Dr Ewan Kerr
- Research Associate (Urban Studies & Social Policy)
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3033-7491Biography
Dr Ewan Kerr is a Research Associate in the School of Social & Political Science. He is currently working on the Leverhulme-funded project Democratic Localism and Global Policy Mobility. The two-year project will investigate the transformative potential and prospects for urban political initiatives to generate alternatives to dominant forms of economic development and top-down political governance, and reflect on how political change can be achieved from below and in dialogue with other places. He is also an Associate Editor of the journal Critical Sociology, and a co-founder of the Trade Unions and Labour Environmentalism Network.
Previously, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Glasgow Caledonian University, examining state-society relations during crisis periods as part of the ESRC-funded ENDURE project. Between 2021-22, he was employed as a Senior Teaching Fellow in Environmental Politics at The University of Edinburgh, and a Lecturer in Politics at Glasgow Caledonian University between 2017 and 2021. Ewan was awarded his PhD in March 2021, and also holds an MSc in Political Research from the University of Strathclyde, and a BA (Hons) in Politics with Sociology from Glasgow Caledonian University.
Research interests
- State-Society Relations
- Crises and Crisis Theory
- Multilevel Governance
- (De)Politicisation
- Scottish and UK politics
- Climate Politics
- Social Movements and Labour Studies
Research groups
Publications
2025
Kerr, Ewan 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3033-7491, Bužinkić, Emina and Foley, James (Eds.)
(2025)
The Organisation of Irresponsibility?: Reassessing COVID-19 in Europe.
Series: Studies in critical social sciences.
Brill.
ISBN 9789004747777
Kerr, Ewan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3033-7491, Bužinkić, Emina and Foley, James
(2025)
Preface: the organisation of irresponsibility? COVID-19 and the governance of state-society relations in Europe.
In: Kerr, Ewan, Bužinkić, Emina and Foley, James (eds.)
The Organisation of Irresponsibility?: Reassessing COVID-19 in Europe.
Series: Studies in critical social sciences, 347.
Brill, pp. 1-18.
ISBN 9789004747784
(doi: 10.1163/9789004747784_002)
Kerr, Ewan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3033-7491 and Foley, James
(2025)
The management of accountability: state transformation and class politics in Scotland’s COVID-19 response: reassessing COVID-19 in Europe.
In: Kerr, Ewan, Bužinkić, Emina and Foley, James (eds.)
The Organisation of Irresponsibility?: Reassessing COVID-19 in Europe.
Series: Studies in critical social sciences, 347.
Brill, pp. 19-46.
ISBN 9789004747784
(doi: 10.1163/9789004747784_003)
Foley, James and Kerr, Ewan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3033-7491
(2025)
Neoliberal legacy intellectuals and the COVID-19 pandemic: Libertarian versus technocratic legitimation.
Capital and Class,
(doi: 10.1177/03098168251388576)
(Early Online Publication)
2022
Gibbs, Ewan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7487-7241 and Kerr, Ewan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3033-7491
(2022)
Mobilizing solidarity in factory occupations: activist responses to multinational plant closures.
Economic and Industrial Democracy, 43(2),
pp. 612-633.
(doi: 10.1177/0143831X20931928)
Articles
Foley, James and Kerr, Ewan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3033-7491
(2025)
Neoliberal legacy intellectuals and the COVID-19 pandemic: Libertarian versus technocratic legitimation.
Capital and Class,
(doi: 10.1177/03098168251388576)
(Early Online Publication)
Gibbs, Ewan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7487-7241 and Kerr, Ewan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3033-7491
(2022)
Mobilizing solidarity in factory occupations: activist responses to multinational plant closures.
Economic and Industrial Democracy, 43(2),
pp. 612-633.
(doi: 10.1177/0143831X20931928)
Book Sections
Kerr, Ewan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3033-7491, Bužinkić, Emina and Foley, James
(2025)
Preface: the organisation of irresponsibility? COVID-19 and the governance of state-society relations in Europe.
In: Kerr, Ewan, Bužinkić, Emina and Foley, James (eds.)
The Organisation of Irresponsibility?: Reassessing COVID-19 in Europe.
Series: Studies in critical social sciences, 347.
Brill, pp. 1-18.
ISBN 9789004747784
(doi: 10.1163/9789004747784_002)
Kerr, Ewan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3033-7491 and Foley, James
(2025)
The management of accountability: state transformation and class politics in Scotland’s COVID-19 response: reassessing COVID-19 in Europe.
In: Kerr, Ewan, Bužinkić, Emina and Foley, James (eds.)
The Organisation of Irresponsibility?: Reassessing COVID-19 in Europe.
Series: Studies in critical social sciences, 347.
Brill, pp. 19-46.
ISBN 9789004747784
(doi: 10.1163/9789004747784_003)
Edited Books
Kerr, Ewan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3033-7491, Bužinkić, Emina and Foley, James (Eds.)
(2025)
The Organisation of Irresponsibility?: Reassessing COVID-19 in Europe.
Series: Studies in critical social sciences.
Brill.
ISBN 9789004747777
Prior publications
Article
James Foley, Ewan Kerr (2025) Re-Evaluating Scottish Social Movement Activism During the Covid-19 Pandemic Scottish Affairs Ewan Kerr. ISSN 2053-888X (doi: 10.3366/scot.2025.0557)
Emina Bužinkić, James Foley, Ewan Kerr (2025) Crisis Governance, (De)Mobilisation and New Inequalities: The Legacy of COVID-19 Critical Sociology Crossref. (doi: 10.1177/08969205241268370)
James Foley, Ewan Kerr (2025) Organising Irresponsibility: Pandemic Management, State Transformation and the Diversion of Class Politics in Scotland’s COVID-19 Response Critical Sociology Crossref. (doi: 10.1177/08969205241258672)
James Foley, Tom Montgomery, Ewan Kerr (2023) The Antinomies of Insurgency: The Case of the Scottish National Party The Political Quarterly Ewan Kerr. ISSN 1467-923X (doi: 10.1111/1467-923x.13314)
