Research

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Towns and the Cultural Economies of Recovery

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Since February 2021 I have been working as Senior Research Associate at the Southampton Institute of Arts and Humanities on the AHRC funded Towns and the Cultural Economies of Recovery project.

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In 2019, the Government identified 100 towns that qualified for additional support in four key areas:  transport, broadband connectivity, skills, and culture. ​​The need and means for civic and cultural regeneration has been transformed by the ongoing crisis of COVID-19. The behavioural and organisational adaptations by governments, businesses, and individuals  have already created a seismic shift in our understanding of how rapidly we can effect change or rethink  long-standing strategies, structures, and practices. ​​These challenges will call for new, multidisciplinary research collaborations, partnerships and analyses.  This scoping project brings together Humanities specialists with researchers and professionals in the  Social Sciences based at the Centre for Towns Think Tank (CfT), as well as two core partners at the  forefront of applied research, innovation and disruption in these areas: Historic England and NESTA’s  Policy and Evidence Centre for the Creative Industries.

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PhD: Pride, Shame and the Civic Imaginary

 

With funding from Hull University and the Leverhulme Trust, between 2017-2020 I researched the concept of civic imaginaries as a way of framing and deepening understandings of political and cultural behaviours in Hull. I submitted the thesis in August 2021 and am developing future research projects and publications that will investigate the complex roles civic pride and civic shame play in shaping cultural and political behaviours and local governance in the 21st century.