Dr Emma Casey
Reader in Sociology

Profile

Biography

I grew up in the north east of England during a time of rapid industrial decline, where burgeoning social inequalities sat alongside the rapid emergence of new forms of popular culture and consumer practices. Sociology has long provided me with the opportunity to make sense of these social and cultural transformations.

Between 1995 and 1998 I came to the University of York to study Sociology as an undergraduate. I then moved to London in the late 1990s and worked in a bookshop while I searched for postgraduate funding. I completed my PhD at London Metropolitan University in 2004. Since then, I have developed research which broadly examines the various ways in which structural inequalities of class, race and gender are mapped onto everyday cultural and consumer practices.

Underpinning my research and teaching, is a commitment to countering mainstream sociological scholarship which has often silenced the voices of marginalised people. To this end, my research attempts to pull to the surface hitherto overlooked cultural processes and practices. My research is particularly inspired by feminist theoretical approaches and ways of seeing the world.

I joined the Department of Sociology in 2022 as Senior Lecturer in Sociology.

Research

Overview

Research interests

• Domestic
• Gender
• Class
• Gambling
• Consumption

I am a Reader in Sociology in the Department of Sociology at York. My research broadly seeks to redress the relative lack of prominence of sociological studies of domestic life and experiences. My edited collection 'Gender and Consumption' with Prof Lydia Martens (Keele University) brought together feminist academics working in the field of domestic consumer economies, while my doctoral research echoed this focus by producing one of the first studies of domestic routines and rituals of gambling. This work informed my sole-authored monograph 'Women, Pleasure and the Gambling Experience', shortlisted for the BSA Philip Abrams Memorial Prize.

In addition to my work on gambling, my work examines the social and cultural history of a variety of everyday consumption practices, including catalogues, home-baking, shopping malls and department stores. Recently, I have begun to develop new research ideas around the Sociology of the 1980s and have organised a one-day conference where we will begin to discuss the mythologies and scholarly absences of this hugely significant historical period. I have collaborated with Prof Jo Littler (Goldsmiths) on research exploring the popular appeal of 'cleanfluencing' and with Professor Sarah Childs (University of Edinburgh) and Rupa Huq, MP on a symposium and edited collection on the topic of gender and COVID-19.

I have recently completed my new sole authored book entitled ‘The Return of the Housewife’ which will be published in 2024 by Manchester University Press. The book explores contemporary digital representations of domestic labour and ‘cleanfluencing’ cultures. 

Funded research includes an ESRC grant for a project exploring gambling and households (RES-000-22-4314). The project established a major new directive on gambling at Mass Observation Archive. Between 2014-2021, I sat on the editorial board of Sociology, the flagship journal of the BSA. I sit on the Editorial Board of Cultural Sociology and am co-editor of the journal Critical Gambling Studies, an interdisciplinary and international journal which seeks to expand critical and cultural understandings of gambling.

At York, I am Director of Teaching and Learning in the Department of Sociology.

You can listen to some recent interviews and discussions here:

• Thinking Allowed: Shopping
• Thinking Allowed: Gambling

Faculti: Commodifying Selfhood and Rearticulating Consumer Capitalism

Publications

Selected publications

Casey, E. H. (2024). Women, Pleasure and the Gambling Experience: 16 Years On. Critical Gambling Studies, 5(1), 84–89. 

Casey, E. H., & Littler, J. (2024). How Social Media Cleanfluencers are Refashioning the Domestic Narrative: Emma Casey and Jo Littler in conversation. The Sociological Review. 

Casey, E. (2024). Welcome to the Shopping Revolution! Commodifying selfhood and rearticulating consumer capitalism at the Metro Centre, Gateshead. The Sociological Review, 72(2), 322-339. 

Casey, E. H., & Littler, J. (2022). Mrs Hinch, the rise of the cleanfluencer and the neoliberal refashioning of housework: Scouring away the crisis? The Sociological Review, 70(3), 489-505.