Prof James Nazroo

Research interests

Research interests

Issues of inequality, social justice and underlying processes of stratification have been the primary focus of his research activities, which have centred on gender, ethnicity, ageing, and the intersections between these. His research on ageing has been concerned to understand the patterns and determinants of social and health inequalities in ageing populations, with a particular interest on the ‘transmission’ of inequalities across the lifecourse, patterns of ‘retirement’, formal and informal social and civic participation, and how class operates post-retirement. He has conducted studies on quality of life for older people among different ethnic groups in the UK, on inequalities in health at older ages, and on routes into retirement and the impact of retirement on health and well-being. He is PI of the fRaill programme, an interdisciplinary study of inequalities in later life, and co-PI of the English Longitudinal Study of Aging, which is a multi-disciplinary panel study of those aged 50 and older, and part of an international ‘family’ of very similar studies.

A second theme of his work is concerned with ethnic inequalities in health. His research on this began with describing differences in health across and within broad ethnic groupings and assessing the contribution that social disadvantage might make to these differences. Central to this has been developing an understanding of the links between ethnicity, racism, class and inequality. This work has covered a variety of elements of social disadvantage, including socioeconomic position, racial discrimination and harassment, and ecological effects. It also covers a variety of health outcomes, including general health, mental health, cardiovascular disease and sexual health. He is Director of the ESRC Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE), which focuses on understanding changing patterns of inequality and identity. For both his work on ageing and his work on ethnicity he has taken an increasing focus on comparative analysis (across groups, time and place) to investigate underlying processes, involving collaborations with colleagues in the US, Canada, Europe and New Zealand – as well as the UK.

My currently funded projects include, among others:

• Synergi Collaborative Center (co-PI)
• ESRC Research Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE) (PI)
• Inequalities in later life frailty and wellbeing (fRaill), Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Programme (PI)
• English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, NIA and UK Government (co-PI)
• Socio-economic determinants and health inequalities over the life course, Australian Research Council (co-I)