Members of this cluster are involved in the British Sociological Association's (BSA) Work, Employment and Economic Life Study Group (WEEL).
The study of work, once the mainstay of sociology, is witnessing a revival. There is keen interest in the material and institutional conditions of everyday working lives in the context of the global economic crisis, and a renewed focus on the inequalities that underlie who gets what kinds of work and employment opportunities. The University of Kent has a long tradition of scholarship in the sociology of work and economic sociology more generally, including in all its social policy dimensions. Within the School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Research, the Work, Employment and Economic Life cluster brings together work scholars who have built upon Kent’s legacy in new and exciting ways, both in the sorts of topics we research and in the ways that we study them.
All the members of the WEEL cluster at Kent are actively engaged in their own projects, often in collaboration with scholars across the UK – including at Brighton, Edinburgh, Essex, Keele, Manchester, Southampton, and Warwick – and internationally – including in Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Korea, and the USA. In addition, we supervise a large number of doctoral students which means there is a wider community of researchers in this field at Kent. We are also part of the British Sociological Association’s study group on Work, Employment and Economic Life, and involved in the journal, Work, Employment & Society.