Adam is a mixed methods researcher who has experience of qualitative methods and GIS as well as extensive quantitative and statistical skills with large and complex data. He has worked on projects funded by a range of different sponsors including the Department for Communities and Local Government, Department for Work and Pensions, ESRC National Centre for Research Methods, South African Department of Social Development, Welsh Government, National Audit Office, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Sheffield City Region and Gingerbread.

Adam is committed to using research to make impacts beyond the academy. During 2012/13 he was Deputy Director of the Faculty of Social Science's knowledge exchange gateway and led the design of the White Rose Doctoral Training Centre’s ‘Impact’ module for the university’s social science doctoral researchers. Throughout 2016 and 2017 he has been seconded into national and regional government supporting the design and implementation of effective employment support policy.

Adam is an active member of the UK Social Policy Association. He is a regular reviewer for various journals including the Journal of Social Policy, Social Policy and Society, Urban Studies and Environment and Planning A.

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 UK welfare-to-work reforms, in particular the Coalition’s Work Programme, in terms of the logic and effectiveness of programme design, claimant experiences, impact on employment outcomes and well-being, and the effect of local geographical characteristics on performance.
• 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.