Goldsmiths - University of London

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Aidan Kelly, BA (Hons), MA

Position held:
Lecturer

Phone:
+44 (0)20 7919 7382

Email:
a.kelly (@gold.ac.uk)

Research Methods, Quantitative Modelling

BA (Hons) Sociology (University of Kent), MA Public Policy Studies (University of Kent)

After two years in the United States, I returned in 1972 to take up a three year Research Officer post at the Industrial Sociology Unit at Imperial College. This involved research on industrial scientists and on local government policy making. My first full-time lecturing post in Sociology began in 1975 at the University of East London where I taught Sociology, Social Policy and Research Methods for thirty years. My period at UEL saw the development on research interests in power and rationality in organisations, on control strategies and labour markets. The 1980s saw a new direction in social policy research and in the quantitative modelling of official data beginning with an assessment of the impact of ‘fiscal stress' on the changes in budgets, outputs and unit costs for the Personal Social Services. This led to a two-year period of secondment to the Personal Social services Research Unit at Kent to collaborate in the London Costs Project. I then returned to UEL as subject area leader for Social Policy Research. Having taken early retirement in 2002, I have undertaken contract research for the Bristol Business School and for North Devon Primary Care Trust. In 2003, I was approached to undertake part-time teaching at Goldsmiths College in 2003. My teaching responsibilities have evolved to cover Modelling Social Data I & II on the MA Social Research and a new undergraduate third year option called ‘Making Data Matter'.

Teaching

My teaching reflects my commitment to an enhanced role for empirical social research in the discipline of sociology. This requires engagement with philosophical debates centred on links between critical realism and the practice of social research. This leads to a consideration of ideas about validity in social research and how this can be established within a community of research practitioners. My courses are presented in a way that maximises students' use of on-line resources and e-learning. In 2005, I received a Goldsmiths award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.

Areas of supervision

I have supervised PhD students in industrial relations, social policy, housing and education.

Selected publications

Articles in refereed journals

  • ‘An End to Incrementalism? The Implementation of Expenditure Restraint in English Social Services Departments, 1979-1986.' Journal of Social Policy, 1989, 18, 2, 187-210.

  • With Andrew Bebbington ‘Expenditure Planning in the Personal Social Services: Unit Costs in the 1980s' Journal of Social Policy, 1995, 24, 3, 385-411.

Chapters in books

  • ‘Enterprise Culture and the Welfare State: restructuring the management of health and social services' in Burrows, R. (ed.) (1991) Deciphering Enterprise Culture. London: Routledge.

  • ‘The New Managerialism and the Social Services' in Carter, P. et al (Eds.) (1991) The Social Work and Social Welfare Yearbook. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.

  • with Andrew Bebbington ‘Proceed with caution: the use of Official Sources of Costs Information in Social Services Departments' in Netten, A. and Beecham, J. (eds.) 1993. Costing Community Care. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Reports

Other publications

  • Review of Salaman, J.G., Thompson, K. (eds) Control and ideology in Organizations, Milton Keynes, Open University Press. Sociology, 1982 Review of Charles Webster (ed.) Caring for Health: History and Diversity. Journal of Social Policy, 1994, 23, 3, 452-453.

  • Entries on ‘cluster sampling', ‘the one-shot case study' for V. Jupp (ed) The Sage Dictionary of Social Research 2006. London: Sage.

  • Current papers being prepared for publication include a quantitative modeling of the 2005 RAE submission data for Business and Management Studies.