Dr Laura Jones
Job Title: WISERD Researcher (Localities team)
Institution: Aberystwyth University
Role: Laura was a member of the WISERD localities team
Biography
Laura was appointed as an administrator/research associate for the Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods in 2009 having completed a BA, MA and PhD at the Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University.
Research Interests
Laura’s research interests include critical/feminist geopolitics; spaces and practices of knowledge production; everyday emotional/political lives; media geographies; qualitative and participatory research methods. Her PhD examined how conspiracy informed particular ways of understanding and practising geopolitics for both publics and politicians in the context of post-9/11 America. Underlying this and Laura’s ongoing research is a concern with knowledge, and how people come to know the world around them and make sense of their place within it.
Current Research
Laura is a member of the localities research team, with current work focusing on the application of relational theories of space to understanding how communities and political stakeholders in Wales ‘know’ their locality and, in turn, how this informs modes of personal and professional practice. Of particular interest are the everyday multi-scalar relations and connections constituting rural communities in Mid Wales; a concern which links with Laura’s other research project ‘Developing Europe’s Rural Regions in the Era of Globalization’ (EU FP7-funded) coordinated by Professor Mike Woods at Aberystwyth University.
Recent Publications
Journals
Heley J, Jones L, 2012, ‘Relational Rurals: some thoughts on relating things and theory in rural studies’ Journal of Rural Studies 28(3) pp 208-217 (Available here)
Jones L, 2012, ‘The common-place geopolitics of conspiracy’ Geography Compass 6(1) pp 44-59 (Available here)
Jones L, 2010, ‘‘How do the American people know..?’ Embodying post-9/11 conspiracy discourse’ GeoJournal 75(4) pp 359-371 (Available here)
Jones L, Sage D, 2010, ‘New directions in critical geopolitics: an introduction’ GeoJournal 75(4) pp 315-325 (Available here)
Jones L, 2008, ‘A Geopolitical Mapping of the Post-9/11 World’ Aether: The Journal of Media Geography 3 pp 37-57 (Available here)
Book Chapters
Jones L, Heley J, Watkin S, ‘Local Cultures of the Ceredigion Economy: Practices of Endogenous Development in Rural Mid Wales’ in Globalization and Europe’s Rural Regions Eds J McDonagh, M Woods and B Nienaber (Ashgate, Aldershot) (Forthcoming 2012)
Conference Papers
Jones L, Mann R, 2011, ‘Sociospatial knowledges and practices of local government actors in Wales’ paper presented at RGS-IBG Annual Conference, 31st August, London, UK
Heley J, Jones L, Watkin S, 2011, ‘Relational resilience? Considering older people’s connected rural lives’ paper presented at WISERD Conference, 28th June, Swansea, UK
