Dr Yvonne Downsy.downs@hud.ac.uk | 01484 472665
My overarching passion is for research and how it is implicated in setting the parameters of knowledge. I am also fundamentally curious about people and their everyday interactions with and negotiations of social systems. These twin concerns drive the substantive foci of my research, my methodological allegiances and my use of particular conceptual and evaluative frameworks. My passion is for qualitative research, particularly narrative methodologies and specifically life history genres and their potential to bring fresh perspectives to understanding the dynamic between the personal, historical and the social. My doctoral research interrogated the value of higher education through the prism of individual biographies and I am currently researching in the areas of business and financial ethics, governance, and issues of social mobility and social class in the accountancy profession. I am also working to incorporate the concepts of Sen’s Capability Approach into my analyses and to designate my research as a critically feminist social science.
Downs, Y (2014) ‘What Katie did next: The capability approach and graduate lives.’. In: Capabilities and Higher Education. Oxford: Symposium Books. .
Bampton, R., Cowton, C. and Downs, Y. (2013) ‘The e-interview in qualitative research’. In: Advancing social and business research methods with new media technology. Hershey, PA, USA: IGI Global. pp. 329-343. ISBN 9781466639188
Downs, Y. and Swailes, S. (2013) ‘A Capability Approach to talent management’ Human Resource Development International , 16 (3). ISSN 1367-88868
Hill, R., Downs, Y. and Drake, J. (2012) Getting Ready for New Governance Freedoms: A Survey of Further Education College Governance 2012 University of Huddersfield
Swailes, S. and Downs, Y. (2012) Problematising the ‘war for talent’: using Sen’s Capability Approach as a new framework for thinking about talent management Huddersfield, UK: University of Huddersfield (Unpublished)
Elmogla, M., Cowton, C. and Downs, Y. (2011) Corporate social reporting in a transition economy: the case of Libya Huddersfield, UK: Financial Ethics and Governance Research Group University of Huddersfield (Unpublished)
Taylor, C., Downs, Y., Chikwa, G. and Baker, R. (2011) ‘I did it my way: Voice, visuality and identity in doctoral students’ reflexive videonarratives on their doctoral research journeys’ International Journal of Research and Method in Education , 34 (2), pp. 193-210. ISSN 1743 727X
Downs, Y (2011) ‘Muddy rules for cyberspace: Musings of a she-blogger’. In: Gender and Education Conference (GEA) 2011, 27th-29th April 2011, University of Exeter, Exeter UK
Downs, Y (2011) ‘Ethics review: A students tale’ Creative Approaches to Research , 4 (1), pp. 33-43. ISSN 1835-9442
Downs, Y (2011) ‘Through the looking glass: publishing in peer reviewed academic journals’ Power and Education , 3 (1), pp. 39-51. ISSN 1757-7438
Downs, Y (2010) ‘Phoenix rising? Minding the gaps? Learning lessons from intimate publics’. In: The 7th Biennial International Auto/Biography Association Conference , 28th June-1st July 2010, University of Sussex
Downs, Y (2010) ‘Transcription tales. Or: Let not love’s labour be lost’ International Journal of Research and Method in Education , 33 (1), pp. 101-112. ISSN 1743 727X
Downs, Y (2009) ‘Ethics and video-narrative: a personal account’. In: Faculty of Development and Society Conference, 19th June 2009, Sheffield Hallam University
Downs, Y (2009) ‘Ethics and narrative research - a contradiction in terms? ’. In: Narrative, memory and identities. Huddersfield: University of Huddersfield . pp. 21-30. ISBN 9781862180734
Downs, Y. and Watts, M. (2009) ‘Fatal Attraction? Feminist life history research and the capability approach’. In: Capabilities Approach and Education Network, 25th June 2009, University of Cambridge
Downs, Y (2009) ‘It's a bit like giving birth. Middle-aged women graduates talk about their experience of higher education. ’. In: DPR8: Power and the Academy The 8th Discourse, Power, Resistance Conference, 6th - 8th April 2009, University of Manchester
Allen, A., Anderson, K., Bristol, L., Downs, Y., O'Neill, D., Watts, N. and Wu, Q. (2008) ‘Resisting the unethical in formalised ethics: Perspectives and experiences’. In: Power in the Academy. Stoke on Trent: Trentham Books. pp. 135-152. ISBN 9781858564470
I am a reviewer for Business Ethics: A European Review, the International Journal of Research and Method in Education and for Power and Education.
In 2012I was an invited panel member for the ‘Publishing in Journals’ thread of the Research Festival of the National Centre for Research Methods.
I am a member of the Oral History Society, the Human Development and Capability Association and an Affiliate Member of the Academy of Social Sciences.
