Dr Kath Bassett
Lecturer

Profile

Biography

Kath is a Lecturer who joined the Department of Sociology in September 2022. Before this, they were a Postdoctoral Research Associate on Dr Liz McFall’s ESRC-funded project 'Supporting local acceleration in Granton through inclusive, data driven and participatory engagement', which was associated with the “Data Civics” stream of the Edinburgh Futures Institute at the University of Edinburgh. Additionally, they have worked as a Lecturer in the Centre for Women’s Studies at the University of York and in the Department of Sociology at Pacific University.

Their research is concerned with and/or utilises:

Mobile Digital Technologies and Locative Media Platforms
Mobilities, Urban Economies and Touristic Development
Algorithmic Governance, Affects and Inequalities
ANT, Foucauldian and New Materialist Feminist Theories
Qualitative, Ethnographic, Walking and Digital Methods

Education

PhD in Sociology, University of Edinburgh
MA in Social Research, University of York
BA in Sociology and Gender and Sexuality Studies, Pacific University

Departmental roles

Programme Lead for the MA/MSc Social Media programmes
Developer and Producer of ‘Sociologically Imagining York’ podcasted-walk and website
Member of the Departmental Ethics Committee
Member of the Departmental 'Decolonising Collective'

Other roles

Member of the DACS steering committee
Member of the Social Science Faculty Futures working group

To learn more about Kath, check out their website

Research

Overview

Kath’s sociological project is concerned with understanding mundane forms of mediation and governance. Over the years this focus has informed projects on the role of: mental health practitioners in the transgender clinical encounter (2010-2012) and prisoner re-entry therapeutic encounter (2013-2015); and – in the case of their doctoral thesis and current research activities – digital platforms in urban, cultural-economic life and tourism (2016-present).

Within these projects, they have forged an ANT, Foucauldian, and New Materialist Feminist-inspired approach to understanding privilege and marginality by attending to the ‘social ontologies’ (categorisations and prioritisations) mobilised by institutional gatekeepers and other important mediators which make a difference in the lifeworlds of classed, raced, and gendered bodies during their movement from one place to another (both figuratively and literally).

Their doctoral thesis examined how TripAdvisor governs placemaking via a three year ethnography of tourism in Edinburgh. Their findings add to the growing body of work on how algorithmic infrastructures are reordering social and territorial space, offering insight into how algorithmic infrastructures shape hospitality work and facilitate touristic development.

The ethnographic approach and digital methods they developed within this project have also been adapted to and have helped develop the ‘COVID Arcadia’ project (funded by the Scottish Funding Council) and the ‘Granton Waterfront Development’ project (funded by the ESRC Local Acceleration Fund). While the former project sought to understand the role that digital platforms played in cultural-economic recovery by independent businesses in Edinburgh during the COVID-19 pandemic, the latter sought to apply some of these insights to guide urban regeneration via attending to and developing community-based ‘tool kits’ meant to address the digital conditions associated with gentrification.

Kath is currently working on a project that delves into how 1980s travel agencies interacted with and navigated the algorithmic biases of early Computer Reservation Systems (CRS), revealing that the challenges of our algorithmic present have deeper historical roots within this decade. Additionally, they are pursuing several scholarship projects that explore the potential of walking as a pedagogical tool in sociology, emphasizing the benefits of a sociology that is both grounded in local contexts and dynamic in practice.

For other research activities, check out Kath's website

Publications

Selected publications

BASSETT, K., DOYURAN, E.B., MCFALL, L., and MCGOWAN, A. (2024) ‘#CovidArcadia: The Pandemic Conditions of Emergene of Digital-Affective Atmospheres’ in Trompette, P. (ed.) Market Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

BASSETT, K. (2023) ‘TripAdvisor as a Geo-Pastoral Technology’. Tourism Geographies. doi:10.1080/14616688.2023.2275734.

BASSETT, K. (2023) ‘The Development of Edinburgh’s Harry Potter Tourism Scene and TripAdvisor as an Ordering Resource’. Mediapolis: A Journal of Cities and Culture, 8(1).

STEWART, E.A., NONHEBEL, A., MOLLER, C. and BASSETT, K. (2022) ‘Doing our bit: solidarity, inequality, and COVID-19 crowdfunding for the UK National Health Service’. Social Science & Medicine.

BASSETT, K. (2018) ‘Metagaming: Playing, competing, spectating, cheating, trading, making and breaking videogames’. New Media and Society, 20(6): 2226-2228.

WHITEHEAD, J.C., BASSETT, K., FRANCHINI, L. and IACOLUCCI, M. (2015) ‘The Proof is in the Pudding: How Mental Health Practitioners View the Power of ‘Sex Hormones’ in the Process of Transition’. Feminist Studies, 41(3): 623-650.

For other publications, you can view Kath's website or Kath's blog