Karen West is a senior lecturer in public policy at Aston University. Her substantive research focus is on health, social care and the policy and politics of ageing. She has also held visiting positions at the University of Umeå’s Ageing and Living Conditions Centre in Sweden. Karen has taught at undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing professional development levels, and has supervised a number of PhD theses to successful completion. She was previously director of the PhD programme in the School of Languages and Social Sciences at Aston and is currently director of undergraduate programmes in Sociology and Policy.