Jane Parry

Sociology, Solent University
Post-Doctoral Researcher

I am a sociologist of work, and am particularly interested in what work means to people, how this changes over the lifecourse, and inequalities in people’s experiences of work.

My PhD looked at how Welsh coalmining communities had responded to the labour market restructuring which followed the 1984/85 Miners’ Strike, and prompted a long-standing interest in occupational attachments and how these shift and interact with unpaid work. In the 2000s I worked in the Employment Group at the Policy Studies Institute, focusing on disadvantage and evaluations of labour market programmes. More recently I have been looking at age-friendly workplaces, and the changing working needs of older workers.

I am currently researching issues around active ageing (particularly in terms of work and in the Asia-Pacific), flexible working, blogging and occupational mobility, and changes in working class communities.