About
I'm Dr Katy Wheeler — sociologist, qualitative researcher, and methods trainer.
I have spent fifteen years researching the social dimensions of sustainability: how people make sense of it, what gets in the way, and why change is so much harder than it looks. That research has taken me from fair-trade and recycling to circular economy initiatives and sustainability education. Throughout, my focus has been on what the evidence actually shows and what the right methods are for finding it.
Methodologically, I specialise in qualitative and mixed methods research. I am a Professional Trainer for MAXQDA (one of the leading qualitative data analysis software packages) and have taught qualitative methods internationally, including as an instructor at the Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis since 2013.
I am the co-author of How to do Qualitative Interviewing (SAGE, 2021) and created the QGAP framework for social research, published as a four-part guide series by SAGE Publications in 2025. My current research examines what generative AI means for qualitative research practice — I published on this in Qualitative Research in Psychology in 2026 — a question I think every researcher and practitioner needs to be taking seriously right now.
Alongside formal training, I have undertaken qualitative evaluation and consultancy projects for third sector organisations working in sustainability education and public health. This has involved designing research, analysing data, and helping organisations turn evidence into something they can actually use.
Methods expertise
Substantive research
My substantive research is rooted in the sociology of consumption. My PhD examined fair-trade consumption and the citizen-consumer, and that early work shaped a career-long interest in how people navigate the gap between values and practice in relation to sustainability.
Since then I have studied recycling and consumption work, moral economies of food, circular economy initiatives, and most recently Education for Sustainable Development — investigating how young people understand and respond to the demands placed on them to act sustainably. This work is published in journals including Environmental Education Research, Journal of Cleaner Production, Consumption and Society, and Sustainability, and in two monographs with Palgrave Macmillan.
I am currently Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Co-Director of the Centre for Environment and Society at the University of Essex. I serve on the editorial board of the Journal of Cultural Economy and was convenor of the British Sociological Association Climate Change Study Group from 2018 to 2023. I was a Trustee of Sustainability and Environmental Education (SEEd) from 2019 to 2024, contributing to organisational strategy and research governance during a period of significant growth for the organisation
Publications
Morgan Brett, B. & Wheeler, K. (2021) How to do Qualitative Interviewing, SAGE Publications
Wheeler, K. (2026) 'Technological reflexivity in practice: how MAXQDA, NVivo, and ChatGPT shape qualitative survey analysis', Qualitative Research in Psychology
Wheeler, K. (2026) 'Bringing the sociology of sustainable consumption into conversation with Education for Sustainable Development', Environmental Education Research
Wheeler, K. (2025) QGAP Research Methods Guide Series (4 guides), SAGE Publications
Wheeler, K. (2024) 'This Is Not a Drill: Young People's Understandings of and Hopes for Sustainability Education in England', Sustainability
Wheeler, K. & Glucksmann, M. (2015) Household Recycling and Consumption Work, Palgrave Macmillan
Wheeler, K. (2012) Fair Trade and the Citizen-Consumer, Palgrave Macmillan (nominated for BSA Philip Abrams Memorial Prize 2013)
Full publication list available via ORCID
Whether you need training, consultancy, or just want to talk through a research gap, get in touch.
