Area
Sociology & Social Policy
Location
University Park
Salary
£35,116 to £46,735 per annum pro-rata depending on skills and experience. Salary progression beyond this scale is subject to performance.
Closing Date
Tuesday 30 September 2025
Interview Date
Monday 03 November 2025
Reference
SOC188525
We are now recruiting 2 full time Research Fellows to work with Stephen Farrall and colleagues at Warwick (Emily Gray) and Queen Mary College, University of London (Maria Grasso) on their research into politics and crime. The research is funded by the Leverhulme Trust. The School and the University more widely is determined to provide a diverse and inclusive environment for staff and students which draws on the widest possible range of talents and backgrounds.
The aim of the research is to explore the long-term impact of New Labour’s social and economic policies on the lives life-courses of those born in the early-1990s and -2000s using the
1970,
Next Steps and
Millennium Cohort Studies. We will assess if these policies affected the familial, educational and economic contexts for these children, and the extent to which these policies shaped their attitudes, engagement in ‘anti-social behaviour’, offending, drug use, and their risk of becoming socially excluded. The objective is to explore the ways in which a government’s social and economic agenda can shape the lives of those who grow up during its tenure. In short, our aim is to establish if the New Labour governments' suite of social policy innovations (New Deals, Sure Start, Connexions and the such like) had any demonstrable impact on the lives and life-courses of those who grew up during the late-1990s and early-2000s. This will involve not only detailed analyses, but working closely with Justice Futures and their interest in systems approaches to develop an understanding of the complexity, blockages and opportunities across the various systems (social and criminal justice policy areas) during the Blair Government so as to be able to feed into the recently elected government's policy discussions.
The main form of analytic techniques used will be time series modelling, age-period-cohort modelling and structural equation modelling. Whilst applicants need not to be familiar with ALL of these, they ought to be familiar with ONE (and to state in their application clearly which they are familiar with and their degree of expertise). Experience of geo-coded data analyses and Propensity Score Matching would also be relevant. Expert interviews will also form part of the analyses.
Strong theoretical, empirical research and writing skills are essential. Successful applicants will have experiencein
one or more of the following areas:
An understanding of the literature relating to ‘Blairism’ and to the study of legacy effects in policy analyses
A high level of competency with time series modelling OR age-period- cohort modelling OR structural equation modelling
A very good working knowledge of statistically packages such as SPSS, AMOS, Stata or R
Experience of cleaning, recoding and cataloguing large and complex data sets suitable for time-dependent or longitudinal data analyses is essential
Experience of undertaking qualitative 1-1 interviews or expert interviews would be desirable but is not essential
Excellent organisational skills.
In addition to the above skills, the applicant should be able to work as part of a team, but also to work unsupervised where necessary. The role will also involve literature searching as well as maintaining excellent relationships with partners outside the University (such as with members of Parliament and other stakeholder), summarising findings, and contributing where necessary to the final report. Office space will be provided in the School, but there is no requirement that the appointed individuals would need to live in Nottingham.
This is a fixed term, full-time (36.25 hours per week) position available until 29 February 2028. Job share arrangements may be considered. Requests for secondment from internal candidates may be considered on the basis that prior agreement has been sought from both your current line manager and the manager of your substantive post, if you are already undertaking a secondment role.
The Leverhulme Trust’s funding regulations mean that individuals will have needed to have submitted their PhD thesis prior to commencing employment on the project (but they do not need to have had their viva by the time they commence employment).
The interviews are likely to take place be during the week commencing 3 rd November 2025.
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Further details:
- Job Description/Role Profile
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