ALAN WARDE

Professional biography

I joined the University of Manchester in September 1999. My previous position was Professor of Sociology at Lancaster University, where I held my first permanent position after completing a Ph.D. on the British Labour Party at the University of Leeds. In the past I have conducted research on politics, social movements, cities, domestic divisions of labour, economic restructuring and the social structure of Britain. I came to Manchester to work partly in the Sociology Department, partly to serve as Co-Director of the ESRC Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition (CRIC). CRIC was integrated in the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research  in 2006 at the end of its period of core funding from the research council. Research projects in CRIC focused on developing theories of consumption, with particular emphasis on food, and on economic sociology. With other colleagues, in what is now the Sociology Discipline Area, I also work on the sociology of consumption, social stratification and social network analysis.

Much of my work is conducted in collaboration with others in Manchester. I am part of the Research Clusters in Sociology on ‘Stratification and Culture’ and ‘Quantitative Methods and Interdisciplinary Social Research’. I work with colleagues in CRIC on consumption and innovation and on food. I am attached to the Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC) where I convene a strand in the research group on Cultural Economy, being particularly interested in cultural consumption. I am also on the research boards of the Centre for Census and Survey Research (CCSR) and the Brooks World Poverty Institute (BWPI).

In addition, I work extensively with groups outside Manchester. Recently I have held visiting positions at: Zentrum fur Umfragen, Methoden und Analysen (ZUMA), Mannheim, Germany; CORELA, L’Institute National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Paris; and Consumption and Marketing Research Centre of ESPM, Fluminense Federal University, Sao Paolo, Brazil. I am also engaged closely in the European Sociological Association Working Group on Consumption and with networks of social scientists working on food in Norway, France, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Sweden and Finland.
I currently serve as the Director of Research in the School of Social Sciences at Manchester.

Specific research interests

Keywords:Consumption, food, economic sociology, social networks, social and cultural capital.

Current substantive work is concerned with:

• the sociology of consumption, especially the changing patterns of cultural consumption in the UK and the emergence of consumer culture in Europe;
• cultural omnivorousness;
• the sociology of food, particularly change in habits in Britain, France and the USA, and consumer trust in food in Europe;
• consumer politics and sustainable consumption;
• social capital and political participation;
• social networks and their role in class formation and cultural consumption;
• cultural capital, distinction and cultural practice;
• social class analysis;
• professions;
• the market research industry;
• the analysis of social change;
• social and cultural elites in Europe.

Current theoretical concerns include theories of consumption, the work of Pierre Bourdieu, the application of theories of practice, conventions theory, social network theory and field theory. Methodological approaches in use in current projects include case studies, documentary research, social network analysis and comparative analysis. Techniques include sample surveys, multiple correspondence analysis, observation, in-depth and key informant interviews, life histories and content analysi

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