Research areas
My research explores the way that changing technologies and systems of control affect the capacity of workers to collectivise and organise. This interest developed from my work as a trade union organiser and strategist supporting workers in precarious work and the gig economy. In 2020 I set up the with on-demand platform workers to watch changing work patterns and challenge the power asymmetry between them and platforms. Our research project Worker Data Science, funded by the Edinburgh Futures Institute, takes Deliveroo riders in Edinburgh as a case study, and combines methods from sociology, computer science, legal studies, and history to address gig worker concerns about algorithmic management, automated decision making, and precarious conditions. This project formed the basis for the events '' and ''. I also co-wrote a report on artificial intelligence and platform workers' rights as part of a Policy Fellowship supported by AHRC and DCMS's R&D Unit on AI.
Besides this research background, I am an intellectual historian and hold a PhD in history from the University of ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø. My research interests include Jacobite political and economic thought, the history of industry in Scotland, and the early history of unions and tactics of workplace resistance. I help run an extra-mural learning programme called Scottish Histories of Resistance, supporting local groups to research changing forms of control and collective action, funded by the British Academy.
PhD supervision
- Jonas Franzen
- Lakshmi Thiagarajan
- Sachin Yadav
Selected publications
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Open access
Gallagher, C., Gregory, K. & Karabaliev, B., 4 Mar 2025, In: New Technology, Work and Employment. 40, 1, p. 20-40 21 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Gallagher, C., 23 Jun 2025, In: Modern Intellectual History. First View, p. 1-20
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Gallagher, C., 28 Feb 2024, Monarchy, the court, and the provincial elite in early modern Europe. Edwards, P. (ed.). Leiden: Brill, p. 96-115 20 p.
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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Open access
Gregory, K. & Gallagher, C., 31 Jul 2024, Edinburgh: BRAID UK. 52 p.
Research output: Book/Report › Other report
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Open access
Gallagher, C. & Knox, J., 1 Sept 2022, Data justice and the right to the city. Currie, M., Knox, J. & McGregor, C. (eds.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, p. 190-210 21 p. (Studies in global justice and human rights).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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Gallagher, C., 18 May 2020, In: History of European Ideas. 46, 4, p. 438-457 20 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Gallagher, C., 18 May 2020, In: History of European Ideas. 46, 4, p. 458-537 80 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review