Professor David Etherington

Professor

Digital, Tech, Innovation & Business

David has previously worked in local Government (including Sheffield City Council) before moving into academia. Since the early 2000s David has been involved with a number of research projects relating to economic and social inclusion including a 2-year study on deprived areas for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2005-2007).

More recently since 2015 David has been tracking the Government’s devolution initiatives (especially in relation to welfare to work) involving a series of projects relating to the implications of City Region devolution for disadvantaged groups. David’s involvement with the Sheffield Needs A Pay Rise project (in 2019) has been primarily focused on developing the evidence base and the actual and potential role and involvement of trade unions with the campaign (an outcome of this has been to explore different models of community and trade union organising).

He has been exploring the concept of the inclusive labour market drawing on work he has undertaken on the Danish model. David has recently completed (2024) a project commissioned by the London Borough of Islington (which part funded) along with University College London (UCL) under the Capabilities in Academic Policy Engagement (CAPE). The Report Improving Employment Conditions in Islington: Tackling Work Based Harms and Promoting Unionisation was undertaken by a research team comprising Dr Bob Jeffery Sheffield Hallam University (Project Leader), Professor David Etherington (University of Staffordshire) and Dr Olivia Stevenson (UCL). The report explores the extent of work based harms in Islington (aspects of work insecurity, discrimination, low pay, poor health and safety etc) and explore the potential for unionisation and union engagement with underrepresented and discriminated groups in the service/hospitality industries. In commemoration of the 40 anniversary of the Thatcher Government Pit Closure Programme and the Miners Strike, David in collaboration with Professor Mia Gray from the University of Cambridge, Professor Lisa Bucknell, University of Leeds is undertaking an assessment on the economic impact of austerity on the coalfield areas (in Scotland, England and Wales). This includes an assessment of aspects of public services funding cuts (local government, health, skills, childcare) on poverty and deprivation in selected areas (Merthyr Tydfil and Neath/Port Talbot in Wales, South Lanarkshire and Fife in Scotland, and Stoke on Trent/North Staffs and Barnsley in England). The study explores what a ‘just transition’ could look like in terms of an alternative industrial policy including the vital role public services can play in economic regeneration in the former coalfield areas.

In addition to research on UK economic and social issues David has had a long term research engagement and interest with Scandinavian welfare systems – especially the Danish model. This has involved a number of research funded collaborative research projects, including more recently between the University and Danish academics and policy makers. Much of this work has been geared to drawing on the (potential) lessons from the Danish system of welfare and employment relations for the UK.

Professional memberships and activities

Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. I am a member of the Social Security Consortium which is a network of welfare organisations and trade unions formed to make responses to Government welfare policy.

Academic qualifications
  • Diploma in Town Planning, Leeds Polytechnic 1969-1973
  • Postgraduate Certificate in Planning Studies, School of Architecture Copenhagen 1973-1975
  • Master of Arts by Research Dissertation , University of Durham 1980-1984
  • Masters Degree in Business Administration , Sheffield Polytechnic Business School 1987-1990
  • PhD Open University 2001- 2004

Expertise
  • Austerity
  • welfare reform
  • devolution
  • labour market and industrial relations policy.
  • Scandinavian labour market and welfare policy (I speak Danish).
  • Poverty and inequality
  • Employment relations
  • Nordic and Danish welfare and employment models

Research interests

I am currently working on a book (Policy Press) that analyses the relationship between the impact of austerity on welfare and work. I am interested in the links between welfare and precarious/insecure work. I have been researching the Danish model of welfare and work for a number of years and interested in how this model can offer interesting and relevant lessons for the UK.

Publications

Etherington D and Jones M (2018) Re-stating the post political: Depoliticisation, social inequalities, and city region growth, Environment and Planning A, DOI: 10.1177/0308518X17738536, http://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/keFrKTpRa9Gk7DfrvS3G/full

Ian Roper, David Etherington, Suzan Lewis, (2017) Hollowing out national agreements in the NHS? The case of “Improving Working Lives” under a “Turnaround” plan, Employee Relations, Vol. 39 Issue: 2, pp.145-159, https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-05-2015-0092
Etherington D and Jones M (2016) The City Region Chimera: the Political Economy of Meta Governance Failure in Britain Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 2016, 9, 371–389 doi:10.1093/cjres/rsw007

Book chapters

Etherington D (2017) Ideology or evidence base? The Role of Work Capability Assessments for people with Disabilities in the UK Welfare to Work Programmes, in B Greve (ed) Handbook of Social Policy Evaluation, Edward Elgar


Etherington D and Ingold J (2015) Social dialogue, partnership and the Danish model of activation of disabled people: challenges and possibilities in the face of austerity, in Chris Grover and Linda Pigott eds Work, welfare and disabled people’  Bristol: Policy Press

Research reports

Etherington D Jeffery R  Thomas P Brooks J Beel D and Jones  M (2018) Forging an inclusive labour market - empowering workers and communities : an interim report on low pay and precarious work in Sheffield, Sheffield: Sheffield Hallam University http://shura.shu.ac.uk/21918/

Etherington D and Jones M (2017) Devolution Austerity and Inclusive Growth in Greater Manchester, Middlesex University/Staffordshire University
https://www.mdx.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0030/368373/Greater-Manchester-Report.pdf?bustCache=92145287

Etherington D and Jones M (2016) ‘Devolution and Disadvantage in the Sheffield City Region: an assessment of employment, skills and welfare policies’ Sheffield University/Middlesex University https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.643923!/file/Devolution_and_disadvantage.pdf

Etherington D and Daguerre A (2015) Welfare reform work first policies and benefit conditionality: reinforcing poverty and social exclusion? Middlesex University

Daguerre A and Etherington D (2014) Workfare in the 21st Century Britain: The erosion of rights to social assistance, Middlesex University http://workfare.org.uk/images/uploads/docs/Welfare_Reform_in_the_UK_PubReady.pdf

Etherington, D. Beel, D and Jones, M (2025) Resisting Precarity in City Regions, in J. MacLeavey and F. H. Pitts, eds The Hand Book For the Future of Work, London, Routledge. Jeffery, B. Etherington, D. Stevenson, O. Gay, D. Flynn, J. and Bishop, S. With Prof C Vindrola, L Maio, G. Brady and S. Clark (2024) Improving Employment Conditions in Islington: Tackling Work-Based Harms and Promoting Unionism, London, UCL/CAPE https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10200679/1/11310_UCL_CAPE%20Final%20report_online.pdf 

Jeffery, B. Etherington, D. Ledger Jessop, B, Thomas, P, and Jones, M.(2024) Exposure to harm as a function of bargaining position: The class composition of hospitality workers in Sheffield, Capital and Class, https://doi.org/10.1177/03098168241268325 

Jeffery, B. Beresford, R. Thomas, P. Etherington, D. Jones, M. (2024) Challenging Sexual Harassment in Low Paid and Precarious Hospitality Work, Sheffield Hallam University, Staffordshire University, Sheffield TUC, and Zero Hours Justice https://shura.shu.ac.uk/33597/1/SHReporFINAL3compressed.pdf 

Daguerre, A. and Etherington, D. (2024) Labour Market Strategies and Welfare Policies: The Conservative Record, in H Bochel and M Powell eds The Conservative Governments and Social Policy, Bristol: Bristol University Press.

Etherington, D. Jeffery, B. Thomas, B. Jones, M. and Ledger-Jessop, B. (2023) Trade union strategies to tackle labour market insecurity: Geography and the role of Sheffield TUC, Industrial Relations, https://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12400 

Etherington, D. Jones, M. and Telford, L. (2023) Covid crisis, austerity and the ‘Left Behind’ City: Exploring poverty and destitution in Stoke on Trent, Local Economy, 37,8, 692-707 https://doi.org/10.1177/02690942231169700 

Etherington, D and Jones, M. (2023) Political Economy of the Inclusive Labour Market Revisited: Welfare through Work in Denmark, in J Ingold and P McGurk eds, Employer Engagement: Making Active Labour Market Policies Work, Bristol: Bristol University Press.

Etherington, D, Jones M. Telford L Harris, S and Hubbard, S (2023) Families on the Brink in Stoke-on-Trent: How austerity and the cost-of-living is driving poverty and destitution. Project Report. Staffordshire University. My submission to the Work and Pensions Inquiry “Plan For Jobs and Employment Support” https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/111581/pdf/ November 2022

Etherington D, Jones M, Telford L (2022) ‘Challenges to Levelling Up: Post-COVID precarity in “left behind” Stoke-on-Trent’. Frontiers in Political Science Online First: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2022.1033525 

My book available Etherington, D (2020) Austerity, Welfare and Work: Exploring Politics, Geographies and Inequalities, Bristol, Policy Press https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/austerity-welfare-and-work Review of above book in Work Employment and Society https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09500170211038536

External profiles

for Career Prospects

Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2023

for Facilities

Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2023

for Social Inclusion

The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023

of Research Impact is ‘Outstanding’ or ‘Very Considerable’

Research Excellence Framework 2021

of Research is “Internationally Excellent” or “World Leading”

Research Excellence Framework 2021

Four Star Rating

QS Star Ratings 2021