Jonathan NewmanResearch Associate (Anthropology)
Research
I am currenlty working on the research project 'Addiction and the Market' for the Society for the Study of Addiction Conference Symposium 2019
Currently writing
i. An eclectic collection of articles and interviews around themes of biography, beings, legitimacy, transgression, violence and economy.
ii. An article on anthropological encounters with security and resilience
iii. A book on the ethnographic study of drug markets and medicines with a focus on the ethical positioning of those in the cannabis industries
iv. An auto-ethonographical article on the ethics of academia
v. An article on ethical trading in violent places
vi. An article on conversations with violence
vii. An article on challenging in the ethnographic research of violence
My doctoral research, funded by The Leverhulme Trust, examined how violence affects the production of coffee. The thesis consequently re-evaluates the operation of ethical trading companies, like Fairtrade, in areas with relatively high levels of violence and impunity.
The thesis, based upon ethnographic fieldwork in Colombia, also questions accepted, but often disparate, representations of violence and coffee farming within anthropological studies. Thus, it looks at a junction between ethnographies of violence and ethnographies within economic anthropology.
I was funded by the Higher Education Authority to investigate how educational markets impact on Higher Education. I was also part of a research group that worked with the NHS and Ambulance Service to assess the psychosocial work and training needs of frontline staff.
I am continuing research into European drug markets looking at how changes in legislation withn Europe are affecting legal cannabis-based businesses operating in the recreational/medicinal drug sector. The investigation looks at how these businesses acclimatize to fluctuatation and inconsistency in the drug's legal status across different European states and regions. The research centres around a charity bike ride organised by legal cannabis businesses.'