Dr Allison Hui
Lecturer in SociologyResearch Overview
My research takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of contemporary cultural consumption. By addressing cases which straddle the boundaries of established social categories – such as home/away, leisure/tourism/migration, everyday routines/exceptions – I explore how varied temporalities and spatialities of consumption arise as the unintended consequences of everyday social practices. My work involves moving beyond simplistic understandings of how ‘consumers’ or ‘travellers’ or ‘audiences’ behave, and identifying the value of situating individuals and their consumption in The Nexus of Practices (2017). Recent work has focused upon the consumption of energy (2018) and interdisciplinary portrayals of EV consumers and migrants.
Current Teaching
I am teaching a hands-on methodological course for undergraduates (SOCL 201 Skills for researching social and cultural life) and a block of Part I Media and Cultural Studies addressing Media and Consumption.
Professional Role
I am currently the Director for Student Engagement, Recruitment and Admissions in the Sociology Department.
Web Links
1. The Nexus of Practices http://thenexusofpractices.wordpress.com - this site profiles the book that I co-edited with Theodore Schatzki and Elizabeth Shove, which presents new theoretical contributions to theories of practice. It also houses resources related to contemporary theories of practice.
2. Practice Theory Methodologies http://practicetheorymethodologies.wordpress.com - this site, which is co-curated by Hilmar Schaefer and includes blog posts from varied contributors, seeks to provide an online space for propositions, resources and discussions related to methodologies that are developed in conjunction with practice theories.
3. Practice Theory at Lancaster http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/socialpractice/ - this site has more information on Lancaster's excellence as a centre for new developments in practice theory
PhD Supervision Interests
I would be happy to work with students whose projects relate to my areas of interest, including everyday life; mobilities (including tourism, transport, migration, global networks and circulation); theories of practice; consumption; material objects, cultures and networks; infrastructures and dynamics of energy demand.
DEMAND: Dynamics of Energy, Mobility and Demand
01/05/2013 → 30/06/2019
Research
Where do we go from here? Consumption, practice theory and spatiality
Invited talk
Practice theory and the future
Invited talk
A piece of thought on connecting practices: spatial imaginaries and superimposed places
Oral presentation
Connecting practices: spatial imaginaries, superimposed places and individual activity
Invited talk
The individual in practice theory: questions of agency, spatiality, methodology and energy demand
Invited talk
Accounting for ripples in the nexus of practices: households, heating controls, topologies and oligoptica
Oral presentation
Sequencing multiple practices: What comes first, what comes next and implications for utopian thinking
Oral presentation
Mobile Utopia
Participation in conference
International Journal of Comparative Sociology (Journal)
Publication peer-review
Travel Behaviour and Society (Journal)
Publication peer-review
Potential pathways, human activities and multiple time(-)spaces: Expanding understandings of energy demand geographies
Oral presentation
Mobilities (Journal)
Publication peer-review
Mobilities (Journal)
Editorial activity
Tourism Geographies (Journal)
Publication peer-review
Spaces, services, and sequences of energy use: using theories of practice to move beyond segmented understandings of energy demand
Oral presentation
Prefiguring futures: conceptual limitations and electric vehicles consumption
Oral presentation
Transport Policy (Journal)
Publication peer-review
Tracing networks and practices: electric vehicles in discourse and use
Oral presentation
Infrastructures, technologies, practices: the challenge of productive ambiguities
Invited talk
Theory, Culture and Society (Journal)
Publication peer-review
Ambiguous objects, ambiguous practices: what is an electric vehicle?
Oral presentation
Journal of Transport Geography (Journal)
Publication peer-review
[≠] Manifesto
Oral presentation
Ruptures, absences and transformations: tracing changes in everyday practice through the migrations of objects
Invited talk
Intersections of mobilities, practices, and futures
Oral presentation
The things that move with us: using ‘object experiment books’ to uncover mobile, exceptional, and everyday dynamics in the lives of Hong Kong return migrants
Oral presentation
Science, Technology, and Human Values (Journal)
Publication peer-review
Situating the limits of mobility futures: lessons from Hong Kong migration studies
Oral presentation
Journal of Consumer Culture (Journal)
Publication peer-review
ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) (Journal)
Publication peer-review
Transfers (Journal)
Publication peer-review
Space and Culture (Journal)
Publication peer-review
- CeMoRe - Centre for Mobilities Research
- Migrancy Research Group