Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Liberal Arts

I am a Cultural Sociologist with a specific interest in Twentieth Century English literature (including sociological high modern narrative analysis); the study of creativity (philosophy, processes, and spaces); ethnographic methods; and sociological and literary theory.

I am predominantly interested in how culture is experienced and understood by individuals and groups in society via narratives of personal value, emotion, variables of geography and intrinsic sociality and how these criteria may be utilised and maintained in meaningful ways in contemporary life.

My research involves current work on ‘literature and sociological high modernism’, ‘gender, text, and literacy’, ‘midlife identity and sources of cultural authority’, and ‘music and experience of the rural’. I also retain a strong interest in autodidactic/educational processes experienced via engagement with creative arts and how wellbeing is sought and experienced through such practice.

I began academic life as a Doctoral researcher with a focus on ‘education, social class and ambition’ in the transformational days of the new millennium before taking up various Lectureships, research posts, and teaching at the Universities of Lancaster (Sociology of Education and Gender and Education); Cambridge (Social and Political Sciences; Education; and Economics), Brunel (Sociological Theory), and De Montfort (Education Studies). I also spent 3 years at the Cambridge University Institute of Public Health researching ‘medical authority’ as part of a large NIHR-funded study into health-related behavioural change programmes. I also have the added experience of seven years in the UK civil service where I worked as a Policy Advisor and Research Commissioner.

I took up my position at Bedfordshire in 2014.

Qualifications

• BA, MA, PhD (Cambridge)
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Teaching

• Cultural Studies (Theory, Literature, Art and Music)
• Gender and Culture (for English Department)
• Theories of Late-Modernity
• Modern Britain (post-war social, cultural, economic and political change)
• 18^th Century Literature (for English Department)
• Research Methods (Ethnography/Qualitative method)

Research Interests

• 20th Century Literature in English
• Creativity (philosophy and practice)
• Autodidactic learning processes and wellbeing
• Midlife Studies
• Sociology of Popular Music
• Sociology of youth/youth studies/education
• Ethnography

Publications and Projects

Books:

• Miles, P., (2019), Midlife Creativity and Identity: Life into Art, Bingley: Emerald.

Book Chapters:

• Miles, P., (2020), ‘Creative Routine and Dichotomies of Space: art, inspiration and the ‘mezzanine’ ‘ in: Ashley, T and Weedon, A., (eds.), (2020), Developing A Sense of Place: The Role of the Arts in Regenerating Communities, London: UCL.
• Miles, P., (2023) ‘Music from the End of The Land: Reflections on the Pembrokeshire Music Network’ in: Bennett, A., Cashman, M. et al.(eds.), Popular Music Scenes: a regional and rural perspective, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Miles, P., (2023 forthcoming), ‘Punk, Literature and Midlife Creativity: ordinary stories, ordinary men’ in Way, L. and Grimes, M., (eds.), Punk, Ageing, and Time, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Miles, P., (2024 forthcoming), ‘Authorship, the ‘Mezzanine’, and late-modern anxiety: the metaphysics of the creative writing process’, in: Mulligan, C and Ebury, K., (eds.) Progressive Intertextual Practice and Contemporary Literature, London: Routledge.

Articles:

• Arnot, Madeleine and Miles, Phil, (2005) ‘A Reconstruction of the Gender Agenda: the contradictory gender dimensions in New Labour’s educational and economic policy’, Oxford Review of Education, Vol. 31 (1), pp. 173-189, London: Routledge/Taylor and Francis.

Book Review Essays:

• Miles, P., (2023), Review of Ross, S., (2019), ‘Youth Culture and the Post-War British Novel’, in Journal of Cultural Analysis and Social Change, 5 (1).
• Miles, P., (2019), Review of Penfold-Mounce, R., (2018), ‘Death, The Dead and Popular Culture’, in Cultural Sociology,13 (4).
• Miles, Phil, (2006a) Review of Bennett, A et al (2003), ‘Remembering Woodstock’ in Sociology, 40(1).
• Miles, Phil, (2006b) Review of DeNora, T, (2003), ‘After Adorno’, in Sociology, 40 (1)
• Miles, Phil, (2006c) Review of Lawton, D., (2005), ‘Education and Labour Party Ideologies 1900-2001 and Beyond’, in British Journal of Educational Studies, 54 (1).

External Roles and Links

• Associate Editor, Journal of Cultural Analysis and Social Change
• External Reviewer, Sage Publications
• 2018-21: External Examiner at the University of Gloucestershire (Sociology)
• Podcast talking about films, sociology, and life
• Interview on my research into Midlife Creativity

Contact Details

T: +44 (0)1234 793175
E: philip.miles@beds.ac.uk