Section: Student Profiles

Ellen Stewart

Name
Ellen Stewart
Organisation
Politics and International Relations, School of Social and Political Science
University of Edinburgh
Address
Room 4.14, Chrystal Macmillan Building
E-Mail
Research Interests
Public services,Health policy,Participation,Scotland
URL
http://www.pol.ed.ac.uk/student_profiles/ellen_stewart
Ellen Stewart

Qualifications

  • MSc by Research, Politics, University of Edinburgh
  • MSc Social Policy and Planning, London School of Economics
  • MA (Hons) Politics, University of Edinburgh

Working title

Governance, participation and avoidance: everyday public involvement in the Scottish NHS

Research interests

I am interested in how individuals and groups influence the state outwith the structures of representative democracy, and how public services facilitate and respond to this challenge.

My PhD, submitted in October 2011, focuses on policies to empower the public within the governance of local health services. I use an interpretive approach, working with observation and interviews, to explore local understandings and practices of 'public involvement' in one Community Health Partnership in Scotland. I include interviews with young adults who have not been involved to explore alternative modes of agency within health service use. These 'outsider' perspectives shed light on the tensions and gaps within existing policies of public involvement. 

Supervisors

Dr Richard Freeman, Professor Andrew Thompson and Professor Kathryn Backett-Milburn

Awards

  • ESRC Quota Studentship 2007-11
  • New Futures Fund Scholarship 2006-7 (LSE)
  • Beveridge Award 2006-7 (LSE)
  • D P Heatley Prize in Honours Politics 2005 (University of Edinburgh)

Publications

Greer, S.L., P. Donnelly, I. Wilson and E. Stewart (2011) Health Board Elections and Alternative Pilots in NHS Scotland: Interim Evaluation Report. Scottish Government Social Research: Edinburgh. Available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/03/01125019/0

Conference papers

Stewart, E.A. (2011) Everyday creativity in the Scottish NHS: problematising public involvement through young adults' accounts. Paper presented at 6th International Conference in Interpretive Policy Analysis, Cardiff University, June 23rd-25th.

Stewart, E.A. (2010) Participation and work: interpreting public roles in the governance of the Scottish NHS. Paper presented at Interpreting Democratic Governance Conference, De Montfort University, September 23rd-24th.

Stewart, E.A. (2010) Young adults and personalisation in the Scottish NHS: problematising the expert citizen-patient. Paper presented at PSA Annual Conference, Edinburgh, March.

Stewart, E.A. (2009) 'Choice' and 'voice' in practice: the case of young adults in Scotland. Paper presented at the ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops, Lisbon, 14-19 April. 

Stewart, E.A. (2008) Public and Patient Involvement Forums in the English NHS: (a)political participation? Paper presented at the PSA Northern Postgraduate Conference. University of Edinburgh.

Teaching

I am the Senior Tutor for the postgraduate course Research Skills in the Social Sciences: Data Collection. In the past I have lectured and tutored on the Honours course Politics of the British Public Services, and tutored on Introduction to Politics and International Relations, Democracy in Comparative Perspective and Politics of the Welfare State.

Research Group membership

Policy and Governance

 Other activities

I work part-time (with Professor Peter Donnelly (St Andrews) and Dr Scott Greer (Michigan)) on a project evaluating pilots of direct election to Scottish Health Boards (and alternative pilots).

I was the Edinburgh co-ordinator for a Health Policy Workshop held jointly between the Edinburgh Graduate School of Social and Political Science, the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Science, and the Graduate School in Social, Economic and Political Sciences, University of Milan. The workshop was held in Bremen in June 2010.

 

This page was published on 15 November 2011


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