About the Centre for Governance and Public Policy

The Centre's interests stretch from macro-level questions about societal organisation and global governance, such as the production of knowledge and evidence in national, regional and global policy processes, to micro-level questions, such as the inclusionary potential of changing structures for participation in local policymaking and the impacts of policy on neighbourhoods and individual households.

We undertake international and comparative research and also engage with partners in Bristol and the West of England region. We are committed to research-informed teaching and contribute to programmes at undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral levels in social and public policy, and host research students and staff from many different parts of the world. The Centre also maintains close links with the journal Policy & Politics. 

Research areas

With a focus on socially and politically inclusive, sustainable and innovative places to live and work, our particular areas of interest include:

• urban and local governance and public policy;
• the political economy of governance and public policy;
• public administration and management;
• the role of knowledge and evidence in the policy process;
• the role of citizens, civil society, and social movements in policymaking;
• social policy and social inequalities;
• migration, borders, and policy;
• housing;
• climate and the environment;
• health;
• digital and technology;
• criminal justice.

Much of our research is international, comparative, multi-scalar and transnational in its focus, reflecting our interest in the ways in which economic, political and social forces interact to influence policy processes and governance in different settings.

International links

Centre staff have active research links with scholars and institutions in Europe, East Asia, South and Central America, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia. The postgraduate members of our Centre, many of whom are studying topics focused on Europe, South and Central America, and East Asia, contribute to taking our research agenda forward.