The University of Glasgow is a world-leading centre for social policy research.
REF 2021 results
See the outcomes for Social Work and Social Policy from the Research Excellence Framework 2021 on the School of Social and Political Sciences website.
COVID-19 Research and publications
Reacting quickly to undertake research on the social, economic and health impacts of the pandemic, here we highlight our funded research projects and their associated publications.
We are a large and diverse group, working across many specialist areas, brought together through a common interest in tackling social inequalities and injustice.
We have a strong commitment to inclusive, publicly-engaged social science and to working with communities and practitioners. We draw on a range of intellectual traditions, utilise a variety of methodological approaches and our research is broad and diverse in its scope and content.
We bring together researchers from across a range of different disciplines and backgrounds, allowing us to address complex social policy challenges whose solution does not lie in a single area of policy or disciplinary perspective.
Our work is international in both its focus and its outlook and we have links with universities and research institutes across the world.
Social Policy Research Themes
Our work examines key policy areas and social concerns that affect us all in our everyday lives, ranging from social care, health care, and welfare, to racism, migration, disability, and criminal justice.
We have longstanding strengths in social theory, and we combine qualitative and quantitative research methods to produce innovative analyses.
Our research is focused in four thematic research areas which allow for coherence and interaction.
Health and Wellbeing
Research in Health and Wellbeing tackles health inequalities and evaluates policies intending to mitigate these inequalities. This includes research on the rise in obesity and less active life-styles; the increasing public health problems posed by gambling; the health and social impacts of arthritis, mental health services, and the inequalities experienced by disabled people.
Crime and Justice
Research in Crime and Justice focuses on crime, punishment and social control, and provides critical analyses of the development of institutions, cultures and practices of criminal justice. Research addresses the prevention of crime and desistance from crime. It includes how we apply criminal justice and how we experience it; the impacts of crime, such as the effects of repeat victimisation, and how we respond to rape, domestic abuse, hate crime and forced marriage.
Migration, Racism and Citizenship
Research in Migration, Racism and Citizenship documents, explains and addresses inequalities and injustices related to ethnicity, integration, immigration and sexuality. It includes work on the dynamics of ethnic identity and inequality; racism and political mobilisation, and social support and migrant integration.
Digital and Social Transformations
Research in Digital and Social Transformations focuses on changes in mass media and forms of communication and the ways in which digital technologies, including services, devices, and network, shape and intersect with social, political and cultural change. There is a particular emphasis on how the range of digital interventions being implemented in everyday life may create new and exacerbate existing inequalities.
Research Activity
Research Centres and Networks
We draw together over 70 researchers from 2 cross-University networks, 6 multi-disciplinary research centres and one cross-University Group.
Research Projects
Our research projects examine and investigate the social concerns and challenges that affect us all in our everyday lives. Our findings challenge and influence government and institutional policies, legislation and practice.
Browse some of our current interdisciplinary research projects here.
Research Impact
Our academically-rigorous research allows us to make a real impact on society.
