Darren Webb, BA, MA, PhD

Senior Lecturer in Education

Course Director: BA Education, Culture and Childhood

Course Director: BA Social and Political Studies (Combined Studies)

Email: d.webb@sheffield.ac.uk
Tel: 0114 2227084

Darren is Director of two undergraduate degree programmes, the BA Education, Culture and Childhood and the BA Social and Political Studies (Combined Studies) (part-time).

He adopts an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and research. His research into the politics and pedagogy of hope, for example, integrates philosophy, psychology, sociology and theology. The degree programmes he directs are also interdisciplinary in nature, integrating within modules concepts, methodologies and data drawn from across the arts, humanities, sciences and social sciences. He agrees with research conducted on behalf of the OECD that interdisciplinary teaching enables students to become more inventive and creative while also preparing them better to adjust to inevitable fluctuations in the job market.

Recent publications include:

Warren, S., Webb, D., Franklin, A. & Bowers-Brown, J. (2011) Trust schools and the politics of persuasion and the mobilisation of interest, Journal of Education Policy Vol 26(6), pp.839-853.

Webb, D. (2010) ‘Paulo Freire and ‘the need for a kind of education in hope”, Cambridge Journal of Education, Vol.40(4), pp.327-339

Webb, D. (2009) `Where´s the Vision? The Concept of Utopia in Contemporary Educational Theory´, Oxford Review of Education, Vol.35(6), pp.743-760.

Webb, D. (2008) `Exploring the Relationship Between Hope and Utopia: Towards a Conceptual Framework´, Politics Vol.28(3), pp.205-14.

Webb, D. (2008) `Christian Hope and the Politics of Utopia´, Utopian Studies Vol.19(1), pp.113-144.

Webb, D. (2008) `Modes of Hoping and the Utopian Impulse´, in W. Bauman (ed), Hope: Global Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press, pp..25-38.

Webb, D. (2007) `Modes of Hoping´, History of the Human Sciences Vol.20(3), pp.65-83.

Webb, D. (2007) `Utopia—Carnival/Modernity—Blackpool´, Utopia and Utopianism No.2, pp.163-177.

Webb, D. (2005) 'Bakhtin at the Seaside: Utopia, Modernity and the Carnivalesque', Theory, Culture and Society, Vol. 22(3), pp.121-138.

Webb, D. (2004) 'The Bitter Product of Defeat? Reflections on Winstanley's Law of Freedom', Political Studies Vol. 52(2), pp.199-215.

Webb, D. (2003) 'Contract, Covenant and Class Consciousness: Gerrard Winstanley and the Broken Promises of the English Revolution', History of Political Thought, Vol. 24(4), pp.577-598.

Webb, D. (2003) 'Institutions of the New Regionalism-the Case of England', Current Politics and Economics of Europe, Vol. 12(3), pp.225-241.

Webb, D. (2002) 'Here Content Transcends Phrase: The Eighteenth Brumaire as the Key to Understanding Marx's Critique of Utopian Socialism' in M. Cowling and J. Martin (eds) Marx's Eighteenth Brumaire: (Post)modern Interpretations. London: Pluto, pp.243-257.

Webb, D. (2000) Marx, Marxism and Utopia. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Webb, D. (2000) 'Concrete Utopia? The Mystical Elitism of Ernst Bloch', Studies in Marxism, Vol.7, pp.73-100.

Webb, D. and Collis, C. (2000) 'Regional Development Agencies and the New Regionalism in England', Regional Studies, Vol. 34(9), pp.857-865.