Dr Kate Summers

"Thanks to the diverse group of passionate methodologists in the department, my work has developed in recent years to consider more centrally the links between the methods I use and the substantive insights they generate. I am particularly proud of the participatory research practices I am now developing."
- Dr Kate Summers reflects on an area of her research that makes her proud as part of our 30th Anniversary celebrations. Read the full close-up with Methodology faculty.

Kate is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Methodology. Her research centres on developing qualitative methods to study social security policy in a (post) pandemic context.

Kate was an LSE Fellow in the Methodology Department from 2018-2021. She completed her PhD in the Department of Social Policy at the LSE in 2018, holds an MSc in Social Policy (Research) also from the LSE and a BA in Modern History from the University of Oxford.

Kate’s research is concerned with experiences and perceptions of poverty, economic inequality, and related social policies with a particular focus on social security policy, in the UK context. She uses (and is interested in the potential and power of) qualitative methods including in-depth interviews, focus groups and participatory approaches.

Other key research projects include Welfare at a (Social) Distance and The Commission on Social Security: Led by experts by experience.

From September 2024-September 2025 Kate is on academic secondment to the In-House Research Unit at the UK Government's Department for Work and Pensions.

Expertise

Qualitative interviews, Focus groups, Participatory approaches, Research with 'vulnerable' groups, Thematic analysis, Poverty, riches and economic inequality in the UK, Working-age social security policy, Welfare reform, Sociology of money