Professor Peter Halfpenny

I did my first degree in Natural Sciences at Oxford before turning to Sociology, which I studied at LSE and Essex. I have been at the University of Manchester since 1971. I was Head of the Department of Sociology from 1993 to 1996 and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law from 2003 to 2004, and subsequently Head of the School of Social Sciences in the new University of Manchester from 2004 to 2006.

In 1985 I established the Centre for Applied Social Research which has undertaken over 50 projects funded by local authorities, public bodies, research councils and charities.

I am currently chair of the Voluntary Sector Studies Network, an association for all researchers interested in investigating the voluntary sector. See www.vssn.org.uk for details.

Computer applications in social research; the voluntary sector and in particular charitable giving; philosophy of social sciences, focussing on positivism and its critics.

I am Executive Director of the ESRC National Centre for e-Social Science (NCeSS), responsible for overall strategic management and accountable to the ESRC for the success of the Centre’s programme of research, outreach and capacity-building. NCeSS comprises a co-ordinating Hub based at the University of Manchester, together with seven substantial Research Nodes and 12 Small Grant Projects at universities across the UK. NCeSS’s overall aim is to integrate Grid tools and services into a comprehensive support environment for social science researcher practitioners. NCeSS is also undertaking JISC-funded projects investigating the adoption and adaptation of Grid-based support tools across the social and natural science research communities.

None at present as I am on research leave.

I have experience of supervising doctoral students undertaking applied social research on a wide range of topics, most recently on aspects of the voluntary sector. I am also interested in supervising projects on Grid applications in the social sciences and on the social shaping of Grid technologies.

Publications Database

PhD Students

Current

• Philip Holden
  The engagement of non-profit organisations in the market economy.
• Diane Taylor
  Women and food as portrayed in popular magazines, 1950 to 2000.

Recently completed

• Andri Soteri-Proctor
  Evaluating the social and community benefit of the Voluntary Sector Option within the New Deal for Young People in Greater Manchester.
• Simon Teasdale  
  The uneven potential for the development of local social economies