Ryan Powell

Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Reader

r.s.powell@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 6182

Room D11d, Geography and Planning Building

Full contact details

Ryan Powell
Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Room D11d
Geography and Planning Building
Winter Street
Sheffield
S3 7ND

Profile

I joined the Department of Urban Studies and Planning in September 2016 as Reader in Urban Studies and was Director of Research for USP until September 2021. Prior to joining the department I worked for 14 years at the interdisciplinary Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) at Sheffield Hallam University. I was awarded a BA in Economics and Public Policy from Leeds Metropolitan University in 2002 and I subsequently studied part-time for an MA in Human Geography (distinction) at the University of Leeds, graduating in 2006.

My academic background and orientation is multidisciplinary and cuts across urban studies, sociology, geography, planning, history and politics, but my research is focused on urban marginality. I have always worked in a genuinely interdisciplinary environment and benefited greatly from exposure to a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches. I have worked on studies for the EU, ESRC, JRF, the Big Lottery Fund, DWP, CLG, Northern Ireland Executive, Scottish Government, Welsh Government, regional bodies, and various local authorities and charitable organisations.

I am affiliated to the Sheffield Migration Research Group and iHuman research institute within the University of Sheffield. Externally, I am a member of the Management Board of the international journal Housing Studies and a Fellow of the Norbert Elias Foundation.

I welcome enquiries from research students and post-doctoral candidates but am particularly interested in research in the following broad areas: Gypsy-Traveller and Roma stigmatisation; migrant youth and cities; housing and urban inequalities; class and place.

Research interests

The central theme of my research is seeking to combine empiricism and theory in understanding the socio-dynamics of unequal power relations and their consequences in terms of urban marginalisation, both contemporary and historical. This includes access to housing and employment as well as wider questions of citizenship, urbanization, and the stigmatisation of "outsider" groups.

This reflects a commitment to striving for an objective understanding of the development of contemporary society and its unequal outcomes, alongside an explicit engagement with public policy and the challenges it faces. By extension, this often entails the exposure of policy "myths" and critique of the inadequacy of current conceptualisations. A distinguishing aspect of my research is sensitivity to a long-term perspective in terms of capturing the dynamic and intergenerational development of human societies and the cities they produce.

Presently I am working on two EU2020 projects, centred on advancing our understanding of migrant youth urbanisms and migrant “integration” within the EU, with Sheffield colleagues in Sociological Studies and various European partners. I am also involved in a collective project (with Jay Emery, Lee Crookes et al.) on re-theorizing class – Feeling Class: Emotions, Bodies and the Affective Politics of Social Inequality, which will be published as a monograph and edited collection for The Sociological Review in 2023.

Current and recent research projects

2020-2023: MIMY - Migrant Youth Integration in Europe, EU Horizon2020
2020-2023: MIGREC – Migration, Integration and Governance Research Centre, EU Horizon2020
2019-2020: Making the case for affordable housing in Scotland, SFHA/Shelter Scotland/CIH Scotland

I am the Co-Director (with Beth Perry, Urban Institute) of the Sheffield ECRs Urban Studies Network and represent the Faculty of Social Sciences on the University ECR Committee. I am academic mentor for the following post-doctoral fellows:

Jay Emery, Leverhulme ECR Fellow: Alienation and class in post-industrial towns
Jamie Redman, ESRC Post-doctoral Fellow: Welfare reform, class struggle and crisis

Publications

Books

Flint J & Powell R (2019) Class, Ethnicity and State in the Polarized Metropolis Putting Wacquant to Work. Springer.

Journal articles

Powell R (2023) The fringes of citizenship: Romani minorities in Europe and civic marginalisation. Housing Studies, 38(2), 349-350.
Powell R & Simone A (2022) Towards a global housing studies: beyond dichotomy, normativity and common abstraction. Housing Studies, 37(6), 837-846. View this article in WRRO
Hincks S & Powell R (2022) Territorial stigmatisation beyond the city: habitus, affordances and landscapes of industrial ruination. Environment and Planning A. View this article in WRRO
Burgum S, Jones H & Powell R (2022) Manufacturing mandates: Property, race, and the criminalisation of trespass in England and Wales. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space. View this article in WRRO
Cretan R, Kupka P, Powell R & Walach V (2022) Everyday Roma stigmatization: racialized urban encounters, collective histories and fragmented habitus. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 46(1), 82-100. View this article in WRRO
Cretan R & Powell RS (2018) The Power of Group Stigmatization: Wealthy Roma, Urban Space and Strategies of Defence in Post‐socialist Romania. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 42(3), 423-441. View this article in WRRO
Powell R (2017) Gypsy-Traveller sites in the UK: power, history, informality – a response to Richardson. Global Discourse, 7(4), 516-520.
Lever J & Powell RS (2017) ‘Problems of involvement and detachment’: Norbert Elias and the investigation of contemporary social processes. Human Figurations, 6(2). View this article in WRRO
Powell R & Lever J (2017) Europe’s perennial ‘outsiders’: A processual approach to Roma stigmatization and ghettoization. Current Sociology, 65(5), 680-699. View this article in WRRO
Crisp R & Powell R (2017) Young people and UK labour market policy: A critique of ‘employability’ as a tool for understanding youth unemployment. Urban Studies, 54(8), 1784-1807.
Powell R (2016) Gypsy-travellers/Roma and social integration: Childhood, habitus and the "We-I balance". Historical Social Research, 41(3), 134-156. View this article in WRRO
Cole I, Powell R & Sanderson E (2016) Putting the Squeeze on "Generation Rent": Housing Benefit Claimants in the Private Rented Sector - Transitions, Marginality and Stigmatisation. Sociological Research Online, 21(2).
Powell R (2015) Housing Benefit Reform and the Private Rented Sector in the UK: On the Deleterious Effects of Short-term, Ideological “Knowledge”. Housing, Theory and Society, 32(3), 320-345.
Flint JF, Kruithof B & Powell RS (2015) Introduction to the Special Issue of Human Figurations on Civilising Offensives. Human Figurations, 4(1).
Powell RS (2014) Editorial: Special Issue - 'Roma Integration in the UK'. People, Place and Policy, 8(1), 1-3. View this article in WRRO
Powell RS (2013) The theoretical concept of the "civilizing offensive" (beschavingsoffensief): Notes on its origins and uses. Human Figurations. View this article in WRRO
Powell R (2013) Loïc Wacquant's ‘Ghetto’ and Ethnic Minority Segregation in the UK: The Neglected Case of Gypsy-Travellers. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 37(1), 115-134.
Flint J & Powell R (2012) The English City Riots of 2011, ‘Broken Britain’ and the Retreat into the Present. Sociological Research Online, 17(3), 153-162.
Powell R (2011) Gypsy-Travellers and Welfare Professional Discourse: On Individualization and Social Integration. Antipode, 43(2), 471-493.
Powell R (2010) Spaces of Informalisation: Playscapes, Power and the Governance of Behaviour. Space and Polity, 14(2), 189-206.
Beatty C, Fothergill S, Houston D & Powell R (2010) Bringing Incapacity Benefit numbers down: to what extent do women need a different approach?. Policy Studies, 31(2), 143-162.
Beatty C, Fothergill S, Houston D, Powell R & Sissons P (2009) A Gendered Theory of Employment, Unemployment, and Sickness. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 27(6), 958-974.
Powell R & Flint J (2009) (In)formalization and the Civilizing Process: Applying the Work of Norbert Elias to Housing‐Based Anti‐Social Behaviour Interventions in the UK. Housing, Theory and Society, 26(3), 159-178.
Powell R (2008) Understanding the Stigmatization of Gypsies: Power and the Dialectics of (Dis)identification. Housing, Theory and Society, 25(2), 87-109.
Allen C, Powell R, Casey R & Coward S (2007) 'Ordinary, the same as anywhere else': Notes on the management of spoiled identity in 'marginal' middle-class neighbourhoods. Sociology, 41(2), 239-258.
Powell R (2007) Civilising offensives and ambivalence: the case of British gypsies. People, Place and Policy Online, 1(3), 112-123. View this article in WRRO
Beatty C, Fothergill S & Powell R (2007) Twenty Years on: Has the Economy of the UK Coalfields Recovered?. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 39(7), 1654-1675.
Casey R, Coward S, Allen C & Powell R (2007) On the planned environment and neighbourhood life: Evidence from mixed-tenure housing developments twenty years on. Town Planning Review, 78(3), 311-334.
Gore T, Powell RS & Wells P (2006) 'The contribution of rural community businesses to integrated rural development: "Local services for local people"'. Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales.
Emery J, Powell R & Crookes L () Class, affect, margins. Sociological Review.

Chapters

Flint J & Powell R (2021) Beyond the noosphere? Northern England’s ‘left behind’ urbanism, Global Urbanism (pp. 80-87). Routledge
Flint J & Powell R (2019) Introduction: Putting Wacquant to Work, Class, Ethnicity and State in the Polarized Metropolis (pp. 1-21). Springer International Publishing
Powell R & Robinson D (2019) Housing, Ethnicity and Advanced Marginality in England, Class, Ethnicity and State in the Polarized Metropolis (pp. 187-212). Springer International Publishing
Powell R & van Baar H (2019) The Invisibilization of Anti-Roma Racisms In van Baar H, Ivasiuc A & Kreide R (Ed.), The Securitization of the Roma in Europe (pp. 91-113). Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
Powell R (2019) Beyond "employability": youth unemployment, socialisation and social stratification In Becke G & Ernst S (Ed.), Transformationen der Arbeitsgesellschaft / Transformation of working Society (pp. 189-210). London: Springer.
Powell R & Robinson D (2019) Housing, Ethnicity and Advanced Marginality in England, Class, Ethnicity and State in the Polarized Metropolis: Putting Wacquant to Work (pp. 187-212).
Flint J & Powell R (2019) Introduction: Putting Wacquant to Work, Class, Ethnicity and State in the Polarized Metropolis: Putting Wacquant to Work (pp. 1-21).
Crisp R & Powell RS (2017) Youth unemployment, interdependence and power: Tensions and resistance within an alternative, ‘co-produced’ employment programme In Bevir M, McKee K & Matthews P (Ed.), Decentring Urban Governance: Narratives, Resistance and Contestation (pp. 38-63). Abingdon: Routledge.
Flint J & Powell R (2016) Scottish enlightenment and the sectarianism civilising offensive, Bigotry, Football and Scotland (pp. 82-96).
Powell RS & Cole I (2015) Housing and welfare reform In Foster L, Brunton A, Deeming C & Haux T (Ed.), In Defence of Welfare 2 View this article in WRRO
Powell RS (2014) Civilizing Process In Cope H & Forsyth CJ (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Social Deviance View this article in WRRO
(2014) Football Hooliganism, Fan Behaviour and Crime Palgrave Macmillan UK
Flint J & Powell R (2013) Individualization and Social Dis/integration in Contemporary Society: A Comparative Note on Zygmunt Bauman and Norbert Elias, Norbert Elias and Social Theory (pp. 261-274). Palgrave Macmillan US View this article in WRRO
Flint J & Powell R (2011) "They Sing That Song": Sectarianism and Conduct in the Informalised Spaces of Scottish Football In Burdsey D (Ed.), Race, Ethnicity and Football (pp. 191-206). London: Routledge.
Beatty C, Fothergill S, Houston D & Powell R (2010) Women on incapacity benefits: New survey evidence from the UK In Kemp PA (Ed.), Social Protection for a Post-Industrial World
Flint J & Powell R (2009) Civilising offensives: Education, football and ‘Eradicating’ sectarianism in Scotland, Securing Respect: Behavioural Expectations and Anti-Social Behaviour in the UK (pp. 219-238). View this article in WRRO

Book reviews

Powell R (2021) City of segregation: 100 years of struggle for housing in Los Angeles. Housing Studies, 36(4), 617-618.
Powell R (2021) Against the public interest: Power, financialization and PFI housing in England. Dialogues in Human Geography, 11(2), 337-340. View this article in WRRO
Powell R (2020) Home-land: Romanian Roma, Domestic Spaces and the State, by Rachel Humphris, Bristol, Bristol University Press, 2019, 256 pp., £80.00 (hbk), ISBN: 978-1-5292-0192-5. Housing Studies, 35(7), 1332-1333.
Powell R (2017) A Review of "The financialization of housing: a political economy approach", By Manuel B. Aalbers. International Journal of Housing Policy, 17(4), 603-605.
Powell R (2014) Gypsies and Travellers: Empowerment and Inclusion in British Society. Housing Studies, 29(7), 994-996.
Powell R (2012) The Public and its Possibilities: Triumphs and Tragedies in the American City. Housing Studies, 27(8), 1214-1216.

Reports

Robinson D, Hickman P, Casey R, Green S & Powell R (2007) Understanding Housing Demand. Learning From Rising Markets In Yorkshire And The Humber

Teaching activities

My primary teaching focus is on urban marginality, housing issues and the challenges facing cities and publics in the contemporary period. Housing is approached as a lens through which to understand a wide array of urban inequalities, antagonisms and environmental challenges. Yet is also a key field for innovative solutions, radical collectives, and alternative readings of universal concepts like home, shelter, dwelling, neighbourhood and sustainable city. Housing is therefore a site of struggle and contestation, of technological advancement and exploitation, a source of self-worth and stigmatization, and a potential anchor for alternative ways of inhabiting and orienting ourselves in an increasingly complex, interdependent and dynamic urban context. Effective housing policies require solutions across Global North and South.

I teach on the following modules:

TRP130, Housing, Home and Neighbourhood
TRP335, Housing and Urban Inequalities
TRP6211, Issues in Housing

PhD supervision

I am Primary Supervisor for the following research students:

Francesca Guarino: Othered people in othered places: a critical exploration of the challenges of cultural diversity in Palermo (2^nd Supervisor: Michele Lancione)
Martyna Piliszewska: Why do they stay? Exploring the reasons why street homeless Polish migrant workers remain in Post-Brexit Britain (2^nd Supervisor: Michele Lancione)
Yu-Tung Wu: Housing and home after financialisation? The case of Military Dependents’ Villages in Taipei (2^nd Supervisor: Ste Hincks)

I am a member of the Supervisory team for the following ESRC/AHRC funded students:

Dario Ferrazzi: Housing, crime and the city: re-addressing the urban crime question (1^st Supervisor: Rowland Atkinson)
Michael Marshall: Financialisation, regulation and the management of assets by UK housing associations (1^st Supervisor: Ste Hincks):
Will Haynes (Geography): Seen and unseen: homeless migrants at Stazione Termini in Rome (1^st Supervisor: Richard Phillips)
Isla MacRae (Sociological Studies): Everyday negotiations of space and place amongst refugees and asylum seekers in the North West of England (1^st Supervisor: Sarah Neal)