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Professor of Social Science, University of Glasgow

Gerda Reith is Professor of Social Science at the University of Glasgow, U.K. She is a sociologist interested in issues related to consumption, addiction, risk and gambling, particularly as they relate to issues of public health and social justice. Her empirical research focuses on the impact of social, cultural and environmental factors on gambling, and on their implications for public health and policy. She has carried out a number of Research Council funded studies of these issues, including a five year longitudinal qualitative study of ‘gambling careers’ and trajectories; and projects on the role of crime, debt, social exclusion and social networks on the development of gambling problems and recovery. Current projects involve NIHR, MRC and ARC funded studies on football fans and betting, mobile gambling, and adolescent gambling and social networks.
She has written extensively on the empirical and theoretical issues around these topics, and her book, The Age of Chance: Gambling in Western Culture, won the Philip Abrams Prize for the best book in sociology for 2000. Her latest book, Addictive Consumption: Capitalism, Modernity and Excess, has just been published by Routledge.

Experience

  • –present
    Professor of Social Sciences, University of Glasgow

Education

  • 1996 
    Glasgow University, PhD

Publications

  • 2019
    Newall, P Moodie, C, Reith, G; Stead, M; Critchlow, N; Dobbie, F ‘Gambling marketing from 2014 to 2018: a literature review’. Current Addiction Reports Volume 6, 2, pp 49–56,
  • 2019
    Ireland, R; Bunn, C; Reith, G; Philpott, M; Capewell, S; Boyland, E; Chambers, S Commercial determinants of health: advertising of alcohol and unhealthy foods during sporting events. Bulletin of the World Health Association 2019;97:290-295.,
  • 2019
    Wardle, H; Reith, G; Rodgers, R and Langham, E ‘Gambling and the health of the public: the need for policy and action for harm prevention’. British Medical Journal BMJ 2019;365:l1807,
  • 2018
    Livingstone, C., Adams, P., Cassidy, R., Markham, F., Reith, G., Rintoul, A., Schül, N. D., Woolley, R. and Young, M. (2018) On gambling research, social science and the consequences of commercial gambling. International Gambling Studies, 18(1), pp. 56-68,
  • 2018
    Reith, G (2018) Addictive Consumption: Capitalism, Modernity and Excess. London: Routledge. ,
  • 2017
    Kristiansen, S, Reith, G and Trabjerg, C. M. ‘The notorious gambling class’: Patterns of gambling among young people in Denmark: a longitudinal qualitative study’. Journal of Youth Studies, 20(3), pp. 366-381,
  • 2017
    Dobbie, F Reith, G and .McConville, S ‘Utilising social network research in the qualitative exploration of gamblers' social relationships’. Qualitative Research 22, 4, 86-98,
  • 2017
    May-Chahal, C., Humphreys, L., Clifton, A., Francis, B. and Reith, G Gambling harm and crime careers. Journal of Gambling Studies. 33(1), pp. 65-84,
  • 2016
    Stead, M., Dobbie, F., Angus, K., Purves, R. I., Reith, G and MacDonald, L. The online bingo boom: in the UK: a qualitative examination of its appeal. PLoS ONE 11 (5),
  • 2015
    Kristiansen, S., Trabjerg, M. C., and Reith, G. Learning to gamble: early gambling experiences among young people in Denmark. Journal of Youth Studies, 18(2), pp. 133-150 ,
  • 2014
    Techno-economic systems and excessive consumption: a political economy of ‘pathological’ gambling. British Journal of Sociology 64 (4) pp 717-738,
  • 2014
    Wardle, H; Keily, R; Astbury, G and Reith, G ‘Risky Places?’: Mapping gambling machine density and socio-economic deprivation Journal of Gambling Studies 30 (1) pp201-212 ,
  • 2013
    Gambling careers: a longitudinal qualitative study of gambling behaviour’. Addiction Research and Theory 21 (5) pp 376-390,
  • 2012
    ‘Lost in the game: narratives of addiction and identity in recovery from problem gambling’. Addiction Research and Theory, 20 (6). pp. 511-521,
  • 2012
    Reith, G Beyond addiction and compulsion: the continuing role of environment in the case of pathological gambling’ Addiction. 107 (10) pp 1736-1737,
  • 2011
    'Regulating harm: gambling technology and the challenges for Great Britain' Addiction. 106 (1) ,
  • 2011
    ‘Beginning gambling: the role of social networks and environment’. Addiction Research and Theory 19 (4). pp 483-493,
  • 2007
    ‘Gambling and the contradictions of consumption: a genealogy of the pathological subject’. American Behavioral Scientist. 51(1) pp33-56 ,
  • 2004
    Reith, G ‘Consumption and its discontents: addiction, identity and the problems of freedom’, British Journal of Sociology 55 (2) pp 283-300,
  • 2004
    Reith, G. ‘Uncertain Times: The Notion of ‘Risk’ and the Development of Modernity’, Time and Society 13 (2/3), ,
  • 2003
    Gambling: Who Wins? Who Loses? ,
  • 1999
    The Age of Chance: Gambling in Western Culture,
  • 1999
    Reith, G. ‘In search of lost time: recall, projection and the phenomenology of addiction’; Time and Society, 8 (1), pp 99-117,

Grants and Contracts

  • 2020
    Football Fans and Betting (FFAB): a feasibility study and randomised pilot trial of a group-based intervention to reduce gambling involvement among male football fans
    Role:
    Principal Investigator
    Funding Source:
    National Institute for Health Research
  • 2019
    MRC/ PHIND. Preventing gambling harm in adolescents: a peer led, social network intervention.
    Role:
    Co-investigator
    Funding Source:
    Medical Research Council
  • 2019
    In it to win it - an interdisciplinary investigation of sports betting.
    Role:
    Co-investigator
    Funding Source:
    Australian Research Council
  • 2013
    A full house: developing a new theory of global gambling regulation
    Role:
    Co-investigator
    Funding Source:
    Economic and Social Research Council
  • 2010
    Tracking Vulnerability and Resilience: Gambling Careers in the Criminal Justice System.
    Role:
    Co-investigator
    Funding Source:
    ESRC
  • 2009
    Managing money, debt and gambling: an in-depth exploration of the relationship between money and gambling behaviour.
    Role:
    Principal investigator
    Funding Source:
    ESRC
  • 2009
    Understanding Gambling: Impacts and Social Networks Across the Life Course.
    Role:
    Principal investigator
    Funding Source:
    ESRC
  • 2006
    Situating Problem Gambling: the Social Context of Gambling Careers
    Role:
    Principal investigator
    Funding Source:
    ESRC

Honours

British Sociological Association Philip Abrams Prize