Dr Matthew Cooper

Research

Overview

Matthew's doctoral research was a historical comparative analysis of unemployment benefits in the UK under the post 2010 programme of ‘welfare reform’ with the welfare benefit system during the great depression of the 1930s. It made interventions into debates on benefit conditionality and disciplinary welfare, interpreting welfare conditionality as a form of social control. The research focussed particularly on the problem of youth unemployment, how it was interpreted in both periods of time, and what measures and solutions follow from policy maker’s understandings. This research although primarily sociological, was interdisciplinary, engaged with debates in Social Policy, Politics, and History.

He has a broad interest in sociological theory. He has an MRes in Social and Political Theory from Birkbeck College University of London. Research interests include:

• Social Security
• Welfare reform
• Historical sociology
• Governmentality
• Sociological theory