Tony Dobbins
Biographic Data
| ID | 4368470 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Tony Dobbins |
| GIVEN NAMES | Tony |
| FAMILY NAME | Dobbins |
| SIGNATURE | DOBBINS T |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Birmingham |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4159-5218 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 34 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
From epistemic injustice to public knowledge: Peer research and the sociological imagination
This paper examines peer research as a sociological practice through which marginalised experience becomes public knowledge. Drawing on a reflexive study of a participatory project in a socioeconomically deprived community in the United Kingdom, it brings the sociological imagination into dialogue with epistemic injustice. The analysis identifies three forms of sociological emancipatory work performed by peer researchers: widening visibility by r…
Conceptualizing decent work: An explorative study of decent work in England’s Midlands region
Despite an increased focus on the quality as well as quantity of work, conceptualization of decent work remains underdeveloped. There is no single agreed definition of decent work. The International Labour Organization provides an overarching definition of decent work as “productive work for women and men in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity”. This article contributes to conceptual advancement of decent work by compiling a…
Moral Economy and the Ethics of the Real Living Wage in UK Football Clubs
Real living wages (RLWs) are an important ethical and moral policy to ensure that employees earn enough to live on. In providing ‘a fair day's pay for a fair day's work’, they set an ethical foundation for liveability. This article explores the ethics and moral economy of the RLW for lower-paid staff in the overlooked economy context of UK professional football, illustrated by a qualitative case study of Luton Town Football Club (LTFC). The artic…
Comparative impacts of the Covid ‐19 pandemic on work and employment—Why industrial relations institutions matter
This introduction assesses the international impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on work and employment. It outlines conceptually why industrial relations institutions matter for shaping policy choices across different countries. This includes countries in the Global South that are not covered by conventional varieties of capitalism theories. An important focus is what IR institutions and policies played a protective role in the decommodification of…
Navigating Choppy Water: Flexibility Ripple Effects in the Covid-19 Pandemic and the Future of Remote and Hybrid Working
This article investigates the challenges of navigating the adoption of remote and hybrid working for large organizations with diverse functions. Focus groups with employees of the UK business of a multinational organization identify conceptual contributions to the sociology of work and employment and empirical findings in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic that inform future policy and practice. Location-based flexible working has a potential u…
Employee choice of voice and non‐union worker representation
Existing research emphasises employer choice in determining the form and content of non‐union employee representation (NER) structures. This article puts forward an alternative but complementary thesis: we conceptualise NERs as an ‘offer’ that employees can choose to either accept or reject, with several shades of settlement in between. This article argues that employee choice matters insofar as it determines the likely impact and sustainability …
Contesting the politics of neoliberal resilience: Regional labour market resilience from a workers’ perspective
The concept of resilience has been captured by a neoliberal discourse displacing responsibility to individuals and regions. This article specifically examines the regional labour market resilience of workers and other regional stakeholders relating to an ongoing economic restructuring process of deindustrialization and redundancies in Anglesey, North West Wales, in the UK. Using 11 years of longitudinal qualitative research, we provide an empiric…
‘Zones of contention’ in industrial relations: Framing pluralism as praxis
This article addresses debates in contemporary industrial relations about practical application of pluralism. We compare the potential efficacy of ‘radical-pluralism’ and ‘neo-pluralism’. Data comes from analysis of employment relationships in two unionised public transport sector organisations, in the comparative country contexts of the UK and Republic of Ireland. It is argued that radical-pluralist framing of the employment relationship is bett…
Social Media: A (new) contested terrain between sousveillance and surveillance in the digital workplace
Online social media activities constitute a (new) contested terrain of NTWE in the new digital workplace. This article explores the extent to which new social media (SM) digital technologies extend managerial control and, alternatively, give employees dissenting capacity to reverse or turn the digital panoptical gaze back on their employer – invoking both a contested terrain and counter discipline of managerial authority. By deploying sousveillan…
Ireland's conundrum on union bargaining rights: Assessing the Industrial Relations Amendment Act 2015
Anglophone countries address the question of workplace‐level union bargaining rights via the mechanism of statutory recognition. Existing literature has evaluated such regimes as underpinned by several weaknesses. In contrast, Ireland presents an unusual case whereby the question of bargaining rights is resolved via collective dispute resolution procedures combining voluntary and statutory provisions. However, employer challenges and civil court …
Going Underground: A Tube Worker's Experience of Struggles over the Frontier of Control
Mainstream media representation of London Underground (LU) workers typically foregrounds their alleged militancy, greed and negligence towards the travelling public. This knee-jerk tendency obscures the voices, expressions and experiences of workers themselves. This article enriches public sociology by giving Stephen, a Tube driver and former LU station worker, a platform to share his vivid story. Stephen's voice reveals deep sociological insight…
Double-breasting employee voice: An assessment of motives, arrangements and durability
This article explores employee voice within the specific institutional arrangement of double-breasting. Double-breasting is when multi-plant organizations recognize trade unions in some company sites, with non-union arrangements at other company plants, or where a unionized firm acquires a new site that it then operates on a non-union basis. We examine three research questions in four separate case study organizations that operate employee voice …
Militant partnership: A Radical Pluralist Analysis of Workforce Dialectics
The sociological understandings of both cooperation and resistance at work are complex. This article contributes to knowledge about dialectic tensions concerning both collaborative and conflictual workforce orientations in the context of a 'pre-arranged' union-management partnership agreement. It reports unofficial workforce militancy in opposition to both management and union policy regarding a socially constructed cooperative work regime. The a…
Make do and mend' after redundancy at Anglesey Aluminium: Critiquing Human Capital Approaches to Unemployment
This article tracks workers' responses to redundancy and impact on the local labour market and regional unemployment policy after the closure of a large employer, Anglesey Aluminium (AA), on Anglesey in North Wales. It questions human capital theory (HCT) and its influence on sustaining neo-liberal policy orthodoxy - focused on supplying skilled and employable workers in isolation from other necessary ingredients in the policy recipe. It is concl…
Employer Occupation of Regulatory Space of the Employee Information and Consultation (I&C) Directive in Liberal Market Economies
This article shows how both employers and the state have influenced macro-level processes and structures concerning the content and transposition of the European Union (EU) Employee Information and Consultation (I&C) Directive. It argues that the processes of regulation occupied by employers reinforce a voluntarism which marginalizes rather than shares decision-making power with workers. The contribution advances the conceptual lens of 'regulator…
Make do and mend' after redundancy at Anglesey Aluminium: Critiquing Human Capital Approaches to Unemployment
This article tracks workers' responses to redundancy and impact on the local labour market and regional unemployment policy after the closure of a large employer, Anglesey Aluminium (AA), on Anglesey in North Wales. It questions human capital theory (HCT) and its influence on sustaining neo-liberal policy orthodoxy - focused on supplying skilled and employable workers in isolation from other necessary ingredients in the policy recipe. It is concl…
Employer Occupation of Regulatory Space of the Employee Information and Consultation (I&C) Directive in Liberal Market Economies
This article shows how both employers and the state have influenced macro-level processes and structures concerning the content and transposition of the European Union (EU) Employee Information and Consultation (I&C) Directive. It argues that the processes of regulation occupied by employers reinforce a voluntarism which marginalizes rather than shares decision-making power with workers. The contribution advances the conceptual lens of 'regulator…
Navigating Choppy Water: Flexibility Ripple Effects in the Covid-19 Pandemic and the Future of Remote and Hybrid Working
This article investigates the challenges of navigating the adoption of remote and hybrid working for large organizations with diverse functions. Focus groups with employees of the UK business of a multinational organization identify conceptual contributions to the sociology of work and employment and empirical findings in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic that inform future policy and practice. Location-based flexible working has a potential u…
Social Media: A (new) contested terrain between sousveillance and surveillance in the digital workplace
Online social media activities constitute a (new) contested terrain of NTWE in the new digital workplace. This article explores the extent to which new social media (SM) digital technologies extend managerial control and, alternatively, give employees dissenting capacity to reverse or turn the digital panoptical gaze back on their employer – invoking both a contested terrain and counter discipline of managerial authority. By deploying sousveillan…
Militant partnership: A Radical Pluralist Analysis of Workforce Dialectics
The sociological understandings of both cooperation and resistance at work are complex. This article contributes to knowledge about dialectic tensions concerning both collaborative and conflictual workforce orientations in the context of a 'pre-arranged' union-management partnership agreement. It reports unofficial workforce militancy in opposition to both management and union policy regarding a socially constructed cooperative work regime. The a…
Contesting the politics of neoliberal resilience: Regional labour market resilience from a workers’ perspective
The concept of resilience has been captured by a neoliberal discourse displacing responsibility to individuals and regions. This article specifically examines the regional labour market resilience of workers and other regional stakeholders relating to an ongoing economic restructuring process of deindustrialization and redundancies in Anglesey, North West Wales, in the UK. Using 11 years of longitudinal qualitative research, we provide an empiric…
Conceptualizing decent work: An explorative study of decent work in England’s Midlands region
Despite an increased focus on the quality as well as quantity of work, conceptualization of decent work remains underdeveloped. There is no single agreed definition of decent work. The International Labour Organization provides an overarching definition of decent work as “productive work for women and men in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity”. This article contributes to conceptual advancement of decent work by compiling a…
Going Underground: A Tube Worker's Experience of Struggles over the Frontier of Control
Mainstream media representation of London Underground (LU) workers typically foregrounds their alleged militancy, greed and negligence towards the travelling public. This knee-jerk tendency obscures the voices, expressions and experiences of workers themselves. This article enriches public sociology by giving Stephen, a Tube driver and former LU station worker, a platform to share his vivid story. Stephen's voice reveals deep sociological insight…
Double-breasting employee voice: An assessment of motives, arrangements and durability
This article explores employee voice within the specific institutional arrangement of double-breasting. Double-breasting is when multi-plant organizations recognize trade unions in some company sites, with non-union arrangements at other company plants, or where a unionized firm acquires a new site that it then operates on a non-union basis. We examine three research questions in four separate case study organizations that operate employee voice …
Make do and mend' after redundancy at Anglesey Aluminium: Critiquing Human Capital Approaches to Unemployment
This article tracks workers' responses to redundancy and impact on the local labour market and regional unemployment policy after the closure of a large employer, Anglesey Aluminium (AA), on Anglesey in North Wales. It questions human capital theory (HCT) and its influence on sustaining neo-liberal policy orthodoxy - focused on supplying skilled and employable workers in isolation from other necessary ingredients in the policy recipe. It is concl…
Employer Occupation of Regulatory Space of the Employee Information and Consultation (I&C) Directive in Liberal Market Economies
This article shows how both employers and the state have influenced macro-level processes and structures concerning the content and transposition of the European Union (EU) Employee Information and Consultation (I&C) Directive. It argues that the processes of regulation occupied by employers reinforce a voluntarism which marginalizes rather than shares decision-making power with workers. The contribution advances the conceptual lens of 'regulator…
Double-breasting employee voice: An assessment of motives, arrangements and durability
This article explores employee voice within the specific institutional arrangement of double-breasting. Double-breasting is when multi-plant organizations recognize trade unions in some company sites, with non-union arrangements at other company plants, or where a unionized firm acquires a new site that it then operates on a non-union basis. We examine three research questions in four separate case study organizations that operate employee voice …
Militant partnership: A Radical Pluralist Analysis of Workforce Dialectics
The sociological understandings of both cooperation and resistance at work are complex. This article contributes to knowledge about dialectic tensions concerning both collaborative and conflictual workforce orientations in the context of a 'pre-arranged' union-management partnership agreement. It reports unofficial workforce militancy in opposition to both management and union policy regarding a socially constructed cooperative work regime. The a…
Going Underground: A Tube Worker's Experience of Struggles over the Frontier of Control
Mainstream media representation of London Underground (LU) workers typically foregrounds their alleged militancy, greed and negligence towards the travelling public. This knee-jerk tendency obscures the voices, expressions and experiences of workers themselves. This article enriches public sociology by giving Stephen, a Tube driver and former LU station worker, a platform to share his vivid story. Stephen's voice reveals deep sociological insight…
Ireland's conundrum on union bargaining rights: Assessing the Industrial Relations Amendment Act 2015
Anglophone countries address the question of workplace‐level union bargaining rights via the mechanism of statutory recognition. Existing literature has evaluated such regimes as underpinned by several weaknesses. In contrast, Ireland presents an unusual case whereby the question of bargaining rights is resolved via collective dispute resolution procedures combining voluntary and statutory provisions. However, employer challenges and civil court …
‘Zones of contention’ in industrial relations: Framing pluralism as praxis
This article addresses debates in contemporary industrial relations about practical application of pluralism. We compare the potential efficacy of ‘radical-pluralism’ and ‘neo-pluralism’. Data comes from analysis of employment relationships in two unionised public transport sector organisations, in the comparative country contexts of the UK and Republic of Ireland. It is argued that radical-pluralist framing of the employment relationship is bett…
Social Media: A (new) contested terrain between sousveillance and surveillance in the digital workplace
Online social media activities constitute a (new) contested terrain of NTWE in the new digital workplace. This article explores the extent to which new social media (SM) digital technologies extend managerial control and, alternatively, give employees dissenting capacity to reverse or turn the digital panoptical gaze back on their employer – invoking both a contested terrain and counter discipline of managerial authority. By deploying sousveillan…
Employee choice of voice and non‐union worker representation
Existing research emphasises employer choice in determining the form and content of non‐union employee representation (NER) structures. This article puts forward an alternative but complementary thesis: we conceptualise NERs as an ‘offer’ that employees can choose to either accept or reject, with several shades of settlement in between. This article argues that employee choice matters insofar as it determines the likely impact and sustainability …
Contesting the politics of neoliberal resilience: Regional labour market resilience from a workers’ perspective
The concept of resilience has been captured by a neoliberal discourse displacing responsibility to individuals and regions. This article specifically examines the regional labour market resilience of workers and other regional stakeholders relating to an ongoing economic restructuring process of deindustrialization and redundancies in Anglesey, North West Wales, in the UK. Using 11 years of longitudinal qualitative research, we provide an empiric…
Comparative impacts of the Covid ‐19 pandemic on work and employment—Why industrial relations institutions matter
This introduction assesses the international impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on work and employment. It outlines conceptually why industrial relations institutions matter for shaping policy choices across different countries. This includes countries in the Global South that are not covered by conventional varieties of capitalism theories. An important focus is what IR institutions and policies played a protective role in the decommodification of…
Navigating Choppy Water: Flexibility Ripple Effects in the Covid-19 Pandemic and the Future of Remote and Hybrid Working
This article investigates the challenges of navigating the adoption of remote and hybrid working for large organizations with diverse functions. Focus groups with employees of the UK business of a multinational organization identify conceptual contributions to the sociology of work and employment and empirical findings in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic that inform future policy and practice. Location-based flexible working has a potential u…
Moral Economy and the Ethics of the Real Living Wage in UK Football Clubs
Real living wages (RLWs) are an important ethical and moral policy to ensure that employees earn enough to live on. In providing ‘a fair day's pay for a fair day's work’, they set an ethical foundation for liveability. This article explores the ethics and moral economy of the RLW for lower-paid staff in the overlooked economy context of UK professional football, illustrated by a qualitative case study of Luton Town Football Club (LTFC). The artic…
Conceptualizing decent work: An explorative study of decent work in England’s Midlands region
Despite an increased focus on the quality as well as quantity of work, conceptualization of decent work remains underdeveloped. There is no single agreed definition of decent work. The International Labour Organization provides an overarching definition of decent work as “productive work for women and men in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity”. This article contributes to conceptual advancement of decent work by compiling a…
From epistemic injustice to public knowledge: Peer research and the sociological imagination
This paper examines peer research as a sociological practice through which marginalised experience becomes public knowledge. Drawing on a reflexive study of a participatory project in a socioeconomically deprived community in the United Kingdom, it brings the sociological imagination into dialogue with epistemic injustice. The analysis identifies three forms of sociological emancipatory work performed by peer researchers: widening visibility by r…
Economics (12 works) · Political science (12 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Employment and Welfare Studies (9 works) · Labor Movements and Unions (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (7 works) · Public relations (6 works) · Management (5 works) · Politics (5 works)