Professor Steven Griggs

My research evaluates the contribution of political discourse theory to our understanding of the policy process, analysing, in particular, how shared meanings or institutional rules and norms emerge to ‘make sense’, privilege or constrain different democratic spaces within the policy process.  Empirically, I have investigated these theoretical questions through research into two main areas of study.  Firstly, I have investigated the politics of sustainable aviation and the expansion of airports in the United Kingdom. Secondly, I have analysed the dynamics of participation in neighbourhood governance and the democratic limits of the emerging discourse of community cohesion and sustainable communities.  My current research critically engages with the governance of local public services under conditions of austerity and how local politicians, officers and community activists might best mediate complex economic and social demands and manage conflicts across local communities and neighbourhoods.

I am co-editor of Critical Policy Studies, http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rcps20/current    

Local Governance Research Unit    

Click here to see a full listing of Steven Griggs's publications and outputs.

Local governance; neighbourhood working and community empowerment; environmental politics and protest; political discourse theory; practice theory; critical policy studies.

Theories of the Policy Process; Political Discourse Theory; Environmental Policy; Local Government

BA Hons French Studies, Portsmouth Polytechnic, 1985

MA Hons European Studies, Reading University, 1987

PhD, Government, London School of Economics and Political Science, 1999 

I am currently available for consultancy work.  In the past I have supported scrutiny reviews for local authorities, undertaken assessments of neighbourhood programmes, and worked on national programme evaluations for the CLG.  I have also worked on civil service leadership programmes for the National School of Government and led the three-year senior management development programme for Telford and Wrekin Council.  Should you wish to discuss any potential collaboration, please do not hesitate to contact me.  

ESRC KTP with Association Public Service Excellence, January 2011-January 2013, Lead academic/joint supervisor, with Catherine Durose.

Prospects for Sustainable Aviation, ESRC Seminar Series, January 2011-June 2012, joint investigator with David Howarth (Principal Investigator, Essex) and Lucy Budd (Loughborough).

British Academy Pilot Study Programme. Building Environmental Coalitions.  Comparative Study of Bristol and Grenoble.  Joint Lead Academic with Stephen Hall, University of West England, September 2011- July 2012.

Policy as Practice, ESRC Seminar Series, January 2008-December 2010, Principal Investigator, with Richard Freeman (Edinburgh), Tim Freeman (Birmingham), Michael Farrelly (Hull) and Mark Bramah (APSE).

Citizen Governance in Diverse Neighbourhoods, British Council Partnership Programme in Science Uk-Netherlands, January 2011, collaborating organiser, with  Chris Skelcher (Birmingham), David Laws (Amsterdam) and Hendrik Wagenaar (Sheffield).