معرفی
Professor Anne Cronin is a Professor of Cultural Sociology at Lancaster University within the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. Her academic work focuses on the critical analysis of promotional culture within contemporary capitalism, with particular attention to advertising, public relations, and their intersections with urban life, gender, and democratic processes. She is an active researcher, teacher, and supervisor within the Sociology Department at Lancaster.
Professor Cronin's primary research interests span promotional culture – encompassing advertising, marketing, and public relations – and how these practices illuminate the logics of neoliberal capitalism. Her work critically examines how promotional industries shape commercial democracy, influence power dynamics in society, and mediate relationships between citizens, markets, and the state. She has made significant contributions to understanding the relationship between secrecy and public relations, the spatial dimensions of advertising in urban environments, and the gendered aspects of consumer culture and friendship practices.
Her recent scholarly output demonstrates a clear trajectory examining the evolving role of promotional industries in market society. Cronin's work has increasingly focused on the intersections of public relations, political power, and democratic processes, particularly through her analyses of lobbying practices and the 'influence industry.' Her publications reveal a sophisticated theoretical approach that connects micro-level practices of cultural intermediaries with macro-level transformations in capitalist society.
- Leverhulme Research Fellowship (2021-2022): 'Secrecy, public relations and the shadow world of the media sphere'
- British Academy Small Grant (2011-2012): 'Friendship, Social Ties and Urban Experience'
- ESRC Grant (2006-2007): 'Advertising and the city: making the symbolic and political economies of urban spaces'
- AHRC Research Leave Award (2001-2002): 'Dangerous Images: Advertising, Addiction and the Compulsive Self'
Professor Cronin actively supervises PhD students in areas related to advertising, public relations, branding, consumption, media and culture, friendship and sociality, and gender studies. Her teaching includes undergraduate module SOCL218 Consumer Culture and Advertising and Masters module SOCL928 Consumer Society. Her supervision approach emphasizes critical engagement with theoretical frameworks while encouraging empirical innovation in researching contemporary cultural phenomena.
