CRESI is the home of economic sociology at Essex, carrying out pathbreaking research on economic sociology, economic justice, and the political economy of economic inequalities.
We have a strong interest in critically challenging regimes of power that compound wealth concentration and perpetuate different forms of racial capitalism and worker exploitation.
Our centre is led by scholars who have made pioneering contributions to the political economy of corporate power, critical scholarship on global philanthropy, feminist political economy, the sociology of power and ignorance, cultural economy, and political anthropology.
Our research interests include the following:
- The finitude of earth's resources (land, water, energy)
- Human rights and economic justice
- Feminist political economy
- Welfare regimes and pensions
- Racial capitalism, slavery and forced labour - historical and contemporary
- The pharmaceutical industry
- Work and employment
- Gender budgeting and fiscal sociology
- Economies of knowledge and epistemic injustice
- Bazaar economy and commons
- Urban studies and enclaving
We emphasize the value of collaborative research within the Department of Sociology and Criminology, as well as interdisciplinary research with researchers and staff in other parts of the University.
We have close links to the Human Rights Centre, the Centre for Ideology and Discourse Analysis (CIDA), the Essex Business School, the Centre for Global South Studies (CGS), and the School of Life Sciences.