Staff Profile

BA (Hons) Politics and International Relations:

• Political Communications
• Concepts and Ideologies
• Politics of Sub-Saharan Africa
• Comparative Media Policy
• Global Ethics
• Social Movements

MA International Relations:

• Politics of Post-Soviet Space
• Major Organisation in the International Order
• International Politics of the Middle East
• Politics of Sub-Saharan Africa

Graham McBeath’s principal research interests lie in broadcasting history; phenomenology and cybernetics; the history of Anarchist and Libertarian thought and 19th & 20th century Austrian economic theory.

He has published on hermeneutics; Kantian Ethics; virtuality and utopia; cities, subjectivity and cyberspace; child protection and social work.

Research (funded/contracted)

• 1983-85  SRC 2 yr Ethnographic study of Potteries Industry Management/Worker participatory strategies.
• 1991-94  HMG Research design/computer programming for national survey, Implementation of Children’s Act.

HM Government

• 1991-93 – Research Panel, Children Act 1989, Sec. Of State, DH.
• 1993-94 – Advisory Panel, Review of Adoption Law, Cabinet Office

Professional seminars/Conferences:

• ‘Husserlian virtuality’, Virtual Futures, Warwick Univ (1994)
• ‘On-line is Off-line’ (Theory and Society conference, Berlin 1998)
• Keynote speaker: ‘Evidence-based practice in Social services. Sept, 2001. University of Exeter.
• ESRC Seminar on ‘Immaterialities’, Manchester Univ, Feb, 2002.
• BBC Historians Seminar, ‘Reith’s BBC 1922-23’, Conference, Broadcasting House, Sept 2003
• Bonnier Foundation, Stockholm. European Business History Scholars Conference, (Summer 2004)
• ‘Time and Complexity in Austrian Economic theory’ (Berlin, 2005)
• ‘Iannis Xenakis: Architectures of Music’ (Montpellier 2006)
• Invited speaker, London Cybernetics Conference: ‘Cybernetics and Ambivalence – Derrida and Co.’ (2010)
• University of Bolton Cybernetics Unit, ‘The Cybernetic Glance: communicative contingency and the 1960s Counter-culture’ (2011)

Reviews in a range of journals:

• Political Studies
• Radical Philosophy
• Sociological Review
• Perspectives in New Music

Published papers in journals:

1) ‘A Reply to Professor Rothbard on Hermeneutics and Economics’  Critical Review, 1988.

2) ‘A Political Critique of Kantian Ethics in Social Work’,  British Journal of Social Work,  vol.19, no. 6.  1989.

3) ‘Reply to Professor Downie: A Political Critique…’   British Journal of Social Work, vol.20 no. 1.  1990.

4)  ‘Child Protection Language as Professional Ideology in Social Work’  Social Work and Social Sciences Review,  vol. 2,  no. 2.  1991. 

5) ‘Social Work, Modernity and Post-Modernity’,   Sociological Review,  vol. 39, no.4.  1991. 

6) ‘Values, Professionalisation, and Child Protection’  Child Protection in Context,  contribution to a reader in child protection published by Central Regional Council, Scotland, 1992.

7) ‘Rethinking the Category: Male Sexual Abuser’,  in “Bringing it all back home” – Excellence in Training,  Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Training in Social Work Practice, vol. 1, 1992. Cornell/Dundee Universities)

8) ‘On the nature of Future Worlds – virtuality and utopia’, in Information, Communication and Society, 1999

9) ‘Virtue Ethics and Social Work: being lucky, realistic, and not doing ones duty’ in British Journal of Social Work, 2002.

10) ‘Immateriality: being neither one thing nor another – Heidegger’s ‘beitrage’. (Information, Communication and Society) 2004.

Chapters in books

1) ‘Cities, Subjectivity, and Cyberspace’ in eds., Westwood et al. Imagining Cities    Routledge. (1996)

2) Analytical philosophical approaches to understanding the concept of `care’ in community care legislation.’ in Soothill, K. (ed) Concepts of Care: Developments in Health and Social Care. Edward Arnold Publ. London. 1998.

3) ICTs in health and Society – an information-theoretic approach. In eds: Harlow and Webb. 2003, Palgrave.

4) ‘Post-critical Social analytics – Considerations from Foucault and Deleuze’ in eds: Fook, J., Hick. S., & Leonard, P. Futures of Critical Social Theory, Sage. (2005)

Translations:

‘Cities, Subjectivity, and Cyberspace’ (German translation for Goethe Institut/Luxembourg, European City of Culture `Telepolis’ Programme) 1996.

Reports for Secretary of State, Department of Health, and for Parliament

1) Summary Report of initial findings on implementation of Section 17, Children Act for Secretary of State, DH. 1992.

2) 1st report on `Implementation of the Children Act section 17, Children in Need’  Secretary of State’s Report to Parliament, February 1993. (reported October 1992)

3) Chapter 3, Children Act 1989 – a report by the Secretaries of State for Health and for Wales on the Children Act 1989 in pursuance of their duties under Section 83(6) of the Act. Command 2144. HMSO 1993.

4) 2nd Report on `Implementation of the Children Act section 17, Children in Need’ in Secretary of State’s Report to Parliament, May 1994.  (reported: January1994) 

5) Implementation of the Children Act section 17, Children in Need. HMSO Books. (1997)