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Planning, Policy and Governance (PPG)

Group Leader(s): Dr Dave Valler

Contact: dvaller@brookes.ac.uk +44 (0)1865 483971

About us
Research impact
Membership
Projects

About us

PPG focuses on the political and governmental practices of producing, maintaining and transforming space. With 17 staff members, we combine academic and practitioner interests, policy studies and practice-oriented research, and a commitment to develop planning theory and practice.

PPG members focus on a wide range of specialist and interdisciplinary research themes including:

  • Transportation and Mobility Studies
  • Diversity and Social Justice
  • Governance and Democracy
  • Housing Policy
  • Local and Regional Economic Development
  • Development and Urbanisation
  • Strategic Planning
  • Planning History.

Our research is with a variety of partners and funders including UKRI, EU, JRF, Leverhulme Trust, local and central government, NGOs and community groups.

View of city street

Part of

Research impact

Person cycling along city street

Our research has long been recognised for its real-world impact. It influences many spheres including public policy, professional practice and commercial activities, and there is ongoing engagement with stakeholders across the public, private and third sectors. In the Research Excellence Framework 2014, 100% of Brookes’ impact case studies were judged to be ‘world leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’.

An example is the cycle BOOM project, which won the Academic Award category at the Royal Town Planning Institute’s (RTPI) Awards for Research Excellence in 2017. This was a 3-year study investigating how older people in the UK experience cycling and how this affects their independence, health and wellbeing. The study reinforced the need for cities to create a dedicated infrastructure for cycling along major roads, implement slower speed zones and support the growing market of electric bikes.

Membership

Staff

Name Role Email
Professor Sue Brownill Professor of Urban Policy and Governance sbrownill@brookes.ac.uk
Dr Juliet Carpenter Senior Research Fellow in Housing and Urban Regeneration jcarpenter@brookes.ac.uk
Dr Youngha Cho Senior lecturer in Property Management ycho@brookes.ac.uk
Dr Bob Colenutt Associate Lecturer rcolenutt@brookes.ac.uk
Dr Gethin Davison Senior Lecturer in Planning g.davison@brookes.ac.uk
Dr Tim Jones Reader in Urban Mobility tjones@brookes.ac.uk
Dr Maryam Mani Research Fellow in Healthy Living and Working Environments mmani@brookes.ac.uk
Dr Beacon Mbiba Senior Lecturer In Developing Countries/Sub Co-Ordinating Urban Planning bmbiba@brookes.ac.uk
Dr Tatiana Moreira De Souza Research Fellow in Urban Planning and Property Markets tmoreira-de-souza@brookes.ac.uk
Mr Dan Sames Lecturer in Planning dsames@brookes.ac.uk
Dr Ben Spencer Research Fellow in Built Environment and Healthy Ageing bspencer@brookes.ac.uk
Dr Michael Stubbs Associate Lecturer mdstubbs@brookes.ac.uk
Mr Philip Turner Associate Lecturer pjturner@brookes.ac.uk
Professor Steve Ward Professor of Planning History svward@brookes.ac.uk
Ms Elizabeth Wilson Reader ebwilson@brookes.ac.uk
Dr Emma Wragg Senior Lecturer in Planning e.wragg@brookes.ac.uk

Projects

Active projects

Project title and description Principal investigator(s) Funder(s) Dates

Co-Creation

A 4-year EU-funded project that brings together different actors, such as researchers, policymakers, residents and artists, to ‘co-create’ understanding about different urban neighbourhoods and to address disadvantage. The project is led by Oxford Brookes, in collaboration with 6 partner organisations: 3 NGOs in the EU: European Alternatives (Paris), City Mine(d) (Brussels), and Tesserae (Berlin); and three Universities: University of Bath (Bath), University of PUC-Rio (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM, Mexico City).

 Professor Sue Brownill, Dr Juliet Carpenter European Commission From: January 2017

Completed projects

Project title and description Principle investigator(s) Funder(s) Dates

Cycle BOOM

Study to understand cycling among the older population and how this affected independence, health and wellbeing. Theultimate aim was to advise policy makers and practitioners how our environment and technologies could be designed to help people to continue to cycle in older age or to reconnect with cycling.

 Dr Tim Jones EPSRC From: October 2013
Until: September 2016

The Healthy Urban Mobility (HUM)

Study to understand the impact of everyday (im)mobility on health and wellbeing with a variety of social groups living in different neighbourhoods in Brazil and the UK, and also to explore the potential for participatory mobilities planning with local communities to support and develop solutions for healthy urban mobility.

 Dr Tim Jones ESRC, Newton Fund, FAP-DF From: January 2016
Until: October 2019

News

Prof. Sue Brownill is leading a major Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) project investigating Hidden Histories of Community Planning in the UK. Partners are the Universities of Sheffield, Queens Belfast, Cardiff and Middlesex, plus the Digital Humanities Unit also at Sheffield and the Town and Country Planning Association. Prof Glen O'Hara from Brookes' History department is Co-Investigator. The budget is c £600,000 and the work will involve 8 case studies plus the building of an online archive. Two full-time Research Assistants will be employed - one at Sheffield and one at Brookes.