I am a Lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research. See the rest of the Social Policy team and the Health and Social Care team. My approach to social research is through a combination of opposites:

• Applied research dealing with public issues and developing deeper theoretical accounts
• Focusing on research methodology and substantive issues
• The sophisticated analysis of statistical data and in-depth, broad-ranging interviews with people about their experiences.

While I’m particularly focusing on disability research at the moment, I have a wide range of different research interests ranging from binge-drinking to the benefits system – see my research for more details.
 
Find me:
On Twitter
On Academia 
Read my blog
Visit my website

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Peer reviewed journal articles

• Anderson, Bitarello, Baumberg, Jarl & Stuckler (2011), 'Communicating Alcohol Narratives: Creating a Healthier Relationship with Alcohol'. Journal of Health Communication, 16:27–36.
• World Trade Law and a Framework Convention on Alcohol Control[peer-reviewed editorial] (Baumberg 2010). Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 64:473-4.
• How Will Alcohol Sales in the UK Be Affected If Drinkers Follow Government Guidelines? (Baumberg 2009). Alcohol & Alcoholism, 44(5):523-528.
• Trade and health: How World Trade Organisation (WTO) law affects alcohol and public health (Baumberg and Anderson 2008). Addiction, 103:1952-1958.
• This was published alongside a commentary: Reassurance - but not complacency - on trade law and alcohol: a response to Osterberg (Baumberg and Anderson 2008). Addiction, 103:1959-1960.
• Health, alcohol and EU law: understanding the impact of European single market law on alcohol policies (Baumberg and Anderson 2008). European Journal of Public Health, 18(4):392-398.
• The global economic burden of alcohol: a review and some suggestions (Baumberg 2006). Drug and Alcohol Review, 25(6):537-552.

Academic publications

• Self-reported fitness-for-work in Britain: trends and implications (Baumberg 2011). In Vickerstaff,S; Phillipson,C; and Wilkie, R (eds), Work, Health and Well-being: The challenges of managing health at work. Policy Press.
• The methodological web appendices to this chapter are available for download here.
• Cost benefit analyses of alcohol policy - a primer (Anderson and Baumberg 2010). Prepared for the SMART (Standardizing Measurement of Alcohol-Related Troubles) project.
• Best practice in estimating the costs of alcohol – Recommendations for future studies (Baumberg 2010). Copenhagen: World Health Organisation – Regional Office for Europe.
• Economic impacts of alcohol pricing policy options in the UK (Hunt, Rabinovich and Baumberg 2010). Cambridge: RAND Europe for the Home Office. A 2011 version is available from the RAND website
• The European strategy on alcohol: a landmark and a lesson [non peer-reviewed editorial] (Baumberg and Anderson 2007). Alcohol and Alcoholism, 42(1):1-2.
• Alcohol: Price, Policy and Public Health (SHAAP 2007). Report on the Findings of the Expert Workshop on Price convened by SHAAP (Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems)
• Alcohol in Europe: A Public Health Perspective (Anderson and Baumberg 2006). London: Institute of Alcohol Studies for the European Commission.
• The value of alcohol policies: A review of the likely economic costs and benefits of policies to reduce alcohol-related harm on the global level (Baumberg 2006). Paper commissioned by the World Health Organisation for the WHO Expert Committee on Alcohol Problems.
• Stakeholders’ views of alcohol policy (Anderson and Baumberg 2006). Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Other Drugs (English Supplement), 6:393:414.
• Alcohol in Europe: Health, social and economic impact (Anderson and Baumberg 2006). Eurohealth 12(2):17-20.

Presentations

• Later Working and the Changing Nature of Work. Presentation to the Rethinking Retirement ESRC Seminar Series, Manchester, 4/11/2011.
• Bad jobs and Incapacity Benefits. Presentation to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), London, 20/11/2011.
• From bad jobs to incapacity benefits: the role of working conditions and employability. Presentation to the Social Policy Association (SPA) conference, Lincoln 5/7/2011.
• Is declining fitness-for-work in Britain due to deteriorating job demands and control? Presentation to the American Psychological Association’s Work, Stress, and Health Conference, Orlando, Florida, 22/5/2011..
• The need for an overarching ‘theory of inequalities’ in Sociology and Social Policy. Presentation to the British Sociological Association Postgraduate Symposium on Inequality, Milton Keynes, 6/5/2011.
• Deteriorating working conditions and rising incapacity benefits: is there a connection? Presentation to the British Sociological Association (BSA) conference, London, 8/4/2011.
• Why has reported fitness-for-work deteriorated since the 1980s? Presentation to the Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of York, 25/1/2011.
• Co-producing welfare-to-work? Separating good from bad co-production in services for the unemployed/disabled. Presentation to Coprodnet conference, Manchester, 3/11/10.
• Do high-strain jobs increase the chances of health-related job loss? Paper presented at the Social Policy Association conference, Lincoln, 6/7/2010
• Fitness-for-work and incapacity benefit receipt: the role of job strain. Presentation to Dame Carol Black (National Director for Health and Work), London, 8/7/2010.
• Fitness-to-work, job strain, and retirement. Paper presented at 'Understanding Ageing' (organised by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies), , Oxford, 15/4/2010
• Work, retirement, incapacity: Working conditions, and the later working agenda. Presentation to the TAEN (Third Age Employment Network) / LSE seminar on older workers, London, 1/2/2010.
• The economic harm caused by alcohol. Presentation at the EU Presidency ‘Expert Conference on Alcohol and Health’, Stockholm, 22/9/2009.
• Should researchers make policy recommendations at all? Paper presented at the Social Policy Association conference, Edinburgh, 30/6/2009
• Should researchers make policy recommendations at all? Paper presented at ‘Informing Public Policy: New Agendas for Social Research’ (organised by NatCen-LSE), London 23/4/2009
• Against evidence-based policy: over-claiming social research and undermining effective policy. Paper presented at the Social Policy Association conference, Edinburgh, 25/6/2008
• Evidence for alcohol policy: What it can offer, and what it shows. Presentation to the 3rd European Association of Addiction Therapy conference, Vienna 10/9/2007
• Cutting through the costs: The real cost of binge-drinking in the UK. Presentation to the ‘Promoting Responsible Drinking: Reducing the Harm Caused by Alcohol’ conference organised by Neil Stewart Associates, London, 31/1/2007
• Alcohol policies and the economy of Europe. Presentation to the Eurocare ‘Bridging the Gap’ conference, Helsinki, 20/11/2006
• Inequalities, young people and alcohol in Europe – an overview. Presentation to the Alcohol Policy Development Group of the European Presidency at the Presidency ‘Tackling Health Inequalities’ summit, London 17/10/2005

You can find my non-academic writing and pending papers on my website. back to top

Current

I convene the Masters course on Research Philosophy and Design (SO833) and, with Heejung Chung, the “quantitative bit” of the undergraduate Social Research Methods course (SO602). I also teach on comparative disability policy and inequalities.

Much of my teaching is around research methods. Without good research, the potential for research to do anything useful in the substantive areas above is limited and bad research can do more harm than good. I strive to make my teaching exciting, clear, and use numerous real-world examples.

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Research interests

I have a wide range of research interests including disability, the workplace, inequality, the benefits system, addictions policy and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and the relationship between evidence and policy.

Current

My main current interests are eclectic and include:

• The changing nature of work, how this affects people with health problems or disabilities, and the role of the benefits system;
• New ideas for the welfare state;
• The nature of stratification across the lifecourse;
• The relationships between evidence, policy and critique.

I am also completing research on alcohol/addictions: the role of pleasure in alcohol policy and also whether “addictive industries” are part of the problem or the solution within the massive €9m EU “Reframing Addictions” project (within which I am leading a work package on corporate influence).

Supervision

I'm more than happy to supervise PhD or Masters students researching any of these topics. If you are interested in studying at the University of Kent, please email me to discuss this further.

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Aside from my position at the University of Kent, I'm also attached to the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at the London School of Economics and Political Science; the International Centre for Lifecourse Studies in Society and Health, and I'm an associate fellow of the Strategic Society Centre. back to top

Editorial

From 2009-2012 I was an associate editor for the journal Addiction. I've peer-reviewed for the Journal of Social Policy, Social Science & Medicine, Addiction, Alcohol & Alcoholism, Contemporary Drug Problems and Drug and Alcohol Review.

I've acted as a (nominally) paid reviewer for the UK Department of Work and Pensions, Department of Health, and the Alcohol Education & Research Council (AERC).

Blogs

I co-edit the blog Inequalities.

I've also written:

• Let's all be open about what we earn, - the Guardian's Comment is Free blog, 3/12/2010.
• Should we defend the middle-class welfare state? - Left Foot Forward, 7/10/2010.

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