Ben Baumberg Geiger

Ben Baumberg Geiger is a Reader in Sociology and Social Policy. He also works for Kent's Q-Step Centre, which he helped found and co-directed until September 2016.

Ben has a wide range of research interests, currently focused on:

• Disability, the workplace, and the benefits system (see Disability page)
• Attitudes around benefits and 'scroungers' (see Social Attitudes page)
• The relationship between evidence and policy (see On Social Science page)

Ben is also co-lead of the Covid-19 rapid response project 'Welfare at a (Social) Distance.'

Social science undergraduates across the UK rarely have good quantitative skills (outside of Psychology or Economics) – that is, skills for interpreting or creating statistical analyses to help understand the social world. This causes problems for academia, for employers, and more broadly for having a citizenry who can critique the ever-increasing barrage of statistical information they face in their daily lives. The Nuffield Foundation, the ESRC and Hefce funded 15 'Q-Step' centres across the country to address this.

Kent was one of the successful centres and Ben was a Co-Director of the initiative until 2016. He now works as part of the team teaching students new skills in quantitative and qualitative methods, wider critical thinking skills, and experience in applying these skills to the world around them. See the Kent Q-Step website for more details.

Ben is happy to supervise PhD or Masters students researching any of the topics listed in his research interests.

Editorial/Blogs

• Co-editor of the blog Inequalities
• Peer-reviewer for the Journal of Social Policy, Social Science & Medicine, Addiction, Alcohol & Alcoholism, Contemporary Drug Problems and Drug and Alcohol Review.
• Reviewer for the UK Department of Work and Pensions, Department of Health, and the Alcohol Education & Research Council (AERC).
• Associate Editor for the journal Addiction (2009-2012).
• Let's all be open about what we earn - the Guardian's Comment is Free blog, 3/12/2010. 
• Should we defend the middle-class welfare state? - Left Foot Forward, 7/10/2010.