Dr Joanna Marczak                  

Research Officer/Long-term Care Policy Network Coordinator

I started working for PSSRU in December 2013 and have collaborated on a number of project, including:

• Developing social care prevention evaluation framework in English local authorities.

• Evaluation of Better Care Fund.

• European Network on Long-term Care.

• Assessing the impact of draft and new statutory social care eligibility criteria in local authorities in England.

I have conducted interviews and focus groups with key informants in local authorities, analysed qualitative data and co-wrote research outputs. As a researcher and coordinator of European Network on long-term care  I liaise with European researchers, policy makers and associated organizations (WHO, OECD, Age Platform Europe, Eurocarers) to organize knowledge exchange activities, as well as collaborating on a number of research activities including systematic literature review on disability rates across European countries.

I am also a coordinator of the International Long-term Care Policy Network (ILPN) which promotes a global exchange of evidence and knowledge on long term care policy among researchers, policy-makers and other stakeholders. I organised knowledge-exchange activities including ILPN International Conferences and knowledge exchange workshops.  I co-run the ILPN website and conduct interviews with international long-term policy experts.

Education

2009-2013  PhD in Social Policy, London School of Economics
Thesis title: Comparative analysis of childbearing intentions of Polish parents in Poland and the UK – progression to the second child
 

2007-2008  MA in International Studies (distinction), The University of Leeds
Courses included: International Political Economy, Theoretical Approaches to International Relations, Research Methods and Gender and Development

1997-2001  BA in English, State Vocational Higher Education School in Poland
Courses included: English Literature, Methodology of Teaching, Applied Linguistics, Translations, Psychology

Awards/Grants

2015     NIHR School for Social Care Research (NIHR SSCR) Developing local evaluation frameworks for assessing prevention effects in social care (co-applicant)

2015     European Social Fund, European Commission, Network on quality and cost-effectiveness in long-term care and dependency prevention (co-applicant)

2012     LSE Research Studentship: PhD tuition fee & part of living expenses

2009-2012      Titmuss Meinhardt Award: PhD tuition fee & full living expenses

2010-2011-2012    BSPS student bursary to attend the annual conference

Publications

·         Fernández JL, Snell T, Marczak J (2016). An assessment of the impact of the Care Act 2014 eligibility regulations PSSRU discussion paper, DP2905. Personal Social Services Research Unit, London

Marczak, J. & Wistow G. (2015). Commissioning Long – term care in OECD countries. In J.L. Fernandez, C. Gori & R. Wittenberg Long-Term Care Reforms in OECD Countries: Successes and Failures, Bristol: Policy Press

Fernández J.L, Snell T, Marczak J (2014). Evaluation of the June 2014 Draft National Minimum Eligibility Criteria for Social Care. Personal Social Services Research Unit, PSSRU Discussion Paper DP2880

Presentations

·         Marczak, J. (2016) Kin support and individuals’ childbearing intentions; Paper presented at British Society for Population Studies Annual Conference, Winchester, 13^th  September

·     Marczak, J. Sigle, W. Coast, E. (2016). When the grass is greener. Fertility intentions in transnational context. Paper presented at European Population Conference, Mainz, Germany 1^st September 

·     Marczak, J. Wistow, G. Fernandez J.L. (2016) Evaluating prevention effects in English local authorities: Developing an evaluation framework. Paper presented at Social Policy Association Annual Conference, Belfast, 5^th of July

·  · Sigle, W. Marczak, J. Coast (2016) When the grass is greener. Fertility intentions in transnational context. Presented at sociology seminars, Nuffield College, Oxford University, 24 February

·     Sigle, W. Marczak, J. Coast (2016) When the grass is greener. Fertility intentions in transnational context. Presented at sociology seminars, Cambridge University, 9 February

·     Marczak, J. Sigle, W, Coast, E. (2015) Cross-national comparisons and childbearing decision making; British Society for Population Studies Annual Conference, Leeds, 7-9 September

Marczak, J.; Fernandez, J.L & Snell, T. 2014. Care managers’ perspectives on new national eligibility regulations for adult social care and support in England. Paper presented at The 3rd International Conference on Evidence-based Policy in Long-term Care, London, 31 August-3 September

Marczak, J. 2012. Transnational groups of reference and intentions for the second offspring among Poles living in Poland and the UK. Presentation at British Society for Population Studies annual conference, 10-12 September 2012, Nottingham.

Marczak, J. 2011. Socioeconomic characteristics of Polish migrants in the UK by parity and gender. Paper presented at conference  Mobility and Migrations at the Time of Transformation - Methodological Challenges,  25th  March 2011, Warsaw.

Marczak, J. 2011. Comparative study of childbearing intentions of Polish men and women living in Poland and in the UK. Poster presented at  British Society for Population Studies annual conference, 7-9 September 2011, York.

Marczak, J. 2010. Childbearing intentions of Polish men and women in Poland and the UK: Progression to the second child' Poster presented at conference From Intentions to Behaviour: Reproductive Decision-Making in a Macro-Micro Perspective, 3rd December 2010, Vienna.

PhD Research

Childbearing intentions of Polish men and women in the UK and Poland-progression to the second child.

The study explores and compares the rationales behind, and justifications for, intentions about whether or not to have a second child among Polish fathers and mothers living in the UK and Poland. I interrogate the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and explore the extent to which aspects related to the theory (i.e. attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control) permeate informants’ narratives. It is a mixed methods study. Quantitative analysis of the British Labour Force Survey (2006-2009) and European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (2008) was employed to explore employment patterns, education, occupations, income, the use of childcare facilities, uptake of social benefits and housing conditions among Polish nationals in the UK and Poland by parity and gender. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews (n=42) with Polish mothers and fathers who already had one child were conducted in Krakow and London. Media analysis of selected online portals provided a supplementary source of data and further contextual information about the meaning of issues related to reproduction.

The findings emphasise that researching fertility intentions requires more complex and context-specific operationalisations of theoretical constructs as drawing on standardised definitions and concepts across different populations could impact data validity and reliability.  The findings also demonstrate the importance of transnational groups of reference for Polish individuals’ understanding of resources deemed as adequate to have a second child, suggesting that the notion of economic wellbeing is more variable and complex than current evidence suggests. The study illustrates that kin assistance in Poland is relevant for reproductive decisions since it relates to economic constraints to childbearing and to perceived requirements to provide children with kin support and inheritance. Moreover, individuals in both settings communicate beliefs related to childbearing intentions discursively, fine-tuning ambivalent and inconsistent cognitions while constructing a coherent narrative. The findings question the TPB assumption that people reach decisions primarily as a result of causal, regular and law-governed forces acting on theoretical constructs independent of individuals’ agency, and I point to possibilities to expand and refine theories used in demographic research. Although my empirical findings focus on Polish nationals, I argue that this research has broader implications for theorising, researching and interpreting findings on childbearing intentions.

Supervisors

Dr Ernestina Coast

Dr Wendy Sigle-Rushton