Communities, Politics and Identities

Communities face a number of emerging challenges including demographic change, strained social relations and a rebalancing of the relationship between civil society and the state, compounded by constrained public finances. Such challenges are increasingly negotiated within the context of global events and narratives, shifting the boundaries of what we understand as the local and the national.

To appreciate how communities deal with such challenges and indeed opportunities, the Communities, Politics and Identities Research Group is committed to research rooted in local knowledge and the lived experience of residents. In doing so it will create an evidence base which assists communities to successfully adapt to change.

Communities may be defined by interest, commonality, or spatial units. They are viewed as sites of conflict and accommodation. The cluster critically engages concepts of community by providing space for the deconstruction of such commonly held definitions.

We employ an interdisciplinary approach to analyse themes such as trust and securitisation; democratic renewal, distribution of power and governance; coexistence and managing difference; radicalisation and extremism; embedded within established and emerging theoretical frameworks relating to gender.

THE TEAM

	Gavin Sullivan, Professor (Research group leader) Social and political psychology, collective memory and emotions
	Joel Busher, Associate Professor Anti-minority mobilisation, gang violence, gender
	Hazel Barrett, Professor FGM and communities, human geography, health and rural development
	Durukan Kuzu, Assistant Professor Ethnic diversity, comparative politics, conflict resolution and multiculturalism
	Marisa McGlinchey, Assistant Professor UK devolution; Basque politics: Irish republicanism: political 'dissidence'
	Matt Qvortrup, Professor Political Science, referendums; peace and governance; terrorism
	Sahla Aroussi, Assistant Professor
	Imogen Baylis, Research Assistant
	Mateja Celestina, Assistant Professor
	Catherine Harris, Assistant Professor
	EJ Milne, Associate Professor
	Ann-Marie Nienaber, Professor
	Charis Rice, Assistant Professor