Dr Lorenza Antonucci

Research Projects

• ESRC New Investigator, ‘The effects of gig work on workers' financial (in)security’ (GIGWELL), 2020-2023. 
• Volkswagen Foundation (Challenges for Europe): ‘Populist Roots: Economic and Cultural Explanations of Democracies in Europe’ (PRECEDE), PI & Working Package Lead, 2020-2024. 
• New Politics of Inequality in Brussels, Royal Society of Edinburgh, 2015.

Research Groups and Affiliations

• University of Cambridge Individual in the Labour Market Research Group 
• Culture and Politics Research Group Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion (Harvard University): https://inequality.wcfia.harvard.edu/people/lorenza-antonucci 

Grants and Projects

• German Kennedy Memorial Fellowship, Minda de Gunzburg Centre for European Studies Harvard University (total value: $70,000), 2022-2023.
• ESRC New Investigator, ‘The effects of gig work on workers' financial (in)security’ (GIGWELL), PI (total value: £299,822), 2020-2023.
• Volkswagen Foundation (Challenges for Europe): ‘Populist Roots: Economic and Cultural Explanations of Democracies in Europe’ (PRECEDE), Consortium lead grant writer, PI & Working Package Lead (total value: €1,000,000, PI share: £198,253), 2020-2024.
• University of Birmingham: Birmingham Fellow start-up fund (total value: £10,000), 2017-2022; Horizon Europe Development Fund (total value: £4,950), 2024-2025.
• Royal Society of Edinburgh Visiting Fellowship Grant: research on the new politics of inequality in the EU at ETUI/OSE in Brussels (total value: £3,000), 2015.
• Policy Press, Policy & Politics PhD studentship: coverage of PhD fees, monthly allowance and a research budget (total value: £50,000), 2010-2013.

Publications

Books

• Antonucci, L. (2026) Insecurity Politics. How Uncertain Lives Lead to Populist Support, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Antonucci, L. (2016) Student Lives in Crisis. Deepening inequality in times of austerity, Bristol: Policy Press/Chicago University Press.
• Antonucci, L., Hamilton, M. and S. Roberts (eds.) (2014) Young People and Social Policy in Europe: Dealing with risk, inequality and precarity in times of crisis, Work and Welfare series, Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Book Chapters

• Antonucci, L. (2018) “Globalisation as a losing game? Reforming social policies to address the malaise of globalisation’s losers” in Diamond, P. (ed) The Crisis of Globalisation, London: IB Tauris, pp. 187-206.
• Roberts, S. and Antonucci, L. (2016) “Youth Transitions, Welfare Policy & Contemporary Europe” in Lange, A., Steiner, C., Shutter, S. and H. Reiter (eds) German Handbook of Youth Sociology, Amsterdam: Springer, pp. 1-13.
• Antonucci, L. Hamilton, M. and S. Roberts (2014) “Constructing a Theory of Youth and Social Policy” in Antonucci, L., Hamilton, M. and S. Roberts (eds.) Young People and Social Policy in Europe: Dealing with Risk, Inequality and Precarity in Times of Crisis, Work and Welfare in Europe, Basingstoke: Palgrave, pp. 13-34.
• Antonucci, L. (2013) “Comparative research in higher education studies. Considering the different levels of comparisons and emerging methodological challenges” in Huisman, J. and M. Tight (eds) Theory and Methods in Higher Education Research, London: Emerald, pp. 1-19.

Journal Articles

• Thomeczek, J. P., Zhirnov, A., Scotto di Vettimo, M., Buma, R., Cristea, V., Dolle, M., Antonucci, L., Di Stefano, R. and Ruggeri, F. (2025). One model to rule them all? Choosing two-dimensional spaces for European political landscapes with VAA data. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 1–10, doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2025.2469166.
• Zhirnov, A., Thomeczek, J.P., Di Vettimo, M.S., Ortega, A.L., Krouwel, A., Antonucci, L., Di Stefano, R. and Kersting, N. (2025) “How congruent are populist parties with their constituencies? Evidence from the 2019 European Parliament Elections in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden”. Electoral Studies, 94, doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2025.102906.
• Antonucci, L. (2024) “The lived experiences of the welfare state of platform workers: The barriers to accessing social protection in Italy, Sweden and the UK”, International Journal of Social Welfare, 34 (1), doi/10.1111/ijsw.12708
• Antonucci, L., Seo, H. and M. Strobl (2024) “Quantity over quality? How economic factors and welfare state interventions affected job insecurity and job quality before, during and after the economic crises”, Social Policy & Administration, 58 (2), 277-298, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/spol.13003
• Zhirnov, A. and Antonucci, L. (first co-author), Thomeczek, P., Horvath, L., D’Ippoliti, C, Ospina, C., Krouwel, A. and N. Kersting (2024) “Precarity and populism: Explaining populist outlook and populist voting in Europe through subjective financial and work-related insecurity”, European Sociological Review, 40 (4), 704–720, https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcad052
• Antonucci, L., D’Ippoliti, C., Horvath, L. and Krouwel, A. (2023) “What’s work got to do with it? How radical and mainstream party support is linked to feelings of precarity”, Sociological Research Online, 28 (1), https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804211020321
• Antonucci, L. and Varriale, S. (2020) “Unequal Europe, unequal Brexit: How intra-European inequalities shape the unfolding and framing of Brexit”, Current Sociology, 68 (1): 41-59, https://doi.org/10.1177/001139211986383
• Antonucci, L. (2018) “Not all experiences of precarious work lead to precarity: the case of young people at university and their welfare mixes”, Journal of Youth Studies, 21 (7): 888-904, https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2017.1421749
• Antonucci, L., Horvath, L., Kutyski, Y. and Krouwel, A. (2017) “The malaise of the squeezed middle: Challenging the narrative of the left behind Brexiter”, Competition & Change, 21 (3): 211-229, https://doi.org/10.1177/102452941770413
• Antonucci, L. (2011) “University Students in Transition to Adult Age. Comparing Italy and England”, Italian Journal of Social Policy, 15 (3): 271-289.

Policy Reports (selected)

• Antonucci, L. (2025) The new politics of insecurity: Formulating a new political script and agenda that consider the emerging insecurity in European lives, The Progressive Compass, Foundation of European Progressive Studies, https://feps-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Next-Left-Vol-16-The-p...
• Hooker J. and Antonucci L. (2022) Improving the EU Platform Work Directive proposal: a
  contribution from emerging research findings, OSE Paper Series, Opinion Paper No. 28,
  Brussels: European Social Observatory, available at: https://www.ose.be/sites/default/files/publications/2022_Hooker_Antonucc...
• Antonucci, L. and Corti, F. (2020) “Inequalities in the European Semester”, Brussels: FEPS/Solidar, https://www.feps-europe.eu/attachments/publications/inequalities_in_the_...
• Antonucci, L. (2019) “Fixing the European Social Malaise: Understanding and Addressing the Grievances of European Workers”, Mercator European Dialogue, The German Marshall Fund of the United States & IAI, July 2019, https://www.iai.it/sites/default/files/iaicom1946.pdf
• Antonucci, L. (2017) “Addressing inequality in a changing world” in Reynolds, B. and Healy, S. Society Matters. Reconnecting People and the State, Dublin: Social Justice Ireland, pp. 35-48.
• Antonucci, L. (2015) “Towards EU youth policies? The limits of current welfare states and the potential for a “Youth Transition Fund” (YTF)” in Reuter, C. (ed) Progressive Structural Reforms. Proposals for European reforms to reduce inequalities and promote jobs, growth and social investment, Brussels: Solidar, pp. 59-71.
• Antonucci, L. (2013) “The future of the social dimension in European higher education: university for all, but without student support?” Perspectives on Youth: European Youth Partnership Series, Brussels: European Commission – Council of Europe, pp. 53-68.

Media articles 

• Jacobin, Britain’s Populist Pivot Is Failing to Fix Its Problems, Jacobin (June 2024)
• RADIKAAL, podcast with Cas Mudde on precarity and voting (2022) (Episode N. 60)
• The Independent Voices (February 2019)
• Thinking Allowed BBC4, “Higher Education: Crisis or Change?” (2016)
• Le Monde Tribune “En se présentant comme le parti de ceux qui travaillent dur, le RN récupère ce vote de ressentiment” (June 24)
• The New York Times “The Resentment That Never Sleeps” (December 2020)
• Refinery29/Vice, “A Decade On, I Am Still Repaying My Student Loan” (May 2021)
• The Observer/The Guardian, “Student loans ‘increasing the divide between rich and poor” (2017)
• Times Higher Education, book of the month