Economy and Society

Intellectual Focus
Members of this cluster firstly share a concern with the nature of contemporary economic knowledges, including a critical engagement with both economics and economic sociology, the role of economic knowledges in economic life, and the reconstruction of economic categories from within social research. Secondly, there is a strong concern with transnationalism, development and globalization, engaged through clear empirical focuses (for example, development discourses and practices, creative industries policy, corporations and regulatory bodies). Finally, the cluster has a strong track record in several substantive areas that group members in diverse ways, above all: work and employment, risk and regulation, money and value, consumption and market society, technology and economy.

Key members of cluster

Nigel Dodd, Senior Lecturer in Sociology: sociology of money; theoretical conceptions of economic life; European monetary integration and the euro; the interface between money and markets; alternative and complementary monies (the future of money).
Bridget Hutter, Professor of Risk Regulation at the LSE: The sociology of regulation and risk management. The regulation of economic life with particular reference to regulatory enforcement; corporate responses to regulation; and risk-based regulation. The social control of organizations, and corporate risk management.
Patrick McGovern, Senior Lecturer in Sociology: Economic sociology, especially the sociology of work and labour markets. Changes in the employment relationship, including the impact of new employment practices on traditional forms of inequality at work. International migration, especially the employment and social mobility of immigrants in Britain and the US.
Don Slater, Reader in Sociology: theories of consumer culture and market society; economy and culture; technology and economy; new media, development and poverty reduction
Fran Tonkiss, Lecturer in Sociology: markets and marketization; trust and social capital; capitalism and globalization; economic rights and economic governance

Doctoral students
22 research students registered in Sociology are primarily working on core concerns of this cluster such as employment and the professions, money, social entrepreneurship, creative industries policy, risk and regulation and globalization. Many of these are funded by UK and non-UK funding councils. Although these students are not currently grouped into a research seminar, there have been student-organized economic sociology seminar series in the past, and we are currently seeking funding for a more formalized seminar programme beginning next session.

Postdoctoral fellows
We currently have one visiting research associate - Dr Karl Palmaas - and one application pending for an ESRC postdoctoral fellow

Esteem

Dodd: given plenary lectures on the sociology of money in Russia, Italy, Portugal, Sweden and Germany, and is regularly invited to contribute to the European Economic Sociology Newsletter (including the article 'Economic Sociology in the UK'). He has assessed research proposals and reports in economic sociology for the ESRC, as well as articles for journals including The American Journal of Sociology and Economy and Society. His books and papers have been translated into Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Korean and Romanian. He is a member of the editorial board of The British Journal of Sociology.
Hutter: was Director of a leading national and international interdisciplinary centre for risk regulation studies which successfully attracted funding from the ESRC, British Academy, Leverhulme, and various business sources from 1999. She is Editor of the BJS where she has been responsible for its relaunch and the introduction of new initiatives to take the lead in contemporary debates here and abroad. She is member of various national committees including being a Member of Royal Society of Arts 'Science, Business and Society' Network; Member of Social Market Foundation Risk Commission, 2004. Her work influences the Better Regulation Task Force and Better Regulation Executive and she is author of reports to Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry; Health and Safety Executive; Railway Industry and Unions; and Environment Agency. Internationally she has been World Economic Forum Fellow since 2004; UK Delegate OECD Global Science Forum Workshop on Science and Technology for a Safer Society, December 05 Tokyo; an invited member of Law and Society Association International Affairs Committee; and Member of Regulation and Governance Editorial Board.
McGovern: Member of editorial board of Work, Employment and Society, a journal of the British Sociological Association (2000-03); Book Reviews Editor, British Journal of Industrial Relations, January 2007-; Occasional referee/rapporteur for Economic and Social Research Council and Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences; Visiting Professor, Department of Sociology, Princeton University, USA (2006-07) supported by Leverhulme Study Abroad Fellowship.
Slater: was co-editor and joint founding editor of the Journal of Consumer Culture (2000-2005); and series editor, New Technologies/New Cultures, for Berg, Oxford. He is a member of the advisory committee for the ESRC Cultures of Consumption research programme, and regularly assesses research proposals to the ESRC, as well as to the American, Canadian, Dutch and Swedish social science research councils. Books and articles have been translated in Portuguese, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, Hungarian, Dutch and Finnish.
Tonkiss: has been Visiting Professor at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and Visiting Fellow at the University of Technology, Sydney, and the University of Adelaide, Australia. Reviewer of research grants for the ESRC (Research Grants Scheme; Non-governmental Public Action Research Programme; and ESRC/AHRB Cultures of Consumption Research Programme), and the Wiener Wissenschafts-, Forschungs-, und Technoligiefonds (Vienna Science and Technology Fund) Science for Creative Industries Programme. Member of the editorial boards of the British Journal of Sociology and Senses and Society.
Linked Masters Programme
There is no discrete Master's Programme linked to this cluster; however, cluster members offer well-subscribed Master's courses in Approaches to Globalisation; Economic Sociology; Regulation, Risk and Economic Life; Sociology of Consumption; and Sociology of Employment - this slate of courses means that the sociology of economic life forms a significant part of the academic profile of Sociology Master's programmes.
Funded Research
Since 2001:
Slater:
ICTs for Poverty Reduction (UNESCO) - £30,000;
Information Society: comparative ethnographies of ICTs and poverty reduction (Department for International Development) - £238,000.
Hutter:
ESRC Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation £2.55M
McGovern:
'Changing employment relationships, employment contracts and the future of work'. (With Stephen Hill, Colin Mills and Michael White). Proposal amounting to £345,049 from the 1998 ESRC Future of Work Initiative (Phase I). April 1999 - September 2002. End of Award Evaluation: Good.
'Employers' Workplace Policies in an Environment of Change'. (with Stephen Hill, Colin Mills and Michael White). Award amounting to £124,194 under Phase II of the ESRC Future of Work Initiative. February 2001- September 2002. End of Award Evaluation: Outstanding.
'In Search of the Market-Driven Employment Relationship', (with Stephen Hill and Colin Mills). Award amounting to £4,995 from STICERD, April 2002-December 2003.
Leverhulme Study Abroad Fellowship (2006-07). £17,000.

Outreach
A funded seminar programme is currently being planned to commence next session.

Future Strategy
The Economy and Society research cluster comprises largely independent scholars who nonetheless share significant overlapping intellectual and research concerns, and often work in close collaboration (e.g., joint publications and co-supervision of PhD students). In keeping with this, the cluster is not anticipating following the typical route of establishing a centre or an associated MSc programme. Rather, we are seeking to deepen our existing connections by organizing events and to establish a regular forum that will give our PhD students a clearer group identity.