The Global Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. Alison's work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
About Alison
My research focuses on risk communication particularly in terms of environmental issues and health. I am author of Media, Culture and the Environment (Routledge) and Media, Environment and the Network Society (Palgrave Macmillan) as well as numerous articles on media and risk communication. As well as my role as Professor of Sociology at the University of Plymouth I am Adjunct Professor in the School of Social Sciences, Monash University, Australia. I have been part of grant awards totalling in excess of £1 million from a variety of funders including ARC, ESRC, ERDF, Health Foundation and the British Academy.I am a founding member of the International Environmental Communicaiton Association and former Editor-in-Chief of the Routledge journal Environmental Communication. I am currently an Editorial Board member of Environmental Communication and on the International Advisory Board of Environmental Media. At Plymouth, I am the research lead for the Environment, Culture and Society research group. At Masters level I teach a module on 'Media, Culture and the Environment' on the MA Environmental Humanities programme.
I welcome enquiries from potential PhD students.
Supervised Research Degrees
PhD ‘Sustainable Development: The Reflexive Governance of Risk', Gregory Borne.PhD 'The Distribution of Attitudinal Attachment to the Male Breadwinner Role: A quantitative study of the Plymouth travel to work area', Suzanne Chamberlain ESRC funded.
PhD 'Managerial Decision Making: A Discursive Analysis', Teri McConville.
PhD 'An Exploration into how Students with Dyslexia identify with their Condition, with Particular Reference to the Tensions which Surround Public and Private Perceptions of Dyslexia’, Deborah Shenton.
PhD 'Metaphors of Health and Disease in Nazi Film Propaganda', Melanie Wright.
PhD ‘Ourfoodstories@e-mail.com', Julie Parsons.
PhD 'The Discourses and Lived Experiences of 'Maternal Obesity' and Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) or Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Pregnancy (T2DM) Rachel Jarvie, ESRC funded.
ResM 'Faith in Practice: A Mixed Method Study Exploring the Impact of Faith Based Organisations in Delivering Voluntary and Community Sector Activities in Cornwall', Lois Wild, ESF funded. PhD 'An exploration of how agency and socio-cultural milieu support greater or lesser controlled gambling and recovery from gambling addiction', Ed Pyle, Plymouth University.
Teaching
Media; Environmental Issues; Health Communication; Social Movements; Crime Reporting; Methods
Alison teaches on all three years of the undergraduate programme and is currently Module Leader for:
- SOC3546 Dissertation
- SOC3547 Media, State and Society
- GOV1000 One Planet: Society and Sustainability
- MSR723 Media, Culture and the Environment
Supervision and Examining
She also supervises undergraduate dissertation students and MPhil, ResM and PhD students.
