Sociology

My background is fairly interdisciplinary: I have a degree in Sociology and Politics, a Masters in Cultural Studies and a PhD in Sociology, exploring the emergence of taste, community and identity in a private housing estate.  Throughout my early training, I developed an interest in consumer culture as a central mode of social organisation, and have continued developing this theme with a particular focus on domestic tastes and material cultures.  I have continued to work in an interdisciplinary fashion, with work on embodiment and consumption, on material cultures and on domesticity forming the main focus.  More recently I have worked on issues relating to generation and consumption, specifically on the so-called Baby Boomer generation in the UK.

I have a strong commitment to teaching, and have been working at Keele practising my skills on students for a very long time.  I am also responsible for strategic issues around marketing, recruitment and schools liaison/widening participation.

My research interests lie in the area of consumerism, with specific focus on the home and the role of taste in constructing identities and relationships. I am currently (2005-2007) Principal Investigator for a £200k project funded by the ESRC/AHRB Cultures of Consumption programme. This project is called Boomers and Beyond: Intergenerational Consumption and the Mature Imagination and is a multi-method study exploring the consumption patterns of the 1945-54 birth cohort as they near retirement.

Prior to the Boomers project, I was working on research tracing consumers' experience of objects within homes and documents the way objects help to configure intimate social relations. Previous work has explored the theoretical dimensions of consumer culture, the meaning of home and the symbolic construction of 'community' in new private housing estates in the UK. I have contributed to a number of public debates on these issues, including lectures at Tate Britain and the Institute for Contemporary Arts, and I was consultant for a BBC Radio 4 series "Where the Heart Is?" presented by John McCarthy and produced by Roger Childs.

I have worked on various dimensions of the sociology of consumption since postgraduate student work.  A clear thread through this work has been an endeavour to understand how it is that people process consumer goods as social and cultural objects.  In particular I have been interested in the ‘work done’ by consumers and their objects (and discourses surrounding them) in order to make meaning from consumption.  This has been particularly focused on domestic consumption, namely the cultural construction of notions of home and belonging through the consumption of home objects and the general material culture of belonging.

Previous work has explored the theoretical dimensions of consumer culture (including the embodied elements of belonging and ontological security in homes, and their rupture in cases of burglary (Kearon & Leach, 2000), the meaning of home and the symbolic construction of 'community' in new private housing estates in the UK.

More recently, this interest in how consumption provides a lens for belonging was focused on the notion of cohort, specifically the Baby Boomers born in the UK after the Second World War.  As PI on this project, funded by the ESRC/AHRC Cultures of Consumption programme, we generated a volume of timely data on the role consumption plays in transition to midlife and later life, and upon cohort and generation as organising principles based on consumption preferences and practices.  Dissemination from this project is ongoing.

I would be delighted to hear from potential PhD students interested in working in any of these fields or those directly related.

Impact

I have contributed to a number of public debates on these issues, including lectures at Tate Britain, when I convened a workshop on material culture, and presented on object relations, consumption and art for a conference on the At Home With Art   project (curated by Colin Painter). This event led to a research project following up consumers who had bought the AHWA products and lived with them.  The outcomes (Leach, R. 2002) of this project are published in Painter’s edited collection Contemporary Art and the Home.   

I have also spoken at the Institute for Contemporary Arts (for a workshop on The Multiple)  as well as other contributions to gallery/theatre education.  I was consultant for a BBC Radio 4 series on the meaning of home, “Where the Heart Is?” presented by John McCarthy and produced by Roger Childs.  I have been a regular contributor to BBC Radio Stoke.

In addition to engagement with cultural audiences, my work on the Baby Boomers has engaged with the wider public and user groups.  I was consultant/contributor to a BBC4 documentary focused on the legacy of the Blair years. “Are we having fun yet?” was an examination of the Boomer generation as they hit their 50s and 60s focused on consumption and lifestyle issues.  As part of the Boomers project we established an advisory panel including voluntary and policy organisations focused on Ageing, SAGA, retirement advisors and others.  The Boomers project outcomes were reported widely on radio, featuring on the Radio 4 Today programme and on more than 20 local radio shows around the UK, and they featured in an exhibition held at the ICA.

I have organised two ESRC Festival of Social Science events, one as part of the Cultures of Consumption programme, focusing on European baby boomers; and one focused on dissemination of sociology and criminology research at Keele to a sixth form audience.

Research Projects, Funding and Consultancies

£213,802 from AHRC/ESRC Cultures of Consumption programme ‘Boomers and Beyond: intergenerational consumption and the mature imagination’ (Principal investigator, with Biggs & Phillipson)

Offices held

• Member of ESRC Peer Review College, 2010-present
• External examiner, Sociology, University of Manchester, 2008-present
• 1996-2000 Co-Founder and Co-convenor, BSA Consumption Study Group
• Previously member of BSA Network editorial board & Publications committee

I teach on a wide variety of sociology modules, including courses on consumption, the body, sociological and cultural theory, and research methods. As well as teaching a broad spectrum of courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

• SOC 10014 Classical Sociology
• SOC 20047 20th Century Social Theory - Module Leader
• SOC 30032 Home: Belonging and Material Culture - Module Leader

I would welcome level 3 dissertation proposals on my areas of interest and am happy to discuss this with students.  In particular, I would encourage proposals on the sociology of consumption and material culture, specifically (but not exclusively) people’s relationship with objects and homes/gardens.

I also teach on the MRes SocSci (Sociology) offering theories of consumption, and research methodology; on the MA Urban Futures and Sustainable Communities, offering research methodology, and contributing to the City Cultures module; will contribute sessions on Consumption and Crime to the MA Criminology and Criminal Justice; and have taught on issues of home and consumption to the MA Social Gerontology