Before starting my career in sociology and cultural studies I worked in the music industry as a manager of an Our Price Records store in Oxford Street, London. I was an ESRC scholarship student at the Institute of Education, University of London and awarded my Ph.D in Sociology in 1990. I was supervised by Professor Basil Bernstein, my second supervisor was Professor Phil Cohen, my Examiners were: Professor Laurie Taylor and Professor David Downes.
My first academic appointment was at the Institute of Education, on a feminist action-based research project: Girls and Occupational Choice ESRC funded directed by Dr. Lynne Chisholm and Dr Janet Holland. I have previously held posts at the University of Surrey and University of Greenwich.
I have conducted research projects into sociological and ethnographic aspects of young people's culture, undertaking funded research for the Home Office, London Health Authorities, the Kent Constabulary and local authorities in Kent. I am a consultant for the British Board of Film Classification (London), and I am also a Research Associate at Goldsmiths, Sociology Department, University of London.