After graduating with first a Bachelors and then a Doctoral degree from the University of Kent, I taught at Plymouth and then at Lancaster Universities. During the early 1990s I helped to set up the Sociology Department at the Central European University, Prague before moving to the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna, where I later became Head of Sociology. I was formerly editor of the international journal "European Societies", official journal of the European Sociological Association. I was elected President of the European Sociological Association, serving from September 2007 to October 2009. I was Director of Research for the College of Arts and Social Sciences between 2008 and 2011 and then became Vice Principal for Research and Knowledge Exchange for the University in 2011. I am responsible for Research Income and Commercialisation, Researcher Development  and Postgraduate Research Students.

My research explore six themes which can be found here.