Research interests
I have a longstanding interest in diversity, work and organization. In recent years, this has been explored through two key strands of research: first, looking at how age intersects with work and careers. Funded by the Nuffield Foundation, I have studied the experiences of older apprentices in England (with Alison Fuller, Lorna Unwin and Gayna Davey) and, together with colleagues at the ESRC’s LLAKES Research Centre, Institute of Education, University College, London, investigated young people’s entry routes into different regional labour markets in the UK in times of austerity. A new book Getting In and Getting On in the Youth Labour Market has been published (2019, with Rachel J. Wilde) with Bristol University Press.
Second, I explore how working lives and intersecting aspects of identity such as gender and race are transformed through processes of migration. I have conducted empirical research in China, Hong Kong and South Africa, looking at how whiteness provides an important resource in the making of new lives and identities in postcolonial contexts. This work has been published in articles and books including Expatriate Identities in Postcolonial Organizations: Working Whiteness (2010) Migration, Space and Transnational Identities: The British in South Africa (2014, with Daniel Conway), Immigration to China in the Post-Reform Era: Destination China (2018, with Angela Lehmann) and British Migration: Globalisation, Transnational Identities and Multiculturalism (2019, with Katie Walsh).
My interest in the changing nature of working lives has most recently
been pursued through research which is exploring the impact of new digital technologies such as AI on the future of work, professions and careers. Through conducting an ethnography in a global engineering organization funded by the ESRC’s IAA, I am investigating the diverse ways in which technologies are imagined and positioned in professional work futures. This has been published in a report with Dr Roger Tyers (2019) Engineering the Revolution: A Social Approach to Digitisation in the Infrastructure Industry. I am also interested in the relationship between AI, diversity and infrastructure, and how this may impact on the design of smart cities.
This interest connects with previous research on how changing working space can impact on senses of identity and well-being. Research funded by the British Council of Offices led to the report Making the Workplace Work and an article which won a BSA Climate Change Prize in 2014.
I have also conducted research on the third sector, as part of the ESRC’s Third Sector Research Centre, in a project entitled Third Sector Organizations: working lives and careers (with Susan Halford and Katie Bruce).
External Research Projects
Engineering the Revolution: A Social Approach to Digitisation in the Infrastructure Industry
Research project(s)
Does Apprenticeship Work for Adults? The experiences of adult apprentices in England.
Professor Pauline LeonardEmail:Pauline.Leonard@soton.ac.uk
Room Number: 58/4058
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