Dr Claudia Duerrwaechter
Guest Member of Staff

  • Email: claudia.duerrwaechter@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 222 5381
  • Address: School of Geography, Politics and Sociology
    University of Newcastle upon Tyne
    4th Floor Claremont Bridge Building
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU

Introduction

Claudia Dürrwächter is a Research Associate in GPS, working on an EU Framework 6 funded project: Integrative Systems and the Boundary Problem (ISBP).

My main interest lies in innovation and social change. I am interested in methods that allow us to study this complex, non-linear and multiscalar process in an interdisciplinary way. Even though innovative processes are unpredictable I am interested in ways of finding boundary criteria that allow us to make suggestions about the future without reducing the problem in an unrealistic way, for instance finding conditions under which humans are more likely to innovate.

Background

Studying a natural science (physical anthropology) as well as sociology I have gained a wide insight of approaches to cultural change within both scientific fields. I became well aware of the problems that might arise within interdisciplinary approaches and in the transfer of hard science methods to the social sciences. After a purely biomolecular approach to the archaeological record (stable isotope analysis) during my masters dissertation I wanted to gain more knowledge about methods that embrace culture in all its complexity but at the same time also have a scientific component.

My PhD was integrated in the EU funded TiGrESS project (Time-Geographical approaches to Emergence and Sustainable Societies) led by Dr Nick Winder. I have developed a conceptual model of innovation and tested it in the archaeological record. I studied the transition from the British Iron Age to the Roman period using statistical analysis of British Iron Age faunal remains. The combination of sociological theory with concepts developed in Time-Geography and TiGrESS introduced the concept of Time-Space constraints as a means of understanding the archaeological record. This allowed the inclusion of human-modified landscape into the understanding of social change. Pursuing an archaeological case study has shown how valuable the perspective of the longue durée can be for the understanding of social change. I have also become very interested in the aspects of scale and approaching a problem by combining information from various different scales and analysing their interaction.

I am currently working on a three year project which is part of the EU funded ISBP (Integrative Systems and the Boundary Problem) and tackles the conflicting demands of cultural and natural life-support systems. I am working on the employment situation of young graduates in Germany, France and the UK. It is defined by opposing stakeholder interests including EU policies on a knowledge based economy, unemployed graduates and the needs of the employment market. It relates to innovation in regard to management and how people can be persuaded to accept change. This ‘soft’ or qualitative research will be complemented by ‘harder’ quantitative studies within the project (water management, sustainable land use) and ISBP puts a strong emphasis in finding ways of combining both.

Qualifications

MA (Sociology & Physical Anthropology), Johannes-Gutenberg Universität Mainz 2003
PhD (Archaeology), Newcastle University 2007