Since 2006 I have spent most of my time researching far-right and radical Islamist activism (both as a freelance and doctoral researcher). I took a few months out of this to work on Dr Sherilyn MacGregor's New (Good) British Citizen project, funded by the British Academy. I have worked on research projects on regenerating medium-sized cities and parents' attitudes to sustainability and energy use. I joined the University of Leicester in February 2013 as a Research Associate on the EC-funded RAGE project and moved to Manchester Metropolitan University's Policy Evaluation and Research Unit in September 2015. This includes work on 'radicalisation', counter-extremism, online safety, and European social policy innovation.
Between 2004 and 2006 I led one evaluation of a national youth programme - CDF's Neighbourhood Support Fund - and contributed to the evaluation of another - the Home Office's Positive Futures. Both programmes aimed to steer young people away from trouble, with the former focusing on those Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET), and the latter focusing more on drugs.
In my Vision 21 and Future Foundation posts I worked on shorter-term research projects, mostly leading them at Vision 21 and assisting at the Future Foundation. Some of the clients and projects are listed below: a link is provided to research reports or summaries in the public domain.
Between 2004 and 2006 I led one evaluation of a national youth programme - CDF's Neighbourhood Support Fund - and contributed to the evaluation of another - the Home Office's Positive Futures. Both programmes aimed to steer young people away from trouble, with the former focusing on those Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET), and the latter focusing more on drugs.
In my Vision 21 and Future Foundation posts I worked on shorter-term research projects, mostly leading them at Vision 21 and assisting at the Future Foundation. Some of the clients and projects are listed below: a link is provided to research reports or summaries in the public domain.
- London Borough of Camden: a citizens' jury on youth provision, and a study of street-based drug users contact with NHS provision.
- Outside Edge Theatre Company: evaluation of Out of the Shadows, participatory theatre for working with domestic violence and substance misuse. Some of this work involved participant observation in drug treatment centres.
- Women's Sports Foundation: Britain's Best Kept Secrets.
- All Party Parliamentary Group on Football: Funding football from the grassroots to the Championship.
- London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham: Homelessness report.
- BT Public Policy Forum: Toward an Agile Public Sector (with James Woudhuysen and Melanie Howard). Interviewing senior civil servants and business leaders.
- Equal Opportunities Commission: Talking Equality (with Sue Tibballs).
- Orange: Bright Business (with Paul Flatters). My work on this included some interviewing of business leaders, and analysis of transcripts.
- NIREX: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and UK Nirex Limited (with Sue Tibballs).
