Dr Claire Bynner
- Children's Neighbourhood Network Research Team Leader (School of Education Administration)
telephone:
0141 330 1703
email:
Claire.Bynner@glasgow.ac.uk
pronouns:
She/her/hers
University of Glasgow, 3rd Floor, Olympia Building, Bridgeton Cross, Glasgow, G40 2QH
Biography
My expertise is in neighbourhoods, diversity, local governance and public participation. I have a professional background in urban regeneration and community empowerment. I currently work as a Research Fellow in the College of Social Sciences and I lead the Children's Neighbourhoods Scotland Research Team. Children's Neighbourhoods Scotland (CNS) is a collaboration between the University and Glasgow Centre for Population Health. In 2018, CNS received £2M grant funding from the Scottish Government to improve the health and well-being of children and young people in neighbourhoods with high levels of child poverty.
I have four years of post-doctoral experience as a researcher in the field of public policy. 2014-2018 I worked for What Works Scotland (WWS), a research collaboration funded by the Scottish Government and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). At WWS I was the prinicipal investigator for the project 'What Works in Local Decision-Making' and I led the place-based approaches workstream. My research has included: community-led action planning to reduce poverty; community profiling; knowledge mobilisation and evidence use; and resettlement of Syrian refugees. These projects have involved case studies, collaborative action research and theory-based evaluation methods.
In 1993 I first studied at the University of Glasgow graduating with a first class honours degree in Human Geography in 1997. I was awarded the Royal Geographical Society's Silver Medal for best graduating student. After a professional career, I returned to the University of Glasgow in 2011 and gained an MRes in Public Policy with distinction and part of a 1+3 PhD scholarship with the ESRC. My PhD thesis, supervised by Professor Annette Hastings and Professor Ade Kearns of the Urban Studies Department, examined the emergence of ‘superdiverse’ neighbourhoods in post-industrial cities drawing on the theories of multiculturalism, interculturalism, social contact and trust. The research, funded by the ESRC, comprised an ethnographic case study of a neighbourhood in Glasgow. The study provides important insights into neighbourhood change and the contexts that increase cooperation and trust between people from diverse backgrounds.
Research interests
Research Interests
The focus of my research is on social and spatial inequality, public participation and local governance. I am interested in local democracy and the potential for social and digital innovation to tackle issues such as climate change.
My expertise is in neighbourhoods and how the dynamics of political, demographic, economic and social changes are experienced at a local level. My PhD examined social contact and trust in a super diverse neighbourhood in Glasgow.
I am the team leader for the Children’s Neighbourhoods Scotland Research team. Our participatory research in schools explores the well-being of children and young people in high poverty neighbourhoods; agency, power and local collaboration and the impacts of COVID-19.
In previous roles, I have conducted UK based research on place-based approaches to poverty alleviation; urban regeneration; local systems of governance and policy making; and the role of key policy actors in facilitating public participation in governance
A future research agenda is to examine how young people in Scotland respond to the global challenges of digital and technological transformation; democratic innovation; and climate change.
Research methods – mixed methods, case studies, action research; collaborative and participatory research, theory-based evaluation (realist-informed)
Academic fields – public policy, urban studies, sociology, social and cultural geography
Grants
Children's Neighbourhoods Scotland: PI Professor Christopher Chapman, £2,700,000. Funded Period Feb 2019- Mar 2022, Funder: Scottish Government
What Works Scotland: Funded Value: PI Professor Nicholas Watson, £3,470,629, Funded Period: Jul 14 - Dec 18, Funder: ESRC
Independent grants and funding
Embedding Well-being in Northern Ireland Funded Period Nov 20- November 21. Funders: Carnegie Trust UK; Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council. £2,400. Consultancy
Principal Investigator: What Works in Local Decision-making? Perth and Kinross Community Planning Partnership. £10,000. Funder: Perth and Kinross Council
Dialogue and Deliberation Training for Fife Voluntary Action; June 2019; November 2019 £2,400. Consultancy
What Works in Community Profiling? What Works Scotland in collaboration with Glasgow Centre for Population Health and West Dunbartonshire Council. £10,000. Funder: West Dunbartonshire Council
Travel grants
ERASMUS+ Staff Mobility project to McGill University in Canada to develop an international collaboration on place-based approaches to public service reform (delayed due to Brexit uncertainty and then the COVID-19 pandemic) £1240 awarded, 2019-2021
U21 Early Career Researcher International Workshop on ‘Interculturality and Multiculturalism: the challenges for changing societies’, 4-6 October 2017 in Santiago, Chile, £1500, 2017
Supervision
I supervise Craig Orr's thesis: ‘Collaboration in Practice: Perceptions of Multi-Agency Collaborations’
I would welcome PhD enquiries in the areas of:
- local governance
- public participation
- place-based collaboration
- policy practitioners
- facilitation
- digital and social change
Teaching
Postgraduate
- Governance and public participation
- Public participation in practice
Undergraduate
- Mixed methods research
- Case study research
- Collaborative action research