Professor Nick Clarke

Research groups

Research interests

• I research the political geographies of governance and citizenship, with a focus on three main areas:
• 1) Innovative responses to globalisation (2004-present)
• This research has been funded by grants from the Nuffield Foundation and the Local Government Alliance for International Development. On global citizenship, I¡¯ve published three articles on mobile transnational citizens, including one in?Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers?(Clarke 2004). On ethical consumption, my co-authored book,?Globalising Responsibility (Barnett et al 2011, Wiley-Blackwell), approached ethical consumption as a platform for campaigning by social movement organisations. This book was the subject of a review forum in?Area?(see Barnett et al 2013). The approach was developed over numerous articles, including articles in?Political Geography?(Clarke et al 2006) and?Journal of Rural Studies?(Clarke et al 2008). On interurban partnerships, I¡¯ve published five articles on town twinning, comparative urbanism, and urban policy mobilities, including articles in?Contemporary British History?(Clarke 2010),?Political Geography?(Clarke 2010), and?Progress in Human Geography?(Clarke 2011).
• 2) The challenges presented to representative democracy by the 2007-2008 financial crisis, the rise of populism, Brexit, and the ÍøÂç²ÊƱAPPÏÂÔØ_°Ä¿Í²ÊƱÍø-¹Ù·½ÓÎÏ·, pandemic (2013-present)
• This research has been funded by grants from the ESRC and the British Academy. On the relations between national and local government, I¡¯ve published two articles on localism including one in?Political Geography?(Clarke and Cochrane 2013). On the relations between politicians and citizens, my co-authored book,?The Good Politician (Clarke et al 2018, CUP), introduced a new dataset to Political Studies (biographical writing from the Mass Observation Archive) and opened up a new research agenda on how citizens judge politics. The book was the capstone on multiple articles, including one in?Political Geography?(Clarke et al 2017).

Research projects