Alex J. Wood is a Researcher at the OII. He is a sociologist of work and employment, focusing on the changing nature of employment relations and labour market transformation.
Alex is currently researching new forms of worker voice and collective action in the online gig economy as part of the iLabour project.
Alex previously researched online labour markets and virtual employment relations in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia as part of the “Microwork and Virtual Production Networks in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia” project. This project investigates the economic and social implications of new forms of economic activities in the context of ICTs for development.
Alex completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge Department of Sociology where he also worked as Research Associate on an ESRC impact acceleration project to evaluate potential ways of reducing workplace stress resulting from insecure scheduling.
Alex’s PhD (2015) is titled the “The insecure worker: workplace control in the 21st Century”. His PhD focuses on the changing nature of flexible and insecure forms of work such as zero-hour contracts. New patterns of working-time flexibility and how this relates to insecurity, well-being, and issues of workplace control and resistance being central to account developed.
He also has a long-standing interest in the relationships between industrial relations, union renewal and emerging forms of workplace representation and new patterns of class and inequality.
Previously he received his MPhil in Sociology from the University of Cambridge (2011) with distinction. He received a first-class BSc (hons) degree in Politics and Sociology, from Aston University (2009).