Dr Alison Stenning

I am a social and economic geographer, based in the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. You can contact me through those sites. My research has particular thematic interests in work, community and local economic development issues, and a regional focus in east central Europe and the former Soviet Union. In addition to the Nowa Huta project, with colleagues at the University of Gloucestershire and the Jagiellonian University of Kraków, I am currently investigating the politics of development in Oswiecim (Auschwitz). A recently completed project (with Jane Hardy, University of Hertfordshire) explored the remaking of women’s work in Poland. More details of these projects are available below. The methodological emphasis is on qualitative research methodologies - interviewing, the analysis of documents and events, life history work and group interviews.

Previous and Current Research

The Politics of Local Economic Development in the Russian Federation
(funded by an ESRC research studentship)

This project explored the restructuring of local economic development processes in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk during a period of deep and wide-ranging social and economic transformation. The focus lay in analysing the presentation, mediation and promotion of strategies for post-Soviet growth and survival; with particular attention paid to the contexts through which those strategies were being constituted and the to the variety of influences, both local and non-local, on the development of the local political arena.

Out with the Old, in with the New? The Changing Experiences of Women's Work in Poland
(funded by Nuffield Foundation, with Jane Hardy, University of Hertfordshire)

This project analyses the changing employment experiences of Polish women in the light of profound and wide-ranging economic transformations. The focus lies in a qualitative exploration of women's work histories, the changing conditions of work and employment and an assessment of the challenges and opportunities faced by women in a restructuring labour market. Following a quantitative overview of local labour markets, the research is centred in two Polish regions - Kraków and Wroclaw - where work experiences in traditional state owned enterprises, the growing foreign-owned retailing sector and the public sector have been examined.

The Other Auschwitz: Economic Change and the Dead Hand of History in Poland
(funded by ESRC, with Andy Charlesworth, University of Gloucestershire and Robert Guzik and Michal Paszkowski, Jagiellonian University of Krakow)

This project explores the experiences of socialism and post-socialism in the particular context of the most famous Holocaust site in the world - Auschwitz, or Oswiecim. It investigates alternative histories of the town and analyses the conflicts present in debates over the town's development, paying particular attention to the roles of Auschwitz museum and the town's chemical plant. It employs a range of archival and interview methodologies to contribute to debates over both the geographies of the Holocaust and the geographies of post-socialist transformations. The project website for this research can be found here.

One of the key themes running through all of these projects is the remaking of the relationship between work and community, as an expression of the wider economy-society relationship. This exploration of work has developed to become one of the most important foci of my research and I am beginning to develop a set of future projects which interrogate the transformation of work, class and geographies of working-class communities. In the first instance this is being developed through an ESRC Seminar Series on Working Class Lives with Chris Haylett, University of Manchester, Jane Wills, Queen Mary, University of London and Tim Strangleman, London Metropolitan University.

A list of current and forthcoming publications can be found here.

Future Research Questions/Potential PhD Topics

• The paucity of local-level studies of post-socialist transformations reveals a research gap for work on the lived experiences of change. There is scope for projects exploring the articulation of general processes of change with matrices such as gender, generation, class, and ethnicity in localities across east central Europe. Not only does such work create opportunities for interpreting and presenting new empirical material, but also for exploring the use of qualitative research methodologies in post-socialist contexts.

• There are ever-increasing opportunities to research the 'spaces of socialism' and their experiences under post-socialism. What happens to towns, cities, localities when the rules of the game change and they make no 'sense' any more? Echoing research in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s, what does it mean for these places to be seen as 'redundant'? Have any of the spaces of socialism in east central Europe and the former Soviet Union managed to construct positive new futures, or are they doomed to social and economic collapse?

• How do such spaces compare to similar communities in the West? What contrasts and comparisons can we draw with, for example, steel towns in the UK and North America? How universal were images of steelworkers and their communities? What parallels can be drawn between the deindustrialisation experiences of Western steel towns and the current restructurings of such communities in east central Europe and the former Soviet Union?

• The Polish community in Britain, though significant, is woefully under-researched, especially at a time when there is a growing interest in white minorities. How does the British Polish community construct its identities? What role do links back to Poland play in these identities? Which institutions and events shape the identity of Polish British communities? What role might these communities play in contemporary debates over European integration, transnational trading networks and ethnic entrepreneurship?

• What is the position of central European migrant workers in Britain and western Europe? What are the connections between migrant workers and their communities at home? What role do remittances play in the construction of post-socialist economies? How do migrant workers travelling from east central to western Europe assist in the construction of Europe?

• How might we understand mobility in a post-socialist context? How do patterns and understandings of mobility connect to more formal analyses of the development of housing and labour markets in post-socialist states? How might growing mobility affect the form and value of local communities?

• What alternative economic activities have taken the place of secure and paternalist work in central European communities? What role do informal economic practices such as ‘traditional’ survival strategies, informal work, multiple jobs, unpaid labour within the extended family and community networks of support/finance play in the construction of post-socialist economies? How are these practices articulated with the formal sphere? How might we connect these activities to wider (post-structural) economy/geography themes which validate multiple stories of the economy?