Helps students see their full potential.
Professor David Spencer serves as Professor of Economics and Political Economy and Head of the Department of Economics within Leeds University Business School at the University of Leeds. He joined the University of Leeds in 1998 as a Lecturer in Economics after completing his PhD in Economics at the same institution. He advanced to Senior Lecturer in 2004 and was promoted to Professor in 2013. Spencer earned his BA (Hons) in Economics, MA in Economics, and PhD in Economics from the University of Leeds. His academic career has been dedicated to the institution, where he now leads the Economics Department and contributes to research groups such as the Applied Institute for Research in Economics.
Spencer's research specializations encompass labour economics, political economy, and the history of economic thought, with a primary focus on the economics and political economy of work. His work explores theories of work and well-being, automation, the future of work, and interdisciplinary approaches to understanding social reality. He has authored influential books including The Political Economy of Work (Routledge, 2008) and Making Light Work: An End to Toil in the Twenty-First Century (Polity, 2022). Among his highly cited publications are 'Fear and hope in an age of mass automation: debating the future of work' (New Technology, Work and Employment, 2018), 'Braverman and the contribution of labour process analysis to the critique of capitalist production–twenty-five years on' (Work, Employment and Society, 2000), and 'Work in and beyond the Second Machine Age: the politics of production and digital technologies' (Work, Employment and Society, 2017). Spencer's teaching emphasizes pluralism and alternative economic perspectives; he delivers LUBS3925 The Political Economy of Work and lectures on economic controversies at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. His scholarship has shaped debates on work time reduction, job quality, and productivity, with contributions featured in public discourse on shorter working weeks and worker well-being.
