My research has explored how actors from the public, private and community sectors collaborate to solve complex social challenges. More specifically, I am interested in understanding how plans to devolve power and authority to the sub-national tier in England can be improved. There is growing recognition that tackling complex social problems, like healthy urban development, can only happen by building strong interconnections across policy jurisdictions and sectors. My research argues that the best place to achieve joined up working, or a systems approach, is at the local level.

However, this requires cross-government working nationally to provide the right structures and incentives to enable local actors to join up their activities. A systems approach describes a group of interacting, interrelated, or independent elements coming together around a common policy problem. Crucially, it is not simply its multi-actor nature that defines a policy system, but that each part affects and is affected by other parts. My research examines the opportunities and challenges of using a systems approach to design and deliver policy solutions at a local level in England.

I am a qualitative scholar who is interested in storytelling and narratives. I explore complex policy problems by talking to policy makers who make critical decisions. I use their responses to create narratives and interpretations about what happens in practice and use these accounts to suggest ways to improve the way decisions are made. Since starting my PhD nearly 25 years ago, I have conducted over 800 interviews with policy makers in central and local government in the UK.

I am an Academician of the Social Sciences and the current Chair of the Regional Studies Association (RSA). The RSA is the preeminent global learned society concerned with the analysis of regions and regional issues. It is in its 60th year with members in over 80 countries.