Dr Jana Javornik

Profile

Qualifications

I have a PhD in Social Policy from the University of Southampton, MPhil in Sociology from Ljubljana and MSc in Social Policy from Universities of Roskilde, Bath, Pavia, Maynooth, Madrid, Leuven, and Bergen), and a BA in Sociology from Ljubljana. My degrees were interdisciplinary, combining sociology, social policy, statistics, political science and development, economics, demography and research methods.

Experience

I am Associate Professor in Work and Employment Relations. I returned to Leeds in November 2018, after my tenure at the University of East London, where I worked as Associate Professor in Social Policy and Director of Noon Centre for Equality and Diversity in Business. Prior to that, I was a research fellow in Sociology and Social Policy here at Leeds and Ume University in Sweden, after having spent more than ten years in policy making, working as Senior Policy Advisor for central governments and high-profile international organisations, including the European Commission, World Bank, and ILO. Among others, I was Editor-in-Chief of the UNDP national Human Development Reports and Stability Pact Project Manager for the Balkans, having developed programmes on gender empowerment under the auspices of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe. I helped set up a Gender Task Force and a CEE Network for Gender Issues, comprising gender organisations from Eastern Europe and the CiS, North Africa and the Middle East, now serving as their Adviser.

Academic Citizenship

I  am  member  of  Transforming  Care  Conference  Scientific  Committee and  Special  Interest Groups  of  the  international  Work-Family  Researchers  Network.  I  serve on the Editorial Boards of Work, Employment & Society; International  Journal  of Care  and  Caring; and  Journal  Druzboslovne  razprave  (by  the  Slovenian  Sociological  Association); and as Associate  Editor of the Journal  of  Family  Studies and Guest co-Editor of Journal  of  Comparative  Policy Analysis.

I pen for and my research has been featured in The Economist, The Conversation, Guardian and Observer, Financial Times, Forbes, Bloomberg, Telegraph. I comment for the BBC (radio and TV), TNT and Slovenian national radio and TV. 

Research interests

Research

My current research interests include:

1. Comparative work-family policies and their impact across social groups and welfare states, the persistence and change of inequalities at the intersection of production and social reproduction.
2. Equality, diversity and inclusion in the labour market; opportunity gaps in the labour markets; recruitment, retainment and progression; diversity management and changing organisational practices more broadly.
3. Conceptualisations and methods of comparative policy analysis; indicator development and (policy) data visualisation.

Geographically, I focus on the Nordics, Central and Eastern Europe, and the United Kingdom.

I  have  published  across  these areas and  received  funding  from  UKCES (UK Futures Programme),  UNDP,  European  Commission,  the  International  Labour  Organisation,  the  World Bank, Gatsby and Noon Foundation, Ad Futura (Slovene Human Resources Development and Scholarship Fund), the Norwegian Financial Mechanism Programme, Stiftelsen Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, Norrlands Universitetssjukhus.

My  work  has  led  to  the  production  of  high  profile  policy  reports, including co-authored  Social Situation  in  Europe  reports  for  the  European  Commission,  Human  Development  Reports  for  the  UNDP, and a  range  of  reports  for  Slovenian  central  government.  I  have  contributed to the UKCES report  on Futures  programme,  exploring  employers'  initiatives  around  gendered  opportunity  gaps,  looking specifically  at  high  and  low  pay  sectors. 

My  research  around  equality, diversity  and inclusion has been used  by  a  broad  network  of  users,  and I  advise CEOs  of  FTSE100  and  Bloomberg  on  gender pay  gap  reporting,  the  Slovenian  and Scottish governments on  family  policy, Londons Mayor on Good Work Standards, and BITC on the Times Top 50 Employers for Women list. I am a member of the Government Equalities Offices WAGE programme and Barking and Dagenham Equalities Sub Group, and I co-organise the Global Equality and Diversity Conference and Awards (www.gedconference.com).

Research Affiliations

I am affiliated with University of Stockholm (SOFI) and Umea in Sweden; Alberta (Human Ecology; Canada);Utrecht;  Central  European  Labour  Studies  Institute  (EU); Iceland and Copenhagen  Business  Schools;  Roskilde University (Denmark)  University of Ljubljana; and Work  Futures  Research  Centre  (Southampton).

Qualifications

• PhD in Comparative Social Policy, University of Southampton
• MPhil in Sociology, University of Ljubljana
• MSc in Comparative Social Policy, Maynooth, Bath, Roskilde, Pavia, Madrid, Bergen, Leuven
• BA Sociology, University of Ljubljana

Professional memberships

• ESPAnet
• Work-Family Researchers Network
• SPA
• Sociological Associations

Student education

I teach on undergraduate and postgraduate courses on topics related to work-family policy, employment and public policy, gender inequality, diversity management, human resource management, people's analytics, social policy, and research methods.

I supervise undergraduate and master-level students, PhD students and post-doctoral researchers across UoL and overseas.

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Employment Relations, Innovation and Change

Current postgraduate researchers

• Clare Matysova