Professor Rebecca Madgin

Professor of Urban Studies (Urban Studies & Social Policy)

telephone: 0141 330 3847
email: Rebecca.Madgin@glasgow.ac.uk

25 Bute Gardens, Room 117

Biography

Rebecca Madgin (PhD) is Professor of Urban Studies at the University of Glasgow.

Rebecca has held a number of senior research leadership roles and is currently Programme Director for the UK Research and Innovation/Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Place-Based Research Programme, a long-term strategic investment that brings academics, industry, and communities together to advance people-centred, place-based approaches.

Rebecca retains an active role with the wider built environment sector through a number of advisory roles including currently being a member of the UK Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s College of Experts, Historic England’s ‘Places Panel’, Canal and River Trust’s ‘Cultural Heritage Advisory Group’, the Key Cities Innovation Network’s Advisory Group and she is an Associate Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute.

Linkedin: Rebecca Madgin

Research interests

At the core of Rebecca’s research interests is the relationship between place, emotion, and decision making. In essence, why and how do places matter to people and how can this information be considered within place-based decision making.

Rebecca explores this relationship in a number of ways including

1. Developing empirically grounded conceptual frameworks to understand what comprises people’s emotional relationships with place. Most recently this has involved breaking down emotion into three component parts: responses – attachments – communities in a book entitled ‘Why Historic Places Matter Emotionally’ published by Cambridge University Press (Madgin, 2025) and introducing the concept ‘felt experiences of place’ through the work of the AHRC Place-Based Research Programme (Madgin, 2022)

2. Devising new methodological approaches to surface how people feel in and about places. This has involved using a range of different creative methods and adopting novel ways of conducting data analysis to focus on how we can access, measure, and value emotion and feelings.

3. Analysing different types of places, predominantly historic buildings including for example, Brutalist and Victorian architecture, and conservation areas, and also recreational places, de-industrial/derelict places, new architecture, and forthcoming masterplans. This published work sits across the scale of individual buildings, streets, and neighbourhoods in both urban and rural settings.

4. Applying an understanding of how and why people form emotional relationships with place to different place-based policy and practice contexts. Here Rebecca works with a range of partners from across the public, private, and third sectors to ensure that emotion can be seen as a valid category of information and used to inform decision making.

Rebecca has maintained a long-standing interest in comparative urbanism and has published work on urban and rural places in the United Kingdom, Europe, and China as well as methodological work on single-city, comparative, transnational, and global approaches to Urban Studies and Urban History.

Rebecca is currently the Programme Director for the UK Research and Innovation/Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Place-Based Research Programme, a long-term strategic investment that brings academics, industry, and communities together to advance people-centred, place-based approaches. This Programme develops new conceptual frameworks, devises innovative methodologies, and conducts comparative empirical work in an UK and international context to help tackle place-based challenges.

Research groups

Place & built environment

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2013 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008

Number of items: 42.

2026

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212, Leeson, A., MacKenzie, C., Gigante, Lucrezia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-7158-1391 and Rees, Ieuan (2026) Connecting People and Place: Valuing the Felt Experiences of Historic Places. Documentation. University of Glasgow, Glasgow. (doi: 10.36399/gla.pubs.376324).

2025

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2025) Why Historic Places Matter Emotionally: Responses - Attachments - Communities. Series: Elements in critical heritage studies. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781009598521 (doi: 10.1017/9781009349413)

Madgin, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 and Kenny, N. (2025) Towards an urban history of emotions: Centring the felt experience of place. In: Brantz, Dorothee and Sonkoly, Gábor (eds.) The Cambridge Urban History of Europe Volume 3: Modern and Contemporary Europe. Cambridge University Press.

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212, Howcroft, Michael ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122 and McCandlish, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4904-2634 (2025) The Felt Experiences of Place Resource Kit. Documentation. University of Glasgow. (doi: 10.36399/gla.pubs.371694).

2024

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 and Howcroft, Michael ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122 (2024) Advancing People-Centred, Place-Based Approaches. Other. University of Glasgow, Glasgow. (doi: 10.36399/gla.pubs.342111).

2023

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 and Robson, Elizabeth (2023) Developing a People-Centred, Place-Led Approach: The Value of the Arts and Humanities. Project Report. University of Glasgow.

2022

Madgin, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2022) Place Based Policies. The Protagonist, July, pp. 10-11.

2021

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2021) Personalities of Historic Places – Why Do Historic Places Matter? [Audio]

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 and Lesh, James (Eds.) (2021) People-Centred Methodologies for Heritage Conservation: Exploring Emotional Attachments to Historic Urban Places. Series: Critical studies in heritage, emotion and affect. Routledge: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY. ISBN 9780367364182

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2021) Emoji as method: accessing emotional responses to changing historic places. In: Madgin, Rebecca and Lesh, James (eds.) People-Centred Methodologies for Heritage Conservation: Exploring Emotional Attachments to Historic Urban Places. Series: Critical studies in heritage, emotion and affect. Routledge: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY, pp. 80-94. ISBN 9780367364182 (doi: 10.4324/9780429345807-6)

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 and Lesh, James (2021) Exploring emotional attachments to historic places: bridging concept, practice and method. In: Madgin, Rebecca and Lesh, James (eds.) People-Centred Methodologies for Heritage Conservation: Exploring Emotional Attachments to Historic Urban Places. Series: Critical studies in heritage, emotion and affect. Routledge: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY, pp. 1-15. ISBN 9780367364182 (doi: 10.4324/9780429345807-1)

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2021) Recognising emotions within urban development. In: Barclay, Katie and Riddle, Jade (eds.) Urban Emotions and the Making of the City Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Routledge: New York. ISBN 9780367754600

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2021) Why Do Historic Places Matter? Emotional Attachments to Urban Heritage. Project Report. University of Glasgow, Glasgow.

2020

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2020) Urban heritage and urban development. In: Haumann, Sebastian, Knoll, Martin and Mares, Detlev (eds.) Concepts of Urban-Environmental History. Transcript: Bielefeld. ISBN 9783837643756 (doi: 10.14361/9783839443750-016)

Ruiz, Pollyanna, Snelson, Tim, Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 and Webb, David (2020) ‘Look at What We Made’: communicating subcultural value on London’s Southbank. Cultural Studies, 34(3), pp. 392-417. (doi: 10.1080/09502386.2019.1621916)

2019

Kintrea, Keith ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0789-9007 and Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (Eds.) (2019) Transforming Glasgow: Beyond the Post-Industrial City. Policy Press: Bristol. ISBN 9781447349778

Kintrea, Keith ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0789-9007 and Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2019) Transforming post-industrial Glasgow. In: Kintrea, Keith and Madgin, Rebecca (eds.) Transforming Glasgow: Beyond the Post-Industrial City. Policy Press: Bristol. ISBN 9781447349778

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 and Kintrea, Keith ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0789-9007 (2019) Beyond the post-industrial – narratives of time and place. In: Kintrea, Keith and Madgin, Rebecca (eds.) Transforming Glasgow: Beyond the Post-Industrial City. Policy Press: Bristol. ISBN 9781447349778

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2019) A place for urban conservation? The changing values of Glasgow’s built heritage. In: Kintrea, Keith and Madgin, Rebecca (eds.) Transforming Glasgow Beyond the Post-Industrial City. Policy Press. ISBN 9781447349778 (doi: 10.1332/policypress/9781447349778.003.0012)

2018

Lincoln, Toby and Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2018) The inherent malleability of heritage: creating China’s beautiful villages. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 24(9), pp. 938-953. (doi: 10.1080/13527258.2018.1428666)

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212, Webb, Dave, Ruiz, Pollyanna and Snelson, Tim (2018) Resisting relocation and reconceptualising authenticity: the experiential and emotional values of the Southbank Undercroft London UK. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 24(6), pp. 585-598. (doi: 10.1080/13527258.2017.1399283)

2017

Bashforth, M. et al. (2017) Socialising heritage / socialising legacy. In: Facer, Keri and Pahl, Kate (eds.) Valuing Interdisciplinary Collaborative Research: Beyond Impact. Policy Press, pp. 85-106. ISBN 9781447331605

Clark, Julie and Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2017) Writing the past into the fabric of the present: urban regeneration in Glasgow’s East End. In: Wise, Nicholas and Clark, Julie (eds.) Urban Transformations: Geographies of Renewal and Creative Change. Series: Regions and cities (117). Routledge: Abingdon ; New York, pp. 11-27. ISBN 9781138652095

2016

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212, Bradley, Lisa ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8117-7649 and Hastings, Annette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9174-0677 (2016) Connecting physical and social dimensions of place attachment: what can we learn from attachment to urban recreational spaces? Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 31(4), pp. 677-693. (doi: 10.1007/s10901-016-9495-4)

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2016) Contesting liberty: the place of industrial heritage in Leicester's urban regeneration. In: Rodger, Richard and Madgin, Rebecca (eds.) Leicester: A Modern History. Carnegie Press: Lancaster. ISBN 9781859362242

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2016) The spirit of the city: what is Leicester's genius loci? In: Rodger, Richard and Madgin, Rebecca (eds.) Leicester: A Modern History. Carnegie Press: Lancaster. ISBN 9781859362242

Rodger, Richard and Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2016) Leicester: A Modern History. Carnegie Press: Lancaster. ISBN 9781859362242

2015

Kenny, N. and Madgin, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2015) 'Every time I describe a city’: urban history as comparative and transnational practice. In: Kenny, N. and Madgin, R. (eds.) Cities Beyond Borders: Comparative and Transnational Approaches to Urban History. Ashgate: Abingdon, pp. 3-26. ISBN 9781472434791

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 and Taylor, Michael (2015) Who do heritage values belong to? Context, 142, pp. 12-14.

Bashforth, M. et al. (2015) How Should Heritage Decisions be Made? Increasing Participation From Where You Are. Project Report. Connected Communities: Arts & Humanities Research Council.

Hale, Alex and Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2015) Discovering the Clyde: Organisational reflective practice. In: Bashforth, Martin, Benson, Mike, Boon, Tim, Brigham, Lianne, Brigham, Richard, Brookfield, Karen, Brown, Peter, Callaghan, Danny, Calvin, Jean-Phillipe, Courtney, Richard, Cremin, Kathy, Furness, Paul, Graham, Helen, Hale, Alex, Hodgkiss, Paddy, Lawson, John, Madgin, Rebecca, Robinson, David, Stanley, John, Swan, Martin, Timothy, Jennifer and Turner, Rachael (eds.) How Should Heritage Decisions be Made? Increasing Participation From Where You Are. Connected Communities: Arts & Humanities Research Council, pp. 36-39.

Timothy, Jenny and Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2015) College court: processes and rules versus intuition and interaction. In: Bashforth, Martin, Benson, Mike, Boon, Tim, Brigham, Lianne, Brigham, Richard, Brookfield, Karen, Brown, Peter, Callaghan, Danny, Calvin, Jean-Phillipe, Courtney, Richard, Cremin, Kathy, Furness, Paul, Graham, Helen, Hale, Alex, Hodgkiss, Paddy, Lawson, John, Madgin, Rebecca, Robinson, David, Stanley, John, Swan, Martin, Timothy, Jennifer and Turner, Rachael (eds.) How Should Heritage Decisions be Made? Increasing Participation From Where You Are. Connected Communities: Arts & Humanities Research Council, pp. 28-31.

Kenny, N. and Madgin, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (Eds.) (2015) Cities Beyond Borders: Comparative and Transnational Approaches to Urban History. Ashgate: Abingdon. ISBN 9781472434791

2013

Madgin, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 and Rodger, R. (2013) Inspiring capital? Deconstructing myths and reconstructing urban environments, Edinburgh, 1860–2010. Urban History, 40(3), pp. 507-529. (doi: 10.1017/S0963926813000448)

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2013) A town without memory? Inferring the industrial past: Clydebank re-built, 1941-2013. In: Zimmerman, Clemens (ed.) Industrial Cities: History and Future. Campus Verlag: Frankfurt am Main. ISBN 978-3593399140

2010

Madgin, R ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2010) Reconceptualising the Historic Urban Environment: Conservation and Regeneration in Castlefield, Manchester, 1960-2009. Planning Perspectives, 25(1), pp. 29-48.

2009

Madgin, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2009) The contemporary value of industrial architecture. In: Charlesworth, I. and Benci, J. (eds.) The British School at Rome: Fine Arts 2008-2009. BSR: London.

Madgin, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2009) Heritage, Culture and Conservation: Managing the Urban Renaissance. VDM Verlag: Saarbrucken. ISBN 9783639157895

Madgin, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2009) Using culture to turn de-industrial space into post-industrial place: a british-french comparison. In: Eckardt, F. and Nystrom, L. (eds.) Culture and City. Series: Future urban research in Europe (3). Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag: Berlin. ISBN 9783830516408

2008

Madgin, R ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2008) The Rise of Industrial Heritage and its Role in Manchester's Urban Renaissance, 1945-2007. Informationen zur Modernen Stadtgeschichte, 2, pp. 33-36.

Madgin, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2008) Making the most of our existing urban assets? New Labour's focus on the historic urban environment. In: Nail, S. and Fee, D. (eds.) Vers une Renaissance Anglaise: dix ans de politique travailliste de la ville. Presse de la Sorbonne Nouvelle: Paris. ISBN 9782878544435

Madgin, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2008) Transforming Historic Images and Ascribing Contemporary Values: The Re-Presentation of the City. In: Language And The Scientific Imagination: The 11th International Conference Of The International Society For The Study Of European Ideas (ISSEI), Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, 28 July - 2 August 2008,

This list was generated on Tue Apr 21 23:40:31 2026 BST.

Number of items: 42.

Articles

Madgin, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2022) Place Based Policies. The Protagonist, July, pp. 10-11.

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 and Taylor, Michael (2015) Who do heritage values belong to? Context, 142, pp. 12-14.

Books

Madgin, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2009) Heritage, Culture and Conservation: Managing the Urban Renaissance. VDM Verlag: Saarbrucken. ISBN 9783639157895

Book Sections

Edited Books

Rodger, Richard and Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2016) Leicester: A Modern History. Carnegie Press: Lancaster. ISBN 9781859362242

Research Reports or Papers

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2021) Why Do Historic Places Matter? Emotional Attachments to Urban Heritage. Project Report. University of Glasgow, Glasgow.

Bashforth, M. et al. (2015) How Should Heritage Decisions be Made? Increasing Participation From Where You Are. Project Report. Connected Communities: Arts & Humanities Research Council.

Conference Proceedings

Audio

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 (2021) Personalities of Historic Places – Why Do Historic Places Matter? [Audio]

This list was generated on Tue Apr 21 23:40:31 2026 BST.

Grants

Ongoing Programme

Arts and Humanities Research Council: (Programme Director) Place-Based Research Programme

Completed Projects

Arts and Humanities Research Council: Why does the Past Matter: Emotional Attachments to the Historic Urban Environment (PI)
Economic and Social Research Council: The Re-Making of Chinese Urban Neighbourhoods: Socio-Spatial Transformation and Access to Public Services (Co-I).
Arts and Humanities Research Council: You Can Make History: Extending and Developing Youth Engagement in Cultural Heritage (Follow-on funding) Member of Steering Group.
Arts and Humanities Research Council: Learning from the Utopian City: An international network on alternative histories of India's urban futures' (Co-I):https://utopiancities.wordpress.com/
Arts and Humanities Research Council: Sensory Cities: Researching, Representing and Curating Sensory-Emotional Landscapes of Urban Environments (Member of Steering Group): http://www.sensorycities.com/
Arts and Humanities Research Council: 'You Can't Move History. You Can Secure the Future': Engaging Youth in Cultural Heritage (Co-I): http://www.youthandheritage.com/
Arts and Humanities Research Council and Indian Research Council for Historical Research and Newton Fund (UK Academic Lead): 'Cultural Heritage and Rapid Urbanisation in India'.
Heritage Lottery Fund, Townscape Heritage Initiative: ‘Living and Working in the Old Town’. Led by Leicester City Council (Project Partner).
Arts and Humanities Research Council: Affective Digital Histories: Re-creating Britain's De-industrial Places, 1970s to the Present (Co-I): http://affectivedigitalhistories.org.uk/
Arts and Humanities Research Council: ‘How Should Decisions about Heritage be Made? Co-designing a research project’. (Co-I) Project partners include Royal Commission of Ancient and Historic Monuments, Science Museum, National Centre for Co-coordinating Public Policy Engagement, Leicester City Council, Heritage Lottery Fund and local community heritage organisations: http://codesignheritage.wordpress.com/
Arts and Humanities Research Council: ‘Archives, Assets and Audiences: New Modes to Engage Audiences with Archival Content and Heritage Sites’. (Co-I): http://archivestoassets.wordpress.com/
Arts and Humanities Research Council: ‘Building and Enriching Shared Heritages’ (Phase 2) (Co-I)
Arts and Humanities Research Council: ‘Building Shared Heritages: Cultural Diversity in Leicester’ (Phase 1) (Co-I)
Arts and Humanities Research Council, Cultural Engagement Fund: ‘Valuing the Historic Core of Leicester’ (Project Manager)
JISC: ‘Manufacturing Pasts: Industrial Change in Twentieth Century Britain’ with Prof Simon Gunn and Ben Wynne (University of Leicester): http://www2.le.ac.uk/library/about/projects/manufacturingpasts
Admiral: ‘History of Admiral Sportswear’. (PI)

Supervision

Rebecca has supervised a number of PhD students to completion in a variety of areas such as globalisation, the British New Towns, urban conservation, and architectural symbolism and would welcome students who wish to pursue doctoral research on:

emotion and place
felt experiences of place
urban conservation
place attachment
cultural urban policy
urban history

Maurer, Olivia
Capturing Felt Experience of Place

Teaching

Postgraduate Teaching

URBAN5156 Integrative City Planning Lab (Place and Design)
URBAN5054 Urban Studies Dissertation: Real Estate Planning and Regeneration (Supervisor)

Former

Director of Learning and Teaching (Urban Studies)

Course Convenor

Postgraduate

URBAN 5118/5126: Urban Conservation
URBAN5098: Urban Design and Development (Joint Graduate School Course with Nankai University)

Undergraduate

SPS3003: Researching the City: Developing an Urban Profile

Contributions