Jane Scullion is a doctoral researcher and lecturer in the Local Governance Research Unit at De Montfort University. She has over twenty years of experience of senior management in local government.
Jane’s doctoral research focuses on accountability systems in local government and the impact of innovation and social media on local level democracy. Her other research interests are in governance, political leadership, public participation, member and officer relations and comparative systems of local government. She is currently involved in a knowledge exchange visit with Oslo University, Norway.
She has, over the course of her career in local government, worked closely with politicians and senior managers in central and local government on a wide range of issues from community safety to waste management. Her particular commitment, as a former practitioner, is to the principle of ‘engaged scholarship’; using her expertise and experience to encourage collaboration and inform debate in the sector. She currently acts as an expert advisor to the Centre for Public Scrutiny, part of the Local Government Association, working with councils around the country on accountability issues.
Jane is passionate about new technologies, intelligently applied, and is particularly interested in how elected politicians might use new media in democratic processes.