Project title
Afterlives of legitimacy: A political ethnography of two post-industrial towns in England

Supervisors
Dr Rebecca Elliott and Dr Robin Archer

About the project
My dissertation asks whether there is a crisis of legitimacy in England’s post-industrial towns. Quantitative literatures suggest former mining and manufacturing towns now register high levels of political mistrust and disengagement – patterns which cannot be explained through economics or demographics alone. On the basis of a political ethnography of the towns of Corby and Mansfield, I argue that it has become common for residents of both towns to understand politics primarily through the frame of corruption. The corruption frame derives part of its salience, I find, from local histories and legacies of deindustrialisation. I go on to interrogate the beliefs and dispositions underlying this vernacular political ontology and its implications for our political system.

I thank the ESRC and the LSE for their generous support for this project.

Research interests
My research interests lie in political and economic sociology as well as political economy. I also take an interest in the history of our methodologies and efforts to decolonise our discipline.

I love collaborating and sharing work with others. As a convener for the London chapter of NYLON, I help run fortnightly meetings with other qualitative researchers across discplines. And within my own sub-discipline, I co-organise get-togethers with other PhD students and ECRs in political sociology. We are always looking for fellow early-career political sociologists to join our network.

If you are working on similar themes, within or beyond the university, please do reach out. I am always happy to chat.