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Dr Eric Harrison

Senior Research Fellow

School of Arts and Social Sciences

Contact details

Address

Dr Eric Harrison DG21, Rhind Building
City, University of London
Northampton Square
London EC1V 0HB
United Kingdom

About

Overview

Dr Eric Harrison has been at City since October 2006 when he joined what is now European Social Survey Headquarters as a Research Fellow. He has held various responsibilities relating to the coordination of multiple EC Framework Programme projects, as well as pursuing research relating to survey methodology, social inequality and societal wellbeing. He became Deputy Director of the European Social Survey ERIC in 2014 and from October 2017 he combines this role with that of Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology. He is the current coordinator of City Q-Step Centre.

Dr Harrison studied Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge and subsequently spent eight years as Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Plymouth. In 2000 he moved to Nuffield College, Oxford where he completed a doctorate examining the working conditions of the self-employed. This used multiple national sample surveys to chart the different levels of job quality, job satisfaction, labour market insecurity and socio-political attitudes associated with different groups of self-employed workers, depending on their position in a hierarchy of employer-dependence.

From 2004 to 2006 he was the assistant academic convenor of an EU-funded consortium developing the new European Socio-economic Classification (ESeC) for use by academics and statistical offices in the European Research Area.

Qualifications

  1. Fellow, Higher Education Academy, York, United Kingdom, 2004
  2. D.Phil, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2000 – 2004
  3. Certificate of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, University of Plymouth, 1994

Employment

  1. External Examiner, MSc Social Research, University of Kent, Canterbury, 2016 – present

Research

Research Activity

Dr Harrison's main research interests include social stratification, societal wellbeing, work and occupations and survey methodology. He has also published on developments in higher education and the teaching of undergraduate sociology. He is currently a member of the editorial board for International Journal of Social Research Methodology.

Publications

Publications by category

Books (2)

  1. Rose, D.I. and Harrison, E.K. (Eds.), (2010). Social Class in Europe: An Introduction to the European Socio-economic Classification. London: Routledge.
  2. Harrison, E.K. (2010). Social Class in Europe: An Introduction to the European Socio-economic Classification. Rose, D. and Harrison, E.K. (Eds.), London: Routledge.

Chapters (11)

  1. Harrison, E. (2021). Family Life: Attitudes to non-traditional family behaviours. British Social Attitudes: The 37th report
  2. Harrison, E.K. (2013). Instruments de travail and the travails of instruments: reflections on the cross-national measurement of social class. In Jones, M. and Hornsby, D. (Eds.), Language and Social Structure in Urban France Oxford: Legenda.
  3. Mears, R. and Harrison, E.K. (2013). Researching Change in Higher Education Occupations. In Gornall, L., Cook, C., Daunton, L., Salisbury, J. and Thomas, B. (Eds.), Academic Working Lives: Experience, Practice and Change London: Bloomsbury.
  4. Fitzgerald, R., Harrison, E.K. and Ryan, L. (2013). The European Social Survey as a Research Infrastructure. In Renschler, I., Kleiner, B., Wernli, B., Farago, P. and Joye, D. (Eds.), Understanding Research Infrastructures in the Social Sciences Zurich: Seismo Verlag.
  5. Stoop, I. and Harrison, E.K. (2012). Classification of Surveys. Handbook of Survey Methodology for the Social Sciences New York: Springer.
  6. Stoop, I. and Harrison, E.K. (2012). Repeated Cross-sectional Surveys using Face-to-Face. Handbook of Survey Methodology for the Social Sciences New York: Spinger.
  7. Harrison, E.K. (2010). Measuring Social Class. In Bulmer, M., Gibbs, J. and Hyman, L. (Eds.), Social Measurement Through Social Surveys Aldershot: Ashgate.
  8. Rose, D., Harrison, E.K. and Pevalin, D. (2010). The European Socio-economic Classification: a prolegomenon. In Rose, D. and Harrison, E.K. (Eds.), Social Class in Europe: An Introduction to the European Socio-economic Classification London: Routledge.
  9. Fitzgerald, R., Harrison, E.K. and Steinmaier, F. (2010). Age identity and conflict: myths and realities. In Park, A. (Ed.), British Social Attitudes: The 27th Report London: Sage.
  10. Harrison, E.K. and Rose, D. (2010). From derivation to validation: evidence from the UK and beyond. In Rose, D. and Harrison, E.K. (Eds.), London: Routledge.
  11. Harrison, E.K. and Fitzgerald, R. (2009). A Chorus of Disapproval? European Attitudes to Non-traditional family patterns. In Park, A. (Ed.), British Social Attitudes: The 26th Report London: Sage.

Conference paper/proceedings

  1. Thomas, , Douhou, S. and Harrison, E. (2017). Time is Money, or Is It? Using Module Length to Evaluate Interviewer Effects. Europan Survey Research Association 17-21 July, Lisbon.

Datasets (2)

  1. Fitzgerald, R. and Harrison, E. (2018). European Social Survey Cumulttive dataset Rounds 1-8.

    [publisher’s website]

  2. Paskin, N. (1999). Toward unique identifiers.

Journal articles (3)

  1. Harrison, E.K. and Smart, A. (2016). The under-representation of minority ethnic groups in UK medical research. Ethnicity and Health. doi:10.1080/13557858.2016.1182126.
  2. Harrison, E.K. and Mears, R. (2013). The Changing face of undergraduate assessment in UK Sociology. Enhancing Learning in the Social Sciences, 5(3). doi:10.11120/elss.2013.00015.
  3. Harrison, E.K., Jowell, R. and Sibley, E. (2011). Developing Attitudinal Indicators of Societal Progress. ASK: Research and Methods, 20, pp. 57–78.

Reports (5)

  1. Barnes, M., Ndebele, N. and Harrison, E. (2020). Pictures of life in older age: a quantitative analysis of the lived experience of ageing using the Understanding Society survey..
  2. Barnes, M. and Harrison, E. (2017). The wellbeing of secondary school pupils with special educational needs.. ISBN 978-1-78105-789-6.
  3. Harrison, E.K., Quick, A. and Abdallah, S. (2016). Looking into the Wellbeing Kaleidoscope..
  4. Davies, R., Wilkins, C., Harrison, E.K., Sibley, E. and Owen, D. (2011). Quality of life in ethnically diverse neighbourhoods. Dublin.
  5. Harrison, E.K., Sibley, E., Theodoropoulou, S. and Guerzoni, B. (2011). What do citizens want? What survey results reveal about values, attitudes and preferences. Brussels: European Policy Centre.

Working paper

  1. Barnes, M., Ndebele, N. and Harrison, E. (2020). The job quality of key worker employees: Analysis of the Labour Force Survey. London: City, University of London.

Other (3)

  1. Fitzgerald, R., Butt, S., Harrison, E., Ryan, L., Douhou, S., Salini, L. … Lynn, P. (2018). ESS Round 9: European Social Survey Round 9 Data.

    [publisher’s website]

  2. Fitzgerald, R., Harrison, E., Ryan, L., Villar, A., Butt, S., Douhou, S. … Lynn, P. (2016). ESS Round 8: European Social Survey Round 8 Data.

    [publisher’s website]

  3. Fitzgerald, R., Harrison, E., Ryan, L., Villar, A., Butt, S., Widdop, S. … Malnar, B. (2016). ESS Round 7: European Social Survey Round 7 Data (2014). Data file edition 2.1. NSD - Norwegian Centre for Research Data, Norway – Data Archive and distributor of ESS data for ESS ERIC.

    [publisher’s website]

Professional activities

Editorial activity

  1. Associate Board member, Sociology, 2008-209
    Editorial Board member, Sociology, 2010-2012.    .

Online article

  1. Live Q&A: What can I do with a degree in sociology? (2011). Guardian Online http://careers.theguardian.com/sociology-degree?commentpage=1