Dr Michael Howcroft

  • Future Leaders Fellow (Urban Studies & Social Policy)

Biography

Michael is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow in the Division of Urban Studies and Social Policy. The four-year Civic Imaginary Partnerships project works closely with local and national policy partners, community organisations and creative practitioners to develop long-term ethnographic understandings of how communities collectively reimagine and reinvent their places. It explores the concept and method of the civic imaginary, its international reach and applications, and its potential as a broker between local authorities and communities.

Prior to this, Michael was Research Associate with the AHRC Place Programme (2023-2024) and held an ESRC Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship exploring pride in place at the University of Southampton (2022-2023). He was Research Fellow at the Southampton Institute for Arts and Humanities, working on the AHRC funded Feeling Towns project. He was also Research Associate at the University of Sheffield, on the Spaces of Hope project and a member of the team exploring the soft-power impacts of Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool, funded by the British Council.

With an earlier career as an actor and director, Michael is an experienced facilitator of focus groups and creative workshops, and his projects incorporate mixed methods, ethnographic, place-based approaches. He regularly collaborates with poets, youth theatres, visual artists, playwrights, musicians, community-based artists and film makers. Most recently, he co-created a short, animated film titled ‘How Proud?’, funded by the AHRC Place Programme.

Research interests

  • Civic imaginary theory and praxis
  • Emotional geographies, particularly the spatial, political and cultural geographies of pride and shame
  • Cultural mega-events
  • Community-led planning
  • Creative ethnographic methods

Research groups

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2024 | 2023 | 2022
Number of items: 12.

2024

Madgin, R. and Howcroft, M. (2024) Advancing People-Centred, Place-Based Approaches. Other. University of Glasgow, Glasgow. (doi: 10.36399/gla.pubs.342111).

Inch, A., Slade, J., Brownill, S., Ellis, G., Howcroft, M. , Humphry, D., Leeson, L., O'Hara, G., Sartorio, F. and Robbins, G. (2024) Community action, counter-professionals and radical planning in the UK. City: Analysis of Urban Change, Theory, Action, (doi: 10.1080/13604813.2024.2427437) (Early Online Publication)

Howcroft, M. , Marsh, N. and Owen, J. (2024) Levelling Up, affective governance and tensions within 'pride in place'. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, (doi: 10.1177/23996544241268342) (Early Online Publication)

Marsh, N., Howcroft, M. and Owen, J. (2024) "Pride in place" beyond the metrics: Insights from the Feeling Towns project, AHRC Place Programme Policy Brief. Other. University of Glasgow, Glasgow. (doi: 10.36399/gla.pubs.321921).

Baker, C., Atkinson, D., Grabher, B. and Howcroft, M. (2024) Culture, Place and Partnership: The Cultural Relations of Eurovision 2023. Documentation. British Council.

Baker, C., Atkinson, D., Grabher, B. and Howcroft, M. (2024) Soft Power, Cultural Relations and Conflict through Eurovision and Other Mega-events: A Literature Review. Documentation. British Council.

2023

Howcroft, M. (2023) The cultural politics of civic pride through Hull UK City of Culture 2017. Arts and the Market, 13(3), pp. 138-158. (doi: 10.1108/AAM-08-2021-0043)

Owen, J. and Howcroft, M. (2023) Pride(s) in Place(s) Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Pride. Royal Geographical Society Conference 2023, London, UK, 29 August -1 September 2023.

Baker, C. and Howcroft, M. (2023) Gay Bod: civic and LGBTQ+ pride after Brexit in a city on the margins of the UK and Europe. In: Loftsdóttir, K., Hipfl, B. and Ponzanesi, S. (eds.) Creating Europe from the Margins. Routledge: London, pp. 108-124. ISBN 9781003269748 (doi: 10.4324/9781003269748-7)

Chao, A., Frears, E., Howcroft, M. , Owen, J. and Marsh, N. (2023) How Proud? [Artefact]

2022

Marsh, N., Clarke, C., Howcroft, M. and May, W. (2022) Towns and the Cultural Economies of Recovery: A Multidisciplinary Mapping. Project Report. And Towns.

Marsh, N., Ashton, D. and Howcroft, M. (2022) Written evidence submitted to Reimagining where we live: cultural placemaking and the levelling up agenda. Other. Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, UK Government.

This list was generated on Wed Jan 15 20:33:28 2025 GMT.
Jump to: Articles | Book Sections | Research Reports or Papers | Conference or Workshop Item | Artefact
Number of items: 12.

Articles

Inch, A., Slade, J., Brownill, S., Ellis, G., Howcroft, M. , Humphry, D., Leeson, L., O'Hara, G., Sartorio, F. and Robbins, G. (2024) Community action, counter-professionals and radical planning in the UK. City: Analysis of Urban Change, Theory, Action, (doi: 10.1080/13604813.2024.2427437) (Early Online Publication)

Howcroft, M. , Marsh, N. and Owen, J. (2024) Levelling Up, affective governance and tensions within 'pride in place'. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, (doi: 10.1177/23996544241268342) (Early Online Publication)

Howcroft, M. (2023) The cultural politics of civic pride through Hull UK City of Culture 2017. Arts and the Market, 13(3), pp. 138-158. (doi: 10.1108/AAM-08-2021-0043)

Book Sections

Baker, C. and Howcroft, M. (2023) Gay Bod: civic and LGBTQ+ pride after Brexit in a city on the margins of the UK and Europe. In: Loftsdóttir, K., Hipfl, B. and Ponzanesi, S. (eds.) Creating Europe from the Margins. Routledge: London, pp. 108-124. ISBN 9781003269748 (doi: 10.4324/9781003269748-7)

Research Reports or Papers

Madgin, R. and Howcroft, M. (2024) Advancing People-Centred, Place-Based Approaches. Other. University of Glasgow, Glasgow. (doi: 10.36399/gla.pubs.342111).

Marsh, N., Howcroft, M. and Owen, J. (2024) "Pride in place" beyond the metrics: Insights from the Feeling Towns project, AHRC Place Programme Policy Brief. Other. University of Glasgow, Glasgow. (doi: 10.36399/gla.pubs.321921).

Baker, C., Atkinson, D., Grabher, B. and Howcroft, M. (2024) Culture, Place and Partnership: The Cultural Relations of Eurovision 2023. Documentation. British Council.

Baker, C., Atkinson, D., Grabher, B. and Howcroft, M. (2024) Soft Power, Cultural Relations and Conflict through Eurovision and Other Mega-events: A Literature Review. Documentation. British Council.

Marsh, N., Clarke, C., Howcroft, M. and May, W. (2022) Towns and the Cultural Economies of Recovery: A Multidisciplinary Mapping. Project Report. And Towns.

Marsh, N., Ashton, D. and Howcroft, M. (2022) Written evidence submitted to Reimagining where we live: cultural placemaking and the levelling up agenda. Other. Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, UK Government.

Conference or Workshop Item

Owen, J. and Howcroft, M. (2023) Pride(s) in Place(s) Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Pride. Royal Geographical Society Conference 2023, London, UK, 29 August -1 September 2023.

Artefact

Chao, A., Frears, E., Howcroft, M. , Owen, J. and Marsh, N. (2023) How Proud? [Artefact]

This list was generated on Wed Jan 15 20:33:28 2025 GMT.

Prior publications

ORCiD

Joseph Owen, Nicky Marsh, Michael Howcroft, (2023) Understanding pride in place (source-work-id: 55a965fa-ee2e-4077-80f5-2cb6ad3caf5c)(doi: 10.5258/SOTON/P1171); source: University of Southampton

Joseph Owen, Nicky Marsh, Michael Howcroft, (2022) Pride and Harefield (source-work-id: d0b6af79-f4a5-464d-9b05-b96a76933660)(doi: 10.5258/SOTON/P1183); source: University of Southampton

Joseph Owen, Nicky Marsh, Michael Howcroft, (2022) Pride and Herefordshire (source-work-id: 18999572-9bfc-4225-90a4-bcb824cea8cd)(doi: 10.5258/SOTON/P1185); source: University of Southampton

Joseph Owen, Nicky Marsh, Michael Howcroft, (2022) Pride and Northgate (source-work-id: 445334a7-e7c6-455d-85a3-bd9acf983d0f)(doi: 10.5258/SOTON/P1184); source: University of Southampton

Howcroft, Michael, (2021) Pride, shame, and the civic imaginary : Hull as UK City of Culture and Brexit (source-work-id: BASE:e39f0ddc06afb4bb85f4bc010117282956cb56b23e14ecbe44d8099b10dbd7c1); source: BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine

Nicky Marsh, Catherine Clarke, Michael Howcroft, Will May, (2021) Where Next? Towns and the Cultural Economies of Recovery AHRC Report (source-work-id: 7f4719eb-0806-4525-a246-7b0e435cf308); source: University of Southampton

Grants

2024-2028: Civic imaginary partnerships: cultures of participation and local decision making UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship Grant number: MR/Y017404/1, £1.5m

2022-2023: Pride, shame and the civic imaginary: UK cultural festivals and the levelling up agenda ESRC Post-Doctoral Fellowship Grant number: ES/X004139/1, £95,177

2022-2023: Feeling Towns: the role of place and identity in governance and local policy AHRC AH/W008696/1, £125,000 (Co-Investigator. P-I Nicky Marsh)

Professional activities & recognition

Research fellowships

  • 2024 - 2028: UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship
  • 2022 - 2023: ESRC Post-doctoral Fellowship

Selected international presentations

  • 2024: Regional Studies Association (Florence, Italy)
  • 2023: University of Iceland (Reykjavik, Iceland)
  • 2023: Royal Geographical Society (London, UK)
  • 2023: Regional Studies Association (Ljubljana, Slovenia)
  • 2023: Political Studies Association (Liverpool, UK)
  • 2023: American Association of Geographers (Denver, USA)

Additional information

Michael is a member of the Community Ownership Fund evaluation steering committee (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities).


Dr Michael Howcroft on Twitter