RESEARCH
My research interests are broadly in the area of comparative territorial politics. I specialise in the cases of Spain and the United Kingdom. My research on devolution/decentralisation, nationalism and Catalan and Scottish independence has been published in Ethnopolitics, the Journal of European Public Policy, Nations and Nationalism and Regional & Federal Studies.
I am the author of Territorial Politics in Catalonia and Scotland: Nations in Flux (Manchester University Press 2024). It explores the development of territorial politics (focused on self-rule, intergovernmental relations, judicial politics, state nationalism, and the Catalan/Scottish independence movements) in Catalonia and Scotland from 2010. You can buy the book here.
Currently, I am leading a funded research project on metro mayors in England and the experience of relations between the combined authorities and central government.
I am co-lead of the UACES Research Network 'Reimagining Territorial Politics in Times of Crisis' and co-director of the 50 Shades of Federalism project. I am a regular commentator on my research interests and have given interviews to BBC Merseyside, BBC Kent and BBC Scotland and contributed to several printed press articles.
Research Projects
State, Majority and Minority Nationalisms
I am interested in how different nationalist actors make their case for their territorial preferences (e.g. independence or Union) and the different visions they espouse for the design of the state. In recent years, I (alongside some excellent co-authors) have focused on how nationalist actors react to and use crisis in their territorial justifications.
Intergovernmental Relations
IGR are the glue of multi-level systems, yet in the cases of Spain and the UK are underdeveloped. My interests here are in how IGR have developed in both cases and how they could be enhanced to enhance the quality of multi-level governance. Besides publications, I have given evidence to parliamentary committees on this topic and the territorial politics more widely (see, House of Lords, Future Governance of the UK evidence (2021) and Scottish Parliament, Intergovernmental Relations post-Brexit evidence (2022) .
IGR are the glue of multi-level systems, yet in the cases of Spain and the UK are underdeveloped. My interests here are in how IGR have developed in both cases and how they could be enhanced to enhance the quality of multi-level governance. Besides publications, I have given evidence to parliamentary committees on this topic and the territorial politics more widely (see, House of Lords, Future Governance of the UK evidence (2021) and Scottish Parliament, Intergovernmental Relations post-Brexit evidence (2022) .
Federalism and Conflict Resolution
Could federalism work as a tool of conflict resolution, and if so, how? This is the overarching research question which has informed this strand of my work on how autonomy (including mechanisms beyond federalism such as power-sharing) can be used to bring peace in deeply-divided societies. Between 2017 and 2021, I worked with the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Myanmar on the topic of 'Democratisation and Federalisation'. Under the auspices of this project I worked with groups all over Myanmar including, training sessions with the Union Civil service, seminars with political parties and civil society organisations and guest lectures as part of the Myanmar Federalism Leadership Programme.
Could federalism work as a tool of conflict resolution, and if so, how? This is the overarching research question which has informed this strand of my work on how autonomy (including mechanisms beyond federalism such as power-sharing) can be used to bring peace in deeply-divided societies. Between 2017 and 2021, I worked with the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Myanmar on the topic of 'Democratisation and Federalisation'. Under the auspices of this project I worked with groups all over Myanmar including, training sessions with the Union Civil service, seminars with political parties and civil society organisations and guest lectures as part of the Myanmar Federalism Leadership Programme.