Biography

David is currently Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Social Policy at the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies. He also acts as Deputy Course Leader for Combined Honours. David worked for several universities before joining ICJS in 2007. These included the Open University, Liverpool John Moores University, the University of Liverpool, the University of Gloucestershire, and the University of Bath. David’s research interests are interdisciplinary with particular reference to the dynamics of contemporary urban societies and social problems. He has extensive experience of teaching across the social science disciplines including Social Policy, Sociology, and Political Science. He was also pivotal in the early development of Impacts08 which is the largest research programme examining the social, cultural and economic impacts of the European Capital of Culture. David also has experience beyond the world of academia and has worked in forestry and the arts and heritage sectors.

Research interests

David’s current research interests are interdisciplinary spanning Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy with specific reference to social and spatial inequalities, poverty, worklessness, social exclusion, urban unrest, and the criminalisation of social policy. In particular, he is currently interested in comparative analysis surrounding contested relationships between social unrest and socio-economic inequalities, the interplay between Social Policy and Criminology, and demands for justice at national and global levels. Other research interests and areas of expertise include: quantitative analysis and SPSS; crimes of the powerful and the poor; crime and inequality; social and political theory.

David acted as the interim research fellow for the Impacts 08 research programme. This was a £1 million research programme conducted on behalf of Liverpool City Council and the North West Development Agency by the Universities of Liverpool, to evaluate the social, economic, cultural, and environmental impact of the 2008 European Capital of Culture Award on the city and the Merseyside region.

In 2011 David was involved in a collaborative research project, to examine the effectiveness of the Flexible New Deal in North London. This involved undertaking research with marginalised Welfare-to-Work clients about their experiences of activation programmes. The background to the project was the cancellation of the Flexible New Deal and its replacement with the Work Programme.

David has recently written and co-edited the book Riot, Unrest and Protest on the Global Stage. This is to be published in September 2014 by Palgrave Macmillan. The book seeks to come to terms with riots, rioting and other forms of civil unrest in a way that transcends individual instances and superficial appearances. Although the English riots of 2011 did spark debate and facilitate research the book seeks to serve both a local (UK) and a global market. The book examines a number of factors and competing discourses associated with civil unrest and is interdisciplinary in character.