Drs Gabriella Alberti and Jo Cutter are joined by Caroline Keohane and Tanya Barringer from the Food and Drink Federation to discuss how the workforce in the UK food and drink sector has been affected since the end of the free movement of labour from the EU, and other subsequent crises.

This episode has been recorded as part of the Labour Mobility in Transition (LIMITS) project, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Visit the project webpage.

You can read the manifesto discussed in the episode here, and the LIMITS project Employer Survey report here.

This episode was recorded on 11 June 2024. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.

About the speakers:

Dr Gabriella Alberti is an Associate Professor in Work and Employment Relations. Her research interests revolve around the conditions of workers at the bottom end of the labour market, whether on non-standard contracts, engaged in gig/platform work, excluded from social protections, migrants and minorities workers facing multiple and intersectional forms of discrimination and exclusion.

Dr Jo Cutter is a lecturer in Work and Employment Relations. Her research focuses on employment relations, social dialogue and the regulation of work with a core focus on skills formation and training. She is currently researching these themes in relation to two contexts: workers and the just transition and labour mobility.

Caroline Keohane is Head of Industry Growth at the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) which is the voice of the UK’s largest manufacturing sector. Caroline leads FDF’s policy work on growth, productivity and investment and works closely with senior government officials within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). She is also a Non-Executive Board member of the National Skills Academy for Food and Drink.

Tanya Barringer is a Senior Industry Growth Policy Executive at the Food and Drink Federation. Her areas of focus include skills (apprenticeships and...

Professor Vera Trappmann, Dr Janina Myrczik and Dr Justyna Kajta discuss their paper - “Becoming a young radical right activist, biographical pathways of the members of radical right organizations in Poland and Germany”.

Read the paper here.

“Becoming a young radical right activist, biographical pathways of the members of radical right organizations in Poland and Germany.”, Current Sociology, Janina Myrczik, Justyna Kajta, Arthur Buckenleib, Mateusz Karolak, Marius Liedtke, Adam Mrozowicki and Vera Trappmann.

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in May 2024. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available. 

About the speakers:

Vera Trappmann is Professor of Comparative Employment Relations at Leeds University Business School. Her research engages with the comparison of labour relations across Europe, focusing on the dynamics of economic and organisational restructuring and its impact on working biographies, and organized labour.

Justyna Kajta is a Professor Assistant at the Institute of Social Sciences, SWPS University (Warsaw, Poland). Her main research interests concern youth, social movements, class (im)mobilities, and social and political changes in Central and Eastern Europe. She is the author of several publications, including the book (in Polish) Young Radicals? On the Identity of the Polish Nationalist Movement and Its Participants (Nomos, 2020).

Janina Myrczik is a Lecturer in Qualitative Methods and a Researcher at Medical School Berlin. Her research centres on rehabilitation, ageing, and the radical right. She is particularly interested in qualitative research, social inequality and political sociology.

Dr Olga Ustyuzhantseva speaks to Mattia Dessì about Russia’s energy situation and the state's views on it; the ecological impact of coal in Russia; and the role of the labour movement in Russia's coal industry.

This project is funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation – Just Transition: Aktivitäten im internationalen Vergleich 2021-582-2.

Visit the project webpage. business.leeds.ac.uk/faculty/dir-re…s-11-countries

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in May 2023. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available. business.leeds.ac.uk/downloads/down…al-exploration

About the speakers: Mattia Dessì is a Postgraduate Researcher at Leeds University Business School. His PhD research focuses on new technologies and the future of work in the South African mining industry.

Dr Olga Ustyuzhantseva is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg (South Africa). Her recent research focuses on the sociotechnical transition to the sustainable development of coal-mining countries (South Africa and Russia), particularly climate, energy, and just transition policies and their impact on the coal phase-out trajectory.

Dr Jo Cutter is joined by Sam Perry, Green Bargaining Officer for Yorkshire and the Humber Trades Union Congress (TUC) to discuss the work the TUC is doing in the region to support a Just Transition for workers.

This project is funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation – Just Transition: Aktivitäten im internationalen Vergleich 2021-582-2.

Visit the project webpage.

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in November 2023. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. To find out more about the TUC’s Just Transition work, or to join the Yorkshire and Humber Just Transition Network, email Sam Perry sperry@tuc.org.uk.

A transcript of this episode is available.

You can listen to the rest of the episodes in this series.

About the speakers:

Dr Jo Cutter is a lecturer in Work and Employment Relations at Leeds University Business School. Her research focuses on employment relations, social dialogue and the regulation of work with a core focus on skills, education and training. She is currently researching these themes concerning two contexts: workers and the just transition and labour mobility.

Sam Perry is the Green Bargaining Officer for Yorkshire and the Humber TUC. He is focused on raising the profile of environmental action within the labour movement and building capacity in trade unions to bargain for justice as organisations adapt to the need to decarbonise. His special interest is in making the case for a massive growth of energy efficiency retrofits to homes across Yorkshire and the Humber, where he brings together a background in social housing and political and union activism.

Lena Jaspersen and Tony Morgan talk about their pedagogical research on the development of employability skills in students engaged in challenge-based learning in diverse teams. Drawing on assignments produced for their own module “Innovation, Thinking and Practice”, Tony and Lena analysed reflective diaries that the students wrote throughout the module. Findings provided useful insights into how team-based learning can be designed to improve inclusivity and enhance learning outcomes, including employability skills. Lena and Tony discuss how pedagogical research can connect research and teaching activities in mutually beneficial ways.

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in December 2023. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast, please contact  research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available. 

Useful resources:

• LITE Research Project: https://teachingexcellence.leeds.ac.uk/research/fellowships/i-de-es-project/
• Diverging and Converging for Team-Based Learning: https://teachingexcellence.leeds.ac.uk/diverging-and-converging-for-team-based-learning/
• Design Thinking for Student Projects book: https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/design-thinking-for-student-projects/book276875

About the speakers:

Lena Jaspersen is an early-career researcher with a multidisciplinary background in international sociology and organisation studies. Lena’s overarching research interests are in collaborative innovation processes, in particular in the context of global development, and qualitative research methods.

Tony Morgan (FHEA) is an Associate Professor in Innovation Management Practice at the University of Leeds in the UK, where he teaches interdisciplinary and team-based innovation modules. He previously held senior innovation and technology roles at IBM. Tony's primary interests include design thinking, innovation and innovation management, emerging technology, pedagogy and student skills development.

Mattia Dessì speaks to Dr Alexander Beresford about their South African research as part of the project looking at just transitions across the globe. They discuss factors affecting just transition in South Africa, including how international partners fit into the domestic debates, the political sphere, and the role of the ruling elite.

This project is funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation – Just Transition: Aktivitäten im internationalen Vergleich 2021-582-2.

Visit the project webpage.

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in October 2023. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.

About the speakers: Mattia Dessì is a Postgraduate Researcher at Leeds University Business School. His PhD research focuses on new technologies and the future of work in the South African mining industry.

Dr Alexander Beresford is an Associate Professor in African Politics, and Director of Research and Innovation for the School of Politics and International Studies at the University of Leeds. His research provides a multi-layered insight into how global normative order is mediated and contested within and between two interwoven spaces - political struggles over inequality, power and corruption from everyday sites of politics through to the highest tables of power in South Africa; and the global diplomatic contestation of vaccine access, conflict resolution and climate change led by South Africa as an emerging power.

Dr Peter Gittins and Dr Deema Refai discuss their research on constrained rural entrepreneurship. They talk about the constraints and opportunities farmers are facing post-Brexit, and also discuss how other entrepreneurs work within constraints to achieve positive changes.

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in November 2023. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast, please contact  research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available. 

Visit the project webpage for further information. The project is funded by Leeds University Business School’s Impact and Engagement Support Fund and International Research Collaborations Fund.

About the speakers:

Peter Gittins is a Lecturer in the Centre for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Studies (CEES) at Leeds University Business School. He has a practical working background in farm management, helping to run his family-owned livestock farm in West Yorkshire. His research interests are centred around agricultural business management, specifically rural entrepreneurship and approaches to strategic management in farming businesses.

Deema Refai is an Associate Professor in Enterprise and Entrepreneurship in CEES and is currently Joint Editor in Chief of The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Deema’s research focus is developed around constrained entrepreneurship, with a particular interest in the refugee and rural contexts.

In this latest episode of the “Just Transitions - a Global Exploration” series, Professor Vera Trappmann and Dr Felix Schulz discuss German workers’ perception of the climate crisis, and the role of policy in transitioning to a greener economy.

This project is funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation – Just Transition: Aktivitäten im internationalen Vergleich 2021-582-2. The Competence Centre mentioned in this episode is also funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation.

Visit the project webpage.

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in November 2023. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast, please contact  research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.

About the speakers:

Vera Trappmann is Professor of Comparative Employment Relations at Leeds University Business School. Her research engages with the comparison of labour relations across Europe, focussing on the dynamics of economic and organisational restructuring and its impact on working biographies, and organized labour. Currently climate crisis and just transition are her main focus.

Felix Schulz is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Digital Futures at Work (digit) Research centre and on an international Hans-Böckler-Stiftung funded project on the role of labour in the “Just Transition”. His research is interdisciplinary, drawing on labour economics, industrial relations, environmental labour studies and social psychology, with justice and inequality as the overarching focus.