LLAG has established an international reputation for its research and has been involved with a number of European Grundtvig projects. LLAG’s work seeks to show the potential benefits to individuals, families, communities and the state that can arise from lifelong learning in an ageing society. Learning in later life can promote greater social capital, stronger communities, and enable older peoples’ voices to be heard.

The Leicester Learning and Ageing Group (LLAG) website has additional information about the local, national and international work of LILL in this area.

Professor John Benyon

Contact details:

Professor John Benyon AcSS FRSA
Institute of Lifelong learning
128 Regent Road,
Leicester
LE1 7PA

Telephone:  0116 2525914
Email: jtb2@le.ac.uk
Email: JohnBenyon@scarman.freeserve.co.uk

John Benyon has been Professor of Political Studies at the University of Leicester since 1993 and was Director of Lifelong Learning from May 2000 until January 2008. He was Director of the Scarman Centre for the Study of Public Order from 1987 until 1999. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Political Studies Association since 1988 and has been its Treasurer since 1992.

He has held honorary research positions at a number of overseas universities including Gong An University, Beijing, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, and Monash University, Melbourne. He has worked with journalists from a variety of newspapers, radio and television and has presented evidence to, and answered oral questions from, the Home Affairs Select Committee.

Professor Benyon is also Editor of the Contemporary Political Studies book series, published by Palgrave. In 2002, John Benyon was elected to be an Academician by the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences and in 2006 he became Chair of the Academy's Committee of Learned Societies.

His publications include Scarman and After, The Police, The Roots of Urban Unrest, Police Co-operation in Europe, African Caribbean People in Leicestershire, Gun Law: The Control of Firearms in Britain and Central Debates in British Politics (edited with Justin Fisher and David Denver). He has had articles published in journals such as 21st Century Society, Crime Prevention and Community Safety, International Affairs, International Journal of Education and Ageing, International Journal of the Sociology of Law, Local Government Studies, New Scientist, Parliamentary Affairs, Political Insight, and Public Administration. His work has been translated into Chinese, French, Hungarian, Portuguese, Sinhalese and Spanish.

Research interests

John Benyon’s current interests focus on research into the ageing society and the benefits of learning. He has been awarded grants by bodies such as the ESRC, the Learning and Skills Council, the Society for Educational Studies, and the European Union for studies of lifelong learning, older people and society.

His research interests also include the politics of law and order, public disorder, protests and policing issues. He has studied the causes of different types of disorder and the implications for the police and wider society. He has also conducted research into race relations, ethnicity and policing, looking at the experiences of African-Caribbean people and problems of racial discrimination and disadvantage. 

Selection of grants

1989–1990 Social Justice and Order in the Inner Cities; Rowntree Charitable Trust: £35,500.
1990–1992  Police Co-operation, Crime and Public Order in Europe; CEC: £36,467.
1991–1994 African-Caribbean People in Leicestershire; DTI/local authorities: £141,500.
1992–1995 Police, Crime and Justice in Europe; various funding bodies: £82,000.
1994–1995 Local Strategies for Crime Prevention; ESRC: £40,670.
1994–1999 Policing and Crime in China; British Council (ALCS): £47,310.
1997–1999 Gun Law: Control of Firearms in the EU; Leverhulme Trust: £52,275.
1998–1999 Policing and Crime in South Africa; British Council/DfID: £96,800.
1998–2002 Policing and Human Rights in Russia; EU Tacis: £337,000.
1999–2001 Policing and Crime in the Free State, South Africa; British Council/DfID: £22,000.
1999–2002 Policing and Ethnic Relations; Home Office/Ionann Ltd: £143,500.
2001–2004 Foundation Degrees Development and Evaluation; East Midlands Development Agency: £82,570.
2003–2005 Colleges–University of Leicester Network; LSC, £96,500.
2005–2006  Lifelong Learning for Older Learners; Socrates-Grundtvig, £1,450
2006–2010  Lifelong Learning, Older People and Society; LSC, £13,900
2007–2008 Successful Foundation Degrees; FDF, £29,970
2007–2008 Learned Societies, Knowledge Transfer and Public Engagement; ESRC,
 £50,000 via Academy of Social Sciences  
2007–2009  Older People, Learning and Society; ESRC, £18,457
2008–2010  EuBiA – EU Broadening People’s Minds in Ageing; CEC Grundtvig programme, 18,000 Euros
2008–2010 LARA: Learning – A Response to Ageing; CEC Grundtvig programme, 63,589 Euros
2009–2010  Blueprint for Success; fdf, £24,800
2011–2011 Education and the Ageing Society; Society for Educational Studies, £3,000

Selection of publications

• ‘Policing the European Union: the changing basis of co-operation on law enforcement’, International Affairs, Vol. 70, no. 3, 1994, pp. 497–517.
• Law and Order Review, Leicester: CSPO, 1994.
• Focus on Britain, (ed. with P. Allan and B. McCormick), Deddington: Perennial Publications, 1994.
• Police Forces in the New European Union, (with S. Morris, M. Toye, A. Willis and A. Beck), Leicester: CSPO, 1995.
• ‘Crime, policing and criminal justice’ in Jackson, P. and Lavender, M. (eds.) The Public Service Yearbook 1994, London: Chapman and Hall, 1994, pp. 255–284.
• ‘Understanding police co-operation in Europe: setting a framework for analysis’ in Anderson, M. and den Boer, M. (eds.) Policing Across National Boundaries, London: Pinter Publishers, 1994, pp. 46–65 (with L. Turnbull, A. Wills and R. Woodward).
• ‘Building police co-operation: the European construction site around the third pillar’ in Hampsher-Monk, I. and Stanyer, J. (eds.) Contemporary Political Studies 1996, Vol. 2, Belfast: PSA, pp. 1041–1062.
• ‘Policing the union: European supranational law enforcement co-operation’ in Critcher, C. and Waddington, D. (eds.) Policing Public Order: Theoretical and Practical Issues, Aldershot: Avebury, 1996, pp. 237–257.
• Education Matters: African Caribbean People and Schools in Leicestershire, (with S. Lyle, J. Garland and A. McClure), Leicester: CSPO, 1996.
• ‘The developing system of police co-operation in the European Union’ in McDonald, W. (ed.) Crime and Law Enforcement in the Global Village, Cincinnati: Anderson Publishing, 1996, pp. 103–121.
• ‘The Politics of Police Co-operation in the European Union’, International Journal of the Sociology of Law, Vol. 24, 1996.
• African Caribbean People in Leicestershire: Final Report (with B. Dauda, S. Lyle and J. Garland), Leicester: CSPO, 1996.
• ‘Crime and public order’ in Dunleavy, P., Gamble, A., Holliday, I. and Peele, G. (eds.) Developments in British Politics 5, London: Macmillan, 1997, pp. 326–341 (with A. Edwards).
• ‘Community governance of crime control’ in Stoker, G. (ed.) The New Management of British Local Governance, London: Macmillan, 1999, pp. 145–167 (with A. Edwards).
• ‘Gun control’ in House of Commons, Controls Over Firearms: Second Report from the Home Affairs Committee, Session 1999–2000, Vol. II, 95-II, London: Stationery Office, 2000, pp. 143–163 (with K. Broadhurst).
 • ‘Community governance, crime control and local diversity’, Crime Prevention and Community Safety, Vol. 2, No. 3, Autumn 2000, pp. 35–54.
• ‘Networking and crime control at the local level’ in Ryan, M., Savage, S. and Wall, D. (eds.) Policy Networks in Criminal Justice, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001, pp. 151–180 (with A. Edwards).
• ‘Law, order and race’ in Geddes, A. and Tonge, J. (eds.) Labour’s Second Landslide: The 2001 General Election, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001, pp. 186–198.
• Central Debates in British Politics, (editor with Fisher, J. and Denver, D.), Harlow: Longman, 2003.
• Political Studies UK, (with C. Jeffery), Newcastle, 2004.
• ‘Developing Dialogue: Learned Societies in the Social Sciences: Developing Knowledge Transfer and Public Engagement’, 21st Century Society, Vol. 3, Supplement, 2008, pp. 1–117 (with Miriam David).
• Successful Foundation Degrees: A Study of the Role of Employers and Other Key Factors – Final Report (with B. McKee, E. Crewe and K. Morris), Leicester: LILL, 2009, pp. 167.
• ‘Developing greater dialogue: knowledge transfer and learned societies in the social sciences’, 21st Century Society, 4, 1, 2009, pp. 97–113.
• ‘Older People, Learning and the Ageing Society’, International Journal of Education and Ageing, Vol. 1, No. 2, December 2010, 123–140.
• ‘The Longevity Revolution’, Political Insight, Vol. 1, Number 1, April 2010, pp. 27–31.
• ‘The Con/Lib Agenda for Home Affairs’ in S. Lee and M. Beech (Eds.) The Cameron–Clegg Government: Coalition Politics in an Age of Austerity, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, pp. 134–152.