Dr Owen Parker

BSc, MSc, MA, PhD, SFHEA

School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations

Senior Lecturer in European Politics

School Student Experience Lead

o.parker@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 1695

D47, Elmfield Building

Full contact details

Dr Owen Parker
School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations
D47
Elmfield Building
Northumberland Road
Sheffield
S10 2TU

Profile

Dr Owen Parker joined the Department as Lecturer in European Politics in April 2012 and became Senior Lecturer in 2015.

Owen’s research and teaching is focused on the politics and political economy of the European Union. Recent research focuses on: the politics and governance of EU citizenship and the free movement of people in the EU; the contemporary political left and the EU; and Brexit.

His current projects are focused on EU citizens in post-Brexit UK, with a close focus on marginalised Roma and other racialised minorities. In the context of that work he has worked with a range of external actors, including the EU delegation to the UK, the Roma Support Group, Black Europeans, the3million, Migration Yorkshire, and the Office for National Statistics.

Owen’s academic interests dovetail with his prior professional experience. He worked from 2003-2006 as 'International Relations Officer' at the European Commission (Directorate General for Enlargement, Turkey Unit) on the assessment of Turkey's fulfilment of the EU's Copenhagen political criteria (relating to human rights, democracy, rule of law, minority rights).

Owen has held several leadership roles, including Director of Education, Director of Undergraduate Studies, Director of Employability, and Director of Postgraduate Taught Studies, Director of Student Conduct.

From academic year 2025/26 Owen will be be the School's Director of Student Experience.

Qualifications: Owen was awarded a PhD in Politics and International Studies from Warwick in September 2010 (ESRC funded), holds Masters degrees from Warwick (Politics, International Political Economy track, 2007) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (International Relations, 2002), and a BSc from Bath (Politics and Economics, 2000).

Research interests

Broad interests include:

normative (political theory) and critical approaches to the European Union
comparative European political economy
EU economic governance
the politics and political economy of Brexit
progressive (left) politics and the European Union

Narrow interests include:

the politics and governance of EU citizenship and the free movement of people
Brexit and the British left
EU citizens in Brexit Britain
Roma and racialised EU citizens in the UK
Investor citizenship in Europe

Publications

Books

Bulmer S, Parker O, Bache I, George S & Burns C (2020) Politics in the European Union 5th edition.
Parker O (2012) Cosmopolitan Government in Europe. Routledge.

Journal articles

Parker O (2022) The politics of free movement of people in the United Kingdom : beyond securitization and de-securitization?. Journal of Common Market Studies.
Parker O (2021) Europe’s crisis of legitimacy: governing by rules and ruling by numbers in the Eurozone. By Vivien A. Schmidt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. 358p. $105.00 cloth, $35.00 paper.. Perspectives on Politics, 19(1), 327-329.
Parker O (2018) A genealogy of EU discourses and practices of deliberative governance: Beyond states and markets?. Public Administration.
Parker O & Pye R (2018) Mobilising social rights in EU economic governance: a pragmatic challenge to neoliberal Europe. Comparative European Politics, 16(5), 805-824.
Parker O (2017) Critical political economy, free movement and Brexit: Beyond the progressive’s dilemma. British Journal of Politics & International Relations, 19(3), 479-496.
Parker O (2017) Commercializing Citizenship in Crisis EU: The Case of Immigrant Investor Programmes. Journal of Common Market Studies, 55(2), 332-348.
Parker O (2015) Teaching (Dissident) Theory in Crisis European Union. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 54(1), 37-52.
Parker O & Catalán ÓL (2014) Free Movement for Whom, Where, When? Roma EU Citizens in France and Spain. International Political Sociology, 8(4), 379-395.
Parker O & Toke D (2013) The Politics of a Multi-level Citizenship: French Republicanism, Roma Mobility and the EU. Global Society, 27(3), 360-378.
Parker O & Rosamond B (2013) 'Normative power Europe' meets economic liberalism: Complicating cosmopolitanism inside/outside the EU. Cooperation and Conflict, 48(2), 229-246.
Parker O (2012) The ethics of an ambiguous cosmopolitics: citizens and entrepreneurs in the European project. International Theory: a journal of international politics, law and philosophy, 4(2), 198-232.
Parker O (2012) Roma and the Politics of EU Citizenship in France: Everyday Security and Resistance. Journal of Common Market Studies, 50(3), 475-491.
Parker O (2009) Cosmopolitan Europe' and the EU-Turkey question: The politics of a 'common destiny. Journal of European Public Policy, 16(7), 1085-1101.
Parker O (2009) Why EU, Which EU? Habermas and the Ethics of Postnational Politics in Europe. Constellations, 16(3), 392-409.
Parker O (2008) Challenging 'new constitutionalism' in the EU: French resistance, 'social europe' and 'soft' governance. New Political Economy, 13(4), 397-417.
Parker O & Brassett J (2005) Contingent borders, ambiguous ethics: Migrants in (international) political theory. International Studies Quarterly, 49(2), 233-254.
Parker O () Teaching the European Union in Brexit Britain. Journal of Contemporary European Research, 18(2).

Chapters

Parker O & Tsarouhas D (2018) Causes and Consequences of Crisis in the Eurozone Periphery, Crisis in the Eurozone Periphery (pp. 1-27). Springer International Publishing
(2012) A Foucauldian perspective on the ethics of EU(rope): genealogies of liberal government, Globalisation and European Integration (pp. 94-112). Routledge

Research group: Owen has been an active participant in, among others, the Political Economy Research Group (PERG); the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI); and the Migration Research Group (MRG).

Grants

Awarding Body: Office for National Statistics
Title of Research: ONS Qualitative Research Project on Roma in the UK (with Migration Yorkshire and the Roma Support Group)
Duration: 2024-2025
Total: £200,000
Total Award to UoS: N/A (consultant to project)

Awarding Body: European Commission/ Ecorys
Title of Research: Ethnic Minority EU Citizens in the UK
Duration: 2024-2025
Total Award to UoS: approx. £12,000

Awarding Body: Sheffield City Council
Title of Research: Roma EU Citizens and the EU settlement scheme
Duration: 2024-2025
Total Award to UoS: approx. £20,000

Awarding Body: Higher Education Innovation Fund
Title of Research: The Migration Status and Exclusion of Roma EU Citizens in the UK
Duration: 2024
Total Award to UoS: approx. £30,000

Awarding Body: European Commission
Title of Research: Jean Monnet New European Borderlands Network
Duration: 2019-2022
Total Award to UoS: approx. £80,000

Awarding Body: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
Title of Research: EU Citizenship and Free Movement White Rose Network (network lead)
Duration: September 2016-2019
Total Award to UoS: approx. £60,000

Awarding Body: Leverhulme Trust (Research Fellowship)
Title of Research: Citizenship for Sale: Immigrant Investor Programmes in Crisis EU?
Duration: September 2014-2015
Total Award: £45,000

Awarding Body: Leverhulme Trust (Early Career Fellowship)
Title of Research: Roma Resistance in the EU: Beyond Cosmopolitan Government?
Duration: October 2011-2013
Total Award to UoS: approx. £55,000

Awarding Body: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) PhD 1+3 award
Duration: 2007-2010
Total Award to UoS: approx. £70,000

Teaching interests

Owen is co-author a leading Oxford University Press textbook on EU politics, Politics in the European Union (6th edition forthcoming in 2026) and has published widely on teaching the EU.

He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and has been a university assessor for HEA awards. He has also been an external examiner at Kings College London and the University of Durham, as well as an external accreditor for the Open University.

Teaching activities

Owen teaches and leads the undergraduate modules SPR217, Europe in Crisis, and SPR327 Brexit and Beyond. The former considers the ways in which the project of European integration has been shaped by crises, both historically and in the contemporary period. The latter module first considers the UK’s historically difficult relationship with the EU before turning to consider Brexit and its wide ranging implications for the UK.

Owen has previously taught on a number of MA modules focused on Europe and political economy.

Professional activities and memberships

Owen is or has been a member of several professional associations, including the Political Studies Association (PSA), British International Studies Association (BISA), International Studies Association (ISA), University Association of Contemporary European Studies (UACES) and the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR).

Owen is a former co-convenor of BISA's International Political Economy Group (IPEG) and a co-organiser of various events under its auspices.

Owen has engaged and worked with a range of governmental and non-governmental organisations in the context of his various research projects.

PhD Supervision: Owen has supervised a number (over 10) PhD students to successful completion, including students who have been awarded or nominated for academic prizes. Many of his former doctoral students are now successful in academic and non-academic jobs. He has acted as an external and internal PhD examiner on a number of occasions. He is potentially interested in supervising PhD projects that align with the research interests highlighted above.