Dr Adam Whitworth

Research Interests

Social and spatial inequality; lone parents and welfare reform; happiness and well-being; crime; families and children; poverty, deprivation and exclusion; small area estimation methodologies; spatial statistics.

Current research

Adam's research is theoretically informed empirical analysis which seeks to inform policy and practice around issues of deprivation and inequality both across social groups as well as spatially between (typically small) geographies. His research falls into four main strands and further details about each of these, as well as a full list of publications, can be found via links to the right:

• Analysis of the logic and impacts of UK welfare reform for lone parents, in particular: their impacts on lone parent employment; the role of local structural factors (eg childcare costs, job availability) in affecting these employment outcomes; the well-being impacts of any conditionality-driven employment transitions; and consideration of the justness, necessity and efficacy of the reforms;
• A second strand of research focuses on inequality and crime. One element examines the relationship between inequality and increased levels of crime, with a particular interest in exploring the potential links between local inequality and crime. A second element focuses instead on analysing the spatial distribution, concentration and persistence of crime at small area level. As part of this work Adam has produced small area estimates of fear of crime at small area (MSOA) level across England;
• Adam remains interested in the measurement and analysis of multidimensional deprivation at small area level. As part of this work he is collaborating with colleagues at the Fondacao Joao Pinheiro in Minas Gerais, Brazil, around the potential for such work in the Brazilian context as well as on broader analyses around issues of deprivation, inequality and street working children;
• Adam is interested broadly in spatial statistical methodologies, in particular geographically weighted regression techniques and different small area estimation methods. He is currently leading an ESRC NCRM network into small area estimation methods which brings together academic and policy colleagues (eg Office for National Statistics, Teagasc) to seek methodological dialogue and advancement in the field. This work has particular policy relevance given ongoing uncertainties over the future of the UK Census.

Teaching and Supervision

Undergraduate Teaching
Adam teaches on a range of undergraduate modules around political and economic geographies as well as research design and statistical methods. He is keen to engage students in lectures with questions, discussions and examples from his own research so as to support students to be critically aware and empirically informed in thinking through the often simplified debates about the ongoing changes in the world as well as to see the role and relevance of research to policy and people. In his teaching of statistics and quantitative methods Adam uses clear examples, simple explanations and applied research examples to show both how useful numbers can be and that it's not nearly as hard as students might at first imagine!

Adam was one of three nominees for the Best Practice in Feedback award at the 2011 Sheffield Students' Union Academic Awards. These are awards run, nominated and given by students in recognition that good teaching has an enormous positive impact on student's learning experience.

Adam's input on undergraduate courses includes:

GEO152 Statistical Data Analysis in Geography
GEO231 Socio-Spatial Analysis
GEO243 Political Geographies
GEO358 Geography of Europe Field Class
GEO369 Social and Spatial Inequalities

All staff also engage in personal supervision and tutoring of individual students at all three levels in the following modules:
GEO163 (Information & Communication Skills for Geographers)
GEO263 or GEO264 (Research Design in Human or Physical Geography)
GEO356 (Geographical Research Project)

Masters Teaching
At Masters level Adam teaches on the Social and Spatial Inequalities course and is involved in modules on Global Inequalities, Urban Inequalities, Core Quantitative Methods and Advanced Quantitative methods. These seminars are a relaxed, open environment for critically informed discussion where students are encouraged to question and deepen their understanding of the issues and evidence. Wherever appropriate Adam is keen to contextualise his teaching with his own research activities, whether in relation to social policy in post-Apartheid South Africa or statistical methods for policy evaluation or the practical measurement of deprivation and inequality.

Adam's specialist teaching on Masters courses includes:
GEO6017 Urban and Regional Inequalities
GEO6019 Global Inequality
GEO6024 Quantitative Methods for SASI I
GEO6025 Advanced Quantitative Methods (Quantitative Methods for SASI II)

Doctoral Supervision
Adam currently supervises the following doctoral research students and would be interested to hear from potential students across his key research interests:

• Abigail Taylor: 'A comparison of child poverty between Lille and Sheffield'
  (co-supervised with Professor Jan Windebank, Department of French)
• Elle Carter: 'The geography of welfare to work policy - patterns of work and well-being in the UK'
  (ESRC Advanced Quantitative Methods funding - co-supervised with Dr Dan Vickers, Department of Geography)

Adam is also responsible for the creation of the Doctoral Training Centre's 'Impact' module aimed as a training module for first year PhD students which will begin in the 2012/13 academic year.

Professional affiliations

Adam is an active member of the UK Social Policy Association and was part of its Executive Committee between 2004 and 2011. He was on the editorial board for the Journal of Social Policy from 2008 to 2012 and has been on the editorial board of Social Policy and Society since 2012. Adam is a regular reviewer for various journals including the Journal of Social Policy, Social Policy and Society, Urban Studies and Environment and Planning A.