Dr Sophie King

For the past twenty years, I have predominantly operated within the field of participatory action research and learning moving between community practice and academia. For most of this time, my focus has been on working with communities to explore ideas, strategies and methodologies for building community, amplifying community voice, and co-producing solutions that ameliorate poverty and address intersecting inequalities. I am currently a founding manager of CLASS, a small community development charity which works in alliance with a network of women-led savings groups called Community Savers. Women leaders from Community Savers have been adapting and experimenting with the ideas and approaches of Slum/Shack Dwellers International since 2016, with support from the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.

I am a Visiting Practice Fellow at the Urban Institute, University of Sheffield, which supported transnational action learning between SDI and the Community Savers network under the Realising Just Cities programme 2017-2019.

Recent publications:

Greater Manchester Savers: Our story so far (May 2020)

Mitlin, D. et al. (2020) Knowledge Matters: The Potential Contribution of the Coproduction of Research. Eur J Dev Res 32, 544–559 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-020-00277-w

King, S., and Kasaiji, P., (2018) State-movement partnership in Uganda: Co-producing an enabling environment for urban poverty reduction? ESID Working Paper No.98