Background
I am Professor in Work and Comparative Employment Relations at Leeds University. I joined Leeds University in 2015 as an Associate Professor. Prior to this I was a Junior Professor of European Studies at Magdeburg University and a Researcher at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. I obtained my PhD at the European University Viadrina in 2009 after completing a Diplom in sociology at Bielefeld University and a Master degree in Russian and East European Studies at Stanford University.
My main research interests focus on the dynamics of organisational restructuring and its impact on working biographies, precarity and workers’ responses. This covers a broad range of areas studying platform work and mobilisation, climate change and just transition, precarity and the labour market.
Research Interests
- Platform work
- Precarity
- Voice and trade unions
- Climate change
Recent Publications
Policy publications
A global analysis of worker protest in digital labour platforms
Bessa, I., Joyce, S., Neumann, D., Stuart, M., Trappmann, V. and Umney, C. (2022) International Labour Organization
Global Labour Unrest on Platforms: The case of food delivery workers
Trappmann, V., Bessa, I., Joyce, S., Neumann, D., Stuart, M. and Umney, C. (2020) Friedrich Ebert Stiftung
A global struggle: worker protest in the platform economy
Joyce, S., Neumann, D., Trappmann, V., and Umney, C. (2020), European Trade Union Institute Policy Brief
Other publications
Research Articles
Trappmann V, Seehaus A, Mrozowicki A, Krasowska A. 2020. The Moral Boundary Drawing of Class: Social Inequality and Young Precarious Workers in Poland and Germany. Sociology.
Mrozowicki A, Trappmann V. 2020. Precarity as a Biographical Problem? Young Workers Living with Precarity in Germany and Poland. Work, Employment and Society.
Mrozowicki A, Trappmann V, Seehaus A, Kajta J. 2019. Who is a right-wing supporter? On the biographical experiences of young right-wing voters in Poland and Germany. Qualitative Sociology Review. 15(4), pp. 212-235
Alberti G, Bessa I, Hardy KR, Trappmann V, Umney C. 2018. In, Against and Beyond Precarity: Work in Insecure Times. Work, Employment and Society. 32(3), pp. 447-457
Books
Trappmann V. 2013. Fallen Heroes in Global Capitalism. Workers and the Restructuring of the Polish Steel Industry. Palgrave Macmillan UK
Bluhm K; Martens B; Trappmann V (eds.) 2013. Business leaders and new varieties of capitalism in post-communist Europe.
Jesnes, Kristin, Denis Neumann, Vera Trappmann, Pauline deBevelier (2021): Food delivery workers´ protest in Paris, Cologne and Oslo: New Actors and old Allies in: A Modern Guide to Labour and thePlatform Economy, Edited by Jan Drahokoupil and Kurt Vandaele, Edward Elgar Publishing
Policy publications
Vera Trappmann, Ioulia Bessa, Simon Joyce, Denis Neumann, Mark Stuart, Charles Umney (2020): GLOBAL LABOUR UNREST ON PLATFORMS. The case of food delivery workers: FES
Simon Joyce, Denis Neumann, Vera Trappmann, Charles Umey (2020) “A global struggle: worker protest in the platform economy”. ETUI, 2020.
Digit team collaborate on launch of Gigpedia
Digit researchers are collaborating on a new central hub that will collate available information on the gig economy worldwide.
Call for papers: Summer School on digital transformation and its impact on workers
WZB Berlin Social Science Center and the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre are holding a Summer School in Berlin on 18th and 19th May 2023.
Call for papers: Disrupting Technology conference
The Disrupting Technology will be held on 11-13 June 2023, Monash University Prato Centre, Italy, jointly organised by CERIC, University of Leeds Business School, and Monash Business School.
Digit researchers’ findings on labour protests during the pandemic published by ILO
The report documents protests by key workers in healthcare and retail against their working conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Digit researchers at the SASE 2022 conference
Digit researchers discussed their work at the SASE cofnerence, 9-11 July 2022 in Amsterdam.
Researchers present at BUIRA conference 2022
Digit researchers discuss their work at the BUIRA Annual Conference
New ILO paper by Digit researchers on platform labour protest
A new paper by Digit researchers, published by the International Labour Organization, "A global analysis of worker protest in digital labour platforms", aims to develop an understanding of labour unrest among platform workers as a global phenomenon.
Digit researchers present at 40th International Labour Process Conference
There were more than 15 presentations involving members of the Digit community at the 40th ILPC in Padua.
Digit researchers deliver plenary talk on global labour unrest on platforms, using the case of food delivery workers
Digit Co-Director Professor Mark Stuart and Dr. Vera Trappman from Leeds University Business School will deliver a plenary talk on global labour unrest on platforms, using the case of food delivery workers, at the ILERA Regional Congress, Philippines, tomorrow, 03 December 2020. You can read the abstract from their session below: Labour unrest by platform workers is an important phenomenon in the new world of work. This study examines patterns of platform labour unrest on a global scale, drawing from a database of over 500 instances of labour unrest in the food delivery sector. Results show that labour unrest […]