Dr Charlie Walker

Research groups

Research interests

• Postsocialism
• Masculinities
• Care leavers
• Youth transitions

Current research

Charlie’s work combines the application of social scientific theories and approaches with an area studies skillset rooted in an understanding of Russian language and Russian and Eurasian histories and cultures. His aim in combining these skills and approaches is not only to illuminate social change in post socialist Eurasia, but also to reflect back on the ongoing ‘methodological nationalism’ of much Western theorising about social change.

Charlie’s doctoral and postdoctoral research explored processes of social stratification surrounding youth transitions to adulthood, focusing in particular on the influences of class, gender and place in shaping differential educational and labour market outcomes amongst young people in post-socialist states. His contributions to the field include the monograph Learning to Labour in post-Soviet Russia (Routledge 2011) and the edited collection Youth and Social Change in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union (Routledge 2012).

More recently Charlie has conducted research on working-class men and masculinities in Russia, examining men’s gendered performances at home, work and leisure and exploring the relationship between these performances and different dimensions of wellbeing. This research has been the subject of a number of journal articles and book chapters and will be the basis of a forthcoming monograph. Charlie conducted similar research in Ukraine for a multi-country study based at the Institute for Development Studies, which explored the changing shape of masculinities and the wellbeing of men in a range of transition countries. He is also editor of a recent collection in the Palgrave Global Masculinities series, Masculinity, Labour and Neoliberalism: Working-Class Men in International Perspective (2017).

Another of Charlie’s core research interests is transitions to adulthood amongst young people leaving care in Russia and elsewhere in postsocialist Eurasia. A recent project, funded by the British Academy, explored the forms of aftercare support available to leavers of both traditional state children’s homes and alternative care in relation to housing, education, employment and mentoring, as well as sources of resilience both within and after care. This research, which draws together insights both from state and non-governmental actors involved in managing young people’s transitions from care, is intended to act as a template for a wider project on care leavers in postsocialist Eurasia.

Charlie has presented his research to a range of non-academic as well as academic audiences, including the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD or World Bank), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the British Council in Russia, and the BEARR Trust.

Alongside his research interests, Charlie has interests in qualitative and ethnographic research methods, and was editor (with Sue Heath) of Innovations in Youth Research (Palgrave 2012).

Charlie is a member of the steering group of the Work Futures Research Centre, and a member of the Work and Organisations and Comparative Social Policy Research Clusters within SSPC.

He was co-Editor-in-Chief of Sociological Research Online from 2016-2020 and is a member of the editorial board of SRO and of the Journal of Youth Studies. He is also a long-standing member of the British Sociological Association as well as the British Association of Slavonic and East European Studies.

Research projects