Academic Work & Publications⬩Brendan Churchill

Brendan has been at The University of Melbourne since 2017, most recently as a Research Fellow and the Program Manager of the Life Patterns Research Program at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education (MGSE) and before that as a Research Fellow in Sociology in the School of Social and Political Sciences (2017-2021). Before joining Melbourne, he was a Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Change and a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Tasmania.

,

Projects
Projects

,

Journals
Journals

,

,

Reports
Reports

,

,

,

,

,

,

Australian Journal of Social Issues

Journal Article

Underemployment and Job Quality Among Young Australians: A Gendered Analysis Using the HILDA Survey (2009–2022)

Over almost two decades, young people's employment opportunities have been significantly impacted by events like the Global Financial Crisis (2008–2009) and the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-). Thus, underemployment has become a more pervasive and persistent feature of young people's labour market experiences.

Journal Article

Policy interventions for the future of work: do Australians want government compensation, guidance, or investment to manage technological change?

This paper examines how Australian attitudes toward the future of work shape support for policy interventions, drawing on nationally representative survey data (n = 1,035). We focus on three dimensions of technological change: displacement, deskilling, and de-intensification, and analyse how these expectations map onto preferences for investment, compensation, and steering policies.

Work, Employment and Society

Journal Article

The Gendered Flexibility Paradox and Remote-First Work: How Working Parents Reconcile Work and Care

Recent technological advances and globalised distribution of work have accelerated the rise of remote-first organisations where everyone works remotely, yet the effects of this approach on working parents remain underexplored. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 25 mothers and 16 fathers from 31 remote-first organisations, this study examines the gendered impact of standardised remote-first flexibility on work–family reconciliation.

Journal Article

Risky business: How food-delivery platform riders understand and manage safety at work

This study explores the issue of workplace safety among food-delivery workers who use platforms like UberEATS and Deliveroo to secure work. Despite the high exposure to hazardous traffic, extreme weather conditions, and unsafe work hours and locations that these workers face daily, safety remains a low priority for both platforms and governments.

Journal of Sociology

Journal Article

A matter of time? Institutional timescapes and gendered inequalities in the transition from education to employment in Australia

This article explores why women miss out in the transition from the educational system to the labour market. Using nationally representative longitudinal data (2001–18) from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, we compare how long after graduation it takes men and women with tertiary qualifications to achieve key labour market milestones.

Community, Work & Family

Journal Article

Silicon caregivers: a multilevel analysis of European perspectives on robotic technologies for elderly care

As populations age, women's workforce participation grows and AI advances, understanding attitudes towards care technologies becomes increasingly important. This study examines attitudes towards robot caregivers for older adults across 28 European countries, using 2017 Eurobarometer data from working-age adults (20–59; n = 13,839).

Sociological Research Online

Journal Article

‘Is There Anything Else You’d Like to Tell Us About Your Experience?’ Orientations Towards Listening to Open-Ended Survey Responses

While survey research design tends to prioritise closed questions with predetermined responses, many surveys conclude with an open-ended ‘anything else you would like to tell us?’ question. This question, designed to elicit feedback or create opportunities for respondents to share additional information, offers significant potential for insight into respondents’ experiences.

The Sociological Review Magazine

Journal Article

System update: The gender pay gap goes digital

Authored by: B Churchill

Understanding the Grief and Loss Experiences of Carers Research Practitioner and Personal Perspectives

When caring ends

Over 2.6 million Australians provide informal, unpaid care to a family member or friend who lives with a disability, long-term health condition, terminal illness, or frailty. Inevitably, all informal care experiences come to an end, though the circumstances may vary; for example, the person being cared for may recover or improve, others may take over caring duties, or caring may end in bereavement.

Understanding the Grief and Loss Experiences of Carers Research Practitioner and Personal Perspectives

When caring ends: Exploring the hidden aspects of loss in trajectories out of caring in Australia

Over 2.6 million Australians provide informal, unpaid care to a family member or friend who lives with a disability, long-term health condition, terminal illness, or frailty. Former carers have been shown to experience profound aftereffects of caring, including poor health, loneliness, limited employment opportunities, and financial precarity.