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Dr Torsten Geelan

Dr Torsten Geelan

Visiting Fellow

Department of Media and Communications

Email
T.K.Geelan@lse.ac.uk
Connect with me

Twitter

Website

Languages
Danish, English, Italian
Key Expertise
Labour movements, Media power

About me

I am a sociologist working in the fields of economic sociology, sociology of media, environmental sociology and industrial relations.

I’m currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen, and a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

My EU-funded project (2021-2024) is titled Transitioning to a Low Carbon Economy: Trade Unions and the ‘Jobs Versus Environment’ Dilemma (read here). Before moving to Denmark, I worked for two and a half years as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the Centre for Sustainable Work and Employment Futures, University of Leicester.

I hold a BA in Economic and Social Studies from the University of Manchester, and an MPhil and PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge. My doctorate thesis, under the supervision of the late William Brown (Montague Burton Professor of Industrial Relations and Master of Darwin College), examined the role of media and communication in Danish and British trade union responses to the 2007/2008 North Atlantic financial crisis.

My first area of research focuses on the relationship between trade union power and the media, especially during industrial and political conflicts. This small but growing body of work has been published in New Technology, Work and Employment, Industrial Relations Journal, Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research (read here), as well as in edited collections. I was also awarded a BA/Leverhulme Small Grant for a collaborative project examining the role of Twitter in the 2018-2020 UK higher education strike, but I handed this over to my Co-PI Professor Athina Karatzogianni after moving to Copenhagen in 2021.

My second area of research focuses on alternative ways of organising the economy and society to make them more sustainable, democratic, and equitable. And I've been exploring this around the world as co-founder and co-chair of the Alternatives to Capitalism Research Network (see here) at the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) (see here). My earliest foray into this field was as the co-editor of a book published by Palgrave MacMillan (2018; 2020 paperback) titled From Financial Crisis to Social Change: Towards Alternative Horizons (read more) I am now the co-editor of a new Bristol University Press book series titled Alternatives to Capitalism in the 21st Century(read more). 

As a public speaker, I'm regularly invited to give lectures to student societies, research centres and the Danish and British trade union movement.

Expertise Details

Labour movements; Media power; Just transitions; Alternatives to capitalism

Publications

Peer-reviewed journal articles

Geelan, T. (2022) ‘The Combustible Mix of Coalitional and Discursive Power: British Trade Unions and the Case of the People’s Assembly Against Austerity’, New Technology, Work and Employment, 37 (2): 161-184. https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12236 

Geelan, T. (2021) ‘Introduction to the Special Issue: The Internet, Social Media and Trade Union Revitalization: Still Behind the Digital Curve or Catching up?’ New Technology, Work and Employment, 36 (2): 123-139. https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12205 

Wright, C., Wood, A., Trevor, J., McLaughlin, C., Huang, Wei., Harney, B., Geelan, T., Colfer, B., Chang, C., and Brown, W. (2018) ‘Towards a New Web of Rules: An International Review of Institutional Experimentation to Strengthen Employment Protections’, Employee Relations, 41 (2): 313-330. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-10-2018-0259 

Geelan, T. and Hodder, A. (2017) ‘Enhancing Transnational Labour Solidarity: The Unfulfilled Promise of the Internet and Social Media’, Industrial Relations Journal, 48 (4), 345-364. https://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12190 

Geelan, T., Skovrind, M., and Øland Ribe, M. (2017) ‘Akademikerprekariatet’, Dansk Sociologi, 28 (2): 27-51. https://rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/dansksociologi/article/view/5613 

Geelan, T. (2013) ‘Responses of Trade Union Confederations to the Youth Employment Crisis’, Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 19 (3): 399-413. https://doi.org/10.1177/1024258913493702 

Book chapters and other peer-reviewed contributions 

Geelan T. (2022) ‘Danish Trade Unions and Young People: Using Media in the Battle for Hearts and Minds’ in Barry Colfer (ed.) European Trade Unions in the 21st Century, London: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 209-232. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88285-3  

Geelan, T. and Hodder, A. (2021) ‘The Trials and Tribulations of Social Media and Transnational Labour Solidarity’ in A. Karatzogianni et al. (eds.) Media Technologies and Protest Revolutions: The Long Durée, Bingley: Emerald, 211-226.   

Geelan, T. Walsh, P., and Gonzalez, M. ‘Introduction’ in Geelan et. al (eds.) From Financial Crisis to Social Change: Towards Alternative Horizons, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70600-9 

Geelan, T. Walsh, P., and Gonzalez, M. ‘Afterword’ in Geelan et al (eds.) From Financial Crisis to Social Change: Towards Alternative Horizons, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 233-243. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70600-9.  

Geelan, T. Walsh, P., and Gonzalez, M. (eds.) (2018, 2020 paperback) From Financial Crisis to Social Change: Towards Alternative Horizons, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70600-9.  

Geelan, T. (2016) ‘Book Review: Worker Resistance and Media: Challenging Global Corporate Power in the 21st Century, by Lina Dencik and Peter Wilkin. Peter Lang, New York, 2015, 260 pp., ISBN 9781433124990, £98.00, hardback’, British Journal of Industrial Relations 54 (1): 239-240. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12178  

Geelan, T. (2015) ‘Danish Trade Unions and Young People: Using Media in the Battle for Hearts and Minds’ in Hodder, A. and Kretsos, L. (eds.) Trade Unions and Young People: A Global View, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 71-89. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137429537

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