Karenjit Clare BA (Hons) MA

Lecturer and Bye-Fellow of Girton College (Geography)

Economic Geography: the geographies of labour and work; socio-economic geographies of gender; creative industries; inequalities; social networks.

Biography

Qualifications

Ph.D Department of Geography, University of Cambridge
MA Department of Geography, University of Wales, Aberystwyth
BA Department of Geography, University of Wales, Aberystwyth

Awards and Scholarships

Economic and Social Research Council Ph.D research grant - October 2005 to December 2008.
Phillip Lake Fund, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge - 2007.
Girton College, Cambridge, Graduate Travel Grant - 2007.

Research

Gender inequality continues to exist in the contemporary labour market. Despite unprecedented numbers of women gaining professional positions in the city, men have, to a large extent, retained their old hegemonic dominance. My research examines gender inequality in the 'new economy', and specifically looks at gendered patterns of work in the advertising industry through a micro-level social network perspective. My work focuses on the advertising industry because it is an exemplar of a project-based creative industry in the 'new economy' where project work is becoming more common and careers are constructed as portfolios of previous experiences rather than life-time employment by one employer. In these creative industries, despite the rhetoric of flexibility, egalitarianism and non-hierarchial structures, I show how categorical inequalities shape labour market outcomes, demonstrating how gender is often more important than performance in facilitating career trajectories of workers.

My research will contribute to our understanding of the gendered experiences of men and women working in the 'new economy' particularly highlighting project-based industries. Second, it will also address an area of neglect in economic geography concerning gender and social networks and network rewards for men and women.

Publications

Papers and Reviews

Clare, K (2008) 'Management and Creativity, Chris Bilton'. Creative Industries Journal 1(1), 81-83.
Clare, K (2008) 'The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein'. The Geographical Journal 174(3), 284-285.
Clare, K (2009) 'Cool, Creative and Complex: Exploring Project Organisation, Place and Networks' Working Paper.
Clare, K (2009) 'Client Preferences: Homophily, Gender and Labour Market Inequality' Working Paper.

Conference Presentations

'Gendered social networks: Homophily 'in' and 'out' of the workplace', Institute of British Geographers, London, August 2008.
'Gender at work in the advertisement industry', Martin Prosperity Institute, University of Toronto, June 2008.
'Social Networks and Gender', Regional Studies, Prague, May 2008.
'Creative Careers: Cool but Complex', Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Boston, April 2008.
'Cool, Creative and Complex: Exploring social networks and gender in project-based creative industries (advertising) in London', Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, San Francisco, April 2007.

Teaching

Lecturer:
- Part 1A 'People, Spaces and Geographies of Difference'
- Part 1B 'Understanding the Economy: Contemporary Geographies of Capitalism'
- Part II: 'Working in the New Economy'. Department of Geography, University of Cambridge
Supervisor of Studies (2007- 2010). Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge.
Undergraduate supervisor (2005-2010). Department of Geography, University of Cambridge.
- Part IA: People, Space and Geographies of Difference
- Part 1B: Geographies of Contemporary Capitalism
- Part II: Working in the New Economy

External activities

Postgraduate Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society
Postgraduate member of the Association of American Geographers
Postgraduate member of the Economic Geography Research Group
Visiting scholar, Harvard Business School, September 2008- November 2008.
Conference Convenor (2006) Geographies of Inequality, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge in conjunction with Economic Geography Research Group