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  • Aston Triangle

    B4 7ET Birmingham

    United Kingdom

Accepting PhD Students

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Research Interests

I am a sociologist studying the everyday work that creates value through science. I focus, in particular, on overlooked actors essential to knowledge production but often excluded from the reputational and economic rewards of scientific achievement. These actors include database managers, patient and public involvement (PPI) contributors, and patient recruiters. By centring my research on these often-invisible contributors, I examine critical questions about what is valued in knowledge production, its implications for workers, and its impact on scientific practices and broader society. Through theoretically informed empirical research, combining ethnographic fieldwork, policy analysis, and qualitative interviews, I contribute to scholarly debates on the digital transformations and other socio-technical changes shaping science and work, such as platformisation.

My current research focuses on biomedicine and forensic science within public sector institutions such as universities and the National Health Service (NHS), domains marked by regulatory constraints and the tension between creating societal value and economic benefit. In biomedicine, I explore the political economy of knowledge, particularly how platform capitalism is adopted and adapted in health research. I investigate how data-intensive health research increasingly relies on citizens who view participation in research, even passively, as a routine part of accessing free healthcare. This highlights a reconfiguration of relationships between citizens, the state, and private enterprises. My work raises critical questions about who benefits from platformisation in the public sector and how these benefits are distributed.

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Dr Wyatt's research focuses on biomedicine, forensic science within public sector institutions such as universities, the national health service (NHS) and domains marked by regulatory constraints.

Keywords

  • HM Sociology
  • platform capitalism
  • health data governance
  • sociology of knowledge
  • digital health
  • research equity
  • patient and public involvement
  • science and technology studies
  • knowledge production
  • invisible labour
  • National Health Service
  • stroke research
  • forensic science
  • research infrastructure

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  1. SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
    SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being
  2. SDG 5 - Gender Equality
    SDG 5 Gender Equality
  3. SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
    SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

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