Left behind? Precarity, stigma and migration in a post-industrial colliery town

这笔奖学金将有助于我在高级学术期刊上发表我的博士研究成果，并提交资金投标，以支持我蓬勃发展的学术生涯。我已经开始确立自己作为一名研究人员和教师的地位，但需要开发出版物向资助者和雇主展示我的能力。这笔奖学金还将使我能够构建一个及时、新颖和必要的关于英国脱欧后的研究项目。最后，这一奖学金还将使我能够在我所研究的社区之间交流博士研究成果，这将增强我的研究和未来合作成果的潜在影响。我的博士研究调查了德比郡Shirebrook的阶级、种族和移民--这是一个相对孤立的前煤矿小镇。作为旨在抵消煤矿关闭影响的重建工作的一部分，Shirebrook已成为Sports Direct的主要分销仓库的所在地。在3000名仓库工人中，绝大多数是东欧移民，他们的工资很低，受雇于临时招聘机构。Sports Direct也一直处于与工作条件有关的广为人知的争议的中心，这些争议包括持续的监视、欺凌和每天的身体搜查。他们的工作条件与Shirebrook煤矿形成鲜明对比，Shirebrook煤矿是该镇发展的核心，并通过煤务局积极参与日常生活，在培养当地社会公民意识方面发挥了重要作用。事实上，尽管位于希雷布鲁克，Sports Direct通过设在曼斯菲尔德的两家职业介绍所吸引了大部分员工，对希雷布鲁克的日常生活几乎没有贡献。我的博士研究表明，尽管移民是地方和中央政府作为影响该镇的社会问题而构建的，但最有争议的是更广泛的结构性不平等。这表现在希雷布鲁克老牌居民和移民居民之间的紧张局势加剧，也导致了旨在解决社会问题的本地重点政策，这些问题实际上是更广泛的结构性不平等的症状。希雷布鲁克及周边地区的政治地形正在迅速变化，即使在我2019年提交论文以来的很短时间内也是如此。在2016年的脱欧公投中，博尔索弗以70.8%的得票率成为英国脱欧票数最多的国家之一；在2019年12月的大选中，博尔索弗选举了一位保守党候选人，这是自1950年成为选民以来，博尔索弗首次基于该党的选举承诺--“完成英国退欧”。Sports Direct使用中介人员和Shirebrook老龄化的人口意味着外来劳工被吸引到Shirebrook来满足仓库的人员需求。从2021年1月1日起，行动自由的变化可能包括收入门槛，这将有效地切断Sports Direct来自东欧的低薪工人的劳动力供应。因此，我在希雷布鲁克已经做的研究为未来调查英国脱欧将对小城镇产生的影响的新颖研究提供了强有力的基础，并将提供关于脱欧后英国的宝贵知识。我的目标是：提交出版物并在国际会议上展示我的发现，以进一步建立研究概况和发展学术网络为希雷布鲁克的未来研究制定资金建议，提交给ESRC新研究员补助金和Leverhulme早期职业联谊会，并与非学术利益相关者接触和分享研究成果，以便开发网络和影响机会接受进一步培训，以发展我的整体学术技能

This fellowship will facilitate the publication of my PhD research in high-ranking academic journal and the submission of funding bids to support my burgeoning academic career. I have already begun to establish myself as a researcher and teacher but need to develop publications to demonstrate my abilities to funders and employers. This fellowship will also enable me to construct a timely, novel and essential research project on post-Brexit Britain. Finally, this fellowship will also enable me to communicate PhD research findings amongst the communities I studied which will enhance the potential impact of my research and future co-production.My PhD research investigated class, race and migration in Shirebrook, Derbyshire - a small and relatively isolated former colliery town. As part of the regeneration work intended to offset the impact of the colliery's closure, Shirebrook has become the home of Sports Direct's main distribution warehouse. The vast majority of the 3,000 warehouse workers are Eastern European migrants who are low-paid and employed on temporary recruitment agency contracts. Sports Direct has also been at the centre of well-publicised controversies relating to working conditions, which includes constant surveillance, bullying and daily body searches. Their working conditions stand in sharp contrast to the way in which Shirebrook colliery was central to the development of the town and played a significant role in the cultivation of local social citizenship via the Coal Board's active engagement in everyday life. In fact, despite being located in Shirebrook, Sports Direct draws the majority of itsworkers via two employment agencies based in Mansfield and contributes little to daily life in Shirebrook. My PhD research revealed that, although it was migration that was constructed as the social problem affecting the town by local and central government, it was broader structural inequalities that were most at issue. This manifested in increasing tensions in Shirebrook between established and migrant residents, and also led to locally focussed policies designed to tackle social issues which are actually symptoms of much broader structural inequalities.The political terrain is rapidly changing in Shirebrook and the surrounding area, even in the short-period since my thesis submission in 2019. The 2016 EU referendum saw one of the largest leave votes in the country in Bolsover (70.8%); and the general election in December 2019 saw Bolsover elect a Conservative candidate based on the party's election promise to 'get Brexit done' for the first time since it became a constituency in 1950. Sports Direct's use of agency workers and Shirebrook's ageing population means that migrant labour is drawn into Shirebrook to meet the staffing demands of the warehouse. Changes in freedom of movement from 1 January 2021, likely to include an earnings threshold, will effectively cut off Sports Direct's labour supply of low-wage workers from Eastern Europe. Therefore, the research I have already done in Shirebrook provides a strong basis for future novel research to investigate the impact Brexit will have on small towns, and will provide valuable knowledge on post-Brexit Britain. The proposed research will consider the impact on both Shirebrook and Mansfield into whose local labour market Sports Direct has been drawn.My aims are to: Submit publications and present my findings at international conferences to further establish a research profile and develop academic networks Develop a funding proposal for future research in Shirebrook, submitted to the ESRC New Investigator Grant and Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship Engage and share research findings with non-academic stakeholders in order to develop networks and impact opportunities Take on further training in order to develop my overall academic skills