Professor Claire Wallace
Vice-Principal (Research & Knowledge Exchange)
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+44 (0)1224 273870
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fax
+44 (0) 1224 272552
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claire.wallace@abdn.ac.uk
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School of Social Science
King's College
Aberdeen AB24 3QY
Vice-Principal (Research & Knowledge Exchange)
B.A.(Hons), PhD.
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Personal Details
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Biography
After graduating with first a Bachelors and then a Doctoral degree from the University of Kent, I taught at Plymouth and then at Lancaster Universities. During the early 1990s I helped to set up the Sociology Department at the Central European University, Prague before moving to the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna, where I later became Head of Sociology.
I was formerly editor of the international journal "European Societies", official journal of the European Sociological Association.
I was elected President of the European Sociological Association, serving from September 2007 to October 2009.
I was Director of Research for the College of Arts and Social Sciences between 2008 and 2011 and then became Vice Principal for Research and Knowledge Exchange for the University in 2011. I am responsible for Research Income and Commercialisation, Researcher Development and Postgraduate Research Students.
Research
My research falls into two main areas at present: quality of life and digital economy. I have had a long term interest in quality of life issues and have contributed to a number of the reports about quality of life in Europe produced by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/). Prior to that I contributed to European debates about social capital and was Director of the European Observatory on social cohesion and trust, 2005-2006. This work has been published in a series of articles with Florian Pichler, comparing European societies. More recently, together with Pamela Abbott, I have been developing the idea of “Social Quality” as a way of analysing the quality of society and many of my recent publications are on this topic. This is part of a research programme we are developing in conjunction with Laurent van der Maesen in the Netherlands and Ka Lin at Zhejiang University in China.
The dot.rural (http://www.dotrural.ac.uk/) Rural Digital Economy Hub at the University of Aberdeen is aimed at transforming rural areas in the UK using digital technology. The project is funded by the RCUK, a joint UK research council initiative in Digital Economy led by the Engineering and Physical Research Council (http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/research/xrcprogrammes/Digital/Pages/home.aspx ). I am co-investigator on this project, responsible for the Enterprise and Culture research theme. Projects undertaken within this theme are: CURIOS, a project to help local history societies develop cultural heritage initiatives; ASSURE , developing intelligent networking for rural businesses and SIRA ,a project to bring fast broadband access to rural areas. These are multi-disciplinary projects bringing together sociologists, computer scientists, engineers, geographers , historians and business studies experts working together with external agencies, including rural businesses, local historical and cultural associations, social enterprises, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
I am also involved in an EPSRC networking grant “Communities and Culture Network+” (http://www.communitiesandculture.org/) together with Helen Thornham and colleagues at Kent and Sussex Universities. In this context I am bringing together my interest in digital economy and quality of life to look at what one contributes to the other.
I have worked on a range of previous grants, including co-ordination of European Framework Programme grants: Workcare: Social quality and the changing relationship between work, care and welfare in Europe (https://www.abdn.ac.uk/socsci/research/nec/workcare/) and Households Work and Flexibility. I was a partner on the project ENRI-East , European National and Regional Identities (http://www.enri-east.net/en/) and Workcare Synergies (http://workcaresynergies.eu/). More information can be found on the website of the New Europe Centre, Aberdeen (http://www.abdn.ac.uk/socsci/research/nec/). I am currently involved with two projects to look at the health crisis in the former Soviet Union; Living Conditions, Lifestyles and Health and HITT (Health in Times of Transition) (http://www.hitt-cis.net/) .
Postgraduate Supervision
I supervise postgraduate students in the following fields: migration, national minorities, work, care and welfare, quality of life and quality of society, the role of digital economy in rural areas. I would welcome postgraduate students who would like to study digital culture and rural heritage or the role of digital economy in promoting economic and social sustainability.
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Research Interests
Migration
Citizenship
Youth
Households and Work Relations
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Publications
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