I am currently working on the ENLIVEN project, which aims to co-develop ways that people with cognitive impairments, their families and carers can have more meaningful experiences when visit or take part in an activity outdoors and in connection with nature. We will be working with businesses and organizations in the visitor economy, dementia charities and people with cognitive impairments, their carers and families to co-produce creative new approaches to inclusion and the enhancement of quality of life. 

Career

Recently, I worked on the EU Interreg Biocultural Heritage Tourism Project at the Centre for Rural Policy Research. The project aims to find ways to help UNESCO Biosphere Reserves manage tourism pressure. Part of the project has involved supporting businesses in the North Devon and Brighton and Lewes Downs Biosphere Reserves to develop new tourism experiences. We looked closely at how the COVID pandemic has affected the development of these businesses, and how they respond.

I have also worked with  Clare Saunders on the international POLPART project, a comparative project aimed at understanding more about why people participate in politics.  We have looked closely at interactional dynamics within politically heterogenous focus groups to develop ideas about how the way people manage their differences is connected with discussion participation, quality, and outcome. Previously, I worked with Clare, Steve Hinchliffe, Robbie McDonald, and Caroline Keenan on 'Doing TB Differently: Generating a workable TB policy during an acute episode within a chronic countryside conflict', an ESRC-funded project about the culling of badgers in West Somerset and West Gloucestershire. The goal of this project was to understand the range of views held by local people involved in the debate and to find out how or whether these change in response to emerging policy evidence and in the context of different forums of discussion. We are currently working on a number of publications from this research, but see my book (details below) for an readable introduction to the topic and the research.

Thinking Through Badgers: researching the controversy over bovine tuberculosis and the culling of badgers, (Vernon Press, 2017) is available at Barnes and Noble, AbeBooks, Amazon and elsewhere.