Current research

John is Co-Investigator on the ERLI (Equitable Resilience in Local Institutions) project.

John is also involved in the iPTD (Integrated Participatory Technology Development) project.

He has been PI and/or project manager on projects in the ESRC’s Science in Society programme and the EPSRC’s Sustainable Urban Environment programme. He has been Co-I on two Rural Economy & Land Use (RELU) programme projects and Co-I/Project Manager on an Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme project. John has also led work on internal SEI projects on Policy Impact, and Stakeholder Engagement. He has most recently been Co-I on a European Commission FP7 project researching community resilience in the face of climate change-influenced natural disasters using social network mapping and participatory agent-based modelling.

He is author/joint-author of over 20 peer-reviewed publications and more than 70 other papers, articles, chapters and reports.

Work experience before SEI

Before working for SEI, John worked as a Researcher Fellow at the Sociology Department, University of Ulster; Department of Sociology and Social Policy, The Queen’s University of Belfast and School of Health Care Studies, University of Leeds and as an Associate Lecturer at the Centre for Science Education, The Open University.

Education

John holds a PhD in Social Anthropology (on tourism development and cultural change) from the Queen’s University of Belfast, 1996; a MA in Qualitative Research Methods from the University of York, 1998 and a Hons BA from Queen’s Belfast in Social Anthropology with History & Philosophy of Science, 1989. He also holds a HNC in Electronic Engineering, from the Limerick School of Engineering, 1981.