Professor Clifford Stott
- Title
- Professor of Social Psychology
- Location
- Dorothy Hodgkin Building : DH1.84
- Role
- Dean of Research
- Phone
- +44(0)1782 734529
- c.stott@keele.ac.uk
Biography
I am currently a Professor of Social Psychology, Dean for Research in the Faculty of Natural Sciences, and Director of the Keele Policing Academic Collaboration (KPAC), one of Keele’s Strategic Research Centres. I joined Keele in March 2016 from a position as Principal Research Fellow in Security and Justice in the School of Law at the University of Leeds. I have an interdisciplinary focus and specialize in understanding the nature and role of social identity processes and intergroup relationships in the psychology and dynamics of crowd behaviour, ‘riots’, ‘hooliganism’ and ‘public order’ policing. I have held Lectureships and Senior Lectureships at the Universities of Bath, Abertay Dundee and Liverpool. I have also held Visiting Professorships at Aarhus University in Demark, at the Leeds University Business School along with Visiting Fellowships and Scholarships at the Australian National University, the University of Exeter and Flinders University in Adelaide. I have been an Associate Editor for the British Journal of Social Psychology and currently sit on the Advisory Board of the journal Policing and Society. I have been a Consultant Editor for the British and the European Journals of Social Psychology and sat on the Editorial Board of Criminology and Criminal Justice. I have been a guest Editor of a special edition of Contemporary Social Science and Co-Editor of a special issue of Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice on the policing of crowds. I have been involved both as principle and co-investigator in research and consultancy projects worth in excess of £5 million provided by a wide range of organisations including the ESRC, Leverhulme Trust, the European Commission, UK Home Office as well as charitable foundations and a number of policing and other governmental organisations. I have recently concluded a collaborative ESRC funded project researching the social psychological dynamics of the spread of collective violence during the 2011 English ‘riots’ (ESRC ES/N01068X/1). I am currently the Principal Investigator of an ESRC funded project exploring the social psychology of everyday police citizen encounters (ESRC ES/R011397/1). I am also the Director of ENABLE, a project constructing an evidence-based approach to the policing of football crowds funded by the English Football League. My research and its associated theory have high-level external impact at a national and international level. It has informed policy, guidance and practice in the management of crowds for a range of government and police organisations in the U.K. including the Home Office, the Association of Chief Police Officers, the College of Policing, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of the Constabulary as well as among others the Metropolitan Police Service, Staffordshire, Sussex and West Yorkshire Police. My research has also achieved high-level international impact affecting policy and guidance on the policing of crowds of the European Council, the European Union as well as a range of police forces globally including Portugal, Sweden, Denmark and Australia. In 2004 I was involved in the developing of the policing approach for the 2004 UEFA European Championships in Portugal and between 2009 and 2011 I played a central role in designing and delivering the Pan European Football Police Training Project funded by the European Commission in partnership with UEFA. In 2014 I was awarded the Economic and Social Research Council’s ‘Celebrating Impact’ First Prize and in 2015 my work on policing crowds was acknowledged by the ESRC as one of its ‘Top 50’ achievements in its 50-year history.
Research and scholarship
I specialise in research on crowds, ‘riots’, ‘hooliganism’ and policing, particularly as this related to ‘public order’. My research is underpinned by theoretical perspectives on social identity. More specifically my work is informed by Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) and Self-Categorisation Theory (Turner et al, 1987). I also have a more recent focus on the social psychological aspects of Procedural Justice Theory. I use a range of methodological techniques but specialise in ethnography and participant action research. I have developed a strong interest in inter-disciplinary research on security and have also established an international profile in Criminology and policing studies. I have become widely regarded as a world leading academic expert on the psychology and policing of ‘public order’ during crowd events and have a substantial record of high-quality publications at a national and international level.
My early research career focused on the development of theoretical understanding of role of intergroup group dynamics and social identity processes in collective violence in collaboration with Professor Stephen Reicher (St Andrews University) and Dr John Drury (University of Sussex). My research played a central role in developing the Elaborated Social Identity Model of crowd behaviour (ESIM). The ESIM is now widely acknowledged as the leading social psychological theory of crowd behaviour, particularly as this relates to theoretical conceptualisation of the underlying dynamics of the initiation and escalation of ‘rioting’. This theoretical insight highlights the importance of police strategy and tactics in the escalation of ‘disorder’ during political protest and football crowd events. As a consequence, my career focus has concentrated on extending these important theoretical developments toward an applied and impact agenda, primarily through integrating ESIM based analyses of rioting into professional policy and practice among police forces globally.
Major Research Funding:
- English Football League. Enabling an Evidence Based Approach to Enabling an Evidence based approach to football public order and public safety policing in the UK. £200,000.00. Principal Investigator.
- ESRC ES/R011397/1 From coercion to consent: social identity, legitimacy, and a process model of police procedural justice (CONSIL). £964,029.00 (FEC) Principal Investigator.
- EPSRC. Co-Production and Creativity: ethos, typologies and innovation in public engagement practice. (SEEK-PER) £71,396.01. Co-Investigator
- UKIERI UGC Thematic Partnership. Social Identity, Well Being and Civic Participation among Social and Ethnic Groups in India. Co-Investigator. Value to Keele £107,979.00. Co-Investigator
- ESRC ES/N01068X/1. Beyond Contagion: Social identity processes in involuntary social influences. £923,134.50 (FEC) Co-Investigator
- Gålöstiftelsen, Stockholm. SEK ENABLE: Enabling an evidence-based approach to crowd safety and security in Swedish football. Phase 2. 2015-2019. 8.5 million SEK¬¬ Scientific Director.
- EU Horizon 2020 Psychosocial and cross-cultural theoretical framework of crowd behaviour and management. 2015-2018 grant agreement No 653383. €207,387. Co-investigator.
- Stockholm County Administrative Board. Enabling an Evidence Based Approach to Policing Football in Sweden, Phase 1. 2014-2015. 200,000. SEK. Scientific Director.
- ESRC Knowledge Transfer Fund. ES/N01068X/1 Research co-production in policing. 2014-2015. £125,000. Co-investigator,
- College of Policing Innovation Fund. The N8 Police Research Partnership. 2014. £55,000 Co-investigator.
- European Commission. €1.1 million. Pan-European Football Police Training Project. 2011-2012. Educational Director.
- Leverhulme Trust. Representations of crowd behaviour in the management of mass emergencies. 2010-2012. Co-investigator. £100,000
- Home Office Public Order Unit. A European study of the interaction between police and crowds of foreign nationals considered posing a risk to public order. 2006-2009. £85,000. Principal Investigator.
- ESRC. RES-000-23-617 Crowd dynamics, policing and 'hooliganism' at Euro2004. 2004-2005. £109,680. Principal investigator:
- UK Home Office Public Order Unit. Relationships between public order policing and levels of conflict surrounding football matches with an international dimension. £58,254. Principal investigator.
Teaching
I am module coordinator for the third year module PSY-30124 ‘Groups, Crowds and Conflict: Theoretical and Applied Perspectives’. I supervise a number of undergraduate projects and MSc dissertations in the general areas of social psychology and criminology.
Further information
- Economic and Social Research Council’s ‘Celebrating Impact’ First Prize 2014.
- ESRC ‘Top 50’ achievements in its 50-year history.
- University of Leeds Vice Chancellor’s Impact Award for the Social Sciences 2015.
Selected Publications
-
2020. How do police officers talk about their encounters with ‘the public’? Group interaction, procedural justice and officer constructions of policing identities. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 174889582093391. doi> full text>
-
2020. COVID-19 in context: Why do people die in emergencies? It's probably not because of collective psychology. Br J Soc Psychol, vol. 59(3), 686-693. link> doi> full text>
-
2020. Policing the Coronavirus Outbreak: Processes and Prospects for Collective Disorder. Policing. doi> full text>
-
2020. The two psychologies of coronavirus. link>
Full Publications List show
Books
-
2015. Crowds in the 21st Century Perspectives from Contemporary Social Science. Routledge.
-
2011. Mad Mobs and Englishmen? Myths and realities of the 2011 riots. Hachette UK.
-
2007. Football Hooliganism, Policing and the War on the English Disease. Pennant Books.
Journal Articles
-
2020. How do police officers talk about their encounters with ‘the public’? Group interaction, procedural justice and officer constructions of policing identities. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 174889582093391. doi> full text>
-
2020. COVID-19 in context: Why do people die in emergencies? It's probably not because of collective psychology. Br J Soc Psychol, vol. 59(3), 686-693. link> doi> full text>
-
2020. Policing the Coronavirus Outbreak: Processes and Prospects for Collective Disorder. Policing. doi> full text>
-
2020. Understanding crowd conflict: social context, psychology and policing. Current Opinion in Psychology, vol. 35, 76-80. link> doi> link> full text>
-
2019. Who controls the city?: a micro-historical case study of the spread of rioting across North London in August 2011. City. doi> full text>
-
2019. Enabling an Evidence Based Approach to Policing Football in the UK. Policing (Oxford): a journal of policy and practice. doi> full text>
-
2018. The value of Supporter Liaison Officers (SLOs) in fan dialogue, conflict, governance and football crowd management in Sweden. Soccer and Society. doi> full text>
-
Policing football crowds in Sweden. Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention. full text>
-
2019. The social psychological processes of 'procedural justice': Concepts, critiques and opportunities. CRIMINOLOGY & CRIMINAL JUSTICE, vol. 19(4), 421-438. link> doi> full text>
-
2018. The evolving normative dimensions of "riot': Towards an elaborated social identity explanation. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, vol. 48(6), 834-849. link> doi> full text>
-
2017. Contemporary understanding of riots: Classical crowd psychology, ideology and the social identity approach. Public Underst Sci, vol. 26(1), 2-14. link> doi> full text>
-
2018. When is policing fair? Groups, identity and judgements of the procedural justice of coercive crowd policing. POLICING & SOCIETY, vol. 28(6), 647-664. link> doi> full text>
-
2017. ON THE ROLE OF A SOCIAL IDENTITY ANALYSIS IN ARTICULATING STRUCTURE AND COLLECTIVE ACTION: THE 2011 RIOTS IN TOTTENHAM AND HACKNEY. BRITISH JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY, vol. 57(4), 964-981. link> doi> full text>
-
2013. Crowdedness mediates the effect of social identification on positive emotion in a crowd: a survey of two crowd events. PLoS One, vol. 8(11), e78983. link> doi> full text>
-
2013. Advances in Liaison Based Public Order Policing in England: Human Rights and Negotiating the Management of Protest?. Policing (Oxford): a journal of policy and practice. doi>
-
2013. Representing crowd behaviour in emergency planning guidance: 'mass panic' or collective resilience?. Resilience: International Policies, Practices and Discources, vol. 1(1), 18-37. doi>
-
2011. Contextualising the crowd in contemporary social science. Contemporary Social Science: Journal of the Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 6(3), 275-288. doi>
-
2011. Event Policing - Dialogue in the policing of mass events in Denmark. CEPOL European Police Science and Research Bulletin.
-
2008. Policing football crowds in England and Wales: a model of 'good practice'?. Policing and Society: an international journal of research and policy, vol. 18(3). doi>
-
2007. Knowledge-based public order policing: Principles and Practice. Policing (Oxford): a journal of policy and practice, vol. 1(4), 403-415. doi>
-
2006. Football banning orders, proportionality and public order policing. The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, vol. 45(3), 241-254. doi>
-
Disorderly conduct: hooligans, identity and intergroup dynamics. Contemporary Issues, vol. 85, 78-83.
-
2004. 'Disorderly' conduct: social psychology and the control of football 'hooliganism' at Euro2004. The Psychologist, vol. 17, 318-319.
-
2010. Transforming the boundaries of collective identity: from the local anti-road campaign to global resistance?. Social Movement Studies: journal of social, cultural and political protest, vol. 2(2), 191-212. doi>
-
2011. Bias as a Research Strategy in Participant Observation: The Case of Intergroup Conflict. Field Methods, vol. 13(1), 47-67. doi>
-
2020. A social identity model of riot diffusion: From injustice to empowerment in the 2011 London riots. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, vol. 50(3), 646-661. link> doi> full text>
-
A Turning Point, Securitization, and Policing in the Context of Covid-19: Building a New Social Contract Between State and Nation?. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice. doi> link> full text>
Chapters
-
2015. Getting over the shock of Milgram: To understand 'Obedience' is to move beyond mere replication. In Stanley Milgram's Obedience Paradigm for 2014.
-
2014. Policing international football tournaments and the cross-cultural relevance of the social identity approach to crowd behaviour. In Policing Major Events Perspectives from Around the World. CRC Press.
-
2014. Policing Football Hooliganism: Crowds, Context and Identity. In Football Hooliganism, Fan Behaviour and Crime: Contemporary Issues. Macmillan.
-
2013. From Sir Robert Peel to PLTs: adapting to liaison based public order policing in England and Wales. In The future of policing: papers prepared for the Steven Independent Commission into the Future of Policing in England and Wales. Routledge.
-
2012. From prejudice to collective action. In Beyond Prejudice: Extending the Social Psychology of Conflict, Inequality and Social Change. Cambridge University Press.
-
2012. The psychology of collective action: crowds and change. In Culture and Social Change. Information Age Publishing.
-
2011. Crowd dynamics and public order policing. In Preventing Crowd Violence. Rienner.
-
2007. Becoming the subjects of history: an outline of the psychology of crowds. In The Street as Stage: Protest Marches and Public Rallies Since the Nineteenth Century. Oxford University Press.
-
2003. A model of crowd prototypes and crowd leadership. In Leadership in Social Movements. MMU Press.
-
1999. The intergroup dynamics of empowerment: A social identity model. In Transforming Politics: Power and Resistance. Macmillan.
-
1998. The inter-group dynamics of crowd events. In Alternative futures and popular protest IV. MMU Press.
Other
-
2020. The two psychologies of coronavirus. link>
