Dr Matthew Donoghue

Matthew Donoghue
Departmental Lecturer in Comparative Social Policy
Admissions Tutor for Comparative Social Policy
01865 270343
matthew.donoghue@spi.ox.ac.uk

I completed my PhD in Politics at Oxford Brookes University. My BA was in Politics and Sociology, and my MA in International Studies, with a focus on citizenship and theory. Between 2014 and Feb 2017, I was Research Fellow on the FP7 funded project RESCuE, based at the University of Hertfordshire. The project investigated how households in nine European countries responded to hardship in the context of the financial crisis, and the ways in which (if any) they were able to develop resilience to socio-economic shocks. It investigated socio-economic resilience in relation to networks, capacities, cultural and socio-economic practices, and the role of formal structures such as the welfare state. I have expertise in qualitative methods, particularly semi-structured every day and expert interviews, focus groups and (critical) discourse analysis. I have also used visual methods, and I am interested in how more causally driven qualitative methods can contribute to my research.

My research interests are situated at the intersection of social policy, politics, and sociology. Broadly, I am interested in the policy and politics of social citizenship and social cohesion, participation and integration, particularly within developed welfare states such as the UK. I am also interested in the role of discourse and ideology in policy development and implementation, as well as its impact on citizens’ interaction with policy in these areas. My PhD research critically analysed New Labour’s approach to welfare reform and Community Cohesion policy in the UK, paying special attention to the construction and inculcation of discourses, and citizens’ internalisation of these in Bradford and Birmingham. My current and planned research combines my interest in social citizenship, cohesion and elements of resilience, exploring these issues in the context of contemporary political, social and economic uncertainty.

  • Resilience, agency and coping with hardship: evidence from Europe during the Great Recession

    Journal article
    |
    Journal of Social Policy
    This paper aims to contribute to the growing literature on resilience by focusing on coping with hardship during the Great Recession, drawing upon primary data gathered through household and key informant interviews in nine European countries. As the resilience approach highlights agency, the paper examines the nature of household responses to hardship during this period on the basis of the ‘structure - agency problem’. An important contribution of this paper is to identify different forms of agency and discuss their implications. More specifically, we conceptualise three different types of agency in coping with hardship: absorptive, adaptive and transformative. Analysis of the findings indicates that structural constraints remain prominent. Most coping mechanisms fall under the category of absorptive and adaptive agency characterised here as burden-bearing actions that ‘conform’ to changing circumstances rather than shaping those circumstances.
    resilience, hardship, Great Recession, Europe, Poverty, Structure and Agency

  • Back to the future of community cohesion? Learning from New Labour

    2018
    |
    Chapter
    |
    Social Policy Review 30: Analysis and debate in social policy 2018
    New Labour developed an ambitious programme to address what it saw as increasing social divisions in British society caused, primarily, by ethnic and cultural difference. Developed in 2001, community cohesion became embedded in many other social policy areas, especially regarding social inclusion, a commitment to empowering both individuals and communities, and developing a sense of British identity compatible with a rapidly globalising world. Though it was marginalised during the Coalition and Conservative governments, rising uncertainty and increasing division in the current period warrants a re-assessment of the utility of a discrete social cohesion policy framework. This chapter assesses New Labour’s approach to community cohesion, drawing out lessons from its use in the New Labour years and asks whether policymakers should return to a focus on social cohesion and what, if anything, should be done differently in a uncertain political and social landscape.
    social cohesion, New Labour, Integration, Ethnicity, Inequality

  • Beyond Hegemony: Elaborating on the Use of Gramscian Concepts in Critical Discourse Analysis for Political Studies

    2018
    |
    Journal article
    |
    POLITICAL STUDIES
    party politics, policy impact, methodology, Gramsci, subaltern citizens

  • The narratives of hardship: the new and the old poor in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis in Europe

    2017
    |
    Journal article
    |
    The Sociological Review

  • Cohesion as ‘common sense’: Everyday narratives of community and cohesion in New Labour’s Britain

    2016
    |
    Journal article
    |
    Politics

  • Resilience, Hardship and Social Conditions

    2016
    |
    Journal article
    |
    Journal of Social Policy

  • Welfare and cohesion contested: A critical discourse analysis of New Labour's reform programme

    2013
    |
    Journal article
    |
    BRITISH POLITICS
    welfare, cohesion, citizenship, policy, inequality, New Labour
    • More

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