Beverly Geesin

My work is inherently interdisciplinary primarily drawing from the areas of social theory, organisation studies and critical discourse analysis. It can be broken down, broadly, into four main areas:

•‘New forms of collective action towards precarious labour’ – I am interested in labour that falls outside of the realm of conventional collective action and unions and which is particularly impacted by increasing precarity. Initially, I looked at the difficulties of collective action and efforts to oppose GPS amongst taxicab drivers in Philadelphia. More recently, with funding from the British Academy of Management, I have been looking at forms of collective action deployed to preserve the fishing industry on a small island off the coast of North Carolina. Finally, using job advertisements as data, I have been looking at the ways in which casinos in Las Vegas circumvent employment regulation in the hiring of seasonal cocktail waitresses.

•‘Consumption of surveillance’ – Within my PhD I explored how consuming surveillance works to ideologically legitimate surveillance practices. I have expanded upon this with research on the use of surveillance technologies in Las Vegas casinos and how tourists consume both vice and surveillance. Additionally, I am currently working on a critical discourse analysis of toys which use artificial intelligence and surveillance to explore how children are socialised to embrace surveillance through the consumption of such toys.

•‘Theories of resistance’ – This work draws upon the theoretical side of my PhD considering what ‘counts’ as resistance and how practices of subversion and evasion can be integrated into everyday life with a focus on resistance to everyday forms of monitoring and surveillance. Again taking a inter-disciplinary approach, this research draws upon ideas from sociology, cultural studies, new media studies and contemporary art.

•‘Political discourse and new media’ – Lastly, as politicians increasingly use social media as a way of communicating and connecting directly with the public, this work considers the implications of this. Research on this has included examining how brief but intense controversies involving UK politicians play out via Twitter and, unsurprisingly, Donald Trump.