Sylvia Walby - Research Portal | Lancaster University

Research students are welcome in all areas of my research interests including: gender violence and security; gendered political economy; policies towards equalities; sociology of the EU; and complexity theory.

Research Interests

Sylvia Walby OBE: Distinguished Professor of Sociology and UNESCO Chair in Gender Research, Director, Violence and Society UNESCO Centre, Lancaster University, UK

My work contributes to theorising society. It mainstreams gender and other intersecting inequalities and uses complexity science to rethink core concepts of social systems, offering a comparative analysis of neoliberalism and social democracy in Europe and America (S. Walby Globalization and Inequalities: Complexity and Contested Modernities - Sage 2009).

Analysis of the cascading crisis (S. Walby Crisis - Polity 2015) addresses the changing role of the democratic state in regulating finance and the economy and offers a route towards an alternative future.

With colleagues, we are developing the Violence and Society UNESCO Centre in workshops, symposia, public lectures and funded research projects. New methods to measure violence make visible the previously hidden extent of gender-based violence. Walby, S., J. Towers, B. Francis (2016) ‘Is violent crime increasing or decreasing? A new methodology to measure repeat attacks making visible the significance of gender and domestic relations’, British Journal of Criminology 56 (6):1203-1234 Available here. Walby, Sylvia, Jude Towers, Susie Balderston, Consuelo Corradi, Brian Francis, Markku Heiskanen, Karin Helweg-Larsen, Lut Mergaert, Philippa Olive, Emma Palmer, Heidi Stöckl and Sofia Strid. The Concept and Measurement of Violence against Women and Men. Bristol: Policy Press. Download here: https://oapen.org/search?identifier=623150

Funders for these research programmes include: Economic and Social Research Council, Home Office, Equality and Human Rights Commission, Northern Rock Foundation, Trust for London, European Commission, European Parliament, European Institute for Gender Equality, Council of Europe, UNDAW, UNECE, UN Women, and UNESCO.

Engagement with public bodies includes: Eurostat Taskforce to develop EU survey on gender-based violence, 2017-8; ONS Steering Committee of Review of Domestic Abuse Statistics, 2015-6; evidence to Select Committees for Women and Equalities, European Union, Home Affairs; advice to UK Statistics Authority, Government Equalities Office, Home Office, Department of Health, Treasury, European Commission, European Parliament, UNESCO, UN Women, UNDP; Board of Directors, UK National Commission for UNESCO (2011-3);

Contributions to professional social science include: Member HEFCE REF2014 sub-panel for Sociology; Fellow, Academy of Social Sciences (2008); President of the International Sociological Association Research Committee 02 Economy and Society (2006-10); Founding President, European Sociological Association (1995-7); Chair, Women’s Studies Network, UK (1989-90); Fellow, Royal Society of Arts (1996); Official Statistics Committee member, Royal Statistical Society (2003-7).