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Changing Landscapes Research Team

Core Research Team

Kahryn Hughes

Kahryn Hughes is a Senior Research Fellow in Sociology at the University of Leeds. She has been funded by the ESRC for the past eleven years in research primarily aimed at methods innovation and development. Her current research interests are related to three overlapping areas: the sociology of health inequalities; sociological theory; and research methodology. More specifically, she is interested in: addiction, poverty, time and identity. In research with Nick Emmel funded under the ESRC Research Methods Programme, and ESRC Timescapes, she has developed and sustained a number of effective networks with third sector organisations and has considerable experience and insight into enhancing impact through engaging a diverse audience. Most recently, she has won funding with Bren Neale under the ESRC Knowledge Exchange and Transformation scheme, for Changing Landscapes for the Third Sector: Enhancing knowledge and informing practice. This project brings together a national network of research projects and teams, to facilitate knowledge sharing and secondary analysis, in addition to developing and refining the Timescapes Archive at the University of Leeds.

Kahryn Hughes’ profile on the Sociology and Social Policy site

Bren Neale

Bren Neale is Professor of Life Course and Family Research in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds.  She was awarded a doctorate from the University of Leeds in 1985 for an ethnographic study entitled Getting Married, which tracked engaged couples over time. She specialises in policy related research on the dynamics of family life, childhood and intergenerational relationships.

As Director of the ESRC Timescapes Initiative, Bren has contributed to advances in Qualitative Longitudinal (QL) research methods across academia, government and the voluntary sector, She has set up an infrastructure for the archiving and secondary analysis of QL datasets (The Timescapes Archive) which has received ESRC funding through to 2014 (ESRC Changing Landscapes, with Kahryn Hughes). Her empirical research under Timescapes focused on the changing lives of young people. In 2010 she set up the Following Young Fathers study, which she now co-directs with Carmen Lau Clayton (ESRC 2012-15). She is a founding editorial board member of a new international journal: Families, Relationships and Societies (Policy Press. 2012- ). In 2010, she was elected as a member of the Academy of Social Sciences in recognition of her work in developing Timescapes.

Bren Neale’s profile on the Sociology and Social Policy site

Rob MacMillan

Rob Macmillan is a Research Fellow at the Third Sector Research Centre (TSRC) based at the University of Birmingham, where he’s responsible for coordinating TSRC’s large scale ‘Real Times’ qualitative longitudinal study of third sector organisations and activities.

Rob leads the second strand of the Changing Landscapes project, a secondary analysis and synthesis of evidence from our network of six qualitative longitudinal research projects on different aspects of the third sector. Rob’s main research interests are around the changing support needs of voluntary organisations and community groups and the role of capacity-building and infrastructure in meeting these needs, as well as competition and the construction of markets in the third sector.

Rob MacMillan’s profile on the Sheffield Hallm University website

Véronique Jochum

Véronique Jochum manages NCVO’s research programme on voluntary sector trends and civil society issues including funding, workforce and social action. Véronique was the project manager for the Pathways through Participation project, a 2.5 year project funded by the Big Lottery Fund and led by NCVO in partnership with Institute of Volunteering Research (IVR) and Involve. She is the lead author for the publication Participation: trends, facts and figures and co-authors the yearly UK Giving report. NCVO, IVR and Involve will contribute the Pathways through Participation dataset for archiving and secondary analysis. The dataset consists of 101 interviews from the Pathways through Participation project, a 2.5 year project funded by the Big Lottery Fund that looked at how and why people participate in a range of voluntary activities over the course of their lives.

Véronique will be leading on the preparation and depositing of the Pathways through Participation data.  She will also be involved in the Data-Sharing workshop.  Véronique will also be a co-editor of the special journal issue, with Rob Macmillan, and lead on the  NCVO one day practitioner conference where the findings of the Changing Landscapes project and outputs will be launched.

Brenda Phillips

Brenda Phillips is the Changing Landscapes Archive Officer. With a strong interest in the provision of data services and the organisation and exploitation of research data for secondary analysis and reuse, Brenda is responsible for organising and managing the data functions of the project which includes ingesting two national level datasets into the Timescapes Archive and advising researchers on the deposit and re-use of their datasets. As an interim Institutional Research Data Management Officer for the Research Data Leeds service, she supports a wide range colleagues at the University of Leeds to strengthen research data management infrastructure and support.

Her previous roles include: Data Resources Officer for the ESRC funded Timescapes Programme, the first major qualitative longitudinal study to be funded in the UK which saw her assist the core development of the Timescapes Archive; Senior Policy Information and Research Officer, St.Helens Council where she assisted the development of the St.Helens Analysis and Research Exchange, a centralised local information system for quantitative and qualitative data on the economic, social and environmental health of the local area; Economic Development Funding Officer, St.Helens Council supporting investments to deliver economic growth throughout the Merseyside Region; Senior Regeneration Funds Officer, Bradford Council working on worklessness interventions across the Yorkshire region, from commissioning to contract management, audit and evaluation; Projects Officer, Business Links audit proofing £25m of organisational projects to achieve audit clearance; and as Market Renewal Policy & Programme Assistant she supported 27 government funded neighbourhood based projects.

Rachel Proudfoot

Rachel Proudfoot is Interim Coordinator for the Research Data Leeds service, working with a wide range colleagues at the University of Leeds to strengthen research data management infrastructure and support. Rachel managed the Jisc funded Leeds RoaDMaP research data management pilot project 2012-2013 and has an extensive range of research data management contacts throughout the UK. Previously, Rachel worked for several years on the White Rose Research Online (WRRO) repository of scholarly publications and PhD theses and has broad experience of open access and scholarly communications issues. Apart from a year at the RNIB, Rachel has spent her working life in HE, including roles at London Metropolitan University, Kings College London and City University.

Rachel will provide line management support for the Changing Landscapes Archive Officer and act as Repository Advisor to the project.

Project Advisors

  • Bo Middleton
  • Brian Clifford
  • Sarah Irwin
  • Libby Bishop