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

该奖学金将帮助我在高级学术期刊上发表博士论文，并提交资助投标，以支持我蓬勃发展的学术事业。我已经开始确立自己作为一名研究人员和教师的身份，但需要出版一些出版物，向资助者和雇主展示我的能力。这个奖学金也将使我能够构建一个及时、新颖和必要的研究项目，研究脱欧后的英国。最后，这项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生产的潜在影响。我的博士研究调查了德比郡希尔布鲁克的阶级、种族和移民——一个相对孤立的小煤矿镇。作为重建工作的一部分，旨在抵消煤矿关闭的影响，Shirebrook已成为Sports Direct主要配送仓库的所在地。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泛争议的中心，包括持续的监视、欺凌和每天的身体检查。他们的工作条件与Shirebrook煤矿对城镇发展的核心作用形成鲜明对比，并通过煤炭委员会积极参与日常生活，在培养当地社会公民身份方面发挥了重要作用。事实上，尽管Sports Direct位于Shirebrook，但它通过曼斯菲尔德的两家职业介绍所吸引了大部分员工，对Shirebrook的日常生活贡献不大。我的博士研究表明，尽管移民被地方和中央政府视为影响城镇的社会问题，但更广泛的结构性不平等才是最重要的问题。这体现在Shirebrook的老居民和移民居民之间的紧张关系日益加剧，也导致了以地方为重点的政策，旨在解决社会问题，而这些问题实际上是更广泛的结构性不平等的症状。在Shirebrook和周边地区的政治地形正在迅速变化，即使是在2019年我的论文提交后的短时间内。在2016年的欧盟公投中，博尔索弗（Bolsover）的脱欧票数是全国最高的之一（70.8%）；在2019年12月的大选中，博尔索弗根据该党自1950年成为选区以来首次“完成脱欧”的竞选承诺，选出了一名保守党候选人。Sports Direct使用代理工人和Shirebrook的人口老龄化意味着外来劳动力被吸引到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Shirebrook所做的研究为未来研究英国脱欧对小城镇的影响提供了坚实的基础，并将为脱欧后的英国提供宝贵的知识。拟议的研究将考虑对Shirebrook和Mansfield的影响，这两个地方的劳动力市场已经被Sports Direct吸引。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Shirebrook的未来研究制定资助提案，提交给ESRC新研究者资助和Leverhulme早期职业奖学金，参与并与非学术利益相关者分享研究成果，以发展网络和影响机会接受进一步的培训，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