Programme leader for MA in Social & Public Policy

My current role builds on my previous research in South Wales. I continue to explore issues around social sustainability and resilience via study of the social impact of the private sector and, in particular, of local energy infrastructure developments. This involves engaging with industry and policy makers to explore how local communities are involved in and affected by energy infrastructure developments. My research uses the concept of resilience to frame these issues. I am also interested in the historical role of the private sector in localities, and in the role of work in shaping local identities and social contexts. My research explores how ideas about sustainability and resilience are influenced by orientations towards past and future, and towards particular kinds of risk. I teach on a number of undergraduate modules, including Urban Disorders (Level 2) and Sociological Analysis of Contemporary Society (Level 1), and supervise undergraduate dissertations. I am a member of the Leadership Group for Care Connect, the HEIF-funded Social Care Innovation Hub, and of the Realism Leeds research network. I act as supervisor for interns for the Care Connect hub and am also involved in the Community Research Academy.

Carrying out ethnographic research in Swansea Bay in a renewable energy development, Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay. Exploring themes of community resilience, corporate social responsibility; attitudes to renewable energy infrastructure; ethical investment and the social role of money.I continue to teach at undergraduate and postgraduate level on modules including Research Methods; Modernity & Capitalism; and Contemporary Social Thought. I have also delivered training on observational methods to PhD students from across the Arts and Humanities.

In this role I worked on several different projects, including an evaluation for the Department of Health of the 'Supporting Carers Through General Practice' initiative involving RCGP, Carers UK and Carers Trust; and a project for NHS North Lincolnshire exploring the needs of carers in North Lincolnshire. I also worked on a project for Skills for Care exploring workforce development needs for people working with Assistive Technologies. My role included questionnaire design and analysis; report writing; interviews; focus groups; and documentary analysis. I was also involved in writing bids for future funding for the centre.

I have taught on several first year undergraduate modules including Social Welfare Social Change; Central Debates in Welfare; Sociological Analysis of Contemporary Society; Identity Difference and Exclusion; and Study Skills. I also teach second year modules including Research Methods, Welfare & Crime and Crime Law & Regulation.At MA Level, I lecture on disabled people and user involvement, and on researching NGOs.

I successfully completed my PhD in 2011. My PhD research was entitled "Participant Perspectives on Participation", and was focused on understanding community participation from the point of view of non/participants. The research provided an analysis of how participation is constrained, enabled and provoked, and engaged with participation in a way which begins with people's everyday lives and experiences. As such I have considered informal participation (informal modes of support and control) as well as engagement with formal organisations. Further, I explored the different ways in which people engage socially with others living in their neighbourhood in order to consider the implications of efforts to promote participation on a local scale. The project utilised ethnographic and narrative research methods to develop an in-depth account of participation in the case study area, whilst also making links to the broader socioeconomic context in order to provide an in depth account of some of the key shaping processes involved in producing different kinds of participaton. In part, this was achieved through providing an historical account of participation in the case study area, which traces some key changes that illuminate these shaping processes.

I was employed to produce a report "Needs in Leeds" which looked at social, economic, educational and other indicators to produce an overview of the key issues facing people living in Leeds. This involved secondary analysis of local statistics as well as original research carried out with local third sector organisations. The report helped to shape the future agenda of the Leeds Community Foundation.

I was employed as a consultant by the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Philosophy and Religious Studies to author a paper providing an overview of Corporate Social Responsibility and key skills that Philosophy and Religious Studies students might be able to bring to companies looking to develop their CSR approach. This paper was published on the HEA website.