Congratulations to Dr Matthew Tye and Dr Ben Low, who have been awarded their DPhils in Sociology.
After studying an MSc in Comparative Social Policy at Oxford's Department of Social Policy and Intervention, Matthew joined Sociology to pursue a DPhil exploring productive ageing in Vietnam.
Although there are an increasing number of studies on older persons, less attention has been paid to the role of the intergenerational contract in that process.
Matthew's study investigated four pillars: intergenerational relations and familial responsibilities; health status and provision of informal and formal healthcare support; socio-economic contributions to the household; and community participation. Understanding the pillars that uphold the intergenerational contract will be important for delivering the opportunities of productive ageing.
Using field research from four provinces of Vietnam, Matthew proposed a model arguing that it is through the role of the intergenerational contract, a concept that remains valuable today even where re-negotiated, that older persons are reinforcing the ways of enacting themselves as productive.
Matthew now works as a Project Manager in the public sector and aims to get his dissertation publicised in the Vietnamese media.
Matthew said:
I am immensely grateful to the AXA Research Fund for the Doctoral Fellowship that funded this study. The goal of the Fund is to encourage scientific research that contributes to understanding and preventing major risks to the environment, human life and socio-economic activities.
He added:
To the future students of the Department, I wish you all the best with your studies! An absolutely amazing time lies ahead.
Undertaking independent research comes with its challenges, however Oxford is an opportunity like no other that will help you grow intellectually and professionally. Take advantage of the broad support in the community of thinkers around you, who will guide your outstanding contribution to knowledge.
Dr Ben Low joined the Department of Sociology in 2018. His thesis, "Networking Innovation", argues that network diversity is necessary but insufficient for innovation to occur in a community.
Through a multimethod network analysis of the Singapore jazz musician community, Ben discovered distinct but overlapping communities of musicians who perform with each other more frequently than with others.
Through investigating the reasons behind these musicians' clustering, he found that innovation requires "intercohesive labour" or the work of translating knowledge practices across community boundaries.
Ben is currently working as a Research Fellow in the National University of Singapore's Centre for Asian Legal Studies, where he is a member of a multi-disciplinary research team working on a pilot project examining the socio-legal implications of the digitalisation of religion.
Ben's advice for current students:
Don't take yourself too seriously!
We wish Matthew and Ben every success in their future careers and look forward to following their accomplishments.
