Grace joined the Centre for Care in April 2022 as a Research Associate working on Digital Care with Professor Kate Hamblin. Her current research explores digital inequalities, sectoral fragmentation and technology implementation, and care labour and working conditions. Grace is also a researcher on a project investigating AI-driven technology and platform work in homecare in the UK, Finland and Sweden, as part of the Joint Programming Initiative ‘More Years, Better Lives’.
Prior to working in the Centre for Care, Grace taught industrial relations and employment at Sheffield University Management School. She carried out an ESRC-funded PhD examining trade unionism in England’s social care sector and an MA in social research methods, both at the University of Sheffield, has attended London Critical Theory School, and holds an MSc in Social Theory and a BA Hons in English and Philosophy (from the University of Bristol), Her previous experience includes research on youth unemployment and ‘fire and rehire’ practices, as well as roles as an employment law advisor at Acas and as a care worker.
Research interests
- Digital exclusion and effects of digitalisation on forms of care labour.
- State policy on care provision and employment regulation.
- Trade union strategies within the social care sector and theorisations of unionism.
- Labour theory of value and analyses of capital.
Publications
- Whitfield, G., Kispeter, E., Hamblin, K., & Burns, D. (2025). How the care workforce navigates the digital ‘skills gap’: problems and opportunities from policy to practice. Frontiers in Sociology, 10.
- Whitfield, G., & Hamblin, K. (2025). ‘Thanks to technology’: discourse, care and technology in England. Ageing & Society, 1-27.
- Whitfield, G., Wright, J., & Hamblin, K. (2024). AI in care: a solution to the ‘care crisis’ in England?. In Handbook on Public Policy and Artificial Intelligence (pp. 383-396). Edward Elgar Publishing.
- Whitfield, G. J. (2024). Robots Won’t Save Japan: An Ethnography of Eldercare Automation by James Wright (2023). International Journal of Care and Caring, 1(aop), 1-2.
- Whitfield, G. and Hamblin, K. (2023) Technology and social care: key areas of policy focus in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (2019-2022). Centre for Care Working Paper 3, CIRCLE, Sheffield: University of Sheffield.
- Allard, C., Whitfield, G J. (2023). “Guilt, Care, and the Ideal Worker: Comparing Guilt Among Working Carers and Care Workers.” Gender, Work & Organization: 1– 17.
- Whitfield, G., Hamblin, K. (2022) Technology in social care: review of the UK policy landscape. Centre for Care Working Paper 1, CIRCLE, Sheffield: University of Sheffield
- Whitfield, G.J., 2021. ‘You couldn’t have a heart and want to strike’: Mobilising workers in England’s social care sector. Capital & Class.
- Whitfield, G.J., 2021. Book Review: The Hospital: Life, Death, and Dollars in a Small American Town, by Brian Alexander. ILR Review.
- Whitfield, G.J., 2020. Book Review: Cabin Crew Conflict: The British Airways Dispute 2009–11, by Phil Taylor and Sian Moore. British Journal of Industrial Relations.