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About STERG

STERG aims to explore the attenuation between space, time and everyday life and society. Founded in rigorous theoretical explication of literature related to spatialities and temporalities, including – but not limited to - work from philosophy (Henri Lefebvre, Gaston Bachelard); human geography (David Harvey, Rob Shields) anthropology (Marc Auge, Jean Baudrillard), sociology (Pierre Bourdieu, Loic Wacquant) and cultural theory (Paul Virilio, Donna Haraway), the group elucidates a range of concepts to research in education, healthcare professions and the arts and social sciences in new and vital ways.

The cluster's avant garde methods are matched only by its position in the academy. As one of the few research groups in the world dedicated to space, time and everyday life, it draws active interest from scholars on a national and international scale and privileges informed, frank, open and supportive discourse relating to these areas of research, their methodologies and methods. It achieves this through innovative methods of discussion and discourse, bringing the concrete into conversation with the intellectual.

Its embryonic situation in parallel to its theoretical positioning lends itself ideally to areas of research which are hidden and this is reflected in its interest and membership. Drawn from leading writers in who are widely published in the emergent field of space and time and everyday life, our group supports and develops thinking, reflection and empirical research - especially from doctoral students - as to how space, time and everyday life is driven by and is driver of individual, collective and cultural responses to these dynamics throughout societies in pursuit of social democracy and justice.

Directors of STERG: 

Areas of activity

Each year, STERG sets an overarching research theme. To enable theoretical conceptualisation, inter- and intra-disciplinary dialogue we have welcomed renowned speakers who have drawn an interdisciplinary, international audience, showing the scope of STERG in developing these emergent areas of work (details below).

To broaden these concepts into applied realms, STERG has pioneered Doctoral Roundtables and applying Space, Time and Everyday Life to Learning and Teaching, showing how the founding concepts of the cluster are central to education, health, the renewal of social democracy and its position in a fluid world where tomorrow’s places and times are very different to today’s rhythms and spaces.

2021/22 theme: Liminalities

Invited international keynote speakers:

  • Arpad Szacolczai, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at University College Cork, Ireland, Inaugural Liminalities Lecture (online, 23.09.21)
  • Prof. Michel Alhadeff-Jones, Executive Director, Sunkhronos Institute, Geneva, Switzerland, Interpreting crises and transformative processes as complex and rhythmic phenomena (online, 24.02.22)
2022/23 theme: Dystopias and Utopias
  • Dr. Craig Hammond (LJMU), Naiara Unzurrunzaga (University of Liverpool), Layla Jenkins (LJMU, Utopia in Decolonisation, Inaugural Lecture (online 3.11.22)
2022/23 Seminar series (monthly meetings):
  • PGR Group Discussion on Rhythmic Intelligence. Facilitated by Prof. Michel Alhadeff-Jones, Dr. Fadia Dakka, Dr. Gaia Del Negro (Milano Bicocca), Dr. Alex Wade, in partnership with the Temporality & Complexity Lab at Sunkhronos Institute, Geneva Switzerland, https://www.sunkhronos.org

Research students

  • Gary Poynton
  • David Maynard
  • Steph Reynolds
  • Kev Dajee
  • Neil Sambrook
  • Vanessa Clarke
  • Sarah-Jane Crowson
  • Joanne Thomas
  • Sue Walker
  • Helen Holder
  • Rhiannon Lockley
Live projects
2022-2026 Grass Roots of Digital Europe (GRADE), European Co-operation on Science and Technology (funder) 

The GRADE project takes an historical view of the development of computer from its earliest iterations to the present day. Covering a network of over 40 scholars, industry leaders, journalists, curators and archivists, the project aims to understand the historical formation of the European digital decade (2020-2030) and concurrent phenomena critical to democracy in the digital commons include surveillance capitalism, the importance of intangible (i.e. digital) cultural heritages and the differences between European approaches to computing and other blocs (e.g. the US) which had different geneses and trajectories.

Dr. Alex Wade is Work Group 1 Lead for Digital Grassroots Across Europe.

This seeks to collate literature on the development of digital computing across the continent; chart the hidden and (sometimes deliberately) obfuscated narratives of women, global majorities and LGBTQI+ people in grass roots computing and detail and promote their importance to the histories of computing. Ultimately, Work Group 1 will lead to the dissemination of educational materials across Europe on the grass roots of digital computing, an edited book collection detailing hidden narratives and histories across transnational and transcultural boundaries and promote a greater understanding of the importance of computing to our present social and economic climes.

2022-23 Pedagogies of Hybridity in the Post-pandemic University, Society for Educational Studies (SES funder) PI Dr. Louise Lambert, Co-I Dr. Alex Wade

This research examines the benefits and challenges of hybrid learning in the post-pandemic university. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, in-person lecturing was the dominant paradigm for teaching and learning in Higher Education. Learning in the same space at the same time was widely accepted as the best approach. Public health responses to the pandemic accelerated the use of hybrid models of teaching and learning.

These included the sudden use of synchronous videoconferencing tools (e.g. Teams or Zoom), and increased use of asynchronous (pre-recorded) technologies. This disrupted normalised pedagogies and shifted expectations of students towards experiences that meshed with their own of connectivity, e.g. social media. It opened a space of possibility, previously closed, in digital learning and applied digital literacies.

Simultaneously, hybrid pedagogies challenged the sustainability of the deeply collaborative, dialogic, interactive and embodied spaces of learning, where complex and dynamic issues of education are interrogated.

Completed projects
  • 2020 (Wade, Dakka et al.) ‘aMAZing stories’, ‘Being Human Festival’ (SAS, AHRC, BA sponsored) event.
  • 2019-2020 (Dakka, Wade) ‘Postgraduate Researchers Mental Health and Wellbeing: A Rhythmanalytical perspective’, Vice-Chancellor’s Investment Fund, BCU – Research Project Final Report (July 2020), available on request.
  • 2018-2019 ‘The role of leadership in prioritising and improving the quality of teaching and learning in further education’, funded by FETL (Further Education Trust for Leadership):
  • O’Leary, Smith, Cui, Dakka The role of leadership in prioritising and improving the quality of teaching and learning in further education available at https://fetl.org.uk/publications/the-role-of-leadership-in-prioritising-and-improving-the-quality-of-teaching-and-learning-in-further-education/
  • 2017-2018 Dakka (PI) ‘A Rhythmic Analysis of Learning & Teaching in Higher Education: Space, Time and Affect’, Pilot Project, BCU – video documentaries available on request.