
Dr Christopher Pesterfield
PhD, MRES, BA
Current positions
Lecturer in Management
School of Management - Business School
Contact
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Research interests
My research is concerned with the intersection of labour exploitation, corporate social responsibility, and critical forms of political economy. I have published in journals such as Capital & Class, Science & Society, and the Journal of Business Ethics. I am also a co-editor of the online magazine Futures of Work.
I have researched and published on unfree labour or modern slavery, which represent different aspects of how labour exploitation can be understood. This includes a focus on legislation such as the Modern Slavery Act, and evaluating its efficacy. Beyond this, I am also interested in corporate responses to this legislation, and in particular exploring the structural constraints actors and firms face in attempting to develop an ‘ethical’ set of practices around labour exploitation, and how actors respond to these.
Methodologically I use qualitative approaches to explore the above issues.
I welcome enquiries from potential doctoral researchers interested in any of the themes, methodologies, or perspectives above.
Publications
Recent publications
26/02/2025Reopening the debate on Open Marxism
Science & Society
Institutional Logics in the UK Construction Industry’s Response to Modern Slavery Risk
Journal of Business Ethics
Exploited migrant workers in the UK
Futures of Work
Unfree Labour and the Capitalist State
Capital and Class
Ethical Capitalism? The Modern Slavery Act and the Transparency in Supply Chains Clause
Futures of Work
Thesis
Reconceptualising responses to the UK’s 2015 Modern Slavery Act
Supervisors
Award date
06/12/2022