Professor Robin Smith

Professor of Sociology

: Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview:
I am Professor of Sociology in the School of Social Sciences where I teach ethnography, urban sociology, interactionist theory, qualitative research methods, and ethnomethodology.

I am currently UK PI on the ESRC funded, ORA7 international project "Visions of Policing". Working with colleagues in Canada, Germany, and France, this project investigates how visual technologies produce emergent forms of police oversight and accountability in public and legalistic contexts, as well as their use in police training to accomplish understandings of 'reasonable officer conduct'.

More generally, my research is heavily influenced by the work of Harold Garfinkel and Harvey Sacks and has included: an ethnography of urban outreach work with the street homeless; a study of social scientific reasoning and coding procedures; and studies of mobile interaction and spatial categorisation practices in cycling, walking, and running. In my spare time, I am pursuing some of the above interests via an ongoing ethnomethodological ethnography of the work of Mountain Rescue. And I am, like many others, trying to work out ways to describe scenes and activities featuring (social) robots and "AI"/automated systems.

I'm always happy to talk about any of the above stuff, and more, and am available to supervise doctoral research in any substantive area which includes ethnography, video studies, and EMCA.

Current positions:
Director of Undergraduate Studies and Chair of UG Exam Board
Founding Convenor of Cardiff Ethnography Ethnomethodology, Interaction and Talk (CEEIT) research group
Co-convener of the Cardiff Ethnography, Cultural and Interpretive Analysis Research Group.
Faculty member and academic lead for Wales of the EMCA Doctoral Network
Editorial Board member of Discourse, Context, and Media
Editorial Board member of Qualitative Research

Date
Type

2025

Smith, R., Smith, T. and Pehkonen, S. 2025. The senses-in-action: visual and haptic encounters with occasioned environments. In: Gibson, W., Ruiz-Junco, N. and vom Lehn, D. eds. Sensing Life: the social organisation of the senses in interaction. Routledge
Smith, R. 2025. Teaching doing ethnography. In: Foster, L., Mason, W. and Nichols, K. eds. Teaching Research Methods in Sociology. Edward Elgar

2024

Smith, R. 2024. Membership Categorisation Analysis. In: Carlin, A. et al. eds. Routledge International Handbook of Ethnomethodology. Abingdon and New York: Routledge

2023

Smith, R., Ablitt, J., Williams, J. and Hall, T. 2023. The coining of convivial public space: Homelessness, outreach work, and interaction order. Urban Planning 8(4), pp. 42-51. (10.17645/up.v8i4.6457)
Smith, R. and Delamont, S. eds. 2023. Leaving the field: Methodological insights from ethnographic exits. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Weightman, A. L. et al. 2023. Exploring the effect of case management in homelessness per components: A systematic review of effectiveness and implementation, with meta‐analysis and thematic synthesis. Campbell Systematic Reviews 19(2), article number: e1329. (10.1002/cl2.1329)

2022

Smith, R. 2022. Digital mobilities and digital society. In: Housley, W. et al. eds. SAGE Handbook of Digital Society. London: SAGE, pp. 55-72.
Smith, R. 2022. Fieldwork, participation, and unique-adequacy-in-action. Qualitative Research (10.1177/14687941221132955)
Smith, R. J., Atkinson, P. and Evans, R. 2022. Situating stigma: Accounting for deviancy, difference, and categorial relations. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 28(5), pp. 890-896. (10.1111/jep.13749)
Smith, R. 2022. Interaction in public places. In: Jacobsen, M. H. and Smith, G. eds. The Routledge International Handbook of Goffman Studies. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, pp. 97-107.
Smith, R. J. 2022. Interaction in public places. In: Hviid Jacobsen, M. and Smith, G. eds. The Routledge International Handbook of Goffman Studies. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, pp. 97-107., (10.4324/9781003160861-10)
Weightman, A. L. et al. 2022. PROTOCOL: Exploring the effect of case management in homelessness per components: A systematic review of effectiveness and implementation, with meta-analysis and thematic synthesis. Campbell Systematic Reviews 18(1), article number: e1220. (10.1002/cl2.1220)
Pehkonen, S., Smith, T. A. and Smith, R. J. 2022. Maps, mobility, and perspective: remarks on map use in producing an orienteering course. Mobilities 17(1), pp. 152-178. (10.1080/17450101.2021.1953945)

2021

Smith, R. 2021. Space, mobility, and interaction. In: Vom Lehn, D., Ruiz-Junco, N. and Gibson, W. eds. The Routledge International Handbook of Interactionism. Routledge International Handbooks Abingdon and New York: Routledge
Jimenez, P. and Smith, R. 2021. Accomplishing the categorial landscape of the classroom: the case of group singing. Ethnographic Studies 18, pp. 173-194. (10.5281/zenodo.5805434)
Smith, R. J. 2021. Categorisation practices, instructed actions, and teamwork as occasioned phenomena: structuring the ‘carry off’ in mountain rescue work. In: Cekaite, A. et al. eds. Human‐Assisted Mobility in Social Interaction. Gesprächsforschung Online‐Zeitschrift zur verbalen Interaktion

2020

Smith, R., Fitzgerald, R. and Housley, W. eds. 2020. On sacks: methdology, materials, and inspirations. Routledge.
Smith, R. J. 2020. Categorisation practices, place, and perception: doing incongruities and the commonplace scene as ‘assembled activity’. In: Smith, R. J., Fitzgerald, R. and Housley, W. eds. On Sacks: Methdology, Materials, and Inspirations. Directions in Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis Routledge, pp. 182-194.
Stanley, S., Smith, R., Jones, J. and Ford, E. 2020. Making something out of nothing: breaching everyday life by standing still in a public place. The Sociological Review 68(6), pp. 1250-1272. (10.1177/0038026120940616)
Smith, R. 2020. Seeing the trouble: a mountain rescue training scenario in its circumstantial and situated detail in three frames. Ethnographic Studies 17, pp. 41-59. (10.5281/zenodo.4050536)
Smith, R. J. et al. 2020. Ethnography and the new normal. Etnografia e ricerca qualitativa 2020(2), pp. 195-205. (10.3240/97805)

2019

Ablitt, J. and Smith, R. J. 2019. Working out Douglas’ aphorism: discarded objects, categorisation practices, and moral inquiries. The Sociological Review 67(4), pp. 866-885. (10.1177/0038026119854271)
Smith, R. 2019. Visually available order, categorisation practices, and perception-in-action: a running commentary. Visual Studies 34(1), pp. 28-40. (10.1080/1472586X.2019.1622445)
Smith, R. 2019. Remarks from a lost engagement with the engaging ordinariness of parkour. In: Smith, R. J. and Delamont, S. eds. The Lost Ethnographies: Methodological Insights from Projects that Never Were., Vol. 17. Studies in Qualitative Methodology Emerald Publishing Limited, pp. 31-45.
Smith, R. and Delamont, S. eds. 2019. The lost ethnographies: Methodological insights from projects that never were.. Studies in Qualitative Methodology. Bingley: Emerald.
Smith, R. J. and Delamont, S. 2019. Editorial introduction. In: The Lost Ethnographies: Methodological Insights from Projects that Never Were., Vol. 17.Smith, R. J. and Delamont, S. Studies in Qualitative Methodology Emerald Publishing Limited, pp. 1-15.
Delamont, S., Atkinson, P., Coffey, A. and Smith, R. 2019. Lo spirito esplorativo libero La scuola di Etnografia di Cardiff 1974 - 2017, Traduzione di Giuseppina Cersosimo, Chiuso in stampa nel mese di marzo 2019, Presso Creative 3.0 srl - Reggio Calabria. Documentation.

2015

Smith, R. and Atkinson, P. 2015. Method and measurement in sociology, fifty years on. International Journal of Social Research Methodology 19(1), pp. 99-110. (10.1080/13645579.2015.1068010)
Housley, W. and Smith, R. 2015. Membership categorisation and methodological reasoning in research team interaction. In: Fitzgerald, R. and Housley, W. eds. Advances in Membership Categorisation Analysis. SAGE
Smith, R. 2015. Book review: Peter Tolmie and Mark Rouncefield (eds), Ethnomethodology at Play R Smith. Qualitative Research 15(2), pp. 269-270. (10.1177/1468794114535039)
Housley, W., Dicks, B., Henwood, K. L. and Smith, R. J. 2015. Editorial. Qualitative Research 15(1), pp. 3-3. (10.1177/1468794114567381)
Hall, T. A. and Smith, R. J. 2015. Care and repair and the politics of urban kindness. Sociology 49(1), pp. 3-18. (10.1177/0038038514546662)

2014

Taylor, S. and Smith, R. J. 2014. The ethics of interviewing for discourse analysis: responses to Martyn Hammersley. Qualitative Research 14(5), pp. 542-548. (10.1177/1468794113503742)
Hall, T. and Smith, R. J. 2014. Knowing the city: maps, mobility and urban outreach work. Qualitative Research 14(3), pp. 294-310. (10.1177/1468794112469623)
Smith, R. J. 2014. Missed miracles and mystical connections: Qualitative research, digital social science and big data. In: Hand, M. and Hillyard, S. eds. Big Data? Qualitative Approaches to Digital Research., Vol. 13. Studies in Qualitative Methodology Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp. 181-204., (10.1108/S1042-319220140000013011)

2013

Smith, R. J. 2013. Symbolic interaction. In: McIntosh, S. et al. eds. Key Concepts in Nursing and Healthcare Research.. SAGE, pp. 125-130.
Smith, R. J. and Hetherington, K. eds. 2013. Urban rhythms: mobilities, space and interaction in the contemporary city. Sociological Review Monographs. Chichester: Wiley.
Smith, R. J. 2013. Accounting for the landscape of regeneration: Spatial membership, categorization practices, and the moral order of commonsense topographies. Space and Culture 16(1), pp. 43-59. (10.1177/1206331212451668)
Hall, T. A. and Smith, R. J. 2013. Stop and Go: A Field Study of Pedestrian Practice, Immobility and Urban Outreach Work. Mobilities 8(2), pp. 272-292. (10.1080/17450101.2012.659470)
Smith, R. 2013. Book review: Sarah Pink, situating everyday life: practices and places. Qualitative Research 13(5), pp. 628-630.
Maynard, T., Taylor, C. M., Waldron, S., Rhys, M., Smith, R., Power, S. and Clement, J. 2013. Evaluating the Foundation Phase: policy logic model and programme theory. Project Report. [Online]. Welsh Government. Available at: http://gov.wales/docs/caecd/research/130318-evaluating-foundation-phase-policy-logic-model-programme-theory-en.pdf
Smith, R. J. and Hall, T. A. 2013. No time out: mobility, rhythmicity and urban patrol in the twenty-four hour city. The Sociological Review 61(S1), pp. 89-108. (10.1111/1467-954X.12055)

2012

Smith, R. 2012. Personal troubles and public Issues on the streets of Las Vegas: Homeless in Las Vegas: Stories From the Street By Kurt Borchard Nevada: University of Nevada Press, 2011 [Book Review]. Symbolic Interaction 35(4), pp. 510-512. (10.1002/symb.37)
Smith, R. J. 2012. How far does mobility get us?. Sociology 46(3), pp. 555-561. (10.1177/0038038511419181)

2011

Hall, T. A. and Smith, R. J. 2011. Walking, welfare and the good city. Anthropology in Action 18(3), pp. 33-44. (10.3167/aia.2011.180304)
Housley, W. and Smith, R. J. 2011. Mundane reason, membership categorization practices and the everyday ontology of space and place in interview talk. Qualitative Research 11(6), pp. 698-715. (10.1177/1468794111415960)
Housley, W. and Smith, R. J. 2011. Telling the CAQDAS code: Membership categorization and the accomplishment of ‘coding rules’ in research team talk. Discourse Studies 13(4), pp. 417-434. (10.1177/1461445611403258)
Smith, R. J., Heley, J. and Stafford, I. 2011. Woolworths and Wales: a multi-dimensional analysis of the loss of a local brand. Sociological Research Online 16(1), article number: 10. (10.5153/sro.2284)
Smith, R. J. 2011. Goffman's interaction order at the margins: stigma, role, and normalization in the outreach encounter. Symbolic Interaction 34(3), pp. 357-376. (10.1525/si.2011.34.3.357)

2010

Delamont, S., Atkinson, P. A., Smith, R. J., Da Costa, L., Hillyard, S. and Pilgrim, A. 2010. Review symposium: Martyn Hammersley, Questioning Qualitative Inquiry. Qualitative Research 10(6), pp. 749-758. (10.1177/1468794110380578)
Housley, W. and Smith, R. J. 2010. Innovation and reduction in contemporary qualitative methods: the case of conceptual coupling, activity-type pairs and auto-ethnography. Sociological Research Online 15(4), article number: 9. (10.5153/sro.2216)
Smith, R. J. 2010. SALLY CAMPBELL GALMAN, Shane, The Lone Ethnographer: A Beginner’s Guide to Ethnography. Walnut Creek, CA: Alta Mira Press, 2007. 181 pp. ISBN 9780759103443 (pbk) £17.99 [Book review]. Qualitative Research 10(2), pp. 275-276. (10.1177/14687941100100020902)
Smith, R. 2010. Whose method is it anyway? Researching space, setting, and practice. Cardiff University Working Paper Series 135, pp. 1-9.

2009

Housley, W., Moles, K. and Smith, R. 2009. Identity, brand or citizenship: the case of post-devolution Wales. Contemporary Wales 22(1), pp. 196-210.
Smith, R. 2009. Outreach as sense walking. Presented at: Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference, Manchester, UK, August 2009.
Housley, W. and Smith, R. J. 2009. Mundane reason and the politics of space. Presented at: Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference, Manchester, UK, August 2009.
Housley, W. and Smith, R. J. 2009. Mundane reason, ontology and the politics of space. Presented at: Sociological Review Conference- The Politics of Imagination, Stratford, UK, May 2009.
Smith, R. 2009. The negotiation of a pastless place. Presented at: British Sociological Association Annual Conference, Cardiff, UK, April 2009.

I am a founding convenor of the Cardiff Ethnography Ethnomethodology Interaction and Talk (CEEIT) research group where we meet regularly to try and work out some "preposterous problems".

I am currently UK PI on the £1.7m ORA7 international project "Visions of Policing". Working with colleagues in Canada, Germany, and France, the UK ESRC project investigates how visual technologies produce emergent forms of police oversight and accountability in public, social media, and legalistic contexts, as well as their use in police training to accomplish understandings of 'reasonable officer conduct'. The project will run until 2025. (ES/X010775/1)
https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/2726885-impact-of-visual-technologies-on-policing-subject-of-new-research

In my spare time, I am conducting an unfunded study of the work of a Mountain Rescue team. Having joined the Central Beacons MRT in 2017, I am working on producing an ethnomethodological description of their worksite specific practices.

I have conducted a range of unfunded studies - using both self-produced video data and social media materials - on interaction and mobility in public space. These studies have formed the basis of a number of publications, and ground an abiding interest in the organisation of urban public settings.

I was previously a research associate on the ESRC funded WISERD project "Urban Patrols" (2010-2014). The project was ethnographic in character and focus and described the mobility-practices of a variety of "footwork" including council cleansing crews, Police Community Support Officers, and, primarily, outreach workers task with providing 'first aid' (of various kind) to the street homeless, wheresoever they encounted them.

Key words: interactionism; ethnomethodology; conversation analysis; membership categorisation analysis; mobilities, public space; reasoning; perception; methodography

I am currently Director of Undergraduate Studies for the School of Social Sciences.

I teach on a range of undergraduate modules including Introduction to Sociology (Y1), Key Ideas (Y1), and Introduction to Social Science Research Methods (Y1), Ethnography and Everyday Life (Y2), the Sociology of Stigma (Y3), Sociology on the Move (Y3), Live Theory (Y3), Sociology of Disasters (Y3). I convene a course on Ethnomethodology (Y3). I also teach PGT students a little about EMCA as part of the MSc Social Science Research Methods.

Outside of Cardiff I contribute to NCRM courses on Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis and Membership Categorisation Analysis (check NCRM website for details).

Appointments
Present:
Reader in Sociology, Cardiff School of Social Sciences

Previous:
2017-2022 Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Cardiff School of Social Sciences
2012-17 Lecturer in Sociology, Cardiff School of Social Sciences
2009-12 Research Assistant (Wales Institute of Social Economic Research and Data, Cardiff University)

Qualifications
2015 Postgraduate Certificate in University Teaching and Learning (Cardiff University)
2010 PhD Sociology (Cardiff University, ESRC 1+3 Quota Award Studentship)
2005 MSc Social Science Research Methods (Cardiff University)
2004 BSc/Econ (Hons.) Sociology and Criminology (Cardiff University)

Other positions and affiliations
Visiting Fellowship, "GenZ Project", Oulu University, Spring 2023
Exceptional Visiting Fellow, CeMoRe, Lancaster University, Spring 2016
Visiting Scholar, City University New York, Graduate Centre
Visting Lecturer, Beijing Normal Univeristy
Fellow of Higher Education Academy

Honours and awards

My book (co-edited with Richard Fitzgerald and William Housley), On Sacks: Methods, Materials, and Inspirations was nominated for the 2021 ASA EMCA Section Distinguished Book Award.

An article (co-authored with Tom Hall), 'Care and repair and the politics of urban kindness' nominated for the 2015 SAGE Prize for Excellence and/or Innovation.

Nominated for Enriching Student Life Awards "Most uplifting member of staff" 2013/4; 2014/5; 2018/19; 2022/23; and "Outstanding Doctoral Supervisor" 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2022/23.

Professional memberships

Memberships

British Sociological Association
International Sociological Association
American Sociological Association
Higher Education Academy

Affiliations

MOBSIN (Mobilities and Social Interaction; Aalborg, Cardiff, Helsinki, Linkoping, Paris Telecom, and Oulu universities)
IIEMCA (International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis)
Centre for Mobilities Research (CeMoRe)
ANNSoR (Anglo-Nordic Network; founding member)
Public Space Research Group (City University, New York)

I am interested in supervising doctoral projects concerned with:

- Interaction(s) in public space
- Mobility practices and mobile scenes
- Ethnography of urban settings/groups
- Studies of everyday and institutional talk

Current PhD supervision
Fiona Long (ESRC): everyday interaction, rituals and barriers in homeless hostels
Verena Stein (ESRC): MBSR, mindfulness, interaction, embodiment

Past projects

Jonathan Ablitt (ESRC): urban patrol, repair, waste, urban parks
Zoe John (ESRC): MMA, embodiment, gender, power
Matthew Howell (ESRC): institutional cultures and homeless hostels
Joseph Williams (ESRC): homelessness and politics of care provision in New York
Mark Berry (Dawes Scholarship): organised crime and drug dealing in "Red City"

Contact Details

SmithRJ3@cardiff.ac.uk
+44 29208 70330

Research themes

Specialisms

ethnography
ethnomethodology
mobilities
membership categorisation analysis
Public space

Impact of visual technologies on policing subject of new research

Professor Robin Smith

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