Recent themes researched include:

Kate Bradley

Kate Bradley is a historian of contemporary Britain, focusing on the period from 1918 to the present day. Kate’s interests are in the development of social policy and civil society in the twentieth century, both within the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Kate is interested in the different forms social action has taken over time, having looked at the settlement house movement, the juvenile courts and youth welfare to date. She is currently preparing a book on legal advice and social justice and beginning a new project on deindustrialisation and its impacts on civil society.

Beth Breeze

Beth Breeze is the Director of the Centre for Philanthropy which is based in SSPSSR and runs a range of research projects and teaching related to the giving of time and of money. Beth’s core research interests are major donors and major donor fundraisers: she has researched and written the annual ‘Million Pound Donor Report’ since 2008, and her first book, Richer Lives: why rich people give, co-authored with Theresa Lloyd, was published in 2013. In 2015 she co-authored ‘The Logic of Charity: Great Expectation in Hard Times’ and in 2016 she has co-edited ‘The Philanthropy Reader’. Her next book, ‘The New Fundraisers: who organises generosity in contemporary society?’ will be published by Policy Press in 2017. She is also involved in research on topics including how donors choose charities; fundraising for unpopular causes; philanthropic journeys; giving circles; and employee fundraising.

Triona Fitton

Triona Fitton is interested in philanthropy and fundraising in higher education, and recently produced a book, Hidden History: Philanthropy at the University of Kent, detailing the philanthropic history behind the University of Kent as one of the 1960’s ‘plate-glass’ universities. Her other research interests include the pedagogy of philanthropic studies, charity retail, non-profit sector professionalisation and ethical consumption.

Eddy Hogg

Eddy Hogg is interested in the patterns of engagement in formal volunteering over the course of peoples’ lives. Eddy is passionate about research-led teaching and is keen to use the research undertaken in the Centre for Philanthropy to inform undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. His interests also encompass fundraising and philanthropy, social justice and volunteering.

Ellie Jupp

Eleanor Jupp has a background in human geography and is interested in small-scale community activism primarily in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, with a focus on women’s activism. Her PhD research looked at how informal forms of everyday engagement related to formal programmes of regeneration in Stoke-on-Trent UK. More recent research has focused on austerity and gendered activism, in relation to housing and in relation to children’s services. Recent publications include a themed issue of Critical Social Policy on ‘The New Politics of Home’ and an edited collection (with Dr Jessica Pykett and Dr Fiona Smith) on emotions within policy and politics, called Emotional States (Routledge, 2017). She is currently researching Children’s Centre closures and how communities respond.

Jeremy Kendall

Jeremy Kendall’s research interests currently cover theory and policy. At a conceptual level, Jeremy focuses on the origins and evolution of the idea of organised civil society, especially as a ‘third sector’, in the UK and in continental Europe. He is interested in how and why it has changed its meaning and parameters as socio-economic conditions have developed. Jeremy’s work on policy analysis primarily focuses on social policy. This involved an effort to model third sector policies, especially in England and at EU level, understood as a multi-level governance process. He has recently developed an exploratory analysis of how notions of policy ‘modernisation’ relate to this field in England.

In January 2014 Jeremy began his collaboration with Professor John Mohan at TSRC, Les Salamon (Johns Hopkins Institute for Advanced Policy Studies, Bologna) and Bernard Enjolras (Institute for Social Research, Oslo) on ‘third sector impact’ (TSI). This exciting three year EU 7th Research Framework project looks at the impact of organised civil society across Europe. Full details, including details of intermediate fundings, publications, events and more, can be found at the ‘Third Sector Impact’ study website. Since 2016, Jeremy has also been working with Nadia Brookes as the UK contributors to the project ‘National welfare mix and interpretations of EU policies’, funded by the Norwegian Research Council. This is another collaborative effort, with Institute for Social Research in Oslo and the University of Munster in Germany.

Chris Rootes

Chris Rootes is interested in social movements, protest and other forms of less conventional and relatively un-institutionalised political participation and action, including collective action at all levels from the local to the global. Chris is particularly interested in environmental movements and action, especially in the variety of efforts to mobilise for action on climate change. He is also interested in the issues of equity and participation raised by policies and practice designed to mitigate and / adapt to climate change.

Much of Chris’s work has been funded by the European Commission under its FP programmes or the ESRC.

Balihar Sanghera

Balihar Sanghera examines how the ethics of giving and philanthropy, and its implications for social theory and social justice. He has completed two ESRC projects on philanthropy. First, Social Justice Philanthropy: Implications for Policy and Practice (with Kate Bradley) examined the nature of social justice philanthropy in the UK, and how British foundations and grant-makers frame social justice causes. Second, The Moral Economy of Charitable Giving: Working and Middle-Class Philanthropy in the UK investigated how individuals from working and middle-class backgrounds donate to unknown others and worthy causes and make judgements about what and to whom to give, and what moral resources, traditions and rules they draw upon in reaching their evaluation about giving.

Balihar is currently writing working papers on the two ESRC funded projects. He is also developing research proposals to study philanthropy and civil society outside the UK.

Iain Wilkinson

Iain Wilkinson has just completed a new book (co-authored with Arthur Kleinman) entitled A Passion for Society: Essays on Social Suffering. He is now involved in a new suite of research projects that concern the cultural politics of compassion and its development in relation to modern humanitarian action, culture and organisation.