University of Kent

Research

My principal interests are:

• the demographic ageing of societies and its consequences and implications, particularly for social policy;
• the ways older people are provided with help and care from friends, family, the voluntary sector and the state and the differences between nations in these areas;
• the ways in which people cope with the disabilities of age, particularly the effects on one’s sense of self or identity;
• how industrial societies deal with the fact that many households seek to combine paid work with informal care for children and disabled and older adults;
• patterns of pension provision and the potential for pension reform, particularly in industrial countries.

Current Research Projects

• ‘New kinds of families, new kinds of social care: shaping European policies for formal and informal care’, SOCCARE, 2000-4, European Commission Shared-Cost RTD Research Project (Framework V), Contract No: SERD-1999-00065.
  http://www.uta.fi/laitokset/sospol/soccare/
• ‘How older people sustain their identities in the face of a limiting physical condition’, 1999-2003, ESRC ‘Growing Older Programme’, Grant No L480254001.
  http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/projects/gop/
• ‘The organisational context of retirement: the impact of employers’ age management policies’, 2001-2003, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Ref.801212 (with S. Vickerstaff and L. Keen).
  http://www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/foundations/d13.asp
• ‘Providing integrated health and social care for older persons – issues, problems and solutions’, (PROCARE),2002-5, European Commission Shared-Cost RTD Research Project (Framework V), Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources (Key Action 6, Area 6.5) Contract No QLK6-CT-2002-00227 (with A. Alaszewski, Jenny Billings, Kirstie Coxon and Julia Twigg)
  http://www.euro.centre.org/procare/

I am currently supervising postgraduate research students studying:

- Social Care in Hong Kong
- Pension Reform in S.Korea
- Age and Disability
- Balancing Paid Work and Informal Care for Older People

I am keen to work with students interested in any of the area listed under my general research interests above

 

Teaching

 

 

Publications

• The Young, The Old and The State: Social Care Systems in Five Industrial Nations, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., 2003, 206pp, with Jorma Sipilä and Anneli Anttonen.
• Social Policy, Oxford University Press, 3rd Edition, 722pp 2007,  with Nick Manning and Sarah Vickerstaff.
• ‘ On Being a Welfare Consumer in a Consumer Society’, in Social Policy and Society, 2, 1, 65-71, 2003.
• ‘ The Personal Social Services and Community Care’, in P. Alcock et al. (eds) The Student’s Companion to Social Policy, 2nd Edition, Blackwell Publishing, 2003.
• ‘ Culture: the missing variable in understanding social policy?’, in Social Policy and Administration, vol. 33, no. 4, 1999, pp 458-473.
• ‘ Caring and Dependency: Age and Disability’ in M. May et al. (eds), Understanding Social Problems: Issues in Social Policy, Basil Blackwell, 2001.
• ‘ Old Age, Consumerism and the Social Care Market’ in Social Policy Review, vol 10, 1998, pp 165-182.
• ‘ Social Care in Old Age: more than a funding problem’, Social Policy and Administration, vol 31, No 1, March 1997, pp73-89.
• ‘Managing the Family: Productivity, Scheduling and the Male Veto’, in Social Policy and Administration, vol 38, no. 6, 2004, pp706-720 (with J. Hadlow)       
• ‘Deficiencies in British Social Care Services and the (Efficiency) Consequences of an Administrative rather than a Democratic Politics of Community Care’ in Martin Knapp et al (eds), Long-Term Care: Matching Resources and Needs, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2004, pp35-44.
• ‘Identity, Meaning and Social Support’ in Alan Walker (ed.), Understanding Quality of Life in Old Age, Open University Press, Maidenhead, 2005, pp130-45.

Memberships

Member of editorial board of Social Policy and Administration
Social Policy Association
British Society of Gerontology