Dr Simone Abram: General Information
Senior Lecturer in Town and Regional Planning
I have been at Sheffield University since 2000. During that time I have also been a Visiting Fellow at the Social Anthropological Institute of the University of Oslo, and Visiting Research Associate at the Centre for Public Sector Research at the University of Gothenburg and Visiting Researcher at the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme in Paris.
I am currently secretary of the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth, and am editor of ASAOnline, an online journal of the ASA launching in 2008.
Research
Over the past few years, my research has been in the fields of local governance, organisations, protest and political practice in Norway and Britain. I have led research projects on comparative ideas of holistic and community planning in Norway and Scotland, and on the experiences of urban regeneration in Sheffield.
During the 1990s, I did ethnographic research in South-East England on the activities of local pressure groups in plan-making. This work concerns the technologies of local government, and contributed to a broader study of planning for housing in England, published in 2002 as 'Rationalities of Planning', with co-author and sadly missed colleague, Professor Jonathan Murdoch.
From this research, I have produced or co-edited two documentary films, both of which are available from the University´s media unit.
`Living Through Regeneration´ is a 30 minute documentary film about the experiences of people involved in the demolition and reconstruction of public housing in Sheffield.
`Much Ado About Norway´ is based on a tv series by Jon Jerstad and Halvard Vike, and shows the process of public participation in urban renovation in southern Norway.
Community Planning in Norway and Scotland website
email : s.abram@sheffield.ac.uk