University of Kent

Research

General Research Interests

I am primarily a sociologist of work, especially interested in the meanings work has for people, and the (gendered) interconnections between work activities undertaken in different socio-economic relations (e.g. paid and unpaid). I have carried out research on elites and migrants using oral history/life history and narrative analysis approaches. I am also interested in processes of sense-making and accounting beyond work, for instance in how people express forms of belonging or difference, and how they make distinctions between themselves and others. Much of my research is comparative, and I have a particular interest in France and Italy.

Current Research Projects

I have recently developed an interest in visual sociology. In a project entitled, The Labour of Refurbishment, and in collaboration with Peter Hatton (Event and Experience Design, School of Drama, Film and Visual Arts), I have documented the process and work of refurbishment of an historic building on the University of Kent’s Medway campus. This involved photographing the work in progress, as well as undertaking interviews and observation on-site. An exhibition from the project took place within the building in December 2007.

I am currently undertaking preliminary research (supported by a Faculty Research Grant) to develop a funding proposal about Airports as Workspaces, bringing together the fields of work and mobility, and also making use of visual methods. This will be an ethnographic study of different forms of work which take place in and around airport terminal buildings, work that both supports travel and is generated by it.

Jointly with Dr Jo Warner, I am coordinating several research activities which explore the social, historical, cultural, economic, and geographical implications of the regeneration of the Medway region within the Thames Gateway. Together with other colleagues, we are organising an interdisciplinary Symposium entitled, Medway Lives, Gateway Futures, to take place in Thursday 10 April 2008, which will serve as a forum for critical dialogue on the future of Medway, and clarify significant directions for research.

Past Research Projects

2004-06 Transformations of Work (ESRC funded)

The Transformations of Work research programme, directed by Miriam Glucksmann at the University of Essex, explored the concept and activity of work, focusing on interconnections between work undertaken in different socio-economic conditions, and analysed how work is distinguished from or embedded within non-work activities and relationships. Within this, I analysed configurations and meanings of elder care work in Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK. (See articles in Sociology and Sociological Research Online.)

2000-04 Women Migrants from East to West (EU funded)

This oral history project of women migrants from East and Central Europe to Italy and the Netherlands analysed the themes of love, work, home, communication, and food in an exploration of what sorts of subjectivity come about through contemporary forms of mobility. It also analysed relationships between migrant and native women, and is published as Women Migrants from East to West (Berghahn Books, 2007).

1995-2000 International Comparative Leadership Study (EU funded)

This cross-national collaborative study of the working lives and career trajectories of men and women in business and politics was published as Gendering Elites (Macmillan, 2000). Building on the survey data, I conducted career history interviews in Belgium , Britain and France for my PhD, a comparative sociological analysis of how careers happen.

 

Publications

Books

(2007) Passerini, Luisa, Dawn Lyon Enrica Capussotti and Ioanna Laliotou (eds.) Women Migrants from East to West: Gender, Mobility and Belonging in Contemporary Europe . Berghahn Books.

 

Articles

• (forthcoming, 2008) ‘Moral and Cultural Boundaries in Representations of Migrant Women in Italy’ International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care.
• (2008) (with Miriam Glucksmann) ‘Comparative Configurations of Care Work across Europe’ Sociology 42(1): 101-18.
• (2006) (with Miriam Glucksmann) ‘Configurations of Care Work: Paid and Unpaid Elder Care in Italy and the Netherlands ' Sociological Research Online 11(2): <http://www.socresonline.org.uk/11/2/glucksmann.html>.
• (2006) ‘The Organisation of Care Work in Italy : Gender and Migrant Labor in the New Economy' Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 13(1): 207-24.
• (2004) (with Alison Woodward) ‘Gender, Time and the Top: Cultural Constructions of Time in High L eve l Careers and Homes', European Journal of Women's Studies 11(2): 205-21.

Book Chapters

• (2007) ‘Moral and Cultural Boundaries in Representations of Migrants: Italy and the Netherlands in Comparative Perspective' Luisa Passerini, Dawn Lyon, Enrica Capussotti and Ioanna Laliotou (eds.) Women Migrants from East to West: Gender, Mobility and Belonging in Contemporary Europe . Berghahn Books.
• (2007) (with Nadejda Alexandrova) ‘Imaginary Geographies: Border-places and ‘Home' in the Narratives of Migrant Women' in Passerini et al . (as above).
• (2007) (with Enrica Capussotti and Ioanna Laliotou) ‘Migrant Women in Work' in Passerini et al . (as above).
• (2000) (with Alison Woodward) ‘Gendered Time and Women's Access to Power', in Mino Vianello and Gwen Moore (eds.) Gendering Elites, Economic and Political Leadership in 27 Industrialised Countries . Basingstoke : Macmillan.

Other Selected Publications

• (2007) ‘Elite Culture', Routledge International Encyclopaedia on Men and Masculinities .
• (2005) (with Debora Spini) Legislative Note: ‘Unveiling the Headscarf Debate' Feminist Legal Studies 12: 333-345.
• (2002) (with Luisa Passerini and Liana Borghi (eds.)) Gender Studies in Europe/Studi di genere in Europa Florence, Italy: RSCAS-EUI/Università di Firenze/ATHENA,pp169: http://www.eui.eu/RSCAS/etexts/2002GenderBook.pdf

Other Outputs

Exhibition (with Peter Hatton): The Refurbishment of the Rochester Building, December 2007. As part of a research project on the labour of refurbishment of a former naval building on the University of Kent’s Medway campus, an exhibition from the project took place in December 2007, comprising photos, found objects and a slide-show of images of the building works. This was set to a sound-track of voices of some of the building’s former naval occupants whom we invited to make revisits to the building during the refurbishment. Several images have been placed on permanent display in the café and other spaces of the building.

Teaching

I currently convene the Stage 2 Research Methods in Sociology module (BSc Social Sciences, Medway), and deliver the oral history component of Theory and Method in Historical Research (Stage 2). I also convene the Stage 3 Dissertation module, and teach methods workshops for dissertation students. In 2008, I am teaching a new module on Gender, Work and Employment in the Twenty-First Century, which focuses on contemporary conceptualisations, representations, practices and meanings of work. I am also developing a module on Visual Sociology.