Social policy

Social Policy research in the Department of Sociological Studies is concerned with a broad range of social policy issues and challenges, including: 

• Childhoods, youth and families, including family support and children and youth services;
• Comparative research, especially in Europe and China/East Asia;
• Labour markets, employment quality, social stratification and inequality;
• Health inequalities, intersectionality and the social and political determinants of health;
• Ageing and the life course;
• Care and caregiving;
• Inequality, poverty and deprivation;
• Social quality and well-being;
• Loneliness, social exclusion and marginalised communities;
• Critical race (including whiteness and mixed race) studies, ethnicity and identity;
• International migration and mobility; 
• Asylum, refugees and postcolonialism;
• Gender inequalities; 
• Theories of society and welfare regimes;
• Advanced methodologies including multivariate methods, evaluation research and collaborative and co-produced research.

Our research

Our internationally- and nationally-leading research has been funded by the ESRC and other Research Councils (e.g. Everyday Bordering in the UK; New Dynamics of Ageing Research Programme; Sustainable Care; Chronic Disease and Healthy Ageing at the Intersections: Social Locations, Biomarkers and Health Practices; Understanding the Role of Faith-based Organisations in Anti-trafficking; Access to maternity care in rural Punjab, Pakistan), the European Commission (e.g. Mobilising the Potential of Active Ageing in Europe; Migration, Integration and Governance Research Centre; Tackling Undeclared Work; European Family Research Network; and Migrant Youth Integration and Empowerment), the Swedish Research Council (e.g. Exclusion and Inequality in Late Working Life), the Leverhulme Trust (e.g. Asylum, Welfare and Work in the Age of Austerity), the Big Lottery Fund (e.g. Time to Shine Project Evaluation), the Wellcome Trust (Roma populations and health inequalities: deconstructing a European policy ‘problem’), National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) (Loneliness among migrant and ethnic minority populations; School for Public Health Research) and GlaxoSmithKline (Significance of the Mouth in Old Age).  

Our research is regularly featured in national and international media, for example BBC TV and radio, the Guardian, iNews and Independent newspapers, the Conversation, and Wired magazine.

We have worked with, represented and advised a variety of organisations, trade unions, commissions and governments at a local, national and international level including: Age UK; All Party Parliamentary Group on Longevity's Strategic Advisory Board; ASSIST (Sheffield); Asylum Welcome (Oxford); Barnardo’s; British Refugee Council; The Cabinet Office; Carers UK; City of Sanctuary (Sheffield); Department for Health and Social Care; Department for Work and Pensions; Eurocarers; Foresight Lead Expert Group on the Future of an Ageing Population; Government Office for Science; International Alliance of Carers Associations; National Pensioner's Convention; Race Equality Foundation; Refugee Action; Sheffield Cohesion Advisory Group; Sheffield Fairness Commission; The European Commission; The Home Office; The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee Inquiry on Ageing; The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration; The Red Cross; The Women’s Budget Group and UN Women. 

Social Policy researchers play key roles in the main international associations in our field, including: 

• The British Academy;
• The British Sociological Association (BSA);  
• The British Society of Gerontology (BSG);
• The Social Policy Association (SPA);
• International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion in Europe (IMISCOE).

Our researchers play leading roles in key Social Policy journals and Research Groups including:

• BSA Families and Relationships Group;
• Health Inequalities Research Group for the NIHR School for Public Health Research;
• International Journal of Care and Caring;
• Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy;
• Journal of Social Policy;
• Social Policy and Society;
• Families, Relationships and Societies.

Our PhD students

Social Policy PhD students are currently researching topics such as:

• Maternal Mental Health Inequalities; Loneliness and Parenthood Among Young Mothers;
• Satisfaction of Needs of Chinese Nursing Home Residents;
• Structural Violence Against Disabled People;
• Welfare Policies for Older Women in Thailand; Migrants’ Transnational Family Relationships;
• Social Connectedness and Mental Well-being;
• Social Capital and NEET Young People;
• Underemployment Experience of Older Workers;
• Carer Leave in the UK;
• South Asian Muslim Lone Mothers;
• New Technologies and Long Distance Aged Care in Migrant Families;
• Combatting Isolation and Loneliness in Later Life;
• Asylum and Dispersal;
• Omanisation Policy;
• Political Economy of Foreign Aid to Pakistan; Social Work in China;
• Resolving Medical Conflicts in China; Social Protection in Nigeria.

Social Policy PhD students and researchers are actively involved in the Department of Sociological Studies' research themes (especially Everyday Life & Critical Diversities, Social Inequalities and Social Ordering and Well-being and Health Across the Lifecourse), in University Research Institutes (The Healthy Lifespan Institute) and Faculty of Social Sciences’ interdisciplinary research groups (CIRCLE (Centre for International Research on Care, Labour and Equalities), Centre for Loneliness Studies and Migration Research Group), and Cross-faculty Health Equity and Inclusion Group), which are also all led by our Social Policy researchers.