Dr Philip Finn

Law

Post-doc
IRC Research Fellow

Biography

I completed my PhD in the Department of Sociology, Maynooth University, in 2019.  The PhD is titled Playing With the Absurdity of Welfare: Experiences of Irish Welfare Conditionality. The thesis utilises in-depth qualitative interviews with jobseekers to explore interactions with welfare agencies and the complex multilayered navigation of welfare obligations.


After completing my PhD I continued to teach across the sociology and politics programmes in the department at both undergraduate and masters level. 

In 2022 I joined the School of Law and Criminology as an Irish Research Council Enterprise Scheme (Postdoctoral) award holder carrying out a research project co-funded by the Irish Research Council and the Arts Council of Ireland. The project explores the impact of the welfare system on the working lives of artists with disabilities.

Research Interests

Welfare conditionality, lived experience of welfare, activation, disability, politics of work / employment, working class studies, social policy, creative methodologies

Research Projects

Title Role Description Start date End date Amount
Artists at the intersection of work and welfare: Low-income disabled artists’ navigation of welfare and working lives PI Precarity, insecurity and reliance on welfare payments are endemic across the lives of low-income artists. This is felt acutely by disabled artists who receive lower incomes from artistic employment, funding, and grants. These artists’ life facilitating welfare supports often compound and exacerbate this through accompanying conditions limiting opportunities for earning income. Through a unique collaboration with the Arts Council this research explores the everyday lived experience of low-income disabled artists’ interactions with the welfare system and its impacts on artistic work, development, identity, and outputs. The project employs 2 rounds of semi-structured interviews with 20 disabled artists in receipt of welfare supports over the course of a year, as well as direct observation, and participant diary-keeping with a smaller group of participants (5-10). Through this approach the research can capture changing and ongoing patterns in the lived experience of participants over time. The data collection will focus on disabled artists’ experiences of interacting with the welfare system, navigating rules and conditions attached to payments, working as an artist, and artistic identity. The research will also include disabled artists accessing the Basic Income for Artists Pilot Scheme as part of comparison against mainstream welfare payments. The research methods are chosen to amplify the voice of participants and their own expertise about their lives as part of a robust evidence base about life as an artist in receipt of disability supports. In doing so the research aims to impact ongoing policy processes, including Paying the Artist and the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and inform key national policy objectives of enhancing individual well-being and a more equal society. Through a focus on basic income, the cost of disability, social inclusion, and participation the research seeks to shape innovative disability, cultural and welfare policies. 01/09/2022 31/08/2024

Peer Reviewed Journal

Year Publication
2021 Finn P. (2021) 'Navigating indifference: Irish jobseekers' experiences of welfare conditionality'. Administration, 69 (2):67-86. [DOI]
2022 Finn P.; Murphy M.P. (2022) 'A Multi-Dimensional View of Stigma Experienced by Lone Parents in Irish Homeless and Employment Services'. Social Policy and Society, . [DOI] [Full-Text]

Published Report

Year Publication
2020 Murphy, M., Whelan, N., McGann, M., Finn, P (2020) THE ‘HIGH ROAD’ BACK TO WORK: Developing a Public Employment Eco System for a Post-Covid Recovery. Maynooth University, .

Blog

Year Publication
2020 Finn P. (2020) Navigating the absurdity of Irish welfare. BLOG [Link]
Certain data included herein are derived from the © Web of Science (2023) of Clarivate. All rights reserved.

Professional Associations

Description Function From / To
Sociological Association of Ireland Member -

Honors and Awards

Date Title Awarding Body
01/01/2019 Welfare Conditionality Visiting Fellow Welfare Conditionality
01/09/2016 Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Irish Research Council
01/09/2022 Irish Research Council Enterprise Partnership Scheme (Postdoctoral) Irish Research Council

Teaching Interests

Undergraduate:
Sociology of work and employment, classical social theory, special topic research group: Experience, inventiveness and resistance in everyday life, the crafts and logics of special topic research, political theory, political parties, elections and corruption.

Masters:
Qualitative methods, Pathways: Education, Work and Ageing, supervision of research projects.