Dr Mark Roberts has been a Research Fellow and Lecturer at De Montfort University since 2008. During this time he has completed a great deal of field research on urban politics, partnership governance and the development of neighbourhood structures in Birmingham, Derby, Nottingham and Leicester. In 2011 Mark successfully bid for a £120,000 award from the Arts and Humanities Council and the RSA to conduct a collaborative research project on ‘Understanding the impacts of citizen participation in Peterborough’. As sole researcher on this project, he is currently producing a range of outputs including a series of academic papers which will be put forward for the next REF. During 2013 Mark also published his first book in co-authorship with Professor Vivien Lowndes of Nottingham University: ‘Why Institutions Matter: The New Institutionalism in Political Science’ in the Palgrave Macmillan Political Analysis series.
Before joining De Montfort University Mark completed his PhD at INLOGOV at the University of Birmingham, and for 29 years before he began an academic career, Mark worked in local authority social work and was Head of Child Care in Sandwell MBC from 1997 to 2003. Dr Roberts has also completed consultancy work for the Football Association in Soho Square London on their equal opportunities policies and strategies for bringing more people from ethnic minorities and other disadvantaged groups into the administration of football.