Background and Previous Experience
Lisa Schulte is a PhD student at the Work and Employment Research Unit (WERU) at the Business School of the University of Greenwich in London, United Kingdom. She is interested in industrial relations, sociology of work, comparative political economy, and industrial policy for renewable energy technologies.
Over the past four years, Lisa has studied the offshore wind turbine manufacturing industry in Denmark, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Her focus was on industrial policies and skill formation as part of the countries’ vocational education and training systems and of active labour market policy and their effects on the working conditions at the manufacturers of large components. Her theoretical contribution includes the critical engagement with Regulation Theory, the Varieties of Capitalisms approach, and Labour Process Theory, from which she developed a comparative model that puts working conditions in the manufacturing industry in their institutional and politico-economic context.
Her empirical contribution includes the comparative study of work in the offshore wind turbine industry and of skill formation that goes beyond the traditional focus on regular apprenticeship programmes. Data for the comparative country case studies was gathered from multiple sources including dozens of qualitative in-depth interviews with works councillors, trade union officials, staff from training providers, municipal economic development departments, managers from manufacturers, an investment bank, and labour lawyers.
Lisa has also worked on the research project ‘Marketization of Employment Services in European Countries’ (MESEC), funded by the German Hans-Boeckler-Foundation, and the research project ‘The Effects of Marketization on Societies. The Case of Europe’ (TEMS), funded by the European Research Council. Based on data from these projects, Lisa is currently co-authoring two articles on welfare-to-work and front-line-services in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, which are both at the revise and resubmit stage.
Lisa recently defended her PhD thesis at the University of Greenwich. Prior to this, she worked in HR administration and recruitment for a large not-for-profit organization and for the public employment services in Germany. She studied Political Sciences at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and the Free University in Berlin.
Current Research at ILR
During her stay at the ILR School, Lisa is working on several articles based on her PhD research targeted at the British Journal of Industrial Relations and Work, Employment, and Society. Her aim is to meet with scholars who study work in the manufacturing industry, labour market policy, skill formation, and front-line services. She hopes to discuss ongoing work, to present her own research, and to exchange feedback.
The Santander Universities Programme International Mobility Award for Postgraduate Research Students funds her stay at the ILR School.
Lisa Schulte
