Dr Henry Staples

My research looks at how groups of people make claims to cities, particularly in the Global South. I have researched this central theme through use of qualitative and participatory methods in Colombia, South Africa, and the UK, in the context of a number of international projects.

Social inclusion and public space:

I am interested in how people interact and make use of public space, especially at the edges of cities. I am currently exploring this within the project Life at the Frontier, which asks how ‘social frontiers’ shape the experiences of different social and ethnic groups in cities across the UK, Norway and Sweden.

I am also interested in understanding and redressing the barriers to community oversight over public spaces. I researched this topic while working on the project D.Rad: De-Radicalisation in Europe and Beyond: Detect, Resolve, Re-integrate, for which I conducted research on Windrush Square in Brixton.

Conflict and peacebuilding:

My research brings together insights from geography and political science to understand how conflict dynamics affect - and are shaped by - the spaces that people inhabit. I explored this through my doctoral research on former combatants in rural and urban Colombia, and while working on the project Improbable Dialogues: Participatory Research as a Strategy for Reconciliation.

Participatory and creative research methods:

I am enthusiastic about the potential for participatory and creative methods to generate meaningful social impact from research. I have employed participatory methods in Colombia via the Improbable Dialogues project, winner of the 2021 ESRC Outstanding Societal Impact Prize.

I have supported the use of storytelling to make sense of how marginalised residents understand different kinds of crises in Colombia and South Africa, and artistic performance as a way to express complex ideas about migration in Rotherham.

I also previously worked in the Social Sciences Knowledge Exchange team, supporting academics across the faculty to embed impact into their research.

Research projects:

• Interrogating Urban Crisis Representation and Response in ‘Disorderly’ Southern Cities (British Academy)
• Life at the Frontier (ESRC / Nordforsk)
• D.Rad: De-Radicalisation in Europe and Beyond: Detect, Resolve, Re-integrate (Horizon 2020)
• Improbable Dialogues: Participatory Research as a Strategy for Reconciliation (Newton RCUK-Colciencias)