Centre for Comparative Labour Studies

The Centre for Comparative Labour Studies is an interdisciplinary research and teaching centre based in the Department of Sociology. It provides a lively and stimulating environment for postgraduate students pursuing their concerns with the diverse range of subjects covered by labour studies (globalisation, states and labour regulation; employment relations, work organisation and labour markets; gender and ethnic relations in work and employment; social movements, labour movements and collective organisation). Through seminars, working-paper series and informal discussions with staff, graduate students can follow up their interests and disseminate their findings in a variety of ways. In addition, a number of members of the Centre are involved in teaching on the MA in Social Research and other MA programmes, which provides opportunities for graduate students to study issues in labour studies in a structured and supportive environment.

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The Centre on Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE)

The Centre on Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE) explores how markets, institutions, and public policies interact to create and sustain competitive advantage in a changing global economy, how such advantage evolves over time, and how it influences growth, deprivation and well-being both in the short and the long run. The central and unifying focal theme is managing change. Our approach is firmly based in economics but is openminded about what works in particular settings. Our perspective takes seriously the historical context of policy and performance. We aim to investigate not only what is associated with success across all countries on average, but also the adaptation of policies to promote success in particular country settings. We ask how to appropriate the benefits of continued success while mitigating the inevitable costs. We expect our work to be valuable to academic economists but also to produce results that can make a real difference to policymaking and develop important new skills both in the UK and in emerging economies.

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Centre for Research in Economic Theory and its Applications (CRETA)

The Centre for Research in Economic Theory and its Applications (CRETA) co-ordinates collaborative research in economic theory, in its applications, and in multidisciplinary projects with areas such as applied mathematics, biology, philosophy and political science. It is also creating and strengthening links with other research centres and universities with related interests. The Centre attracts funding for individual and collaborative research projects, and enables students to disseminate the results of their research through visits, seminars, conferences, and through the publication of a Discussion Paper series.

Economics Research Institute

The Centre for Research in Economic Theory and its Applications (CRETA) co-ordinates collaborative research in economic theory, in its applications, and in multidisciplinary projects with areas such as applied mathematics, biology, philosophy and political science. It is also creating and strengthening links with other research centres and universities with related interests. The Centre attracts funding for individual and collaborative research projects, and enables students to disseminate the results of their research through visits, seminars, conferences, and through the publication of a Discussion Paper series.

Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research (CEDAR)

The Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research is concerned with research and evaluation in a variety of educational settings. The Centre conducts basic and applied research in the field of education and training. The activities of the Centre therefore include work on issues and problems that confront governments, local authorities, schools, colleges and educational personnel, policy questions, and basic research on theories and methods of research and evaluation. CEDAR has expertise in qualitative and quantitative studies and, especially for evaluations of new initiatives, specialises in combined methods approaches. The Centre also undertakes research and consultancy in the fields of special needs and inclusive education (with a particular focus on children and young people with speech, language and communication needs), parenting and in applied psychology. CEDAR’s research is related to policy and practice. Findings appear variously in reports to sponsors, academic and professional journals, and books for both general and specialist readers. The Centre engages in a range of teaching in the Institute of Education and also organises conferences to disseminate its work to researchers, practitioners and policymakers.

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Centre for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (CSME)

CSME focuses on the economic and strategic analysis of issues related to entrepreneurship and innovation. Recent projects have focused on enterprise policy and behaviour, the dynamics of open innovation, creative teams, technology adoption, regional policy, finance, and enterprise education. CSME staff teach on both undergraduate and postgraduate courses within the Business School and undertake research and consultancy internationally. The Centre welcomes applications from individuals with a strong quantitative background in economics or a closely related area and an interest in pursuing research on SMEs or innovation.

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Centre for Studies in Democratisation

The Centre for the Study of Democratisation (CSD) was established in response to a growing interest in the study of democracy at a theoretical and empirical level. As part of an extensive national and international network of established Centres and Institutes at Warwick, CSD is well-placed to develop an interdisciplinary focus for its activities and to draw upon the strengths of an internationally-respected research institution. CSD research focuses on issues of why and when democracies emerge, how they are sustained, and the challenges they face in a globalised world. CSD carries out research in collaboration with several international partners.

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Centre for Ethics, Law and Public Affairs

The Centre for Ethics, Law, and Public Affairs (CELPA) co-ordinates and develops the activities of researchers in the University with interests in normative inquiry into public affairs. CELPA members include academic staff and research students from the departments of Politics and International Studies, Law, Philosophy, and Sociology who address issues of public concern from the perspective of moral, legal and political philosophy. The Centre aims to facilitate discussion and promote collaborative research in these areas by running seminars and conferences, and to provide a home for PhD students and academics working on ethical and political ideals and their application to different aspects of public policy.

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Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation

The Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation (CSGR) is the oldest and largest academic centre in Europe dealing with this subject area. CSGR was created as a designated research site of the UK Economic and Social Research Council. Located in the Department of Politics and International Studies, the Centre concentrates on change in the international political economy, issues of globalisation and regionalisation, and links between political economy and economic sociology, law, economics and organisational studies. The Centre has been highly successful in operating a European Commission Framework 6-funded Network of Excellence: ‘GARNET – Global Governance, Regionalisation, Regulation: The Role of the EU’. The Centre has also launched a European Commission Framework 7-funded project: ‘Global Re-ordering: Evolution through European Networks’ (GR:EEN), which will explore how Europe matters and indeed if and how it can continue to matter in an increasingly multi-polar world.

CSGR’s research highlights the policy implications of globalisation and regionalisation, and their influence on change in the international political economy.

Much of this research concentrates on questions such as comparative regionalisms, the political economy of global and regional finance and trade, civil society in globalisation and regionalisation, and security issues in globalisation and regionalisation. CSGR research spans all regions of the world, as well as relations between them.

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Centre for the Study of Women and Gender

The Centre has an interdisciplinary approach and an international perspective. We welcome applicants from outside the UK to research degrees and taught courses (administered through the Department of Sociology). Over the years our students have come from 40 different countries and 5 continents. We also welcome mature students, most of whom are local. This student mix makes for a diverse and vibrant postgraduate community that all of us in the Centre greatly value and enjoy with a strong sense of identity and exchange across diversity. In addition to members of the Centre and the Department of Sociology, we are able to draw on the services of academics from a wide range of University departments who offer specialist options and supervision in their areas of expertise. Consequently, we are able to offer a diverse course of options and supervision in most areas of study. The Centre provides a lively postgraduate culture with a regular seminar series, an annual lecture, and regular, high profile conferences/day schools.

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Warwick Finance Research Insitute (WFRI)

The Warwick Finance Research Institute (WFRI) was set up to stimulate research in the area of finance in Warwick Business School and the University as a whole. Finance research is carried out in the Finance Group of WBS and also in the Mathematics, Statistics, Economics and Psychology Departments. All these departments were ranked as excellent in the last UK Research Assessment Exercise. WFRI includes two established research centres from within WBS, the Financial Options Research Centre (FORC), and the Financial Econometrics Research Centre (FERC). WFRI has established several distinct but interacting research themes including asset pricing, investment management, behavioural finance, international finance, pensions, computational finance and derivatives, financial econometrics and the analysis of high frequency data and risk management.

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Financial Econometrics Research Centre
(Part of WFRI)

The Financial Econometrics Research Centre (FERC) has the following objectives: the generation of first class research in empirical finance, both in the development of statistical methods of financial econometrics and their application to financial markets; to provide a forum for the transfer of ideas between practitioners within the City of London and academics, this is achieved through sponsored research, publications and specifically designed conferences to create a focus for existing research; to become a recognised centre for research excellence within Europe and to provide a co-ordinating role for financial econometrics within the UK. FERC runs regular workshops and conferences and produces an electronic Working Paper series. It is managed by an international Steering Committee made up of practitioners and academics, and has a large membership of Fellows and Associates, again from both the world of practitioners and from academia.

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Financial Options Research Centre
(Part of WFRI)

The Financial Options Research Centre (FORC) bridges the gap between leading academic work on financial markets and the needs of practitioners, particularly those concerned with derivative instruments and risk management. FORC’s research policy is to identify and work on those topics of the greatest importance at the boundary between academic research on derivatives and its applications in the market place. The Centre runs research seminars and conferences, and produces research pre-prints. Research topics studied in FORC have included: valuation and hedging; empirical studies; risk management; hedging in incomplete markets; behaviour of implied volatility; portfolio management.

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Industrial Relations Research Unit

The Industrial Relations Research Unit is one of the major centres for the study of industrial relations in Europe. IRRU embraces the industrial relations research activities of members of Warwick Business School. Its Advisory Committee includes senior officials of BIS, Acas, CBI and TUC. IRRU’s current research programme clusters around five themes: Europeanisation and internationalisation; diversity, equality and the regulation of the employment relationship; the management of change; evolving forms of employee representation; and new forms of statutory, collective and voluntary regulation. Specific research projects include: union and non-union systems of employee representation, partnership arrangements, information and consultation structures, and European Works Councils; ‘Europeanisation’ of industrial relations, including the European dimension to collective bargaining and the impact of EU enlargement; managing diversity, including the involvement of stakeholders and the business case for employing disadvantaged workforce groups; the organisational roots of productivity; employment relations in small firms; impact of multinational companies on employment practice through cross-border benchmarking processes and trade union utilisation of the internet.

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Centre for the Study of Innovation, Knowledge and Organisational Networks (IKON)

IKON is a research centre based at Warwick Business School which carries out funded research projects in the fields of innovation, organisation studies and information systems. IKON members apply theoretical perspectives from social and organisation theory to empirical studies of the development and transformation of knowledge, networks and practices in innovation settings. Our focus is on understanding the processes and practices entailed in innovative activities and the ways in which these are influenced by specific organisational and institutional contexts. IKON also promotes interaction between the business and academic communities through its Knowledge & Innovation Network (KIN) (www.ki-network.org). KIN research focuses on the management of knowledge and networks as a way of tackling problems of competitiveness and innovation across industry sectors. IKON members supervise a number of PhD projects, and IKON scholarships provide funding for new students for research in the Centre’s areas of expertise:

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Legal Research Institute

The Institute fosters, develops and co-ordinates the research activities of the School of Law. It acts as an interface with other University departments and research centres, as well as business, central and local government, and private foundations. The Institute supports members of staff in their research by providing resources for those organising conferences or research seminars at Warwick or attending conferences elsewhere. It provides funds for research assistance and has also supported the development of a Working Paper series open to staff and postgraduate students. This is available on the Social Science Research Network. Funding has also been provided for a peer-reviewed electronic journal, Law, Social Justice and Global Development. The LRI oversees the activities of our other research centres, such as the Centre for Criminal Justice and the Centre for Human Rights in Practice.

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Centre for Research in Philosophy, Literature and the Arts

Warwick’s interdisciplinary Centre for Research in Philosophy, Literature and the Arts (CRPLA) brings together scholars working in a wide range of disciplines in order to promote research across Philosophy, the Humanities, and the Arts. The departments associated with the Centre’s activities include Philosophy, English and Comparative Literary Studies, French, German, Italian and History of Art. The CRPLA aims to reflect the interdisciplinary research interests of members working in all of these fields and to encourage productive dialogue between these areas.

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Social Theory Centre

The Social Theory Centre is an internationally renowned, interdisciplinary centre for academic staff and postgraduate students interested in social and political thought. Among its major activities, the Centre has organised – with strong student participation – a regular seminar series on Social and Political Thought for visiting speakers; it holds a Social Theory Lecture presented by internationally renowned academics and has run an advanced summer school on Theory for a Global Age. The Centre hosts periodic workshops and conferences and organises facultystudent reading groups. There is an MA programme in Social and Political Thought (see page 223) and faculty also supervise PhD students working in this area. A prize (the Gillian Rose prize for Social and Political Thought) is offered for the best graduate student essay or dissertation of the year. The Centre is involved in various national and international social theory initiatives, including the European Social Theory Network, the International Consortium of Social Theory, and the British Sociological Association Theory Study Group.

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