Jane Holgate

Profile

Qualifications

Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in HE (Distinction) London Metropolitan University
PhD Queen Mary, University of London
MA (Distinction) Labour and Trade Union Studies, University of North London
BA Geography, University of Manchester.

Experience

I joined CERIC and the former Work and Employment Relations Division, now People, Work and Employment Department, in October 2010 in October 2010, moving from the Working Lives Research Institute at London Metropolitan University where managed a number of research projects on work and employment, particularly looking at migrant workers. My research interests include trade unions and the development of organising and recruitment strategies, particularly as they relate to under-represented groups in the union movement; the labour market position of migrants and black and minority ethnic groups. After seven years of working in the university sector in publications and multi-media I completed a part-time MA in Labour and Trade Union Studies at the University of North London (now merged into London Metropolitan University) and then went on to complete my doctoral research which was funded by the ESRC and the Trades Union Congress on Organising black and minority ethnic workers; trade union strategies for recruitment and inclusion at Queen Mary, University of London. Following this I was awarded an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at Queen Mary, University of London. I have also held a number of positions in the trade union movement as a branch secretary, regional council delegate and secretary of Hackney Trades Union Council. I have worked closely on research projects with a number of unions including the GMB, TGWU, CWU, Bectu, Usdaw and the Trades Union Congress. I was awarded an ESRC grant for a research project starting in 2011 entitled Broad-based community alliances: a comparative study of London and Sydney.

My research is fundamentally concerned with issues of inequality and vulnerability at work. I have developed three strands of research in relations to this. The first strand has considered the position of black and minority ethnic workers and migrant workers in the labour market and particularly the challenges of organised labour in organising, recruiting and including these workers within their organisations. This was the focus of my ESRC case studentship PhD and led to a number of further research projects including Nuffield funded study into the TUCs Organising Academy.  A second strand of my research is around equalities and what affect this has upon different groups of workers in the labour market. In a 2-year EU funded project on black and minority ethnic workers in Londons audio-visual industries I looked at issues of equality in this sector and the ways in which minority ethnic graduates faced difficulties in gaining access to work in these industries. This was followed by a ESRC grant to look at how different minority ethnic groups dealt with problems at work. This 3 year project entitled Influences of identity, community and social networks on ethnic minority representation at work and looked at 3 minority ethnic groups in London (Kurds in Hackney, Black Caribbeans in Lambeth and south Asian workers in Ealing). A third area of research work has been around the concept of intersectionality and the way that different forms on inequality are interimbricated.


Funded research: A 2-year EU funded project on black and minority ethnic workers in Londons audio-visual industries. A year project on union learning in the Communications Workers Union funded by the CWU  (17,000) 2006 Nuffield: small grant for 11,000 titled Evaluating recent developments in training trade union organisers (with Dr Melanie Simms, Warwick University). In 2007 as Principal Investigator I was granted 327,322 from the ESRC for a 3-year project on Influences of identity, community and social networks on ethnic minority representation at work.  This research was concerned with understanding more about how individuals went about dealing with the issues they faced when they had problems at work In January 2010 I was commissioned as a consultant by the GMB to work on their Union Modernisation Fund project entitled Engaging communities and building social capital. 10,000. This project was completed on time and a report submitted to the funders. In 2010, as Principal Investigator, I was awarded an ESRC small grant application: Broad-based community alliances: a comparative study of London and Sydney. 97,446

A report on this research 'Trade union involvement in broad-based community organising a comparative study of London, Sydney and Seattle', can be found here.

Community organising in the UK: a new approach for trade unions? More information here. Research Supervision: My research interests include trade unions and the development of organising and recruitment strategies, particularly as they relate to under-represented groups in the union movement. I also have an interest in  the labour market position of migrants and black and minority ethnic groups..  I have conducted an international comparative study of union involvement in broad based community organising. The aim was to develop a greater understanding of how and why unions choose to get involved in community coalitions (and why not) and what they perceived the benefits or threats from this type of organising.

I am interested in supervising PhD students in any of these areas. If you have a research idea in any of these areas and would like to discuss please get in contact: j.holgate@leeds.ac.uk

BA HRM and Industrial Relations
MA Industrial Relations
MA/BA Labour and Trade Union Studies

Trade unions, organising, moblising, community unionism, intersectionality, employment relations, labour geographies.

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Employment Relations, Innovation and Change

Current postgraduate researchers

• Xiaorui Xing