Dr Richard A Courtney

Richard joined the Centre for Labour Market Studies in 2011 having previously worked at Nottingham Trent University and as a Knowledge Exchange Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Leicester. He is an inter-disciplinary sociologist and fuses ideas and insights from political theory, economics, geography, and cultural studies to provide a holistic analysis of contemporary social and economic challenges. He has a BSc in Sociology and MSc in Social Research from the University of Leicester. Richard is also a coordinator for the ESRC Seminar Series: New Institutional Imperatives: The Third Mission and the Contemporary University with colleagues at the University of Sheffield and the University of Manchester.

Richard’s principal research interests are in entrepreneurialism, economic development, and labour market transformation. He has particular interests in the way cultural resources, such as identity and heritage are mobilised to activate latent economic opportunities and potential, especially for marginalised communities and enclave economies. He is also interested in urban design, planning, and place identity. Richard is currently developing a research agenda to explore ideas of belonging, heritage, and identity and to assess the relationship between these and the transformation of local labour markets and regional economic development in England. He has published work on economic geography, social class, heritage, masculinity, whiteness and Englishness.

Administrative Responsibilities

Richard teaches on 'Foundations of Social Research' and 'National Culture and HRD' on the Doctorate in Social Science Programme. He is also on the Library Users’ Consultative Committee.

PhD Supervision and Interests