Dr Ryan Nolan
Salford Business School
Current positions
Associate Professor
Biography
Ryan is interested in how knowledge of and about interdisciplinary sustainability fields (particularly the circular economy) is made sense of in practice. He combines sociological and organisational theory to examine the social processes through which meaning is constructed and contested in these fields, paying particular attention to how those meaning-making practices are oriented toward imagined futures. He draws on practice theory, field-level analysis, and relational methods to recover both the semantic structures and temporal imaginaries shaping sustainability discourse and action.
Current projects examine how relational structures within knowledge fields contribute to processes of future-making, how interdisciplinary research is organised and translated across landscapes of practice, and the performativity of sustainability journeys. He has contributed to major UK research programmes including the UKRI NICER Programme, UKRI Circular Economy Hub, and NERC RENEW, and works regularly across disciplinary boundaries with engineers, scientists, and policy researchers.
Alongside his academic research, Ryan is actively engaged in executive education, stakeholder co-creation, and research impact work with policymakers and business leaders. He serves on the editorial board of The Sociological Review.
Areas of Research
Organisation studies, circular economy, collaboration, practice, performativity, futures
Areas of Supervision
Please see my profile for research interests. I am open to supervise projects that align but also stretch beyond my own areas of interest.
Ryan teachs in the areas of strategy and sustainability. He is open to PhD supervision aligned with, but by no means limited by, the interests detailed above.