Helen began working as a researcher with the Wales Institute of Social Economic Research Data and Methods (WISERD) in 2015.
She completed her doctoral studies (A Second Chance at Life: Labour, Love and Welfare on a South Wales Estate) at Cardiff University’s School of Social Science in 2011. The thesis examined the implications of welfare reform for mothers living in the upper reaches of the South Wales Valleys. The study charted the everyday interactions of the women with the labour market and pervasive mechanisms of street-level welfare governance.
Her research interests include class, gender, and place with a particular focus on the welfare state, and industrial relations. Helen is primarily a qualitative sociologist with an interest in ethnographic and biographical methods. She is currently working as part of a research team in the urban factory districts in India. This research focuses on the challenges facing garment workers in operationalising their labour rights at the workplace.
Helen Blakely Bio
