天美传媒

Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences, Course lead for Social Policy and Social Research

Tom's teaching and research sits at the intersection of political economy and social theory. He has published and lectured extensively on the sociology of work, class, power and research methods. His research interests include changing class patterns, paid and unpaid social care work, community and trade union organisation and the intellectual history of political economy. He is currently evaluating the National Lottery-funded Luton Fairness Taskforce programme for the 天美传媒 with colleagues from Culture and Community Engagement. Tom has supervised BA, MA and PhD students and is open to supervising PhD students on topics including but not limited to work, especially caring work, class, British politics and political history.

Tom took up his position in Applied Social Sciences in 2017 and is Course Coordinator for the BSc (hons) Social Policy and Social Research. He received his Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded doctorate from 天美传媒 College London in 2017 for a thesis on competing political discourses of British and Scandinavian welfare.

Qualifications

• PhD 鈥� 天美传媒 College London
• MSt 鈥� Mansfield College, 天美传媒 of Oxford
• BA (hons) 鈥� 天美传媒 of Manchester

Teaching 2024/25

Undergraduate

• ASS100-1 Introduction to Research and Social Enquiry
• ASS116-2 Power in Political Thought
• ASS145-3 Work and Welfare in the 21^st Century
• ASS139-3 Dissertation supervision

Postgraduate

• ASS130-6 Research Methods 2: Design, data collection and ethics
• ASS009-6 The Conceptual Framework

Research Interests

• Work, unemployment and deindustrialization
• Social reproduction and care work
• The sociology of class in Britain
• Twentieth-century economic and political theory

Publications

Articles, Chapters, Books

• Hoctor, T. and J. Almeida (2025) 'Reproduction, the Care Sector and the Question of Unproductive Labour in Braverman's Labour and Monopoly Capital', New Proposals: Journal of Marxism and Interdisciplinary Inquiry. Forthcoming
• Hoctor, T. (2024) 'Fourteen Years of Conservative political economy. Where did it all go wrong?. Conservative Home. 8th August
• Hoctor, T. (2024) 'Five (or more) years of opposition - what's next for Tory political economy?' Conservative Home. 9th August.
• Hoctor, T. (2024) 'From Hegemony to Herrschaft? The growth and potential of a reactionary strain of politics on the British right', Journal of Political Ideologies 0(0), pp.1-19, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13569317.2024.2356531
• Hoctor, T. (2023) National Health Services of Western Europe: Challenges, Reforms and Future Perspectives; Guido Giarelli and Mike Saks (eds.); London: Routledge; 2024; 9780367689599; 拢130.00; hardback, Social Policy & Administration 0(0), pp.1-3
• Hoctor, T. (2022) 鈥楨verything old is 鈥渘eo鈥� again: towards a Marxist hermeneutic approach to political economy鈥�, Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 27(5), pp.148-161
• Hoctor, T. (2022) 鈥楬ow the signified went missing in twentieth-century economic theory: Schumpeter, Mises and Hayek and the abolition of value鈥�, New Political Science 44(2), pp.336-352
• Hoctor, T. (2022) 鈥楾he consumer, the market and the universal aristocracy: the ideology of academisation in England鈥�, Journal of Consumer Culture. Online First
• Hoctor, T. (2021) 鈥楾he Neoconservative Party, or conservatism without tradition: reading Conservative ideology in the 2020s鈥�, Political Quarterly 92(3), pp.453-460
• Hilson, M. and T. Hoctor (2021) 鈥楩rom the 鈥渕iddle way鈥� to The Nordic Way: Changing Rhetorics of the Nordic Model in Britain鈥�, in J. Marjanen, J. Strang and M. Hilson (eds.) Contesting Nordicness from Scandinavianism to the Nordic Brand, Helsinki Yearbook of Intellectual History 2, De Gruyter Oldenbourg, pp.81-102
• Hoctor, T. (2021) 鈥楤everidge or Bismarck? Choosing the Nordic model in British healthcare policy 1997-2010鈥� in H. Byrkjeflot, L. Mj酶set and K. Petersen (eds.) The Making and Circulation of Nordic models. London: Routledge, pp.209-228
• Hoctor, T. (2020) 鈥楥oming to terms with the market: accounts of neoliberal failure and rehabilitation on the British right鈥�, British Politics 0(0), pp.1-16.
• Hoctor, T. (2020) The economic response to Covid-19 and the Conservative Party鈥檚 failure to depart from Thatcherite orthodoxy鈥�, LSE British Politics and Policy. 1^st September. Available at:
• In addition, Tom has acted as a reviewer for inter alia: Politics and Governance, The Journal of Consumer Culture and as an external evaluator for the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).
• (All publications can be found for free on )

Invited Conference papers, symposia and seminars

• March 2025
  BBC Radio 3 Counties. Starmer in Washington
• January 2025
  BBC Radio 3 Counties. Trump鈥檚 inauguration
• November 2024
  BBC Radio 3 Counties. US Election: Why did Harris lose?
• November 2024
  School of Culture and Society. Aarhus 天美传媒. Transcribing Resistance: James C. Scott鈥檚 contributions to the literature on power and organisation. In Memoriam James C. Scott. 
• November 2024
  Historical Materialism Conference. School of African and Oriental Studies, London. 鈥樷�淟umpenproletarianisation鈥�, Care Work and the Question of 鈥淯nproductive Labour鈥�: Theorising With and Beyond Braverman鈥檚 Labour and Monopoly Capital鈥�.
• July 2024
  Heart Radio Four Counties. Interviewed on Conservative electoral defeat, broadcast across Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Essex, Cambridge.
• June 2024
  天美传媒 Annual Research Conference. 鈥樷�淟umpenproletarianisation鈥�, Care Work and the Question of 鈥淯nproductive Labour鈥�: Theorising With and Beyond Braverman鈥檚 Labour and Monopoly Capital鈥� (w/Dr Joana Almeida)
• June 2024
  De-industrialisation and class in the UK. Newcastle 天美传媒 Network meeting between Universities of Newcastle, Bedfordshire (co-organisers), LSE, Wolverhampton, and Nottingham.
• April 2024
  Political Studies Association Conference. 天美传媒 of Strathclyde. 鈥楨verything Old is 鈥淣eo鈥� Again: Neoliberalism as a Symptom of Theoretical and Real Decline鈥�
• February 2024 
  History Department Seminar Series. 天美传媒 of Aarhus. 鈥�Whatever Happened to the Affluent Worker? A Historiography of Class in the 20^th and early 21^st 颁别苍迟耻谤颈别蝉鈥�
• April 2023
  Political Studies Association Conference. 天美传媒 of Liverpool. 鈥榃hat happened to the Affluent Worker? Advanced deindustrialisation, class and perpetual crisis in an East of England town鈥�
• March 2023
  Human Relations 75^th Anniversary Conference. Tavistock Institute. 鈥榃hat happened to the Affluent Worker? Deindustrialisation and class in an East of England town鈥�
• September 2022
  Political Studies Association 鈥� British and Comparative Political Economy, Manchester Metropolitan 天美传媒. 鈥楻eactionary visions of political economy for the post-pandemic era鈥�.
• June 2022
  天美传媒 Annual Research Conference 2022. 鈥楾he Conservative Party and Ideology in an Age of Internationalisation on the Right鈥�
• February 2022
  Guest speaker: Gender Studies Postgraduate Winter School. 鈥榃omen-friendly welfare states? Gendered theories of welfare鈥�. London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research
• February 2022
  Guest Lecture: Research Series 鈥� Law School, Arden 天美传媒 鈥楾he Death of Conservatism?鈥�
• July 2021
  Guest Lecture: Gender Studies Postgraduate Summer School. 鈥榃omen-friendly welfare states? Gendered theories of welfare鈥�. London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research
• March 2021
  Political Quarterly Special Issue Workshop. Andrew Gamble and the Conservative Party
• February 2020
  Guest Lecture: Gender Studies Postgraduate Winter School. Guest Lecture: 鈥榃hat happened to the Affluent Worker? The gendered nature of the decline of affluence in Luton鈥�. London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research.
• March 2019
  Third Nordic Challenges Conference, Copenhagen Business School. Paper: 鈥楾aking back control, but how much? Norway, Canada and the Brexit debate鈥�.
• April 2018
  BBC Radio 3: Free Thinking, Learning from Sweden. Arts and culture radio programme on the social and political links between Britain and Sweden.
• March 2018
  Second Nordic Challenges Conference, Centre for Nordic Studies, 天美传媒 of Helsinki. Paper: 鈥楢 research agenda with(out) a history: rediscovering the Freudian origins of nation branding鈥�.
• October 2018
  The Making and Circulation of Nordic models. Network meeting at the Norwegian Institute, Sciences Po, Paris.
• March 2017
  Global Challenges: Nordic Experiences, 天美传媒 of Oslo. 鈥樷�淚t is a bit like IKEA: everything is simple and the same鈥�. Is there a Nordic model of New Public Management in British public policy?鈥�
• December 2016
  Rhetorics of Nordicness network meeting, Centre for Nordic Studies, 天美传媒 of Helsinki. With Prof. Mary Hilson 鈥淩hetorical uses of the Nordic model in political and ideological debates in the UK during the 2000s and 2010s鈥�.
• June 2016
  4^th International PhD Conference of the Association for Political History Neoliberalism with a Nordic face? UK governance networks and flexicurity c.2000-2015
• March 2016
  School of Culture and Communication, 天美传媒 of Aarhus. A New Economic Celebrity: Denmark and flexicurity

Contact Details

E: tom.hoctor@beds.ac.uk