Prof John Abraham

Location:

FRISTON BUILDING

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Biography

As a political sociologist of science, technology & medicine and medical sociologist, have particular interests in the development, testing and regulation of drug safety/efficacy/innovation and the sociology and politics of the pharmaceutical industry worldwide. This work aims to inform, and when appropriate transform, science, public, and health policy. I am Co-director of the Centre for Research in Health and Medicine (CRHaM) at Sussex. Main theoretical interests include the coherence and applicability of realist, relativist and constructivist approaches in science & technology studies (STS).

As a sociologist of education, particularly interested in processes of social class-related differentiation/polarisation/inequality, and associated education policy. I published the first book-length ethnographic study of a comprehensive school in Britain streamed by setting - the dominant mode of streaming in Britain. Main theoretical interests include objectivity, class conceptualisations, ideologies of 'intelligence', and models of ethnography.

Other research interests are: the political economy of food - work which has been used for documentary films; mathematics & society; and media (esp. television) representation of global development, in relation to public education about capitalism/socialism/environment.

I have published over a hundred articles (over 70 in major international journals, including over 50 empirical research articles in high-impact-factor, ISI-listed journals), seven authored books (mainly empirical fieldwork-based research monographs), two edited books, and numerous reports to ESRC, MRC, and other Research, Governmental, and Non-Governmental Organisations. My 2010 article on 'Pharmaceuticalisation of Society' was nominated by the British Sociological Association for the Sage Prize of best sociology article of the year for excellence and innovation. Examples of major, recent, and latest publications in my various research fields are provided below.

Initially, trained as a mathematician, working with the Radical Statistics arm of the British Society for Social Responsibility in Science; then pursued 3 postgraduate degrees: MSc in Science Policy Studies, MA in Sociology and DPhil in Politics.

I am Specialist Expert Adviser to the House of Commons Health Select Committee and centrally involved in the Commons' eight-month Select Committee Inquiry into 'The Influence of the Pharmaceutical Industry' (2005) - the most comprehensive and wide-ranging Parliamentary investigation of the pharmaceutical sector since 1914. This culminated in a 670-page report in two volumes, which have been cited many hundreds of times across several continents. I am Chair of the main ESRC Research Grants Panel (B), a member of the ESRC's Grants Delivery Group, and Vice-Chair of the ESRC Research Seminars Competition Panel.  I also sit on the Editorial Boards of Social Studies of Science, New Genetics & Society and Current Drug Safety. Awarded honour of Professorial Scholar at Australian National University in 2002. I have presented over a hundred papers and keynote plenary lectures. Recent plenary lectures delivered to World Health Organization, Social Science & Health Research Councils of Canada (GIERSO), International Society of Pharmacovigiliance, Royal College of Psychiatrists, European Congress of Toxicology, European Science Foundation, British Medical Association, INFARMED, the International Society of Social Pharmacy, Basel Institute on Governance, European Commission MEDUSE programme at University of Liege, and the All-Party UK Parliamentary Group on Corporate Responsibility. Have contributed to national TV and radio documentaries and debates in UK and abroad, and been asked to be an advisory consultant to ESRC, European Commission, Health Canada and UK DTI.

Role

Professor of Sociology & Co-director of Centre for Research in Health and Medicine (CRHaM), and elected Senator of the University