Professor Rachel Cohen

Overview

Rachel Lara Cohen is a Professor in Sociology, Work and Employment.

Professor Cohen joined City, University of London in January 2013. She has previously worked as a lecturer at the University of Surrey and the University of Warwick and visiting lecturer at St Petersburg State University. She obtained an MA and then PhD (both in Sociology) from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and between 2007and 2010 Dr Cohen was a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Between 2017 and 2020 Dr Cohen was Head of Department of Sociology at City.

Professor Cohen's main interests are in the sociology of work and employment; especially 'non-standard' work, namely self-employment, mobile work, homeworking, and work-life boundaries. She has explored the working lives and employment relations of paticular occupations, including hairdressers, car mechanics and accountants. Her research takes a mixed-methods approach. She co-edited a special issue of Sociology of Health and Illness on 'body work' (work which takes the bodies of others as its object) and an issue of American Behavioral Scientist on Everyday Self-Employment. She has also published on gender and sport.

Professor Cohen is Co-Investigator on a three year ESRC-funded research project, 'L-Earning: Rethinking young women's working lives' (2022-2025). This project explores young women’s early experiences of work – including work while studying – and how these experiences may contribute to gendered inequalities in later life. Further details: https://ywworking.co.uk

Professor Cohen has published and run events on feminism and quantitative methods, and co-edited an issue of The International Journal of Social Research Methodology on this topic. She has also published on statistical literacy and learning.

From 2013 (until 2017) Professor Cohen was PI and founding Coordinator of City Q-Step Centre, to develop the data literacy of social science students who typically lack strong mathematical backgrounds (https://www.city.ac.uk/arts-social-sciences/sociology/city-q-step-centre).

Professor Cohen is a recent-past Convenor of the BSA Study Group on Work, Employment and Economic Life. She is Associate Editor of Work in the Global Economy. She has previously been on the editorial board of the European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology and the editorial board of Work, Employment and Society (2010-2016), She was editor of Radical Statistics (2012-2016). She was a co-organiser of the 2018 Work, Employment and Society Conference in Belfast.

Professor Cohen is an Elected Senator at City (and previously Senior Elected Senator). She is past-Vice-President of City UCU and was a member of UCU National Executive Committee (2016-18).

Beyond academia she writes and co-hosts a podcast about women's football.

Qualifications

• Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy, United Kingdom, 2021
• Postgraduate Certificate in Academic and Professional Practice, University of Warwick, 2008
• PhD Sociology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States, 1997 - 2005
• MA Sociology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States, 1995 - 1997
• BA Politics and Modern History, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom, 1990 - 1993

Administrative roles

• Head of Department of Sociology, City, University of London, September 2017 - December 2020
• City Q-Step Centre Coordinator, City, University of London, September 2013 - September 2017
• Undergraduate Programme Director, City, University of London, May 2013 - August 2016

Research interests

- employment relations and non-standard work (e.g. self-employment, homework and mobile work)
- work-life boundaries
- the times and spaces of work
- work within specific occupations and occupational labour process variation
- body work'/'body labour'
- worker-customer relations, including 'emotional labour'
- young people's working lives
- work while studying
- gender and sport or other topics relating to sporting life
- feminist research methods
- mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) research
- quantitative methods and learning in sociology

Areas of PhD supervision

I have broad sociological interests, am interested in academic learning and welcome requests to supervise PhDs.

I consider all requests and have supervised projects across diverse areas. However, I especally welcome anyone interested in the area of the sociology of work and employment or economic or comparative sociology, especially projects which fit with my research interests (as above).

I am also excited about working with researchers undertaking interdisciplinary research or who want to explore innovation in the production or use of data.

If you are interested in undertaking a research degree, get in touch by email to set up a chat so that we can discuss what it might involve. It is helpful if you already have a good idea of what you want to do but to initiate a conversation you do not need a fully polished proposal.

Research students

1^stsupervisor

• Reid Allen, Research Student

Featured publications

1. Allen, K., Finn, K., Hardy, K., Cohen, R.L., Kill, C. and Zhong, M.R. (2026). Student workers as proto-workers: ‘Experience’, quitting and the production of consent. The Sociological Review, 74(3), pp. 510-527. doi:10.1177/00380261261424642

   [publisher’s website]

2. Cohen, R.L. (2025). The Sociology of Self-Employment: A Typology and Reconciliation. Sociology, 59(5), pp. 905-924. doi:10.1177/00380385251324563

   [publisher’s website]

3. Zhong, M.R., Cohen, R.L., Allen, K., Finn, K., Hardy, K. and Kill, C. (2025). Equally Bad, Unevenly Distributed: Gender and the ‘Black Box’ of Student Employment. The British Journal of Sociology, 76(4), pp. 828-840. doi:10.1111/1468-4446.13210

   [publisher’s website]

4. Cohen, R.L. and Wolkowitz, C. (2018). The Feminization of Body Work. Gender, Work & Organization, 25(1), pp. 42-62. doi:10.1111/gwao.12186

   [publisher’s website]

Publications by category