Professor Claire Wallace

B.A.(Hons), PhD.

Chair in Sociology

51cg

Email Address: claire.wallace@abdn.ac.uk
Telephone Number: +44 (0)1224 273137
Office Address: School of Social Science King's College Aberdeen AB24 3QY
School/Department: School of Social Science

Biography

After graduating from the University of Kent, Claire Wallace taught at Plymouth and Lancaster Universities. During the early 1990s, she helped to set up the Sociology Department at the Central European University Prague, before moving to the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna, where she became Head of Sociology. She has been Professor of Sociology at the 51cg since 2005

Claire Wallace served as President of the European Sociological Association, 2007-2009 and was editor of their flagship journal "European Societies".

Within Aberdeen, she was Director of Research for the College of Arts and Social Sciences, 2008-2011 and then became Vice-Principal for Research and Knowledge Exchange for the University, 2011-2014.

Research

Claire Wallace has been researching quality of life and was Director of the European Observatory on Social Cohesion and Trust, 2005-2006. She spent many years working on transitions in Eastern Europe including projects on health in the former Soviet Union, national, regional and European identity as well as work, family and care across Europe.

More recently, she was a co-investigator at the Rural Digital Economy Hub (dot.rural) which was aimed at transforming rural areas in the UK using digital technology. The project was funded by the RCUK, a joint UK research council initiative on the theme of Digital Economy. As part of this research team she was also partner in the Cultures and Community Network Plus set of projects funded by the EPSRC.

At present she is a Principal Investigator on an Horizon 2020 Project about Cultural Tourism (https://www.SPOTprojectH2020.eu) and a partner of the ESRC-sponsored Research Centre DIGIT, focused on digital working (),

Postgraduate Supervision

Claire Wallace would welcome postgraduate students in the following fields: work, care and welfare, quality of life, cultural tourism, digital working and the role of the digital economy in rural areas.

Qualifications

BSc Sociology and Social Anthropology
1978 - University of Kent
PhD Sociology
1985 - University of Kent
Claire Wallace's PhD was about young people leaving school and unemployment on the Isle of Sheppey

Memberships and Affiliations

Internal Memberships: Equality and Diversity Committee, School of Social Science
External Memberships: Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences,

Member of the European Sociological Association

Member of the International Sociological Association

Latest Publications

Renegotiating female transnational identities after Brexit: the importance of hybrid habitus
2026 - Published
Haarbosch, S. W., Wallace, C.
Identities, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 239-258
Contributions to Journals: Articles
- [ONLINE] DOI:
- [OPEN ACCESS]
Knitting together: The revival of knitting as Intangible Cultural Heritage through digital resources and its contributions to tourism
2026 - E-pub ahead of print
Wallace, C., Garrison, S.
Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change
Contributions to Journals: Articles
- [ONLINE] DOI:
- [ONLINE]
Story-Weaving: homo narrans, popular culture and the role of stories in tourism
2025 - Published
Garrison, S., Wallace, C.
International Journal of Cultural Studies, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 637 - 652
Contributions to Journals: Articles
- [ONLINE] DOI:
- [OPEN ACCESS]
Moving Away From, Moving Towards and Moving Against Others: An Adaptive Multi-Strategy Approach to Defend and Build Resources in Self-Protection Mode
2024 - Published
Russell, E., O'Reilly, J., Blome, C., Bussi, M., Chung, H., Finney, M., Wallace, C., Johansson, H., Leon, M., Leschke, J., Mytna-Kurekova, L., Ruffa, C., Schoyen, M. A., Thurer, M., Unt, M., Verdin, R.
Journal of Vocational Behavior, vol. 155, 104052
Contributions to Journals: Articles
- [ONLINE] DOI:
- [OPEN ACCESS]
Screen time, mute, mixed messages, and panic: An international auto-ethnographic study of knowledge workers during a pandemic
2024 - Published
Finney, M., O’reilly, J., Wallace, C.
Qualitative Research in Medicine & Healthcare, vol. 8, no. 1, 11797
Contributions to Journals: Articles
- [ONLINE] DOI:
- [OPEN ACCESS]
- [ONLINE]

View My Publications

Research

Research Overview

Claire Wallace is currently Principal Investigator on two projects: Cultural Tourism and Digital Working.

The first is sponsored by Horizon 2020 of the European Union and is comparing cultural tourism in different parts of Europe (www.SPOTprojectH2020.eu). The Aberdeen part of this is looking at media tourism - that is Tourism related to films, books, TV series

The second project is sponsored by the ESRC and is looking at the future frontiers in digital working (https:digit-research.org)

Research Areas

Sociology

View Research Area

Research Specialisms

Social Sciences
Social Policy
Sociology

Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is , published under the licence.

Teaching

Courses

European Societies SO4051
SO5155 The Comparative Study of European Societies

Teaching Responsibilities

Director of Fourth Year Option "European Societies"

Publications

Update

51cg

Biography

Research

Qualifications

Memberships and Affiliations

Latest Publications

Renegotiating female transnational identities after Brexit: the importance of hybrid habitus

Knitting together: The revival of knitting as Intangible Cultural Heritage through digital resources and its contributions to tourism

Story-Weaving: homo narrans, popular culture and the role of stories in tourism

Moving Away From, Moving Towards and Moving Against Others: An Adaptive Multi-Strategy Approach to Defend and Build Resources in Self-Protection Mode

Screen time, mute, mixed messages, and panic: An international auto-ethnographic study of knowledge workers during a pandemic

Research Overview

Research Areas

Sociology

Research Specialisms

Courses

Teaching Responsibilities

Enhanced broadband access as a solution to the social and economic problems of the rural digital divide

Out of town, out of the loop: rural areas need broadband

Comparing health status in Belarus between 2001 and 2010: a novel method using survey with different response categories

Health problems and the transition from Communism in the former Soviet Union: towards an explanation

Linking to the past: an analysis of community digital heritage initiatives

Quality of life in Europe: Quality of society and public services. Third European Quality of Life Survey

Social Quality, the Quality of Life and Parents with Young Children in Europe

Can information and communications technology enhance social quality?

Next Generation Satellite Broadband for enabling Universal Service Commitment

Social quality: A way to measure the quality of society

Happines in a Post-Conflict Society: Rwanda

Satisfaction and Societal Quality in Kazakhstan

Creating Sustainable Digital Community Heritage Resources using Linked Data

Quality of life in Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey

Surviving the Transformation: Social Quality in Central Asia and the Caucuses

Can Digital Technologies Increase Engagement with Community History?

Local Electronic Repositories: who are the Users and what is the Impact

Survivors of the Transformation in the Causes and Central Asia

Explaining economic and social transformations in post-Soviet Russia, Ukraine and Belarus: The social quality approach

Concepts of citizenship, social and system integration among young people in post-Soviet Moldova

Politique familiale et égalité des sexes: politiques socials et familiales en Grand-Bretagne

Second European Quality of Life Survey: subjective well-being in Europe

Explaining Economic and Social Transitions in Post-Soviet Russia, Ukraine and Belarus: The social Quality Approach

Living Conditions, Lifestyles and Health

Young People's Strategies for Survival in post-Soviet Moldova

Second European Quality of Life Survey: Quality of Life in Europe 2003-2007

Patterns of work flexibility in typical jobs in Eastern and Western Europe

Recent Migration from the new European Borderlands

What are the reasons for differences in job satisfaction across Europe?: Individual, compositional and institutional explanations

Social Capital and Social Class in Europe: The Role of Social Networks in Social Stratification

Patterns of participation in the formal and informal economies in the Commonwealth of Independent States

Introduction: European Identities

O Jiřím Musilovi a Středoevropské univerzitě

Working conditions and quality of work: A comparison of Eastern and Western Europe

Patterns of Formal and Informal Social Capital in Europe

Talking about Health and Well-Being in Post Soviet Ukraine and Russia

Editorial: European Societies

From Quality of Life to Social Quality: Relevance for work and care in Europe

Patterns of Social Capital in Europe

Family Forms and the Young Generation in the New Europe: Future Trends

Economic transformation outside the law: corruption, trust in public institutions and the informal economy in transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe

An introduction to sociology: Feminist perspectives

Chernobyl: Living with risk and uncertainty

Health world views of post-soviet citizens

Household employment patterns in an enlarged European Union

European Societies: Editorial

Social Capital and Economic Performance in Post-Communist Societies

European Societies: A message from the Editor

An Introduction to Sociology: Feminist Perspectives (3rd ed.)

Migration, Family and Welfare in East-Central Europe

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