Professor Vera Trappmann

Profile

I joined Leeds University in 2015 as an Associate Professor in Work and Employment Relations and become Full Professor in 2019. Prior to this I was a Junior Professor of European Studies at Magdeburg University in Germany.
I obtained my PhD at the European University Viadrina in 2009 after completing a Diplom in sociology at Bielefeld University and a Master degree in Russian and East European Studies at Stanford University. I held postdoctoral appointments at FSU Jena (2009), Osnabrueck University (2011), and Duisburg-Essen University (2014). I was invited as an international visitor to Warsaw Academy of Sciences (2011), Toulouse Business School (2011), Jagiellonen University Cracow (2006), Wissenschaftzyentrum Berlin (2023).

I am co-lead of the Priestley Just Transitions theme, which brings together academics in the university working on the links between climate and justice. I am also a Research Associate in digit Digital Futures at Work Research Centre.

Responsibilities

• Co/Lead Just Transitions theme Priestley Centre for Climate Futures
• Member of the Executive Board of Priestley Centre for Climate Futures

Research interests

In recent years, my research has focused primarily on climate change and work, examining just transitions, decarbonization, net-zero, and climate adaptation.
I am particularly interested in trade unions and their role around environmental sustainability, climate change and degrowth and how workers experience the transitions.

My work is often comparative in nature and has been funded by various national and international bodies: the UKRI Research Council; European Commission, the German Research Foundation, Hans-Boeckler Foundation, Otto-Brenner Foundation, Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation, Polish-German Science Foundation, German Academic Exchange Service, German Ministry of Research and Education, Federal states and trade unions.

I have published one monograph, 2 edited volumes, over 40 journal articles and book chapters, over 30 reports, and am currently preparing a book with Bristol University Press on Fair Work Transitions.

Currently, I lead the Leeds Competence Centre, funded by the Hans-Böckler Foundation, which provides cutting-edge research for policy-makers in Germany and beyond on the energy transition, workers, skills development, and policy support.

In the UK, I have been documenting Just Transition initiatives, studying workers’ perceptions on climate change and net zero. You find the work here.

International studies can be found here: Just in transition - a Global Exploration, which studies just transition policies and debates in 14 countries.

https://youtu.be/L51QGrEtxSU

Some of this work is documented in a documentary film and captured and discussed in podcasts.

Voices from the Green Transition - Film

Podcast series
https://soundcloud.com/leedsunibschool/sets/just-transitions-a-global

Leeds Index

In addition, I am part of the Leeds Index team, the Leeds Index of Platform Labour Protest that documents and analyses protests of platform workers across the globe.

More info here, search directly for platform protest events, or read our Award-Winning paper “How, Where and Why Do Platform Workers Protest?”

Previous work
Previously, I worked on the transition from state socialism to market economies, organisational restructuring and precarity among young people. I was leading include PREWORK "Young precarious workers in Poland and Germany: a comparative sociological study on working and living conditions, social consciousness and civic engagement", funded with 800.00 EUR by the German Science Foundation and the Polish Science Centre http://prework.eu/en As a fellow-up, we developed REPOP, a project that investigated the relation between precarity and right-wing populism in Poland and Germany, funded with 69.000 EUR by the German-Polish Science Foundation, 7/2019-07/2021 and led to the following insights of why young people become far right politicians:

Becoming a young radical right activist: Biographical pathways of the members of radical right organisations in Poland and Germany

I am talking with my co-authors about the paper here on a Leeds podcast.

Qualifications

• PhD, European-University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)
• MA, Stanford University
• MA, Bielefeld University

Student education

I have taught at numerous universities in several countries and I like to think of teaching as a way of challenging the way we think "things have to be". Currently I teach on different modules:

MA HRM/ MscConsulting: Sustainable Futures
MA HRM: Global Perspectives on HRM and Employment Relations
MA HRM: Human Resource Management
MA HRM: International Employment Policy and Labour Mobility

BA HRM: Sustainable Business Futures: Policy and Practice

BA HRM: Global Perspectives on HRM and Employment Relations
BA HRM: Business and Society (Social Theory)
BA HRM: Business and Society (Combined)

Research Supervision
I am experienced in doctoral supervision. I am currently supervising 2 PhD students. I am interested in supervising projects related to:

• Work and climate change mitigation and adaptation
• Just transitions and decarbonisation
• Globalisation, restructuring and employment relations outcomes
• Comparative studies of workplace restructuring and its impact on workers lives
• Comparative studies of labour relations
• Precarisation of work and life
• Trade unions strategy for renewal, in particular for greening the economy
• Sustainability and climate change
• Young workers
• Platform work

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Employment Relations, Innovation and Change

Current postgraduate researchers

• Ne Ma
• Denis Neumann
• Luke Nolan