Dr Kevin Caraher

Profile

Areas of expertise

• Labour market vulnerability, self-employment and social policy
• Pensions policy in East and Southeast Asia
• The policy process
• Comparative and international social policy

Academic Biography

My current research interests are focused on two particular themes:

1) Vulnerability and social policy reform with particular reference to self-employment and labour market policies. I am interested in the interaction between a particular conceptualisation of vulnerability and the impact on notions of citizenship and self in a range of economic settings.

2) Pensions reform and the continued role of individual savings accounts in the form of provident funds in post-colonial/developing nation states. 

I teach a variety of modules including Comparative Social Policy; Globalization and Social Policy and Policy Analysis and Process, Labour Markets, Citizenship and Welfare I have previously worked in the Departments of Sociology and Social Policy at the Universities of Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne. I hold an MA and a PhD in Comparative social policy (University of Durham) with the latter exploring the interface between globalisation and domestic institutional reform in Malaysia.

Professional activities

• Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Social Policy, 2020-2023
• Former co-editor, Government, Policy and Management: A Reader, 2010-2015
• Member of the Editorial Board Social Policy and Society, 2006-2010

Research and PhD Supervision

Research interests

• Conceptualising the relationship between vulnerability and social policy with a particular focus on self-employment and labour market policies in an international context.
• Historical institutionalism and old age incomes in post-colonial and developing economies.
• Pensions policy, social security and social protection

PhD supervision

Supervision interests: Vulnerability and labour market policy; Comparative social policy; Pensions policy in East and Southeast Asia; Historical institutionalism/path dependency; Public policy analysis.

Supervision:

Min Chul Hwang (completed 2015) ‘The Effectiveness of Settlement Service-delivery System for Immigrant Wives’ Integration in South Korea’.

Sue Hyun Noh (MPhil – completed 2020) ‘The Influence of General and Special Private High Schools on Civic Education: Focusing on Students’ Attitude to Social Security Policies.

Isabelle Huning (White Rose ESRC DTP studentship) ‘“For the future of our people”: The influence of social and cultural constructs on the institutionalisation of good behaviour and skill formation in Germany and Britain’. 

Hang Jae Lee ‘Reform of the minimum wage policy for the age of automation: A comparative case study of Korea and Japan’.

Publications

Recent publications 

Caraher, K. and Reuter, E. (2020). ‘Risk privatisation and social investment, Self-employment in the United Kingdom’. Zeitschrift für Sozialreform / Journal of Social Policy Research, 66(3), 261-283. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1515/zsr-2020-0012.

Caraher, K. and Reuter, E. (2019) 'Introduction to special issue: Self-employment and social protection in Europe', Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, 27(2), 149-155.

Caraher, K. and Reuter, E. (2019) ‘Mind the gaps: Universal Credit and self-employment in the United Kingdom’, Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, vol 27 (2), 199-217.

Caraher, K. and Reuter, E. (2017) ‘Vulnerability of the ‘entrepreneurial self’: Analysing the interplay between labour markets and social policy’, Social Policy and Society, vol 16 (3), 483-496.

Caraher, K. and Snell, C. (eds) (2015) Government, Policy and Management: A Reader vol 4. SPSW Publishing, York.

Caraher, K. and Snell, C. (eds) (2014) Government, Public Policy and Management: A Reader vol 3. SPSW Publishing, York.

Caraher, K. (2013) 'Past policies, current arrangements: the enduring influence of British colonial social policy in Malaysia and Hong Kong' in Izuhara, M. (ed) The Handbook on East Asian Social Policy, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar.

Caraher, K. and Snell, C. (eds) (2012) Government, Public Policy and Management: A Reader vol 2. SPSW Publishing, York.

Caraher, K. and Snell, C. (eds) (2010) Government, Public Policy and Management: A Reader vol 1. SPSW Publishing, York.

Caraher, K. (2003) 'Malaysia: Approaches to Income Security in Old Age', Social Policy and Society, 2 (4): 295-304.