Iain R. Edgar

Iain Edgar (born 1948) is a social anthropologist at Durham University. He is a leading expert in the field of dreams and dreaming, and a specialist in altered states of consciousness and mental health. Starting his career in social work, Edgar received a PhD from the University of Keele, where he studied under Ronnie Frankenberg. His thesis Dreamwork, Anthropology and the Caring Professions: A Cultural Approach to Dreamwork discusses a wide range of psychodynamic possibilities and develops a method to work with dreams within a professional care environment.

Iain Edgar is a pioneer in the area of imagework methods. In his 2004 book, A Guide to Imagework: Imagination-Based Research Methods (Routledge), he identifies several techniques for producing data about identity, belief and society through the exploration of people's imaginative resources. Iain Edgar has sought to integrate techniques more commonly associated with group psychiatric therapy and counselling with the broader research questions of social anthropology and sociology.

Education Research

Iain Edgar has published on education in social anthropology in Europe as well as broader primary and secondary education in Pakistan. With Stephen M. Lyon, he edited a book on education in Pakistan which covered secular, religious, state and private educational settings (see Lyon and Edgar 2010).He has co-edited two volumes on education in social anthropology. The first, with Dorle Dracklé and Thomas K. Schippers, concentrated on the history of education in social anthropology, while the second, co-edited with Dorle Dracklé, addresses contemporary practices in teaching social anthropology in Europe.

Iain R. Edgar's Publications

As author

Edgar, Iain 2011. The Dream in Islam: From Qur'anic Tradition to Jihadist Inspiration'. Oxford: Berghahn Books.

Edgar, I.R. 2004. Guide to Imagework: Imagination-Based Research Methods. London: Routledge.

Iain R. Edgar 1995. Dreamwork, Anthropology and the Caring Professions: A Cultural Approach to Dreamwork. Aldershopt: Avebury.

As editor

Lyon, Stephen M. & Edgar, Iain R. 2010. Shaping a Nation: An Examination of Education in Pakistan. Karachi: Oxford University Press.

Drackle, D. & Edgar, I.R. 2004. Learning Fields Vol.2 Current Educational Practices in European Social Anthropology. Oxford: Berghahn Books.

D. Drackle, I. Edgar & T. Schippers 2003. Learning Fields Vol. 1 Educational Histories of European Anthropology. Oxford: Berghahn Books. Iain R. Edgar & A. Russell 1998. Anthropology of Welfare. London: Routledge.

Contributions

Edgar, Iain R. 2009. A Comparison of Islamic and Western Psychological Dream Theories, in Bulkeley, K., Adams, K. & Davis, P., Dreaming in Christianity and Islam: Culture, Conflict, and Creativity (New Brunswick, USA.: Rutgers) 188–199

Iain Edgar & David Henig 2009. The Cosmopolitan and the Noumenal: A Case Study of Islamic Jihadist Night Dreams as Reported Sources of Spiritual and Political Inspiration, in Theodossopoulos, Dimitrios Kirtsoglou, Elisabeth, United in Discontent: Local Responses to Cosmopolitanism and Globalization. (Oxford: Berghahn Books) 64–82

I.R. Edgar 2004, Imagework in Ethnographic Research, in S. Pink, L. Kurti & A. Afonso, Working Images; research and representation in ethnography. (London: Routledge) 90–106

Edgar, I. R 2004, Imagework method and potential applications in health, social sciences and social care research: journeying with a question, in Rapport, F, New Qualitative Research Methodologies in Health and Social Care Research (London: Routledge) 123–138

I.R. Edgar 2003, Line-ups, in P.Rice & D.McCurdy Prentice Hall, Strategies for Teaching Anthropology Vol 3. 1–4.

Edgar, Iain R. 1996, The tooth butterfly: rendering a sensible account from the imaginative present, in A James