Dr Beth Perry

Senior Research Fellow and Associate Director of SURF

• Joule House Room 2.01
• T: +44 (0)161 295 4018
• M: +44 (0)7970 242218
• E: b.perry@salford.ac.uk
• SEEK: Research profile

Varies daily depending on meetings with external clients and project collaborators and the need to undertake fieldwork for externally funded projects.

I am Associate Director of SURF and Senior Research Fellow, having joined SURF in 2000. Following degrees in European studies and modern languages at the Universities of Manchester and Bradford, I received my PhD from the University of Salford which examined the dynamic inter-relationships between a ‘rethinking’ and ‘rescaling’ of science.

My main conceptual interests are in urban and regional policy and governance, particularly in relation to theories of multi-level governance and the role of universities in regional development and the knowledge economy. I have been successful in securing funding from a range of academic, public and business-related sources for research on regional and local science-based developments in England and Europe. This has included ESRC strategic programme funds, impact grants and networks, as well as formative evaluations and policy studies, requiring continuous reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of different methods of ‘engagement’ in the social sciences.

Academic and policy/practitioner publications cut across the content and methods of this work. These include special editions in journals such as Regional Studies and Social Epistemology, short think-pieces in Parliamentary Brief and Regeneration and Renewal and responsibility for SURF’s knowledge exchange activities, through policy briefings, pamphlets and e-newsletters. Most recently, I have contributed to Social Research and Reflexivity (2011, London, Sage) with Tim May and has written on case studies and comparative research in Social Research: Issues, Methods and Process. She has also edited a special edition of Built Enviroronment (2011) on the role of universities in building knowledge cities. She is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Knowledge-Based Urban Development and a regular reviewer for journals such as International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.

I am the current Directing the Greater Manchester Local Interaction Platform within Mistra – Urban Futures. I am also leading on SURF’s involvement on a Cross-Council AHRC led research programme on cultural intermediation in the creative urban economy, beginning in April 2012.

1. Rethinking Scale and Multi-Level Governance

These interests relate to the changing relationship between scales of action at European, national, regional and local levels as a result of a series of drivers in the international politcal economy (particularly those of globalisation and neo-liberalism). In the context of debates around the 'hollowing out' of the state, I am interested in the roles of regions, cities and other spatial scales in a number of policy fields.

2. Politics, Policy and Place

I am interested in the dynamics of places and the political, economic, social and civic interests which shape them. This includes how coalitions for action are built and processes of policy-making at national and local scales of action that include or exclude these interests, as well as the discourses that are appropriated to justify and legitimate policy decisions - and the gap between rhetoric and implementation on the ground.

3. Science, Innovation and Universities

This final set of interests relates to how the dynamics of neo-liberalism, a post-fordist economy and globalisation affect the capacity and capability of different places for economic and social development. In particular, I am considering what the relationship is between science, innovation and economic development at the sub-national level and the subsequent implications for universities. This theme therefore brings together literatures on governance, economic development and science and technology studies.

2010   PhD Sociology: University of Salford, ‘Rethinking and Rescaling Science’. By Publication. Advisors: Professor Tim May and Professor Michael Harloe.  External Examiners: Professor Steve Fuller (University of Warwick) and Professor Alan Scott (University of Innsbruck).

2000   MA in European Integration (with distinction): University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire. ESRC-funded.

1999   BA (Hons) in European Studies and French (1^st class): University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester.

For a full list of publications, including books, book chapters, peer reviewed journal articles, research reports and articles for the practitioner press see here.