Jenny Preece
Research AssociateBiography
Dr Jenny Preece is a Research Associate at the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence, based at the University of Sheffield.
Jenny completed her PhD at the Centre for Regional, Economic and Social Research at Sheffield Hallam University in 2015. This research focused on the role of work in people’s experiences of residential mobility and immobility in working-class neighbourhoods. Since then she has worked at the University of Sheffield on an ESRC-funded project to understand the barriers to shared reading between parents and young children, focusing on family practices in low-income areas. Jenny specialised in qualitative research exploring everyday lives.
Jenny’s academic background cuts across a number of disciplines including history, human geography and sociology. She is interested in understanding people’s experiences of housing and neighbourhood, especially in places which have been seen through official lenses as ‘disadvantaged’. This intersects with a number of other areas, in particular around contemporary labour market experiences. The relationship between precarious employment, housing, and place are my key research areas. Jenny is particularly interested in theories of belonging, which can help to conceptualise the role of place and networks in people’s daily lives.
