The author of this blog is Rowland Atkinson, Chair in Inclusive Societies at the University of Sheffield. My crosses a wide range of social problems, most but not all, urban in nature. I’ve been interested in gentrification and displacement, area/poverty effects, gated communities, fortress homes, public housing, the wealthy and super-rich zones of cities and noise. If there is a common theme to my work it is trying to problematise and understand more about what are often under-examined problems (my PhD looked at ways of trying to measure how much displacement occured in Greater London from the impact of gentrification). I am also very keen to explore ways of conceptually and empirically connecting wider social outcomes for the excluded and poor (inequality, city success and so on) to the ways in which the choices and actions wealthier inhabitants make things worse for the less well-off. My book, Alpha City (Verso, 2020) is a longer and in-depth discussion of these issues.

On this blog I shall cull notes and ideas from my ongoing research in the hope that like-minded researchers, activists and the generally interested find something of interest.

You can find out more about my work at the following spaces:

• Scholar profile
• My university web profile
• Academia.edu profile
• My twitter handle is: @qurbanist