I am at the University of Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, Canterbury campus. See the rest of the Social Policy and Sociology teams.

My work focuses on embodiment.  In The Body in Health and Social Care, Palgrave 2006, I reflected on the relevance of new theorising in relation to the body for a series of policy relevant areas. These included: age and ageing, disability, medicine and health care, diet and health, social care, public and private space.

The main focus of my current work is clothing and age. I have a series of interconnected projects that explore the role of clothing and dress in the changing constitution of age. These are described in greater detail below and the Clothing and Age website.

I have also been particularly interested in analysing carework as a form of bodywork. I am co-editor with others of a special issue of Sociology of Health and Illness on bodywork.

Career

I joined the teaching department at Kent in 1996. Previously I had been in the Social Policy department of the University of Hull. My earlier social policy career was in two research units: Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of York, and Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) at University of Kent. Originally I trained as a sociologist at LSE where I did my Masters and PhD on vegetarianism.

Education

I completed my PhD in Sociology and MSc (Econ) Sociology with conversion year at the London School of Economics and my BA Hons in History at the University of Durham.

Find me:

Visit my websites: Kent Sociology and Clothing and Age project.

• J. Twigg (forthcoming 2012) 'Fashion and Age: Dress, the Body and Later Life', Oxford: Berg
• J.Twigg (2012) ‘Adjusting the cut: fashion, the body and age on the UK high street, Ageing & Society
• J. Twigg (2010) ‘How does Vogue negotiate age?: fashion, the body and the older woman’,  Fashion Theory, 14, 4, 471-90.
• J. Twigg (2010 f) ‘Dementia and dress: a neglected dimension’, Journal of Aging Studies, 24, 223-30.
• J. Twigg (2010) ‘Welfare embodied: the materiality of hospital dress: a commentary on Topo and Iltanen-Tahkavuori’,  Social Science & Medicine, 70, 1690-92
• J. Twigg (2009) ‘Clothing, identity and the embodiment of age’, in J. Powell and T. Gilbert (eds) Aging and Identity: A Postmodern  Dialogue, New York: Nova Science Publishers, pp 93-104.
• J.Twigg (2008) ‘Clothing, ageing and me – routes to research’,  Journal of Aging Studies, 22, 2, 158-62
• J. Twigg, (2007) ‘Clothing, age and the body: a critical review’,  Ageing & Society, 27, 285-305
• J. Twigg (2006) The Body in Health and Social Care, London: Palgrave.
• J. Twigg (2004) 'The body, gender and age: feminist insights in social gerontology' Journal of Ageing Studies, 18, 59-73
• J.Twigg (2003) 'The body and bathing: help with personal care at home' in C.A.Faircloth (ed) Ageing Bodies: Images and Everyday Experiences, Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press
• J.Twigg, (2002) 'The body in social policy: mapping a territory', Journal of Social Policy, 31, 3, 421-440
• J.Twigg (2002) 'The bodywork of care' in L.Andersson (ed) Cultural Gerontology, Westport CT: Greenwood
• J.Twigg 'Carework as bodywork' (2000) Ageing and Society, 20, 389-411, 2000
• J.Twigg, (2000) Bathing, the Body and Community Care, London: Routledge
• J.Twigg (1999)'The spatial ordering of care: public and private in bathing support at home' Sociology of Health and Illness, 21, 4, 381-400
• J.Twigg and K.Atkin (1994) Carers Perceived: Policy and Practice in Informal Care Milton Keynes: Open University Press

Research interests

The main focus of my work is embodiment and age. My interests cross the sociology/social policy divide. Much of my recent work has been concerned with bringing sociological insights to areas of social policy that are not traditionally analysed in these terms, notably social care. 

Current

My current work is located in cultural gerontology. I am co-editing for Routledge The Handbook of Cultural Gerontology which will bring together key authors and subjects in this emerging field.

I am the joint convenor, with Dr Wendy Martin of Brunel University, of the British Sociological Society Study Group BSA Study Group: Ageing, Body and Society. The group has an active programme of seminars and day conferences with international speakers.

Clothing, age and the body

I am currently engaged in a series of interconnected research projects addressing the role of clothing and dress in the changing constitution of age.

The research I am currently writing up, funded by ESRC, explores the intersection between ageing, the body and dress from the perspectives of both older women and the fashion system, addressing debates about identity and consumption.
Related papers (PDF files):

• Adjusting the cut: fashion, the body and age on the UK high street, Ageing & Society
• Clothing, Age and the Body.
• How does Vogue negotiate age?: Fashion, the Body and the Older Woman.
• Welfare embodied: the materiality of hospital dress: A commentary on Topo and Iltanen-Tähkävuori.

Consumption, babyboomers and later life

The research in conjunction with Dr Shinobu Majima and funded by British Academy, explores the spending patterns of cohorts of older women, 1961-2006, in relation to clothing, hairdressing and cosmetics.

Dementia and dress

I am starting a new ESRC funded project on dementia and dress, exploring questions around embodiment, identity and the self.

 

 

Past

I have undertaken research on a range of subjects including:

• Study of bathing and personal care for older people, ESRC-funded, Bathing – the Body and Community Care, Routledge, 2000
• Support for informal carers, funded by the Department of Health and undertaken at Social Policy Research Unit, University of York. Twigg, J and Atkin, K. Carers Perceived, Open University Press 1994
• International comparisons in relation to informal care, OECD funded.
• Evaluation of domiciliary care for older people, Department of Health funded, PSSRU, University of Kent
• Vegetarianism in nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a study in the structure of an ideology

Supervision

My interests cross the borders of sociology and social policy and I am keen to supervise students in the areas of my past and current research, as well as in fields where I have a reading and research interest but am not currently doing research. These include:

• Clothing and dress
• The body in health and social care
• Ageing and the body
• Cultural theories of ageing
• Social care and older people
• Home care and residential services
• Carework and the care workforce
• Spatial and temporal analysis of social and health care
• Cultures of bathing
• Food
• Informal care

I would be particularly interested in supervising studies on the following:

• Older men and clothing
• Aesthetic labour at work: age discrimination, and the management of appearance through clothing at work for 50+
• Role of institutional dress in relation to long stay faculties in the past for both older and disabled people, a historical study
• Ethnographic study of the role of clothing within long term care facilities
• Ethnographic study of food in care institutions
• Work on design of clothing for older people
• Hairdressing and appearance in relation to older women
• Clothing and death
  
  

If you have a proposal in these areas and you are interested in studying at the University of Kent, please email me to discuss further.

Current

I teach a variety of subjects across the school. My specialist areas include: The Social Politics of Food and Social Care. I also teach on postgraduate courses and act as a PhD supervisor.

• Joint convener of BSA Study Group Ageing, Body and Society.

Editorial

• Editorial board member of Journal of Social Policy.
• Editorial board member of Ageing & Society.
• Editorial board member of Journal of Aging Studies.
• Editorial board member of International Journal of Ageing and Later Life.
  

Websites of interest in this field

• Clothing and Age project