Weiner, Kate, Dr

Dr Kate Weiner (she/her)

BSc, MA, PhD

Department of Sociological Studies

Senior Lecturer in Sociology

Director of Post-Graduate Research

k.weiner@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 6491

The Wave

Full contact details

Dr Kate Weiner
Department of Sociological Studies
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
91̽��
S10 2AH

Profile

Kate joined the department as a faculty research fellow in September 2012 and became a lecturer in September 2015.

Before this, she completed her PhD and two personal fellowships at the University of Nottingham and then worked as an advisor on the NIHR-funded Research Design Service at the University of Manchester.

Kate works at the intersection of medical sociology and science and technology studies. She is interested in the construction of biomedical knowledge and the interplay between lay and professional knowledge, user-technology relations with everyday health practices and their implications for health care.

Kate has undertaken research in the areas of genetics, heart disease and patient’s organisations. Recent research has focused on the everyday accounts of and practices with pharmaceuticals, foods and self-monitoring.

Research interests

Kate's doctoral research, completed in 2006, looked at lay and professional constructions of familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), a treatable hereditary condition associated with heart disease.

Her analysis focussed on the themes of geneticisation, genetic responsibility and biosociality, three prominent concepts in discussions of the social implications of genetic knowledge.

Subsequent research projects looked at more mundane health technologies for cholesterol management. A two-year project funded by a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship focused on cholesterol-lowering foods containing plant sterols.

A parallel project undertaken in collaboration with Catherine Will at the University of Sussex, and funded by an ESRC small grant, looked at prescription and over-the-counter statins.

Kate's current research is expanding this work on consumer health technologies, looking at self-monitoring technologies such as blood pressure monitors and weighing scales/BMI monitors.

All of these studies consider professional expectations as well as people’s accounts of why and how they adopt and use, or don't use, particular products or technologies. They consider the way responsibilities for health are distributed, the practices involved and the implications for forms of expertise in relation to health care.

The work critically engages with notions of 'self-care' and 'health behaviours', proposing alternative lenses such as care infrastructures and practice theory approaches.

Kate continues to be interested in developments in the biomedical sciences.

She recently completed research on the routine practices of racialised prescribing, in collaboration with Andrew Smart at Bath Spa University and contributed to an interdisciplinary network of researchers interested in epigenetics, led by Vincent Cunliffe in Biomedical Science at University of 91̽��.

Research interests:

everyday health practices
mundane health technologies
self-monitoring, self-care
social implications of biomedical developments eg genomics, epigenetics
social categories in the clinic
qualitative research methods.

Publications

Journal articles

Liddiard K, Atkinson L, Evans K, Gibson B, Goodley D, Hale J, Lawson R, Runswick-Cole K, Spurr R, Vogelmann E , Watts L et al (2024) . Research in Education.
Williams R, Will C, Weiner K & Henwood F (2020) . Information, Communication and Society, 23(8), 1170-1186.
Weiner K, Will C, Henwood F & Williams R (2020) . Big Data and Society, 7(1).
Williams RG, Weiner K, Henwood F & Will C (2020) . Critical Public Health, 30(1), 28-40.
Kirkcaldy A, Fairbrother H, Curtis P & Weiner K (2019) . Health and Place, 57, 157-164.
Smart A & Weiner K (2018) . Sociology of Health and Illness: a journal of medical sociology, 40(5), 843-858.
Weiner K & Will C (2018) . Sociology of Health and Illness, 40(2), 270-282.
Weiner K, Martin P, Richards M & Tutton R (2017) . Sociology of Health and Illness.
Weiner K & Will C (2015) . BioSocieties, 10(2), 194-212.
Will CM & Weiner K (2015) . Social science & medicine, 131, 280-288.
Will CM & Weiner K (2014) . Sociology of Health and Illness, 36(2), 291-304.
Will CM & Weiner K (2013) Sustained multiplicity in everyday cholesterol reduction: repertoires and practices in talk about 'healthy living'. Sociology of Health and Illness.
Will CM & Weiner K (2013) Sustained multiplicity in everyday cholesterol reduction: repertoires and practices in talk about 'healthy living'. Sociology of Health and Illness.
Will CM & Weiner K (2013) . Health Sociology Review, 22(1), 8-18.
Weiner K (2011) . Social Science and Medicine, 72(11), 1760-1767.
Weiner K (2011) . Sociological Research Online, 16(2).
Weiner K (2010) . Social Science and Medicine, 71(9), 1541-1547.
Weiner K (2009) . Journal of Contemporary Ethnography: a journal of ethnographic research, 38(2), 254-273.
Weiner K & Martin P (2008) . Sociology of Health and Illness, 30(3), 380-395.
Weiner K & Durrington PN (2008) . Community Genetics, 11(5), 273-282.
CHALLIS D, HUGHES J, JACOBS S, STEWART K & WEINER K (2007) . Ageing and Society, 27(1), 25-48.
Jacobs S, Hughes J, Challis D, Stewart K & Weiner K (2006) . Care Management Journals, 7(4), 169-178.
Challis D, Stewart K, Donnelly M, Weiner K & Hughes J (2006) . Journal of Interprofessional Care, 20(4), 335-348.
Jacobs S, Hughes J, Challis D, Stewart K & Weiner K (2006) . Journal of Integrated Care, 14(3), 22-31.
Levitt M, Weiner K & Goodacre J (2005) . Public Understanding of Science, 14(1), 67-79.
Weiner K, Hughes J, Challis D & Pedersen I (2003) . Social Policy Administration, 37(5), 498-515.
WEINER K, STEWART K, HUGHES J, CHALLIS D & DARTON R (2002) . Ageing and Society, 22(04), 419-439.
Challis D, Weiner K, Darton R, Hughes J & Stewart K (2001) . Social Policy & Administration, 35(6), 672-687.
Challis D (2001) . Age and Ageing, 30(5), 409-413.
Hughes J, Stewart K, Challis D, Darton R & Weiner K (2001) . International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 16(3), 266-272.
Haimes E & Weiner K (2000) . Sociology of Health & Illness, 22(4), 477-499.
Smart A, Williams R, Weiner K, Cheng L & Sobande F () Ethico-racial positioning in campaigns for COVID-19 research and vaccination featuring public figures.. Sociology of Health and Illness.
Weiner K, Flis Henwood , Jacob Andrews , Catherine Will & Ros Williams () . Science & Technology Studies.
Will C, Henwood F, Weiner K & Williams R () Negotiating the practical ethics of ‘self-tracking’ in intimate relationships: looking for care in healthy living. Social Science and Medicine.
Andrews J, Weiner K, Dickson J, Will C & Henwood F () Healthcare practitioner views and experiences of patients self-monitoring blood pressure: vignette study. BJGP Open.
Weiner K () The tenacity of the coronary candidate: How people with familial hypercholesterolaemia construct raised cholesterol and coronary heart disease. Health.

Chapters

Goodwin D, Shelton C & Weiner K (2022) Frailty and the Value of a Human in COVID-19 Times, BEING HUMAN DURING COVID-19 (pp. 92-99).
Weiner K, Will C, Henwood F & Williams R (2021) Everyday Curation? Attending to Data, Records and Record Keeping in the Practices of Self-Monitoring In Burkhardt M, van Geenen D, Gerlitz C, Hind S, Kaerlein T, Lämmerhirt D & Volmar A (Ed.), Interrogating Datafication Towards a Praxeology of Data (pp. 141-166). Transcript Publishing
Weiner K & Dyer S (2015) Surviving and progressing as a research fellow In Dingwall R & Byrne McDonnell M (Ed.), The Sage Handbook of Research Management (pp. 348-357). Sage Publications Limited
Levitt M, Weiner K & Goodacre J (2004) Stimulating public debate on the ethical and social issues raised by the new genetics In Holm S & Jonas M (Ed.), Engaging the World The Use of Empirical Research in Bioethics and the Regulation of Biotechnology (pp. 109-118). IOS Press
() Routledge
Will CM & Weiner K () , From Health Behaviours to Health Practices (pp. 132-144). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Prainsack B & Weiner K () SAGE Publications, Inc.

Working papers

Weiner K, Henwood F, Will C & Williams R (2017) Self-Monitoring for Health: Questions for an Emerging Field.

Preprints

Weiner K, Henwood F, Will C & Williams R () .

Research group: Kate is currently supervising PhDs on Digital self-tracking; Young Women's Experience of Digital Campaigning around Physical Activity and Sport in Saudi Arabia, Constructions of obesity in China, Discussions about the HPV vaccine on Weibo, and Contextualising and transforming support for minoritised blood cancer patients in the UK

Grants

2016 - 2019 Sponsor: Leverhulme Trust. Topic:
2015-17 Sponsor: ESRC/BBSRC. Topic: EpiStressNet: A biosocial systems approach to understanding the epigenetic embedding of social stress responses.
2015-17 Sponsor: ESRC. Topic: New practices for new publics: interdisciplinary dialogues about practice theory approaches and civil society. Seminar series.
2014-15 Sponsor: Wellcome Trust. Topic: Racialized Medicine: the use of racial/ethnic categories in prescribing guidance.
2012-15 Sponsor: University of 91̽��, Faculty of Social Sciences. Topic: Self-monitoring and consumer health technologies in the domestic, commercial and virtual realms.
2010-11 Sponsor: Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness. Topic: Pharmaceutical dissent in comparative perspective.
2009-11 Sponsor: ESRC. Topic: DIY heart health: accounting for the ‘use’ of over-the-counter statins.
2008-10 Sponsor: Leverhulme Trust. Topic: Phytosterols: public expectations and user practices’.
2006-08 Sponsor: ESRC/MRC. Topic: Lipids, genetics and coronary heart disease: the construction of a field.

Teaching activities

Kate currently convenes the following modules:

Introduction to Social Research (undergraduate)
Digital Health (undergraduate and postgraduate)

Kate also supervises students taking extended essays and dissertations in Sociology and Social Policy, and Digital Media and Society.

Partnerships, engagement and impact

The tracking ourselves' team created the , an interactive web tool that showcases some of the key findings from the research project.

The House was launched at an as part of the 'Festival of Social Science' in October 2020.