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Dr Laura Davies

Senior Lecturer

Laura is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Associate Director of CeASR (Centre for Applied Social Research). She is the PGR tutor for the CeASR subject groups and sits on the School of Humanities and Social Sciences EDI Committee and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee

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About

Laura is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Associate Director of CeASR (Centre for Applied Social Research). She is the PGR tutor for the CeASR subject groups and sits on the School of Humanities and Social Sciences EDI Committee and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee

Laura is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Associate Director of CeASR (Centre for Applied Social Research). She is the PGR tutor for the CeASR subject groups and sits on the School of Humanities and Social Sciences EDI Committee and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee. Her teaching is focused around inequalities, class and the welfare state.

Laura is a qualitative researcher with a background in social policy research. Her research examines how policy interventions that are designed to change and/or encourage particular behaviours relate to the lived experiences of service users. Key aims in her research are to understand how the complex policy landscape is understood and navigated by those who access support from an increasingly fragmented welfare state, and how the assumptions embedded in policy and services development relate to service users lived experiences. She has a particular interest in understanding how policy assumptions frame individual decision making.

She has worked with community groups, third sector organisations and local authority partners to research service user, volunteer and staff experiences and used these findings to help organisations to develop inclusive service delivery, practice, EDI training and policies. 

Current research projects:

Participatory research exploring housing transitions in later life

Understanding EDI in a volunteer search and rescue organisation

 

Academic positions

  • Senior Lecturer in Sociology
    Leeds Beckett University, School of Social Sciences, United Kingdom | 01 September 2015 - present

Degrees

  • PhD
    University of Leeds, United Kingdom

  • MA Social Research
    University of Leeds, United Kingdom

  • BA (Hons.) Social Policy and Sociology
    University of Leeds, United Kingdom

Research interests

  • housing transitions in later life
  • sociologies of everyday ageing
  • creative research methods
  • EDI
  • life-course transitions
  • care ethics
  • welfare-to-work
  • family policy
  • policy evaluation
  • conditionality and the morality of welfare
  • fatherhood
  • inter-generational exchange
  • QL methods
  • secondary analysis
  • knowledge to action and knowledge exchange

Publications (27)

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Journal article
The experience of qualitative research with young fathers: Considerations around gender, class and reflexive practice
Featured 06 July 2020 Families, Relationships and Societies: an international journal of research and debate10(3):479-496 Policy Press
AuthorsDavies L, Hanna E

Qualitative research into the lives and experiences of young fathers has seen some increased interest in recent years, yet comprehensive understandings of the ‘doing’ of such research remain absent from the literature. The small existing literature positions young men who are fathers as potentially difficult to research, in terms of access and encounters. This article draws on experiences and reflections from two UK-based research projects with young men who are fathers to explore the practice of qualitative work with this particular group of participants. Beyond the choice of methodology, there appear to be several elements pertaining to the practice of researching the lives of young men who are fathers that may require consideration. Through discussion of gender, class, context, authenticity and rapport, the article argues that researching young men is not inherently problematic but is a practice which requires consideration and substantial reflexion in order to produce fruitful research encounters for both parties. This article therefore seeks to add nuance and insight into the experience of researching with young men who are fathers, and in doing so, adds sophistication to our limited understandings of qualitative encounters with this group.

Conference Contribution

Balancing paid work and family care after separation or divorce: how do lived experiences relate to policy assumptions?

Featured 11 April 2018 British Sociological Association Annual Conference 2018 Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK
Working Paper

'Understanding vulnerability: children and young people in challenging circumstances' Care-Connect Working Paper, No. 1

Featured 1 January 2013
AuthorsDavies L, Murphy A
Briefing

Briefing paper no. 4: Young breadwinner fathers: journeys through education, employment and training

Featured 30 September 2015
AuthorsDavies L, Neale B
Briefing

Briefing paper no. 6: Hard to reach? Rethinking support for young fathers

Featured 30 September 2015
AuthorsDavies L, Neale B
Briefing

Briefing paper no. 8: Researching the lives of young fathers: the Following Young Fathers study and dataset

Featured 30 September 2015
AuthorsDavies L, Lau-Clayton C, Neale B, Ladlow L
Conference Contribution

Developing dynamic perspectives on the lives of young fathers and their support needs

Featured 24 June 2015 The life-course and inter-generational cluster University of Sheffield, UK
AuthorsDavies L, Lau Clayton C
Conference Contribution

The life chances of young fathers

Featured 16 April 2015 Morality, Austerity and Welfare State Futures Conference University of Leeds, UK
Conference Contribution

Following Young Fathers

Featured 18 September 2014 Five Nations Conference: Supporting Families in Difficult Times Leeds, UK
AuthorsDavies L, Ladlow L
Conference Contribution

The Changing Landscape of Policy and Practice for Young Fathers: Lived Experiences of Support, Surveillance and Exclusion

Featured 14 July 2014 Social Policy Association International Conference University of Sheffield, UK
Conference Contribution

'Understanding vulnerability: children and young people in challenging circumstances'

Featured 18 July 2013 Care-Connect Conference Leeds, UK
Conference Contribution

'Following Young Fathers: a consideration of policy and practice'

Featured 10 July 2013 Social Policy Association International Conference, Social Policy in Challenging Times University of Sheffield, UK
Conference Contribution

Invited Consultation on Young Fatherhood

Featured 15 July 2013 Department for Work and Pensions, London, UK
AuthorsDavies L, Lau Clayton C, Neale B
Conference Contribution

Following Young Fathers

Featured 12 June 2013 All Party Parliamentary Group on Fatherhood Portcullis House, Westminster
AuthorsDavies L, Lau Clayton C
Conference Contribution

Lone parents, welfare and employment decision making

Featured 10 June 2013 FlaG Seminar Series, Researching experiences and interrogating policy in the context of recession University of Leeds, UK.
Conference Contribution

'Young Fatherhood in Austerity Britain'

Featured 13 May 2013 FlaG Seminar Series, Researching experiences and interrogating policy in the context of recession University of Leeds, UK.
AuthorsDavies L, Lau Clayton C, Neale B
Conference Contribution

Young fathers' transition to adulthood: support and interventions

Featured 01 April 2015 Journal of Youth Studies Conference University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Conference Contribution

'Lone parents: unemployed or otherwise engaged?'

Featured 05 July 2011 Social Policy Association International Conference: Bigger Societies, Smaller Government,. University of Lincoln
Journal article
Lone parents: unemployed or otherwise engaged?
Featured 2012 People, Place and Policy Online6(1):16-28 Sheffield Hallam University

This paper examines change and continuity in policy approaches to supporting lone parent families since 1997 and considers how they relate to the specific circumstances of lone parent families. Of the 2 million lone parent families in the UK, 92% are headed by women with 91% of lone parents not sharing child care responsibilities equally with the other parent. The paper identifies the ways in which these factors are ignored as lone parents are increasingly conceptualised as workless or unemployed rather than legitimately standing outside of the paid labour market as a result of their caring responsibilities. Work is conceptualised in political rhetoric as the key duty of responsible citizens, with the welfare reform agenda focussed on moving lone parents into the paid labour market. This approach suggests that lone parent unemployment is a significant behavioural problem, with the engagement of lone parents in paid employment posited as a key solution. However, the paper argues that the relationship between paid work and poverty is not straightforward; even when in full time work the poverty rate for lone parents is 19%. Some potential problems with the focus on employment are highlighted, in particular the specific challenges that lone parents may face when attempting to combine paid work with caring responsibilities.

Chapter

Nudged into employment: lone parents and welfare reform

Featured 18 November 2015 Social Policies and Social Control: New Perspectives on the 'not-so-big society' Policy Press
AuthorsAuthors: Davies L, Editors: Harrison M, Sanders T
Journal article
Supporting young fathers: the promise, potential and perils of statutory service provision
Featured 01 July 2015 Families, Relationships and Societies4(2):331-338 Policy Press
AuthorsDavies L, Neale B

This article provides a case study of the challenges faced by one local authority in supporting young fathers, in a context of changing models of service provision, resource constraints and professional training needs. Developments in service provision are tracked over a decade, starting with a mentoring service set up under New Labour's 10-year Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, and considering how this has been refashioned under new models of service provision. The article was developed in close consultation with local authority service providers and draws on both professional accounts and the perspectives of young fathers as clients of the service. Overall, the article contributes to debates around the relative strengths of mainstream and specialist support for young fathers, and suggests the value of specialist support within mainstream provision.

Journal article
Seeing Young Fathers in a Different Way: Editorial
Featured 02 July 2015 Families, Relationships and Societies4(2):309-313 Policy Press
AuthorsDavies L, Neale B

I think it's absolutely outrageous that so many young men in our society feel they can go out, get women pregnant, allow them to have children, make them bring them up by themselves, often on benefits, and then just disappear. It is utterly shocking and I hope ... the ministers will get hold of some of these feckless fathers, drag them off, make them work, put them in chains if necessary.... (David Davies MP, 12 November 2013, House of Commons; Cornack, 2013)

Journal article
Some Useful Sources
Featured 01 January 2016 Social Policy and Society15(1):155-157 Cambridge University Press (CUP): HSS Journals
AuthorsLau Clayton C, Davies L

We have provided here an annotated list of resources, key organisations and programmes that support young fathers and details of data sources for secondary use. The information complements the citations within the individual articles in this themed section.

Journal article
Becoming a Young Breadwinner? The Education, Employment and Training Trajectories of Young Fathers
Featured 26 October 2015 Social Policy and Society15(1):85-98 Cambridge University Press (CUP): HSS Journals
AuthorsNeale B, Davies L

The entry into fatherhood is a major life course transition involving the acquisition of new adult roles and responsibilities. This transition is rarely planned for young fathers, and may involve a range of challenges, not least their capacity to provide materially and financially for their child. Drawing on a Qualitative Longitudinal study of young fathers in the UK, this article charts their very different pathways through education, training and employment, showing how these are shaped by a constellation of life circumstances. The implications for policy are considered in the light of a shifting landscape of welfare reform and ‘austerity’ measures.

Conference Contribution

'Increasing conditionality and diminishing entitlements: lone parents and the reformation of welfare'

Featured 28 June 2011 Social Control and Behaviourism in Social Policy Day Symposium University of Leeds
Journal article
Are young fathers ‘hard to reach’? Understanding the importance of relationship building and service sustainability
Featured 19 December 2016 Journal of Children's Services: research informing policy and practice11(4):317-329 Emerald

Purpose: This paper explores service provision for young fathers through analysis of data from the three-year ESRC funded project Following Young Fathers. The purpose of this paper is to explore the idea that young fathers are a “hard to reach” group. It begins with a discussion of literature and research evidence on this theme. The empirical discussion draws on data collected in interviews and focus groups with practitioners, service managers and those working to develop and deliver family support services. Design/methodology/approach: The ESRC Following Young Fathers study used qualitative longitudinal methods to research the perspectives of fathers under the age of 25, mapping the availability of services to support them and investigating professional and policy responses to their needs. The strand reported on here focussed on the perspectives of a range of practitioners, service managers and those involved in developing and commissioning services. Findings: The research findings, and those of other projects discussed in the paper, challenge the idea that young fathers are “hard to reach”, suggesting that we should, conversely, consider that many services are actually hard to access. Thus, increasing young fathers’ engagement requires better understanding of their often complex needs and a reshaping of service design and delivery to account for them. The paper highlights how the configuration, funding and delivery of services can inhibit young fathers’ use of them, and identifies ways in which they could be made more accessible. Originality/value: The ESRC Following Young Fathers Study filled an important gap in knowledge about the lives of young fathers, developing understandings of their experiences and support needs. The strand reported on here draws on research with practitioners to provide an in-depth discussion of how services currently support young fathers, and how they could be better configured to address their often complex and diverse needs.

Conference Contribution

Work-family integration in lone parent families in the UK

Featured 20 May 2017 Community Work and Family. Fourth International Conference: Actors, Structures and Theories. University of Tampere, Finland.

Professional activities

Associate Director of the Centre for Applied Social Research (CeASR)

Member of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences EDI Committee

Member of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee 

Member of the Social Policy Association

Member of the British Society of Gerontology

Current teaching

Laura is module leader for the following modules:

  • Inequality of Class and Culture
  • Poverty, Inequality and the Welfare State
  • Men and Masculinities

She supervises dissertation and PhD students and is the Postgraduate Tutor for the CeASR subject groups.