Dr Michael Gallagher

Dr Michael Gallagher

Reader

My profile

Biography

I am a Reader in the School of Childood, Youth and Education Studies. I am an interdisciplinary researcher with a background in human geography. I have varied research interests including in children and young people, schooling, sonic environments, space and power, methods and media. Theoretically much of my work draws on Foucault.

I came to MMU in 2014. I previously held research posts at the University of Glasgow and the University of Edinburgh.

My writing has been published widely. I also like to use audio-visual media for my research where possible: for example, this short film about school spaces (https://vimeo.com/20931701) and this audio work about a ruined landscape (http://www.theinvisiblecollege.org.uk/AudioDrifts).

Here is an alphabetical list of subjects that I have researched, written about, or am interested in:

acid house, acoustics, affect, allergies, anaphylaxis, archives, audio, cities, childhood, child and family social work, counselling, Deleuze, digital media, documentary film and photography, earth sounds, education spaces, electronics, ethnography, experimental music, field recording, Foucault, house music, human geography, informed consent, infrasound, invasive species, knowledge exchange, landscapes, listening, machines, materialist media studies, media arts, methodology, microphones, minimalism, modern ruins, music technology, participation, participatory methods, physical geography of media, post-structuralism, post-humanism, post-war modernist architecture, power, public art, repetition, research ethics, schools, sound art, sonic geographies, sound and space, surveillance, synthesizers, tape, technologies of the self, techno music, video, wind turbine noise, youth.

I would be interested to supervise PhDs on these topics. If you have an idea you would like to discuss, please get in touch using my email address.

Expert reviewer for external funding bodies

I have carried out peer reviews for international journals including the British Educational Research Journal, Contemporary Issues in Education, Discourse, Qualitative Research, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, Progress in Human Geography, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Environment and Planning A, Environment and Planning D, Social and Cultural Geography, Cultural Geographies, Children’s Geographies, Urban Studies, Landscape Research, Emotion Space and Society, GeoJournal, Geohumanities, Childhood, Children and Society, Leonardo Music Journal.

Get in touch

0161 247 2102
1.06 Brooks Building

Research outputs

My research is organised around three themes:

• Power and childhood. Examining how children and young people are shaped, and shape themselves, through regimes of power such as schools, healthcare, social work, counselling, participatory initiatives and digital media.

• Media and methods. Thinking critically about how different media and methods produce knowledge. Interests include research ethics, sonic and audio methods, video, experimental and arts-based methods, digital media methods and participatory methods, with a particular focus on doing research with children and young people.

• Creative practice and space. Examining how art, design and media shape spaces, places and environments, particularly ruins, cities and landscapes. My research analyses how environments are reworked by sound art, public art, mobile media and other spatial interventions.

I would be very happy to discuss possible PhD supervision or collaboration around any of these themes.

  • Books (authored/edited/special issues)

    Tisdall, K., Davis, J.M., Gallagher, M. (2008) Researching with Children and Young People Research Design, Methods and Analysis. SAGE.

  • Chapters in books

    Roussell, D., Gallagher, M., Wright, M. (2022) 'Becoming listening bodies: sensing the affective atmospheres of the city with young children.' In Williams, N., Keating, T. (ed.) Speculative Geographies: ethics, technologies, aesthetics. Singapore: Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 251-267.

    Richardson, T. (2019) 'Psy(co)motion: Anti-Production and Détournement in Affective Musical Cartographies.' In Candice, B., Christian, E. (ed.) Non-Representational Theory and the Creative Arts. Palgrave MacMillan,

    Gallagher, M. (2019) 'Audio recording as performance.' Non-Representational Theory and the Creative Arts. pp. 277-292.

    Gallagher, M. (2019) 'Audio recording as performance.' Non-representational theory and the creative arts. Palgrave MacMillan,

    Gallagher, M., Hackett, A., Procter, L., Scott, F. (2019) 'Vibrations in place: Sound and language in early childhood literacy practices.' Sonic Studies in Educational Foundations: Echoes, Reverberations, Silences, Noise. pp. 129-147.

    Gallagher, M. (2017) 'Listening walks: a method of multiplicity.' Walking Through Social Research. Routledge,

    Gallagher, M., Worth, A., Cunningham-Burley, S., Sheikh, A. (2016) 'Living with risk: the geography of adolescent anaphylaxis.' Play and Recreation, Health and Wellbeing. Springer,

    Smith, M., Wilkinson, H., Gallagher, M. (2016) ''It's what gets through people's radars isn't it': Relationships in social work practice and knowledge exchange.' Knowledge Mobilisation and the Social Sciences: Research Impact and Engagement. pp. 126-140.

    Gallagher, M. (2015) 'Working with sound in video: producing an experimental documentary about school spaces.' Video Methods: Social Science Research In Motion.

    Gallagher, M. (2013) 'Rethinking participatory methods in children's geographies.' Doing Children's Geographies: Methodological Issues in Research with Young People. pp. 84-97.

    Gallagher, M. (2006) 'Spaces of participation and inclusion?.' Children, Young People and Social Inclusion: Participation for What?. pp. 159-178.

  • Reports

    Gallagher, M., Wright, M. Leverhulme artist in residence award final report: Listening in and out of more-­‐than-­‐human worlds.

  • Journal articles

    Yuen, G., Gallagher, M. (2024) 'Hong Kong kindergartens in urban space: policy aspirations, historical trajectories and contemporary disparities.' Children's Geographies, 22(3) pp. 350-365.

    Gallagher, M. (2019) 'Voice audio methods.' Qualitative Research, 20(4) pp. 449-464.

    Gallagher, M. (2019) 'Rethinking children’s agency: Power, assemblages, freedom and materiality.' Global Studies of Childhood, 9(3) pp. 188-199.

    Gallagher, M. (2019) 'Childhood and the geology of media.' Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, 41(3) pp. 372-390.

    Gallagher, M. (2018) 'Had enough of experts?.' Educational Philosophy and Theory, 50(14) pp. 1320-1321.

    Despard, E., Gallagher, M.D. (2018) 'Media ecologies of plant invasion.' Environmental Humanities, 10(2) pp. 370-396.

    Duffy, M., Gallagher, M., Waitt, G. (2018) 'Emotional and affective geographies of sustainable community leadership: A visceral approach.' Geoforum, 106pp. 378-384.

    Gallagher, M.D., Hackett, A., Procter, L., Scott, F. (2018) 'Vibrations in Place: Sound and Language in Early Childhood Literacy Practices.' Educational Studies, 54(4) pp. 465-482.

    Gallagher, M., Prior, J., Needham, M., Holmes, R. (2017) 'Listening differently: a pedagogy for expanded listening.' British Educational Research Journal, 43(6) pp. 1246-1265.

    Gallagher, M., Kanngieser, A., Prior, J. (2017) 'Listening geographies: Landscape, affect and geotechnologies.' Progress in Human Geography, 41(5) pp. 618-637.

    Gallagher, M.D. (2016) 'Sound as affect: Difference, power and spatiality.' Emotion, Space and Society, 20pp. 42-48.

    Gallagher, M. (2015) 'Landscape Audio in Situ.' Contemporary Music Review, 34(4) pp. 316-326.

    Gallagher, M. (2015) 'Sounding ruins: reflections on the production of an ‘audio drift’.' cultural geographies, 22(3) pp. 467-485.

    Gallagher, M. (2015) 'Field recording and the sounding of spaces.' Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 33(3) pp. 560-576.

    Elsley, S., Gallagher, M., Tisdall, E.K.M. (2014) 'THE DILEMMAS OF DIGITAL METHODOLOGIES: LEARNING FROM WORK ON "YOUNG DIGITAL".' International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies, 5(4.1) pp. 702-717.

    Gallagher, M., Prior, J. (2014) 'Sonic geographies: Exploring phonographic methods.' Progress in Human Geography, 38(2) pp. 267-284.

    Smith, M., Wilkinson, H., Gallagher, M. (2013) ''It's what gets through people's radars isn't it': Relationships in social work practice and knowledge exchange.' Contemporary Social Science, 8(3) pp. 292-306.

    Smith, M., Gallagher, M., Wosu, H., Stewart, J., Cree, V.E., Hunter, S., Evans, S., Montgomery, C., Holiday, S., Wilkinson, H. (2012) 'Engaging with involuntary service users in social work: Findings from a knowledge exchange project.' British Journal of Social Work, 42(8) pp. 1460-1477.

    Gallagher, M., Worth, A., Cunningham-Burley, S., Sheikh, A. (2012) 'Strategies for living with the risk of anaphylaxis in adolescence: Qualitative study of young people and their parents.' Primary Care Respiratory Journal, 21(4) pp. 392-397.

    Wilkinson, H., Gallagher, M., Smith, M. (2012) 'A collaborative approach to defining the usefulness of impact: Lessons from a knowledge exchange project involving academics and social work practitioners.' Evidence and Policy, 8(3) pp. 311-327.

    Gallagher, M., Smith, M., Hardy, M., Wilkinson, H. (2012) 'Children and families' involvement in social work decision making.' Children and Society, 26(1) pp. 74-85.

    Gallagher, M., Smith, M., Wosu, H., Stewart, J., Hunter, S., Cree, V.E., Wilkinson, H. (2011) 'Engaging with families in child protection: Lessons from practitioner research in Scotland.' Child Welfare, 90(4) pp. 117-134.

    Gallagher, M., Worth, A., Cunningham-Burley, S., Sheikh, A. (2011) 'Epinephrine auto-injector use in adolescents at risk of anaphylaxis: A qualitative study in Scotland, UK.' Clinical and Experimental Allergy, 41(6) pp. 869-877.

    Gallagher, M. (2011) 'Sound, space and power in a primary school.' Social and Cultural Geography, 12(1) pp. 47-61.

    Gallagher, M., Haywood, S.L., Jones, M.W., Milne, S. (2010) 'Negotiating Informed Consent with Children in School-Based Research: A Critical Review.' Children and Society, 24(6) pp. 471-482.

    Gallagher, M. (2010) 'Are schools panoptic?.' Surveillance and Society, 7(3-4) pp. 262-272.

    Gallagher, M., Worth, A., Sheikh, A. (2009) 'Clinical allergy has much to gain from engagement with qualitative research.' Allergy: European Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 64(8) pp. 1117-1119.

    Gallagher, M. (2008) ''Power is not an evil': Rethinking power in participatory methods.' Children's Geographies, 6(2) pp. 137-150.

    Tisdall, E.K.M., Davis, J.M., Gallagher, M. (2008) 'Reflecting on children and young people's participation in the UK.' International Journal of Children's Rights, 16(3) pp. 343-354.

    Gallagher, M. (2008) 'Foucault, power and participation.' International Journal of Children's Rights, 16(3) pp. 395-406.

    Hinton, R., Tisdall, E.K.M., Gallagher, M., Elsley, S. (2008) 'Children's and young people's participation in public decision-making.' International Journal of Children's Rights, 16(3) pp. 281-284.

    Gallacher, L.A., Gallagher, M. (2008) 'Methodological immaturity in childhood research?: Thinking through 'participatory methods'.' Childhood, 15(4) pp. 499-516.