Dr David Tyfield

PhD Supervision Interests

I am currently supervising:
- LI Jianmin: Corporate governance in China (with Prof Michael Kraetke)
- Stephen Jackson: Rhetorics and scandal regarding climate change (with Prof Tim Dant)
- CHEN Liu: Return migration and guanxi in China (with Prof Andrew Sayer)
- Jihoon Park: Production, Money and Capital: A Genealogical and Philosophical Analysis on Capital in Modern Theories of Economics, Political Economy and Economic Sociology (with Prof Bob Jessop)

I would be interested in proposals for doctoral students in the following areas:
- Political economy of science, technology and innovation, particularly regarding the life sciences and/or climate change
- Cultural political economy, governmentality and innovation
- Mobilities innovation
- Low-carbon transitions
- Science, technology and innovation in China
- Cosmopolitanism and cosmopolitan sociology
- Philosophy of social science, especially regarding issues of critical realism

Current Teaching

In 2012/13 I am teaching the following courses:

In Michaelmas term:

- SOCL332 'The Chinese Century?'

- SOCL930 'Policy, Publics and Expertise' for the Masters programme in Science Studies (with Prof Brian Wynne)

- SOCL302 'The World according to Marx' (with Prof Bob Jessop)

- SOCL324 'Media in the Global Age', two lectures on 'Copyright, Copyleft' and 'The Great Firewall of China'

- SOCL922 'Philosophy of Social Sciences', one lecture on 'Realist Social Science'

- CHIN101 'Introduction to China and Chinese Culture', two lectures on 'Contemporary Chinese Society'

In Lent term:

- SOCL203 'Living with Markets, Living with Debt'

- SOCL101, Block 4 on 'Global Society, Global Economy, Global Crisis?'

Research Interests

Current Research Activities

My current research develops my interests in the normative dimensions of the processes of knowledge production and their interaction with issues of global cultural political economy, especially regarding critical analysis of the emergence of a globalised "knowledge-based" economy, climate change and the rise of China.  I am particularly interested currently in issues regarding innovation, inequality and advanced liberalism.  This has two threads:

1) The Cultural Political Economy of Research & Innovation - following the argument of my new book, 'The Economics of Science - A Critical Realist Overview': based on a Lancaster Univeristy Early Career Small Grant.

This has involved workshops on the 'Political Economy of Research & Innovation' in both Lancaster (October 2012) and forthcoming at York University in Toronto (December 2013) (Call for Papers to follow soon).

2) Low-Carbon Socio-Technical Systems Transition in China, especially regarding automobility and agri-food.

From January 2014, I will be leading a work package within Prof Ulrich Beck's ERC project on 'Methodological Cosmopolitanism - In the Laboratory of Climate Change', based at Ludwigs-Maximilien University in Munich, on cosmopolitan low-carbon innovation regarding electric vehicles and carbon capture and storage (CCS) of coal emissions.

I have also been PI for a Lancaster University Early Career Small Grant on 'Geoengineering and Socio-Technical Imaginaries', with lead researcher Dr Maia Galarraga and Dr Rebecca Ellis, Dr Alison Stone and Dr Bron Szerszynski.

From 2007-2010, I was the lead research on a project, jointly funded by the ESRC and the Advanced Institute of Management (AIM), titled: "China-EU Networks towards a Low Carbon Society" Professor John Urry (PI), Professor Brian Wynne and Dr James Wilsdon (Royal Society). For further details please see the project's website (above).

Current Editoral Work

I am the Book Reviews Editor for Science as Culture. For information on books available for review, see: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/staff/tyfield/SaCbookreviews.doc

Background

Before starting my PhD, I studied Biochemistry and Molecular Cell Biology at Oxford and the Philosophy of Social Sciences at LSE. I also qualified as a solicitor, working in London and Brussels in various areas of corporate and commercial law, including intellectual property law and EU competition law. Bringing together these interests, I began my PhD in the Philosophy and Sociology of Science at Exeter in 2003. My research was based across two institutions: the Centre for Philosophy of the Social Sciences and the ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society (Egenis), the sister-centre of Lancaster's CESAGen.

My thesis was a multidisciplinary examination of the dramatic changes to the funding of science, especially the biosciences, that have occurred since 1980 including the growth of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in scientific research. This has been accompanied by a global strengthening of IPRs under the auspices of the World Trade Organisation's TRIPs agreement. By examining how TRIPs came to be signed, a theory for the (critical) realist examination of the economics of science is elaborated. This includes concerted attention to the role and importance of philosophical/ontological reflection in the development of social scientific theory. The project thus engages with work in the philosophy of science, science & technology studies, innovation economics, international relations (particularly regarding IPRs), critical theory and cultural political economy.

Additional Information

Administrative Roles

I am also currently Undergraduate Exams and Assessments Officer and (together with Graeme Gilloch) International Officer.

In Michaelmas 2012, I was MA Director and convenor for the MA Sociology and MA Sociological Research programmes.

• UK-China Networks of Low Carbon Innovation

  01/07/2007 → 30/04/2010
  Tackling climate change is demanding international collaboration in innovation, yet there are significant constraints on such collaborations. This project is examining low carbon partnerships between ... Read more»

• China should take account of low-cost and/or low-tech ways to carbon reduction says new report

  13/07/2010
  China has significant opportunities for creating a low carbon society if it develops its own low-cost and/or lower tech 'disruptive' innovations instead of focusing exclusively on hi-tech solutions ac ... Read more»

• China-UK Workshop on Disruptive Low Carbon Innovation in China

  15/12/2009
  On 21st November the Sociology Department, together with the Lancaster China Management Centre and the College of Public Administration, Zhejiang University, hosted the 'China-UK Workshop on Disrupt ... Read more»

• Update on China-UK Networks of Low-Carbon Innovation

  02/09/2008
  Cross-Cultural Collaboration Project Award from RCUK In June, the project was awarded a project from the Beijing office of Research Councils UK (RCUK). The aim of this project is to produce an on-lin ... Read more»