معرفی
Dr. Carin Runciman serves as a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy within the University of Edinburgh's School of Social and Political Science, having joined in September 2022 after directing the Centre for Social Change at the University of Johannesburg. Her position places her at the intersection of political sociology and democratic theory within a globally recognized institution.
Runciman's research centers on Black working-class politics in post-apartheid South Africa, examining how community protests and precarious worker organizing articulate indigenous democratic concepts. She investigates the tension between formal electoral processes and grassroots activism, challenging Western-centric democratic frameworks through empirical analysis of South Africa's contentious politics. Her work emphasizes the lived experiences of marginalized communities in shaping democratic quality.
Analysis of her recent publications reveals three dominant trends: electoral behavior studies tracking racialized voting fluidity in metropolitan areas, pandemic-era research on vaccine hesitancy and state responses, and critical labor studies examining strike dynamics under neoliberal conditions. These works consistently employ mixed-method approaches combining survey data with qualitative case studies of social movements.
Runciman holds editorial positions at The Sociological Review, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, and South African Review of Sociology. Her research impact is demonstrated through the UJ/HSRC COVID-19 Democracy Survey (where she served as Co-PI), whose findings directly informed South African government pandemic policies, and the ESRC-funded project "Freedom in Action: Your Rights and Voting in a Democracy" (2024). She actively supervises PhD candidates in protest politics and democratic citizenship while maintaining extensive collaborations with South African research institutions.
