Professor Pete Alcock

Director of Third Sector Research Centre and Professor of Social Policy & Administration

Third Sector Research Centre

Professor Pete Alcock

Contact details

Telephone +44 (0)121 414 3171

Email p.c.alcock@bham.ac.uk

School of Social Policy, Third Sector Research Centre
Park House
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston Park Road
Edgbaston, Birmingham
B15 2RT, United Kingdom

About

Pete is Director of the Third Sector Research Centre and Professor of Social Policy and Administration. Pete is also Director of the ESRC Doctoral Training Centre.

Qualifications

AcSS; FRSA; BA; MPhil

Biography

Pete has been active in teaching and research in social policy for over twenty years.  He moved to Birmingham in 1998 and was Head of the Department of Social Policy and Social Work from January 2000 to June 2003, and Head of the School of Social Sciences from 2003-2008.  He is the author and editor of a number of major textbooks in the social policy field and has also written numerous articles and papers about social policy, the voluntary sector, social security, poverty and social exclusion and anti-poverty policy.

Since September 2008 Pete Alcock has been Director of the ESRC Third Sector Research Centre (TSRC).  The TSRC is a national research resource co-funded for five years initially by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Office for Civil Society (OCS) and the Barrow Cadbury Trust.  It is a collaborative venture between the Universities of Birmingham and Southampton, with additional contributions from Kent and Middlesex.  Further information is available on the Centre's website at  www.tsrc.ac.uk.

Teaching

  • Introductory Social Policy
  • Third Sector Policy

Research

  • Third sector policy in the UK, including devolution of policy
  • Qualitative research on the role and structure of third sector organisations
  • Theoretical analysis of civil society and voluntary action
  • Social inclusion and anti-poverty strategy

Other activities

  • Member of the HEFCE Research Excellence Framework (REF2014) Subpanel 22 Social Work and Social Policy
  • Member of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Poverty Strategy Group

Publications

Alcock, P, May, M and Wright, S (eds) (2012), The Student's Companion to Social Policy (4th Edition), Wiley-Blackwell.

Alcock, P and Craig, G (2009) International Social Policy, Palgrave.

Alcock, P (2008) Understanding Poverty, 3rd edition.  Palgrave.

Alcock, P (2008) Social Policy in Britain 3rd Ed. Palgrave.

Recent chapters in books

Alcock, P (2010)‘What are our future sources of welfare: a new role for the third sector?’, in Grout P and Alcock P (eds), Supply Side Futures for Public Services, 2010 Public Services Trust.

Alcock, P (2010) ‘Devolution or Divergence? UK Third Sector Policy since 2000’, in Devolution in Practice, Lodge G and Schmuecker K (eds), (2010) London, IPPR.

Alcock, P (2008), 'Poverty and Social Exclusion', in Understanding Inequality: Poverty and Wealth: Policies and Prospects, T Ridge and S Wright (eds).  The Policy Press.

 Recent refereed journal articles

'Reply: Big Society - contradiction or con trick?' (2012), Policy and Politics, Vol. 40(1), pp. 149-51.

'Legislating for the Big Society? The case of the Public Services (Social Value) Bill' with S Teasdale and G Smith (2012), Public Money and Management, Vol. 32 (3), pp. 201-9.

'New Policy Spaces: the Impact of Devolution on Third Sector Policy in the UK' (2012), Social Policy and Administration, Vol. 46 (2), pp. 219-38.

'Constituting the Third Sector: Processes of Decontestation and Contention under the UK Labour Governments in England', with Kendall, J (2011), Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organisations, Vol. 22 (3), pp. 450-469.

‘A strategic unity: defining the third sector in the UK’, (2010) Voluntary Sector Review, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp.5-24

‘Building the Big Society: A New Policy Environment for the Third Sector in England’ (2010) Voluntary Sector Review, Vol. 1 no. 3, pp. 381-91

Follow this link for further publications from Professor Pete Alcock (pdf; 122KB; opens in new window)

Back to top