We research the reform of welfare states through a particular focus on political economy, its tools, methods and explanatory frameworks. We are active in researching contemporary public policy welfare and social protection issues, such as proposals for universal basic income (UBI). We are concerned with the ways in which post-financial crisis government policies, labour market changes and socio-technological developments produce new social risks and vulnerabilities. We are concerned with the range of political, public policy and social responses to these challenges and the options for better securing social justice.
Current research projects include:
- The social and economic consequences of health: causal analysis using intergenerational UK data
- Couples balancing work, money and care: exploring the shifting landscape under Universal Credit
- Assessing the case for basic income in light of automation and labour market change
- Examining the case for basic income
- Varieties of basic income in European welfare states
- Loneliness in the digital age
- Collaborating to deliver social prescribing in B&NES
- Vulnerable young parents
- Young, female and forgotten
- Change, choice and constraint in family and work
- Death, dying and devolution
- The Rise of In-Work Benefits? Comparing Provisions in Advanced Welfare States (PhD project)
- Welfare States in Transition – The Political Economy of Universal Basic Income (PhD project)
- How Low-income Families Experience and Manage Income Variability and Change (PhD project)
- Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Social Policy Network
- Latin American Social Policy Network