Professor
Beth
Perry
PhD, MA, BA (Hons)
Faculty of Social Sciences
Director of Urban Institute
Full contact details
Faculty of Social Sciences
Geography and Planning Building
- Profile
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Beth is Director of the Urban Institute and a Professor of Urban Epistemics. Her work bridges between urban studies, science and technology studies, political science and geography, and focuses on the politics and practices of knowledge production in society and its potential for place-based transformation. She is a leading expert on the relations between governance, policy and the social organisation of knowledge, with a particular focus on co-production, using a range of standard approaches (interviews, focus groups, case studies) and participatory and creative methods (exhibitions, film and counter-cartography). She publishes widely on these topics in monographs, journals and the popular press, and produces creative output for different audiences. Her most recent book is How to be an Anti-capitalist City (Bristol Policy Press).
She is currently working on the relationships between the geopolitics of urban intelligence, community knowledge and expertise and the roles of knowledge-producing institutions in the city – particularly universities and schools. She was co-lead of the Co-production Futures Inquiry between 2024-2026 which led to sector-wide calls for action on how to create better conditions for co-produced and participatory research. She has a long-standing partnership with Arbourthorne Community Primary School in South East Sheffield looking at how university-school partnerships can support the development of community infrastructures and action. She is also co-host of the podcast Urban Radar which takes an urban lens on contemporary affairs.
- Research interests
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As an undisciplined urbanist I sit at the intersections of several disciplines and am motivated by a concern to both understand and chart processes of urban transformation, and to mobilise methodologies to contribute to the possibility of more just and sustainable urban futures.
My research is underpinned by a concern with urban governance, justice and transformation, which has focused around the concept and practice of co-production. I understand the co-productive turn as reconfiguring relations between the local state and civil society, between and within grassroots groups and organisations, and within and outside academia. This is informed by a long-standing concern with the politics of knowledge production and the epistemic injustices, exclusions and violences that result. My research seeks to work with and through critique to contribute to alternative epistemologies, practices and outcomes.
I am particularly interested in how these concerns land in relation to the socio-cultural and spatial dimensions of urban justice. A substantive focus in my work has been on cultural participation, democracy and heritage; participatory democracy within the city and the potential of digital technologies; and ‘food’ as connective tissue between the cultural, spatial, environmental and economic.
I seek to contribute to epistemological and methodological debates through a reflexive engagement with the tensions, binaries, strategies and tactics of critical yet engaged urban research, in the context of increasingly politicised and neo-liberal contexts of higher education. This has given me experience in designing large-scale, collaborative programmes and projects, deploying creative and participatory methods when appropriate, and communicating with different audiences.
My work has spanned different scales and contexts – from the neighbourhood, to the district, the city and the city-region, in Greater Manchester, Sheffield, Cape Town, Kisumu and Gothenburg.
- Publications
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Books
- Social Research: Issues, Methods and Process. London: MGraw-Hill.
- Transdisciplinary knowledge co-production for sustainable cities : a guide for sustainable cities. Practical Action Publishing Ltd. View this article in WRRO
- Cities and the Knowledge Economy: Promise, Politics and Possibilities. Routledge.
- Cities and the Knowledge Economy Promise, Politics and Possibilities. Routledge. View this article in WRRO
- Reflexivity: The Essential Guide. London: Sage Publications. View this article in WRRO
- Social Research and Reflexivity. SAGE.
Edited books
- Cultural Intermediaries Connecting Communities: Revisiting approaches to cultural engagement..
Journal articles
- Alliances, allyship and activism: the value of international partnerships for co-producing just cities. Planning Theory, 23(4), 423-445. View this article in WRRO
- The politics of producing urban expertise: institutions, urban praxis and the “new” citizen expert. Urban Geography, 44(3), 558-561. View this article in WRRO
- Co-production as praxis: critique and engagement from within the university. Methodological Innovations.
- Is co-production a ‘good’ concept? Three responses. Futures, 142.
- Co-producing city-regional intelligence: strategies of intermediation, tactics of unsettling. Regional Studies, 57(4), 685-697. View this article in WRRO
- Localizing the SDGs in England: challenges and value propositions for local government. Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, 3.
- Leadership and the hidden politics of co-produced research: a Q-methodology study. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 26(1), 1-21. View this article in WRRO
- Cities coping with COVID-19: comparative perspectives. City, 25(1-2), 129-170.
- The risk of austerity co-production in city-regional governance in England. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 45(3), 555-571. View this article in WRRO
- Three tyrannies of participatory governance. Journal of Chinese Governance, 4(2), 123-143. View this article in WRRO
- Cultural heritage entanglements: festivals as integrative sites for sustainable urban development. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 26(6), 603-618. View this article in WRRO
- Moving towards hybridity in causal explanation: the example of citizen participation. Social Policy & Administration, 53(2), 265-278. View this article in WRRO
- Conclusion: Where next for cultural intermediation?. Cultural Intermediaries Connecting Communities Revisiting Approaches to Cultural Engagement, 221-230.
- Introduction: Bringing communities and culture together. Cultural Intermediaries Connecting Communities Revisiting Approaches to Cultural Engagement, 1-24.
- Craft metrics to value co-production. Nature, 562(7725), 32-33.
- Organising for Co-production: Local Interaction Platforms for Urban Sustainability. Politics and Governance, 6(1). View this article in WRRO
- Coproducing urban governance.. Politics and Governance, 6(1), 145-149. View this article in WRRO
- Beyond critique: the value of co-production in realising just cities?. Local Environment, 22(S1), 36-51. View this article in WRRO
- Knowledges for Just Urban Sustainability. Local Environment. View this article in WRRO
- Developing and testing the Urban Sustainable Development Goals targets and indicators - a five-city study. Environment and Urbanization, 28(1), 49-63. View this article in WRRO
- Revealing and re-valuing cultural intermediaries in the 'real' creative city: Insights from a diary-keeping exercise. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 18(6), 724-740. View this article in WRRO
- Universities, Reflexivity and Critique: Uneasy Parallels in Practice. Policy Futures in Education, 11(5), 505-514.
- Contours and conflicts in scale: Science, knowledge and urban development. Local Economy: The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit, 26(8), 715-720.
- Urban Research in the Knowledge Economy: Content, Context and Outlook. Built Environment, 37(3), 352-367.
- Universities and Cities: Governance, Institutions and Mediation. Built Environment, 37(3), 245-259.
- Urban knowledge exchange: devilish dichotomies and active intermediation. International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development, 1(1/2), 6-6.
- Excellence, relevance and the university: The missing middle in socio-economic engagement. Sociologia Problemas E Praticas, 56, 105-128.
- The Multi-level Governance of Science Policy in England. Regional Studies, 41(8), 1051-1067.
- Multi-level Governance, Regions and Science in France: Between Competition and Equality. Regional Studies, 41(8), 1069-1084.
- Governance, Science Policy and Regions: An Introduction. Regional Studies, 41(8), 1039-1050.
- Cities, Knowledge and Universities: Transformations in the Image of the Intangible. Social Epistemology, 20(3-4), 259-282.
- Science, Society and the University: A Paradox of Values. Social Epistemology, 20(3-4), 201-219.
- Rethinking or Hollowing out the University?. Higher Education Management and Policy, 17(2), 29-41.
- The Future of Urban Sociology. Sociology, 39(2), 343-370.
- Universities, Localities and Regional Development: The Emergence of the ‘Mode 2’ University?. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 28(1), 212-223.
- The future of urban sociology: report of joint sessions of the British and American Sociological Associations. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 26(4), 844-853.
Book chapters
- Citizen participation in public management: Activated, empowered, responsibilised, abandoned?, Research Handbook on Public Management and Covid 19 (pp. 99-111).
- Policy making at the local level In Teles F (Ed.), Handbook on Local and Regional Governance (pp. 255-268). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
- Policy making at the local level, Handbook on Local and Regional Governance (pp. 253-266).
- Community-based organizations in Kisumu: A necessary but not sufficient condition for managing polyvalent heritage landscapes In Pettenati G (Ed.), Landscape as Heritage: International Critical Perspectives (pp. 40-40). Oxon: Routledge.
- Cultural heritage and improvised music in European festivals, A Research Agenda for Heritage Planning Edward Elgar Publishing
- Co-producing research with users and communities In Loeffler E & Bovaird T (Ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Co-production of Public Services and Outcomes (pp. 669-691). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Co-producing Research with Users and Communities, The Palgrave Handbook of Co-Production of Public Services and Outcomes (pp. 669-691). Springer International Publishing
- Participatory cities from the 'outside in' : the value of comparative learning In Simon D, Palmer H & Riise J (Ed.), Comparative Urban Research from Theory to Practice (pp. 133-154). Bristol: Policy Press. View this article in WRRO
- Governing the creative city: the practice, value and effectiveness of cultural intermediation, Cultural Intermediaries Connecting Communities Revisiting Approaches to Cultural Engagement (pp. 119-132).
- Towards cultural ecologies: why urban cultural policy must embrace multiple cultural agendas, Cultural Intermediaries Connecting Communities Revisiting Approaches to Cultural Engagement (pp. 63-76).
- Navigating the Rapids of Urban Development: Lessons from the Biospheric Foundation, Salford,
UK (pp. 85-99). Wiley
- Navigating the Rapids of Urban Development: Lessons from the Biospheric Foundation, Salford, UK In Henneberry J (Ed.), Transience and Permanence in Urban Development (pp. 85-99). Wiley
- Cities, experiments and the logics of the knowledge economy, The Experimental City (pp. 32-46). Routledge
- Cities, Universities and Urban Knowledge Exchange: Lessons from a Regional Experiment in the UK In Mercurio R (Ed.), Organizational Networks for Innovation Milan.
- External Engagements and Internal Transformations: Universities, Localities and Regional Development, Bright Satanic Mills Universities Regional Development and the Knowledge Economy (pp. 25-37).
- Context matters: The English Science Cities and visions for knowledge-based urbanism, Making 21st Century Knowledge Complexes Technopoles of the World Revisited (pp. 105-127).
- Lessons on the research-practice relationship: From critique to co-production in Greater Manchester, Co Producing Knowledge for Sustainable Cities Joining Forces for Change (pp. 98-122).
- Reflexivity and the Practice of Qualitative Research, The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Data Analysis (pp. 109-122). SAGE Publications
- Achieving 'systemic' urban retrofit: A framework for action, Retrofitting the Built Environment (pp. 7-19).
- Re-thinking Sustainable Knowledge-Based Urbanism Through Active Intermediation, Production and Use of Urban Knowledge (pp. 151-167). Springer Netherlands
- Reflexivity and Data Analysis In Kaldis B (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Social Sciences SAGE
- Translation, Insulation and Mediation, University Engagement With Socially Excluded Communities (pp. 199-219). Springer Netherlands
- Achieving 'systemic' urban retrofit: A framework for action, RETROFITTING THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT (pp. 7-19).
- Translation, Insulation and Mediation: The Shifting Sands of University Life In Benneworth P (Ed.), University Engagement With Socially Excluded Communities Springer Science & Business Media
- External engagements and internal transformations: Universities, localities and regional development, Bright Satanic Mills Universities Regional Development and the Knowledge Economy (pp. 25-37).
- Excellence, relevance and the construction of regional science policy: Science frictions and fictions in the North West of England, Universities and Regional Development A Critical Assessment of Tensions and Contradictions (pp. 105-123).
- Academic Knowledge and Urban Development, Knowledge-Based Urban Development (pp. 21-41). IGI Global
- Metropolitan regions in the face of the European dimension: Regimes, re-scaling or repositioning?, Metropolitan Governance and Spatial Planning Comparative Case Studies of European City Regions (pp. 20-38).
- When networks are destabilized: User innovation and the UK fuel crisis, Sustaining Urban Networks the Social Diffusion of Large Technical Systems (pp. 86-99).
- Urban Space and the Development of Networks: A Discussion of the “Splintering Urbanism” Thesis, Sustaining Urban Networks (pp. 64-80). Routledge
- Academic Knowledge and Urban Development, Knowledge-Based Urban Development IGI Global
Reports
- Realising Just Cities View this article in WRRO
- How can we govern differently? The promise and practice of co-production
Other
- Social Research: Issues, Methods and Process. London: MGraw-Hill.
- Research group
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PhD Supervision
I currently supervise the following PhD students:
- Ana Mendez de Andes, Becoming Common of the Public (With Doina Petrescu, Department of Architecture)
- Jenny Patient, Trade Unions and Just Transition (with Stephen Connelly, Department of Urban Studies and Planning)
- Ryan Bellinson, Doing things differently: the promise and pitfalls of co-productive urban climate policy development in Greater Manchester, UK (with Aidan While)
I welcome applications for PhD research on topics related to my main interests above