Current research projects

Current, externally funded, peer reviewed projects include:

Living Multiculture

The research project Living Multiculture: the new geographies of ethnicity and the changing formations of multiculture in England examines the current and emergent spatial and social formations of multiculture in England and asks two key questions. First, how do people live complex cultural difference and manage increasing cultural diversity in their everyday lives and second, what role does place and locality play in this.

Commodity Histories: an online space for collaborative research

The last decade has seen the emergence of digital history as an approach to investigating the past based on the new communication technologies of the internet age. Currently more advanced in North America, university-based digital history projects have slowly emerged in Britain, though little has been done so far in the realm of extra-European histories. Commodity Histories is the first digital project in the UK that will provide public access to a crucial dimension of the histories of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America.

Tensions and future prospects for sustainable housing growth. A case study of Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has awarded a research grant to Prof Allan Cochrane (Social Policy and Criminology, Open University) as Principal Investigator, to work with Dr Bob Colenutt (University of Northampton) on a project entitled 'Tensions and future prospects for sustainable housing growth. A case study of Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes'. The project will run from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2013. Dr Martin Field (University of Northampton) is Research Officer on the project.

Architectural Atmospheres: The impact of digital technologies on architectural design practice

The production of architecture and urban design has become increasingly concerned with creating recognizable, 'branded' products in the form of buildings and public spaces. Whereas new buildings in the past conformed to strict urban and civic hierarchies and stylistic conventions, architects today view their buildings as, for example, 'canvases for expression', or 'self-confident visual statements' (Squire & Partners brochure) in a competitive global market.

Politics of Alternative Finance

Funded jointly by OpenSpace and CRESC, Politics of Alternative Finance brings together new thinking on the financial crisis, and new ideas for reforming the financial sector. This ongoing project provides space for dialogue in the form of a series of video and podcasts as well as links to organisations and websites that can inform the debate on economic alternatives.

The Political Ecology of Extractive Industries and Changing Waterscapes in the Andes

In the Andes, the growing demand for water by the mining industry is creating tensions. Natural supplies are limited, most existing resources are in use, and some sources are regarded as sacred among Aymara and Quechua people. This project examines how control over water for mining brings about changes to Andean lives, livelihoods and landscapes.

Biosecurity Borderlands: Making biosecurity work in a complex landscape

Biosecurity Borderlands is a UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project run from the School of Geography, Exeter University and the Faculty of Social Sciences, Open University.

Completed research projects

Visual Dialogues: New Agendas in Inequalities Research

This ESRC funded seminar series brings together academics, practitioners and policy makers from across the arts and social and health sciences in order to explore the potential of the visual for understanding the forms and experiences of inequality that shape societies, communities and individual lives.

The Future of Landscape and the Moving Image

This project aims to identify and understand aspects of the current global predicament in the UK's landscape, exploring its histories and possible futures, through creating images and texts that critique and document a point in history characterised by conflict and anxiety. A central theme is the relationship between belonging/dwelling on the one hand and mobility on the other.