Dr Joanie Willett
Extension: 2798
Telephone: 01326 253798
Teaching Fellow
I was appointed as a teaching fellow in Politics with the University of Exeter Cornwall campus in September 2010. My PhD, which I completed in 2010, explored the linkages between Cornish identity and economic development. This gave me the opportunity to consider in depth how the politics of identity, power and representation impacts on socio-economic processes from both theoretical and practical angles. My work is deeply interdisciplinary, involving collaboration across politics, geography, economics and sociology. Primarily this is centred around critical political theories as both explanatory and normative tools, particularly Said, Foucault, Connolly, Bergson and Symbolic Interactionism. Methodologically, I am interested in grounded theory and oral history as means of understanding the social ‘realities’ and perceptions behind how people live their lives, interpret their worlds, and choose how to act.
My current research develops the ideas that I was working with in the PhD, particularly looking at theories of complexity, evolutionary development, perception, representation, emergence and sustainability. I have been using these themes to explore eco-town development in the UK, the relationship between ‘core’ and ‘peripheral’ areas, and comparative work between Cornwall, Wales and Brittany. This latter work forms the basis of a research monograph, which I am currently developing with an academic publisher.
I have also been involved with the Cornwall Audio Visual Archive since 2004, ran the Cornwall Research Network in 2007/8, bringing together academic research and policy practitioners, and have completed work for the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust looking at the impacts of a community project on young people.
