UCD School of Geography, Planning & Environmental Policy

The question of how regeneration policy evolves and with what impacts has been central to the work of my research students, my own writing and my teaching. Dublin Docklands Reinvented (my monograph) is the most comprehensive account of historic and contemporary changes in the city and has had substantial impact in academic and community circles. Setting the agenda for Irish urban policy development has been Renewing Urban Communities (Ashgate, 2005) co-edited with Dr Mark Scott. Expertise developed within this field led to a number of funded research projects, and invitations to address and opportunities to influence policy and other groups. My work on brownfield regeneration played a key role in shaping thinking on development in Dublin and led to the commissioning of an inventory of brownfield land in the city. An MLitt student undertook this survey under my supervision, and elements of the database have formed the basis of a number of MA dissertations. Developing an understanding of the important of place to such thematic questions is important and currently I supervise a CSC Scholarship PhD student applying these questions in a Chinese context. This is opening up a range of new research ideas on the applicability of Western paradigms to non-Western contexts and provides excellent material for the module I co-teach, World Urbanisation. 

A second, and related, strand of research investigates the culture of regeneration focusing on what political culture underpins regeneration as well as how, and by whom, urban identity is defined in a neoliberal context? I am primary supervisor of one PhD thesis in this area and DSP member for a Cultural Policy student. The contribution of my co-edited volume Heritage, Memory and the Politics of Identity (Ashgate, 2007), and a number of book chapters on this theme, to international debates has been recognized through invitations to present my work internationally, for example to English Heritage (2008) and the Dutch Council of Tall Buildings / Ministry of the Environment.  Recent conference papers presented to the International Geographical Union focus on the role of political culture, in urban regeneration. Over the next 12 months in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Palermo (Sicily), a particular focus will be how the economic crisis is shaping approaches to and opportunities for continued regeneration. 

Because of the rapidly changing nature of cities, they provide a "real-world laboratory" within which to investigate geographical concepts and processes, of national and international relevance, with students. Engaging large groups of students with these themes and ideas has been a major challenge but through creativity, it has been possible to integrate my research agenda successfully with my teaching activity in a number of ways. My published and ongoing output provides a resource for students in all my modules; the engagement of undergraduate students in active research and fieldwork has fostered a sense of inquiry that has attracted them to undertake graduate research and co-author with me; and my attempts to develop innovative approaches to communicate the excitement of  the urban environment as a research space has resulted in a very significant body of work on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.