Professor Sue Heath

School of Social Sciences
University of Southampton
Southampton
SO17 1BJ

Position: Professor of Sociology
Telephone: (023) 8059 2578
Email: Sue.Heath@soton.ac.uk

Biography

Sue Heath is a Professor of Sociology, and a co-director of both the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods and the ESRC Centre for Population Change. She joined the University in 1998, having previously taught in the Department of Sociology at the University of Manchester and before that having worked in various contract research posts in the North West. Her first degree was in Social Administration at the University of Bristol (1984-1987), and her PhD research - a study of education feminisms, vocational education and the impact of equal opportunities policies - was conducted at Lancaster University in the Departments of Applied Social Science and Educational Research (1990-1994).

Research interests

Sue's substantive research interests are located within the sociology of youth and the sociology of education. Much of her recent research and writing has focused on single young adults, household formation and the redefinition of 'adulthood', reflecting her broader interest in processes of transition to adulthood. Through her co-directorship of the ESRC Centre for Population Change, Sue is involved in a number of projects focusing on household dynamics and living arrangements across the life course. These include a three year project (2009-12) with Derek McGhee and Paulina Trevena (University of Southampton) and Allan Findlay (University of Dundee) focusing on international labour mobility and its impact on family and household formation amongst Polish migrant workers living in England and Scotland, and a one year project on young people and their housing pathways with Emma Calvert. Sue also has a strong interest in research methodology, including in relation to research ethics. Sue is co-author (with Rachel Brooks, Liz Cleaver and Eleanor Ireland) of 'Researching Young People's Lives' (published by Sage in March 2009), and is joint editor (with Fiona Devine) of 'Doing Social Research' (published by Palgrave in September 2009).

Research students

Sue is interested in supervising MPhil/PhD students in any of the areas listed above, or in related areas. She is currently looking to recruit a suitably qualified student to an ESRC +3 studentship linked to the Centre for Population Change (to start Oct 2010, or sooner if possible). The studentship will focus on the domestic and housing transitions of gay and lesbian young people. Please contact Sue directly if you are interested in this opportunity. She is currently supervising MPhil/PhD students in the following areas: transitions to HE of young people with autism; the experiences of Asian young women in HE; and young people's access to advice and information services. Past PhD topics have included: young people, their friends and their HE choices; the impact of Connexions on the lives of young people; the higher education choices of students in an independent sixth form; and young people and pension planning. She has also supervised Masters dissertations on a range of topics, including most recently dissertations on care leavers' experiences of Higher Education, the experiences of Chinese students studying in the UK, gay men's perceptions of ageing, and the effects of decentralisation in secondary education on academic outcomes.

Teaching activities

Sue teaches in a number of areas. Units taught in 2008/9 included the Sociology of Everyday Life, Education and Society, and Research Skills.

Roles

Co-Director, ESRC National Centre for Research Methods; Co-Director, ESRC Centre for Population Change; Chair of School Ethics Committee

Selected publications

Books
	Fuller, A, Heath, S and Johnston, B 2010 The New Widening Participation: Including ‘Ordinary’ People. London: Routledge., Forthcoming
	Heath, S., Brooks, R., Cleaver, E., and Ireland, E. 2009 Researching Young People's Lives. London: Sage.224 On-line abstract
	Sue Heath & Elizabeth Cleaver 2003 Young, Free and Single. Twenty-Somethings and Household Change. Palgrave Macmillan. On-line abstract
	Sue Heath & Fiona Devine 1999 Sociological Research Methods in Context. Macmillan. On-line abstract, (ISBN: 0-333-66632-1)
	Sue Heath 1997 Preparation for Life? Vocationalism and the Equal Opportunities Challenge. Aldershot: Ashgate. On-line abstract, (ISBN: 1-85972-647-X)
	Deem, R., Brehony, K., and Heath, S 1995 Active Citizenship and the Governing of Schools Active Citizenship and the Governing of Schools. Open University Press.

Edited books and volumes
	Heath, S and Walker, C (eds) 2011 Innovations in Youth Research. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan., Forthcoming
	Devine, F and Heath, S (Eds) (eds) 2009 Doing Social Science: Evidence and Methods in Empirical Research. Palgrave Macmillan. On-line abstract
	Graham Crow & Sue Heath (eds) 2002 Social Conceptions of Time. Structure and Process in Work and Everyday Life. Basingstoke: Palgrave. On-line abstract, (ISBN: 0-333-98499-4)

Chapters in books
	Fuller, A and Heath, S 2010 Educational decision-making, social networks and the new widening participation Improving Learning by Widening Participation in Higher Education. London: Routledge.
	Heath, S 2009 'Young, free and single: alternative living arrangements' Furlong, A (Ed) Handbook of Youth and Young Adulthood: New Perspectives and Agendas. London: Routledge.
	Heath, S and Cleaver, E 2004 Mapping the spatial in shared households: a missed opportunity? In Knowles, C and Sweetman, P (eds), Picturing the Social Landscape. Routledge.
	Sue Heath 2003 Retour aux sources. L'attrait ambivalent do foyer parental en Grande-Bretagne. In Emmanuelle Maunaye, Marc Molgat (eds), Les jeunes adultes et leurs parents (pp. 75-100). Quebec: Les Presses de l'université Laval.
	Sue Heath 2002 Domestic and Housing Transitions and the Negotiation of Intimacy. In Mark Cieslik and Gary Pollock (eds), People in Risk Society. The Restructuring of Youth Identities and Transitions in Late Modernity (pp. 117-136). Aldershot: Ashgate.
	Heath, S and Kenyon, E 2001 'Young adults and shared household living: Achieving independence through the (re)negotiation of peer relationships. In Helve, H and Wallace, C (eds), Youth, Citizenship and Empowerment (pp. 110-125)

Articles in journals
	Heath, S., Fuller, A and Johnston, B 2009 Chasing shadows? Exploring network boundaries in qualitative social network analysis. Qualitative Research, Forthcoming
	Heath, S 2009 ‘Full-time UK-based volunteering and the gap year’. Youth and Policy, 101, Winter 2009, 33-41.
	Heath, S., Fuller, A. and Paton, K. 2008 'Network-based ambivalence and educational decision-making: a case study of ‘non-participation’ in higher education’. Research Papers in Education, 23, 2, 219-229. On-line abstract
	Wiles, R., Crow, G., Heath, S. and Charles, V. 2008 The management of confidentiality and anonymity in social research. International Journal of Social Research Methodology , 11, 5, 417-428. On-line abstract
	Heath, S 2007 'Widening the gap: pre-university gap years and the ‘economy of experience' Brtish Journal of Sociology of Education, 28, 1, 89-103. On-line abstract
	Heath, S., Charles, V., Crow, G., and Wiles, R 2007 Informed consent, gatekeepers and go-betweens: negotiating consent in child- and youth-orientated institutions. British Educational Research Journal, 33(3), 403-417. On-line abstract, (ISSN: 0141-1926)
	Wiles R, Crow G, Charles V. & Heath S 2007 Informed consent and the research process: following rules or striking balances? Sociological Research Online, 12 (2), (ISSN: 1360-7804)
	Graham Crow, Rose Wiles, Sue Heath and Vikki Charles 2006 Research Ethics and Data Quality: The Implications of Informed Consent. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, volume 9 no 2, 83-95., (ISSN: 1364-5579)
	Wiles, R. Charles, V. Crow, G, & Heath, S. 2006 Researching researchers: lessons for research ethics . Qualitative Research, 6, 3, 283-299., (ISSN: 1468-7941)
	Heath, S 2004 Shared households, quasi-communes and neo-tribes. Current Sociology (special issue: 'Beyond the Conventional Family: Care, Intimacy and Community in the 21st Century’), 52, 2, 161-179.
	Heath, S and Kenyon, E 2001 Single young professionals and shared household living. Journal of Youth Studies, 4 (1), 83-100. On-line abstract
	Kenyon, E and Heath, S 2001 Choosing This Life: Narratives of choice amongst house sharers. Housing Studies, 16 (5), 619-635. On-line abstract
	Heath, S 1999 Watching the backlash: problematisation of young women's academic achievement in 1990s Britain. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 20, 2
	Sue Heath 1999 Young adults and household formation in the 1990s. British Journal of Sociology of Education, volume 20 number 4 On-line abstract, (ISSN: 0142 5692)
	Sue Heath 1996 Whatever happened to TVEI's equal opportunities policy? Journal of Education Policy, volume 11 number 5 On-line abstract, (ISSN: 0268-0939)

Web based
	Heath, S 2008 Housing choices and issues for young people in the UK. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.42 On-line abstract On-line article, Commissioned review for JRF

Encyclopaedia entries
	Heath, S 2010 Youth/adolescence Concise Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. Oxford: Blackwell., Forthcoming
	Heath, S 2010 Traditions of youth research Encyclopedia of Adolescence. Springer.
	Heath, S 2007 'Youth/adolescence' In Ritzer, G (eds), Blackwell Encylopaedia of Sociology

Sociology & Social Policy