• University of Edinburgh
• School of Social and Political Studies

Social Policy

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Qualifications

• BA (Oxford), AM (Harvard), PhD (Edinburgh)

Biographical Statement

I joined the staff in 1971 and, with the exception of periods of leave spent at the Centre for Law and Society at UC Berkeley, the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies in Oxford and the Faculty of Laws at University College , London , I have taught and carried out research in Edinburgh continuously since then. My main research interests are in socio-legal studies, in particular in the interface between social policy and public law.

In the past, I have carried out research - most of which has been funded by grants from the ESRC - on the legal problems experienced by low income households; the implications of individual rights for public policy; the justice inherent in administrative decision-making; and the redress of administrative grievances. This research has been carried out in a number of different policy fields, including education policy, social security, penal policy and consumer credit/consumer indebtedness. Major studies have been concerned with parental choice in education, decision-making in the prison service, the assessment of special educational needs and computerisation in social security.

I have just completed a small-scale development project, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, on administrative grievances and hope that this will eventually lead on a large-scale survey of the problems people experience on their dealings with government departments and public bodies, and the ways in which they deal with them. I have just begun a two-year research project, funded by the ESRC, on the experience of self-representation in citizen vs. state and party vs. party tribunals and am organising a seminar series- also funded by the ESRC - on administrative justice. Both these projects began in June 2005 and I am working on them full-time while I am on sabbatical leave during the academic year 2005-2006.

Together with Professor Frans Pennings ( University of Tilburg , The Netherlands), I have edited the European Journal of Social Security since its establishment in 1999. During the last few years, I have acted as Examiner and Chief Examiner in Socio-Legal Studies and Criminology for ESRC Studentships and have been a Member of the ESRC's Socio-Legal Subject Area Panel for Advanced Course and Doctoral Programme Recognition. In this connection, I acted as Chair of the Socio-Legal Panel in the 2005 Recognition Exercise.

I was head of Social Policy from 2001-2004 and was one of the two Co-Directors of Research in the School of Social and Political Studies in 2004-2005. For the last few years, I have taught a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses, including the core course on Research Design in the doctoral programme (which I have taught jointly with Michael Anderson , Professor of Economic History). 

Recent Theses

I have supervised a large number of postgraduate research students and have always found this very rewarding. Most of the students I have supervised have undertaken research on socio-legal topics or in one of the substantive fields of policy with which I am familiar (see above). Recent theses include: ‘Planning for the Future: a Comparative study of Advance Directives in Scotland, England and the Netherlands'; ‘The Cohabitation Rule: a study of the financial support obligations of unmarried couples', and ‘The Adequacy of Grievance Procedures in Community Care'. 

Recent Publications

I am the co-author of two books (Parental Choice and Educational Policy, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1989 (with Alison Petch and Jack Tweedie) and Discourse, Power and Justice: Towards a New Sociology of Imprisonment, London: Routledge, 1994 (with Brian Longhurst) and the editor or co-editor of four more.

In the course of my career, I have published 12 research reports and edited six edited collections of papers, 43 sole authored and 40 jointly authored articles and book chapters. Recent publications include the following:

Adler, Michael and Henman, Paul (2003) ‘Information Technology and the Governance of Social Security', Critical Social Policy (Special Issue on ‘New Technologies and Social Welfare'), pp. 375-407 (with Paul Henman).

Adler, Michael (2003) ‘A Socio-Legal Approach to Administrative Justice', Law and Policy, 25 (4), pp. 323-352.

Adler, Michael and Gulland, Jackie (2003) Tribunal Users' Experiences, Perceptions and Expectations: a Literature Review, London: Council on Tribunals.

Adler, Michael (2004) ‘Combining Welfare to Work Measures with Tax Credits: a new hybrid approach to social security in the UK', International Social Security Review, 57 (2), pp. 87-106.

Adler, Michael and Henman, Paul (2005), 'Computerizing the Welfare State: An international comparison of computerization in social security', Information, Communication and Society, 8 (3), 2005, pp. 315-342 (with Paul Henman).

Adler, Michael and Henman, Paul (2005), Computerisation and E-Government in Social Security: A Comparative International Study, Washington, DC: IBM Centre for the Business of Government.

Adler, Michael, Farrell, Christopher, Finch, Steven, Lewis, Jane, Morris, Sue and Philo, Dan (2006), Administrative Grievances: a Development Study, London: National Centre for Social Research.

Adler. Michael (2006), ‘Constructing a Typology of Administrative Grievances: Reconciling the Irreconcilable?' in Reza Banakar and Max Travers (eds.) Theory and Method in Socio-Legal Research, Oxford: Hart Publishing.