Dr Emma Casey
Reader in Sociology

Profile

Biography

I grew up in the north east of England during a time of rapid industrial decline, where burgeoning social inequalities sat alongside the rapid emergence of new forms of popular culture and consumer practices. Sociology has long provided me with the opportunity to make sense of these social and cultural transformations.

Between 1995 and 1998 I came to the University of York to study Sociology as an undergraduate. I then moved to London in the late 1990s and worked in a bookshop while I searched for postgraduate funding. I completed my PhD at London Metropolitan University in 2004. Since then I have developed research which broadly examines the various ways in which structural inequalities of class, race and gender are mapped onto everyday cultural and consumer practices.

Underpinning my research and teaching, is a commitment to countering mainstream sociological scholarship which has often silenced the voices of marginalised people. To this end, my research attempts to pull to the surface hitherto overlooked cultural processes and practices. My research is particularly inspired by feminist theoretical approaches and ways of seeing the world.

Research

Overview

Research interests

• Housework
• Gender
• Social Media
• Consumption
• Class

I am Reader in Sociology in the Department of Sociology at York. My research broadly seeks to redress the relative lack of prominence of sociological studies of domestic life and experiences. My edited collection 'Gender and Consumption' with Prof Lydia Martens (Keele University) brought together feminist academics working in the field of domestic consumer economies, while my doctoral research echoed this focus by producing one of the first studies of domestic routines and rituals of gambling. This work informed my sole authored monograph 'Women, Pleasure and the Gambling Experience', shortlisted for the BSA Philip Abrams Memorial Prize.

My sole authored monograph ‘The Return of the Housewife: Why Women are Still Cleaning Up’ was published in 2025 by Manchester University Press. The book explores the ways that women's unpaid labour is currently being glamourised and repositioned as empowering 'self-care' within social media cultures. The book has appeared in a wide variety of printed and recorded media including Stylist magazine, the Evening Standard, Yorkshire Post, Grazia and Morning Star.

Funded research includes an ESRC grant for a project exploring gambling and households (RES-000-22-4314). The project established a major new directive on gambling at Mass Observation Archive. Between 2014-2021, I sat on the editorial board of Sociology, the flagship journal of the BSA. I sit on the Editorial Board of Cultural Sociology and am co-editor of the journal Critical Gambling Studies, an interdisciplinary and international journal which seeks to expand critical and cultural understandings of gambling.

At York, I am Deputy Head of Department (staffing and workload).

You can listen to some recent interviews and discussions here:

• Bunker Podcast
• New Books Network Podcast
• Thinking Allowed: Shopping
• Faculti: Commodifying Selfhood and Rearticulating Consumer Capitalism

Supervision

I am priviledged to be currently supervising the following wonderful PhD students:

• Holly Nelson 'Consuming rest? Exploring, interrogating and challenging the gendered commodification of rest' (Funded by ESRC White Rose)
• Sarah Robinson '“Gamblers are not lone individuals”: An Exploration of Gambling Harms through the Lived Experiences of Spouses and Partners of Gamblers in the United Kingdom' (Funded by ESRC White Rose)
• Natalie Browne 'Consuming tragedy? Working-class women’s relationship with true crime.' 

Publications

Selected publications

Casey, E. (2025) The Return of the Housewife: Why women are still cleaning up. Manchester University Press. 

Casey, E., & Oakley, A. (2025). Unappreciated Labour: Emma Casey and Ann Oakley in Conversation April 2025. Cultural Sociology.

Casey, E. H. (2024). Women, Pleasure and the Gambling Experience: 16 Years On. Critical Gambling Studies, 5(1), 84–89. 

Casey, E. H., & Littler, J. (2024). How Social Media Cleanfluencers are Refashioning the Domestic Narrative: Emma Casey and Jo Littler in conversation. The Sociological Review. 

Casey, E. (2024). Welcome to the Shopping Revolution! Commodifying selfhood and rearticulating consumer capitalism at the Metro Centre, Gateshead. The Sociological Review, 72(2), 322-339. 

Casey, E. H., & Littler, J. (2022). Mrs Hinch, the rise of the cleanfluencer and the neoliberal refashioning of housework: Scouring away the crisis? The Sociological Review, 70(3), 489-505.