Society, Public Life and Policy
The Society, Public Life and Policy research group brings together over 20 staff whose research investigates vital questions about public life, policy and our collective future.
Located in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, the group nevertheless includes scholars working across all three faculties at Keele, encompassing specialists in Criminology, Law, Education, Health, Media, Human Geography, Anthropology, Politics, International Relations, Sociology and Social Work. Our research is characterised by a collaborative ethos and a sustained commitment to interdisciplinarity, theoretical sophistication, methodological diversity and commitment to addressing real-world policy challenges.
In the last national Research Excellence Framework (REF2021), 71% of our research was judged by the Social Work and Social Policy panel to be either ‘world leading’ (4*) or ‘internationally excellent’ (3*). The group is recognised for its partnerships with policy and civic organisations and the real-world impact of its research. This includes, to name just a few areas, transforming roads policing, improving adult safeguarding, informing public responses to anti-Muslim prejudice, and supporting migrant integration.
Colleagues located within the research group play a wide range of research leadership roles. These include editorial roles for key scholarly journals (including Sociology, Cultural Politics, Journal of Classical Sociology) and book series for major academic publishers (including Oxford University Press). Members of the group also hold advisory roles in civil society, such as membership of the Academic Reference Group for His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) or membership of the Governance Board for the Department for Transport/Home Office Roads Policing Review.
Research themes
The group has expertise in a wide range of areas, organised into four core themes.
Addressing global challenges is fundamental to Keele’s mission and is embedded in our teaching, via our Global Challenge Pathways programme, and research. Across disciplines such as sociology, international relations, politics and education, we focus on processes of internationalisation and globalisation, as well as the impacts of such processes on local communities and identities. The University hosts the Global Studies Research Unit, which addresses questions of war and peace, memory, the study of violence and genocide and global political economy. Individual staff research specialisms include the internationalisation of higher education (Dr Bowen Zhang), electoral systems (Dr Gemma Loomes), the concepts of utopia and dystopia (Professor Mark Featherstone), psychoanalysis and global politics (Dr Moran Mandelbaum), global political responses to financial crises (Professor Bülent Gökay), radical right populism (Professor Aristotle Kallis) and postcolonialism (Dr Shalini Sharma).
Related projects and centres
Sustainability is at the heart of Keele University’s mission and future vision. Research in the areas of social and public policy plays a vital part in this. The University hosts a major Leverhulme Doctoral scholarships programme in ‘Sustainable Rural Futures’ (led by Professor Clare Holdsworth and Dr Ben Anderson) and has hosted sustainability-themed projects such as ‘Storytelling for Environmental Change’ (led by Dr Pawas Bisht). We host the Centre for Research on Environmental Action and Thought (CREATe) as well as staff specialising in subjects such as environmental governance (Dr Philip Catney), the environmental impacts of plastics (Professor Deirdre McKay), environment and social theory (Professor Mark Featherstone) and urban agriculture (Dr Andy Zieleniec).
Related projects and centres
Keele was the first university to offer an undergraduate degree in Criminology and has been a centre for research into crime and justice since the 1960s. The University hosts the Roads Policing Research Group (directed by Dr Helen Wells), which is the organising hub for the Roads Policing Academic Network, an international network of over 340 academics and practitioners. Keele staff are also involved in major policing initiatives and research projects such as ‘Operation Tutelage’ and ‘INTERACT’ and previously led projects on generative justice (Professor Mary Corcoran), jury trials (Dr Santiago Abel Amietta) and resistance to national asylum policies (Dr Clare Griffiths). Staff specialisms also include restorative justice (Dr Leah Koumentaki) hate crime and terrorism (Dr Stephen Jones). Colleagues have been embedded in central government departments and national criminal justice organisations, as well as advising on national policies concerning issues such as the introduction of ‘driverless cars’.
Related projects and centres
Tackling inequalities and encouraging social and political participation are a core part of the University’s ethos and mission, embodied in the Keele Institute for Social Inclusion. The Society, Public Life and Policy research group reflects this consistently in its projects and community engagement work. Projects hosted in the university have focused on building community resilience (led by Dr Tolu Olarewaju), youth people’s voices (led by Dr Emma Head), contesting Islamophobia (led by Professor Elizabeth Poole) and inequalities in STEM education and research (led by Dr Stephen Jones). Other staff interests include education in diverse contexts (Dr Mathew Barnard), critical pedagogy (Dr Ben Johnson), undocumented migration (Dr Helen Machin and Dr Clare Griffiths) and health inequalities (Dr Suhad Daher-Nashif).
