researcher and the work of a documentary filmmaker are not that far removed, especially given that both pursue truth and progress (ideally); subjective concepts i know, but you’ve got to set yourself goals haven’t you? Every time i hear about the doctorate research you’re doing, the more i think how important it is. I don’t understand the details of it yet but i look forward to hearing more. We’re all part of a difficult journey in one way or another but the journey of someone with a drug problem is a journey that gets a lot of attention – mainly negative. It sounds like your doctorate research will definitely go someway to redressing that balance and helping to de-stigmatize ‘The Addict’ . Someone has got to do the profound work of contextualizing and reconceptualizing received ‘knowledge’; especially around the concepts of addiction and spirituality. There seems to be a lot of unchallenged assumptions knocking about. I’m glad you’re on the case.
