Professor Bernard Harris

Social Policy

Personal statement

My research is concerned with various aspects of the social history of health and welfare since circa 1700. I have worked on a wide range of topics within this field, including work on the history of height, morbidity and mortality; unemployment and poverty; the relationship between statutory and voluntary welfare provision; and the origins and development of the British welfare state.

Expertise

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Prize And Awards

International Conference on the History of Insurance in a Global Perspective Best Paper Award: Recipient; 22/7/2022
Fellow of the Acdemy of Social Sciences: Recipient; 20/10/2016
PROSE Award for Excellence in Economics (2011): Recipient; 2011

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Qualifications

I was awarded a BA (Hons) in History by the University of Cambridge in 1983 and obtained my PhD (also in History) from Birkbeck College, London, in 1989.

I held a Temporary Lectureship in the Department of Economic and Social History at the University of Bristol from 1987 to 1991, when I joined the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Southampton. I joined the School of Applied Social Sciences (now the School of Social Work and Social Policy) at the University of Strathclyde in September 2013.

Publications

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Publications

History of mutualism: Harris Bernard; Research Handbook on Historical Sociology (2024) (2024)
The legacy of voluntarism : charitable funding in the early NHS: Harris Bernard, Cresswell Rosemary; Economic History Review Vol 77, pp. 554-583 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.13280
Sickness experience in England, 1870-1949: Hinde Andrew, Gorsky Martin, Guntupalli Aravinda, Harris Bernard; Standard of Living Studies in Economic History (2022) (2022); https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06477-7_4
Did statutory insurance improve the welfare of Swedish workers? The statutory workplace accident insurance act of 1916: Andersson Lars-Fredrik, Eriksson Liselotte, Harris Bernard; Labor History Vol 63, pp. 210-233 (2022); https://doi.org/10.1080/0023656X.2022.2070734
Social security, full employment and voluntary action : the three pillars of William Beveridge's welfare society: Harris Bernard; Social Policy and Administration Vol 56, pp. 203-216 (2022); https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12776
The 1918/19 influenza pandemic and Covid-19 in Ireland and the UK: Gorsky Martin, Harris Bernard, Marsh Patricia, Milne Ida; Historical Social Research Vol 33 (2021)

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Research

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Research Interests

I am currently working on a number of different topics, including the following:

Various issues associated with the use of anthropometric indicators to study the health and wellbeing of past populations
The history of sickness and morbidity
The impact of sanitary intervention on mortality decline (with Andrew Hinde, University of Southampton)
The comparative history of social policy in the different parts of the UK and the English-speaking world