Ben Spies-Butcher is senior lecturer in Economy and Society in the Department of Sociology. Ben completed his PhD in Economics at the University of Sydney while working in the non-government sector on issues of human rights. His research focuses on the economics and politics of social and environmental policy, and political participation. He teaches courses on economic sociology and political sociology at undergraduate and post-graduate level. He is a board member of Shelter NSW, a Research Associate at the Retirement Policy and Research Centre at the University of Auckland, and on the Policy Advisory Group for the Council on the Ageing NSW. His most recent coauthored book is 'Market Society' published by Cambridge University Press.