Professor Alasdair Rutherford

Professor

Sociology, Social Policy & Criminology Colin Bell Building, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA

Professor Alasdair Rutherford

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About me

About me

Alasdair Rutherford is a Professor of Social Statistics at the University of Stirling. His research focus is the analysis of administrative and survey data in the fields of charity, regulation, ageing and volunteering. He has also been involved in a number of initiatives to build data analysis skills amongst third sector practitioners.

Some current research projects:

Alasdair's academic background includes economics, sociology, psychology and artificial intelligence. Prior to becoming an academic, Alasdair worked for seven years in marketing and fundraising for a large social care charity. He has been in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Stirling since 2013.
 
Alasdair is part of the Centre for Population Change; the Scottish Civil Society Data Partnership; and the Scottish Longitudinal Study of Ageing (HAGIS). He was also involved in the Scottish Administrative Data Research Centre.
 
Alasdair sits on the Scottish Third Sector Research Forum and the NCVO Research Advisory Group. He is a board member of the Stirling Carers Centre, and managing director of the social enterprise Socialudo. He has previously sat on the Scottish Informatics and Linkage Collaboration Strategic Management Board; and the trustee boards of Age Scotland, Hanover Scotland; the Bumblebee Conservation Trust; and the Broomhouse Centre.

His teaching with the Faculty of Social Sciences includes quantitative methods; data visualisation; and volunteering & the voluntary sector.  Alasdair teaches on the MSc Applied Social Research; the MSc Social Statistics; and the BA (Hons) Sociology, Social Policy & Criminology.

Research (21)

Alasdair's research is mainly applied econometric work using large national datasets, including both social surveys and administrative data. His research interests include charities and nonprofits, data-driven regulation, health & ageing, social care, and volunteering, with an emphasis on the implications for public policy.

Selected research projects: | Organisational data on the third sector | Intersectional Stigma of Place-based Ageing (ISPA) | Designing Homes For Healthy Cognitive Ageing (DesHCA) | Connecting Generations |

Alasdair is interested in research collaborations and PhD students projects in the fields of:

  • charities and third sector: measurement, employment & workforce, finance, volunteering, risk & resilience, regulation

  • health and ageing: employment, care, retirement, housing

  • social care: measurement, costs, workforce

  • data: methods, causal estimation, visualisation, capacity building

  • games: serious games, sociology of games, use of games in teaching
      

You can find my publicly available code shared at GitHub.
  

Within the Faculty of Social Sciences, Alasdair is a member of the Social Statistics & Social Surveys research group; the Dementia & Social Gerontology research group; and the Public Services & Governance research group.


  

PhD Supervision

Current PhD Students

  • Louise Macaulay  "Overcoming Barriers to Labour Market Entry amongst People with Disabilities and Long-term Health Conditions and their Unpaid Carers"

  • Claire Stuart  "Charity Trustees, Governance and Accountability in Scottish Charities: Modelling Trustee Dynamics Using Linked Regulator Data"

  • Gosia Lawes "Using administrative data to improve neighbourhood environmental services and outcomes"

Completed PhD Students

  • Stacey McNicol (2023) "A Life Lived for Others: Volunteering Participation and Transitions in Older Age"

  • Dr Paul Henery (2022)  "Pathways through Care: Health, Social Care and Multimorbidity"

  • Dr Craig Docherty (2021) "Exploring the use of Games and Gamification for Public Engagement in Tree and Plant Health"

  • Dr Alana McGuire (2020)  "Impact of New Information Technologies and 'Big Data' on Skill Requirements"

  • Dr Nur Azam Perai  (2020) "The Malaysian Third Sector: An Investigation from a Historical and Cultural Perspective"

  • Dr Elizabeth Lemmon (2019) "Understanding the Link Between Health and Social Care: A Quantitative Approach"

  • Dr Tom Wallace (2019)  “Trust in the data: External data use by the Scottish third sector”

  • Dr Diarmuid McDonnell  (2017) “Risk and Resilience in Scottish Charities”

  • Dr Jessie Azong (2015) "Economic Policy, Childcare and the Unpaid Economy: Exploring Gender Equality in Scotland"

  • Dr John Marecki  (2015) "Investigating a Structural Model of Addiction Stigma related to Student Perceptions towards Persons Addicted to Heroin"

Projects

Intersectional Stigma of Place-based Ageing
PI: Professor Vikki McCall
Funded by: Economic and Social Research Council

Designing homes for healthy cognitive ageing: co-production for impact and scale (DesHCA)
PI: Professor Alison Bowes
Funded by: Economic and Social Research Council

Improving end of life care: supporting the workforce and reducing hospitalisations through an implementation study in care homes
PI: Professor Liz Forbat
Funded by: National Institute for Health Research

Assessing financial vulnerability and risk in the UK's charities during and beyond the COVID-19 crisis
PI: Professor Alasdair Rutherford
Funded by: UK Research and Innovation

Mobilising Voluntary Action in the four UK jurisdictions: Learning from today, prepared for tomorrow
PI: Professor Alasdair Rutherford
Funded by: UK Research and Innovation

Sustainable Care: connecting people and systems
PI: Professor Alasdair Rutherford
Funded by: Economic and Social Research Council

Designing for Ageing and Dementia International Research Network
PI: Professor Alison Bowes
Funded by: Economic and Social Research Council

Centre for Population Change
PI: Professor Alison Bowes
Funded by: Economic and Social Research Council

Permanently progressing: Outcomes for children in Scotland accommodated before age 5
PI:
Funded by: British Association for Adoption & Fostering and Confidential Donor

Administrative Data Research Centre - Scotland
PI: Professor Alasdair Rutherford
Funded by: Economic and Social Research Council

Extending the Pilot of the Scottish Longitudinal Survey of Ageing
PI:
Funded by: The Nuffield Foundation

Understanding the outcomes of people with cognitive impairment and/or dementia admitted to the general hospital.
PI:
Funded by: National Institute for Health Research

The Scottish Longitudinal Survey of Ageing (THSLS)
PI:
Funded by: National Institutes of Health

The Role of Volunteers in Dementia Care
PI: Professor Vikki McCall
Funded by: Abbeyfield Society

Style and/or Substance? Developing Teaching in Statistical Communication
PI: Professor Alasdair Rutherford
Funded by: The British Academy

Pathways through Health and Social Care for Older People with Dementia
PI: Professor Alasdair Rutherford
Funded by: Chief Scientist Office

THe Scottish Longitudinal Survey of ageing (THSLS) - Admin Supplement
PI:
Funded by: National Institutes of Health

Piloting a Collaborative Quantitative Research development Programme in the Third Sector: Understanding Volunteering in Scotland
PI: Professor Alasdair Rutherford
Funded by: Applied Quantitative Methods Network

The Games People Play
PI: Professor Alasdair Rutherford
Funded by: Economic and Social Research Council

Supporting community resilience in Scotland through public policy and practice? Who is involved, how is it happening, and what needs to change?
PI: Professor Alasdair Rutherford
Funded by: Economic and Social Research Council

Using the Scottish household Survey to explore patterns and variations in volunteering participation
PI: Professor Alasdair Rutherford
Funded by: Applied Quantitative Methods Network

Outputs (41)

Outputs

Article

Macgregor A, McCormack B, Spilsbury K, Hockley J, Rutherford A, Ogden M, Soulsby I, McKenzie M, Hanratty B & Forbat L (2023) Supporting care home residents in the last year of life through ‘Needs Rounds’: Development of a pre-implementation programme theory through a rapid collaborative online approach. Frontiers in Health Services, 2, Art. No.: 1019602. https://doi.org/10.3389/frhs.2022.1019602


Conference Proceeding

Docherty C, Rutherford A, Jones G & Maharaj S (2021) Comparing a Game v. Non-Game approach for plant provenance public education. In: Gabron S (ed.) GSGS '21 - International Conference on Gamification and Serious Game Proceeding. Gamification & Serious Game Symposium. GSGS '21 - International Conference on Gamification and Serious Game, Lausanne, Switzerland, 28.06.2021-09.07.2021. Dublin: Digital Kingdom. https://gsgs.ch/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/gsgs21.pdf


Article

Macgregor A, Rutherford A, McCormack B, Hockley J, Ogden M, Soulsby I, McKenzie M, Spilsbury K, Hanratty B & Forbat L (2021) Palliative and end-of-life care in care homes: protocol for codesigning and implementing an appropriate scalable model of Needs Rounds in the UK. BMJ Open, 11 (2), Art. No.: e049486. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049486


Research Report

McCall V, Phillips J, Lovatt M, Robertson J, Rutherford A, Woolrytch R, Sixsmith J, Macintyre Z, Porteus J, Ziegler F & Eadie J (2019) Housing and Ageing: Linking future strategy to future delivery for Scotland, Wales and England 2030. Scottish Universities Insight Institute and Social Policy Association. https://www.scottishinsight.ac.uk/Programmes/Scotland2030/HousingOlderPeople.aspx


Research Report

Rutherford A, Bu F, Dawson A & McCall V (2019) Volunteering for All: national framework - literature review. Scottish Government. Social Research: People, Communities and Places. https://www.gov.scot/publications/literature-review-scotlands-volunteering-outcomes-framework/


Article

Hapca S, Guthrie B, Cvoro V, Bu F, Rutherford A, Reynish E & Donnan PT (2018) Mortality in people with dementia, delirium, and unspecified cognitive impairment in the general hospital: prospective cohort study of 6,724 patients with 2 years follow-up. Clinical Epidemiology, 10, pp. 1743-1753. https://doi.org/10.2147/clep.s174807


Research Report

Hamilton-Smith N, Malloch M, Ashe S, Rutherford AC & Bradford B (2015) Community Impact of Public Processions. Scottish Government. Social Research series: Crime and Justice. Scottish Government Social Research. http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/02/3769/downloads


Article

Bell D, Rutherford AC & Wright RE (2013) Free Personal Care for Older People: A Wider Perspective on Its Costs. Fraser of Allander Institute Economic Commentary, 36 (3), pp. 69-76. http://www.strath.ac.uk/media/departments/economics/fairse/backissues/Fraser_Economic_Commentary_Vol_36,_No_3.pdf


Teaching

Teaching

MSc/MRes Applied Social Research

  • ASRP004 Quantitative Data Analysis
  • SSSP005 Advanced Data Management & Data Visualisation