My research interests are broadly around issues concerning
cross-national comparative analysis of welfare states and their labour markets.
One key question I am currently tackling in my new project(see below) is how work flexibility and autonomy impacts work-life balance, and the role of contexts in moderating that influence.
Another area I am currently developing is how welfare state institutions and socio-economic factors shape individual's perceived employment insecurity and its outcomes.
In general I am interested in the changes occurring to working conditions and to the nature of work/labour markets in post-industrial and newly digitalised/ high-tech societies.
The main method used to answer these questions is multilevel modelling using cross-national/European data. However, I also use qualitative methods including interviews and policy analyses, as well as other quantitative methods focusing on the examination of latent factors.
Working from home during COVID-19 lockdown
With Sarah Forbes and Holly Birkett of Birmingham Business School, we conducted a survey of workers (mostly parents) on their experiences of working from home, their attitudes/preferences towards flexible working especially in the future, and how this shaped division of housework/childcare, their mental health issues etc. The report is now out and more about this can be found here: http://www.wafproject.org/COVIDwfh
4 day week and shorter working hours
I have been working with the Korean Federation of Trade Unions on the use of flexible working in light of the working hours reduction law that came into force in 2018. With this, I have also been writing on the 4 day week campaigns of the TUC and the UK Labour party and its implication for Korea. I am hoping to extend this to a project on the implementation and barriers in the implementations of 4 day week/shorter working hours soon. So watch this space.
related publications
- Chung, H. (2020) 주 4일 근무제가 가지고 올 사회변화/ The social changes that will come about through a r day working week. LAB2050 Report/blog.
- Chung, H. (2019) 영국의 노동시간 단축 켐페인과 한국에의 함의 (4 day week campaigns in the UK and its implication for Korea). 민주노총보고서. Report for the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions./available upon request but is in Korean
Division of Mental load among couples
We (Anke Plagnol and Shireen Kanji) have received some seed funding from City University to carry out some quantitative survey of how mental load is divided among couples. This will be one of the first papers to try to capture the concept of mental load through a survey technique and we hope to find instruments that can be validated and used by others. Started in Autumn 2019 - on going.
Shared care of children between couples and well-being outcomes for the family
We (with Pierre Walthery) have been awarded a grant by the UK Government Equalities Office to carry out a literature review and a data analysis - using the UK Time Use Survey 2015 to examine the work patterns related to sharing of care, and how shared childcare between parents influence well-being outcomes of children and parents. Till project is running from December 2018 to on going/ October 2020.
Working-time flexibility and work-life balance (project website)
I have been awarded the ESRC Future Leaders Award 2012/3 for the project "Working time flexibility and work-life balance across Europe and the role of contexts: connecting the individual- , company and the country-level". There is mixed evidence on whether the use of flexi-time is beneficial for a better work-life balance, because flexibility can lead to spill-overs from work to home and blur the boundaries between them. I expect that different family, company and national contexts will shape the way flexi-time is used by individuals as well as its outcomes. I will match data from three levels; individual, company and national levels across 25 European countries to explore this question further.
Labour market institutions and subjective employment insecurity
Norface Project: Our Children's Europe (project website)
Norwegian project on part-time work (project website)
This project started on the 16th of December 2013 and will end on the 19th of November 2017.
For more about the project please visit http://www.wafproject.org
Click here for a summary of the project.
Publications from this project include:
- Chung, H., & Van der Lippe, T (eds) (2018/forthcoming). Flexible working work life balance and gender equality. Social Indicators Research
- Chung, H., & Van der Lippe, T. (2018/forthcoming). Flexible working work life balance and gender equality: Introduction. Social Indicators Research, Online first. (open access)
- Chung, H., & Van der Horst, M. (2018/forthcoming). Flexible working and unpaid overtime in the UK:The role of gender, parental and occupational status. Social Indicators Research, Online first. (open access)
- Chung, H. (2018/forthcoming). Gender, flexibility stigma, and the perceived negative consequences of flexible working in the UK. Social Indicators Research, Online first. (open access)
- Chung, Heejung/정희정 (2019) Why Flexible Working Alone Will Not Fix Pressing Issues of Work-Life Balance and Gender Equality / 일·생활 균형 및 성평등 현안과 유연근로제의 한계. Global Social Security Review 국제사회보장리뷰, 8 . pp. 49-60. (open access)
- Chung, H. (2018) 'Dualization and the access to occupational family-friendly working time arrangements across Europe'. Social Policy & Administration. Special Issue on Occupational Welfare - Still divisive in welfare states. 52(2): 491-507
- Chung, H. (2018/forthcoming) 'Women's Work Penalty' in access to flexible working arrangements across Europe. European Journal of Industrial Relations. Online first. (open access)
- Chung, H. & van der Horst, M. (2018) Women’s employment patterns after childbirth and the perceived access to and use of flexitime and teleworking. Human Relations/Special Issue on Flexible Careers. 71(1): 47-72.(Open access)
- Chung, H. (2017/forthcoming) "National-level family policies and workers' access to schedule control in a European comparative perspective: Crowding out or in, and for whom?" Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis/ Special Issue on Methodological challenges for comparative welfare state research. (open access)
- Lott, Y. & Chung, H. (2016) "Gender discrepancies in the outcomes of schedule control on overtime and income in Germany" European Sociological Review. 32(6): 752-765 (open access) - Top 5 finalist for Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research.
Related publications from my Ph.D. include:
- Chung, H. & Tijdens, K. (2013) "Working time components and working time regimes in Europe: using company-level data across 21 countries" International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(7): 1418-1434.
- Chung, H. (2009) Flexibility for Whom? Working time flexibility practices of European companies. ReflecT, Tilburg University Ph.D. Dissertation.
- Kerkhofs, M., Chung, H. & Ester, P. (2008)"Working time flexibility across Europe: a typology using firm-level data." Industrial Relations Journal 39(6): 569–585.
- Chung, H. (2007) “Flexibility for employers or for employees? A new approach to examining labour market flexibility across Europe using company level data” in Jørgensen, H. & Madsen, P. K. (eds.) Flexicurity and Beyond: Finding a new agenda for the European Social Model, Copenhagen: DJØF Publishing. pp. 243~277
- Chung, H., Kerkhofs, M. & Ester, P. (2007) Working Time Flexibility in European Companies, European Foundation, Office for Official Publications: Luxembourg.
Related to this project, and continuing from my post-doctoral project I am currently investigating the influence of welfare state institutions on the work-family conflict of individuals. Many studies examine this issue but come to very different empirical results - many say social policies increase work-family conflict of individuals rather than decreasing it, and especially for women. I am trying to explain why this is the case, through examining the mediating factors that connect social policies and work-family conflict.
Related publications include:
- Chung, H. (2011). 'Work-Family Conflict across 28 European Countries: A Multi-level Approach'. In S. Drobnic & A. Guillén (Eds.), Work-Life Balance in Europe. The role of job quality (pp. 42-68). Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Labour market institutions and subjective employment insecurity
Another research project that I am currently involved in, which is an extension of my post-doctoral research project (Funded by the European Commission) is to examine the various influence of welfare state institutions on subjective employment insecurity of European individuals. My current focus is on how different institutional structures impact different groups of the labour market in different ways, as well as the moderating influence of institutions in the outcomes of subjective insecurity on subjective well-being and political attitudes/support for the welfare state.
Related publications include:
- Chung, H. (2016/forthcoming) " Dualization and subjective employment insecurity: Explaining the subjective employment insecurity divide between permanent and temporary workers across 23 European countries" Economic and Industrial Democracy.
- van Oorschot, W. & Chung, H. (2015) "Feelings of dual-insecurity among European workers: A multi-level analysis" European Journal of Industrial Relations. 21(1): 23-37
- Chung, H. (2015) "Subjective employment insecurity gap between occupations: variance across Europe" in Eichhorst, W. and Marx, P. (eds.) Non-Standard Employment in Post-Industrial Markets: An Occupational Perspective. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. pp. 271-29
- Chung, H. and Mau, S. (editors) (2014) Special Issue: Subjective Insecurity and the Role of Institutions. Journal of European Social Policy, 24 (4). ISSN 0958-9287
- Chung, H. and Mau, S. (2014) Subjective insecurity and the role of institutions. Journal of European Social Policy, 24 (4): 303-318
- Carr, E. and Chung, H. (2014) Employment insecurity and life satisfaction: The moderating influence of labour market policies across Europe. Journal of European Social Policy, 24 (4): 383-389
- Chung, H. & van Oorschot, W. (2012) “The impact of the perceived and actual unemployment benefit generosity and unemployment rates on employment security of workers” in Ervasti, H. et al. (eds.) The Future of the Welfare State: Social Policy Attitudes and Social Capital in Europe. Edward Elgar. pp.46-67
- Chung, H. & van Oorschot, W. (2011) “Institutions versus market forces: Explaining the employment insecurity of European individuals during (the beginning of) the financial crisis.” Journal of European Social Policy. 21(4): 287-301
- Chung, H. & van Oorschot, W. (2010) “Employment insecurity of European individuals (during the financial crisis), a multi-level approach” RECwowe working paper series 14/2010. University of Edinburgh: Edinburgh.
This is an international project that examine attitudes to welfare and to the future development of welfare states in six European countries . People’s current aspirations, ideas and assumptions will be important drivers of change and persistence in European welfare states, and of the extent to which conflict and solidarity surround change. This project uses innovative methods (deliberative democratic forums, a qualitative cross-national focus group survey) to develop understanding of people’s aspirations for the Europe their children will inhabit.
The project will contribute to theoretical work on the main cleavages and solidarities driving social policy in different European welfare states and to more practical consideration of the parameters of acceptable policy change. It will supply new findings relevant to the politics and sociology of welfare and provide data for reanalysis and as a base-line in future studies.
The project is headed by Peter Taylor-Gooby (PI) and consists of welfare attitude experts across Europe.
Jorgen Goul Andersen and Christian Albrekt Larsen (Alborg), Maša Filipovič and Hrast Tatjana Rakar (Ljubljana), Bjorn Hvinden and Mi Ah Schoyen (Nova), Steffen Mau and Jan-Ocko Heuer (Humbolt), Wim van Oorschot (Leuven), Benjamin Leruth (Kent) along with myself.
The project will run from the 1st of February 2015 till August 2018.
Project publications include
- Taylor-Gooby, P., Leruth, B., Chung, H. (2018/forthcoming) Identifying attitudes to welfare through deliberate forums: the emergence of reluctant individualism. Policy & Politics online first
- Taylor-Gooby, P., Leruth, B. and Chung, H. (2017) After Austerity: welfare state transformation in Europe after the great recession. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Taylor-Gooby, P., Leruth, B. and Chung H. (2017) Where next for the UK welfare state? in Taylor-Gooby, P., Leruth, B. and Chung H. (eds) After Austerity: The New Politics of Welfare in Europe. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press
- Taylor-Gooby, P., Leruth, B. and Chung, H. (2017). Liberalism, Social Investment, Protection, and Chauvinism: New Directions for the European Welfare State. in: Taylor-Gooby, P., Leruth, B. and Chung, H. eds. After Austerity: The New Politics of Welfare in Europe. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press
- Taylor-Gooby, P., Leruth, B. and Chung, H. (2017). The Context: How European Welfare States Have Responded to Post-Industrialism, Ageing Populations, and Populist Nationalism. in: After Austerity: The New Politics of Welfare in Europe. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press 1-27.
Related publications include
- Chung, H. & Meuleman, M. (2016/forthcoming) European parents’ attitudes towards public childcare provision. The role of current provisions, interests and ideologies. European Societies. Online first.(OPEN ACCESS!!)
- Chung, H. & Meuleman, B. (2014). Support for Government Intervention in Child Care Across European Countries. In M. León (Ed.),The Transformation of Care in European Societies: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 104-133
- Meuleman, B. & Chung, H. (2012) “Who should care for the children? Support for government intervention in child care” in Ervasti, H. et al. (eds.)The Future of the Welfare State: Social Policy Attitudes and Social Capital in Europe. Edward Elgar . pp.107-133
I am participating in a project funded by the Research Council of Norway. The project title is "“Part-time careers in Norway – the end of normalization? Women’s working time adaptation in a longitudinal perspective”. PI: Heidi Nicolaisen at Fafo
This project will run from November 2014 – Nov 2017