Professor Catherine Durose was conferred to the Fellowship of the Academy in autumn 2024. She is Professor of Public Policy and Co-Director of the Heseltine Institute of Public Policy Practice and Place at the University of Liverpool. Recognised as a leading expert on urban governance and public policy, Catherine’s research has advanced thinking on how to mobilise and engage communities in the policies and decision-making that affects their everyday lives. Her research focuses on policy design and implementation, devolution, urban transformation, social and democratic innovation, and participation.
Professor Catherine DuroseFAcSS
Catherine’s research is highly cited and her work has been published in many leading journals including Political Studies, Governance, Public Administration Review and Urban Studies, and she regularly contributes to comment and analysis, including The Conversation and UK in a Changing Europe.
Catherine has worked extensively with a wide range of policy, practice and community partners, and her work on co-production has begun a conversation as to how the academy can better navigate and value research collaboration between professional researchers and those affected by that research.
Catherine is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and in 2020, she was the recipient of the UK Political Studies Association’s Joni Lovenduski Prize for Outstanding Professional Achievement in a Mid-Career Scholar.
Why do the social sciences matter?
The social sciences matter because they offer valuable critical tools to make sense of ourselves, and our society, and the potential to mobilise change.
The ability to ask probing questions, to reason, to debate and to disagree well are all skills that we have never needed more, and ones which the social sciences can help to nurture. This is vital to motivate new and effective responses to the global challenges we face, from the climate emergency to health inequalities and human rights abuses. The social sciences are also crucial in understanding how we engage with each other and how we may do so better and in a way that builds trust and community.
What inspires you about your work?
Being a social scientist is a privilege. I love the opportunity that my work provides to question, think, play and be creative.
I have also had the opportunity to work with many people who have inspired me and created a space for me to develop as a social scientist. It’s important to me that I continue to pay this forward, particularly to early career researchers.
But it’s also important to see scholarship in its social context, it’s important to me to apply and share insights from the social sciences with those working in policy, practice and communities.
What is the most important issue for social science to tackle?
There are innumerable significant challenges which the social sciences have a role in addressing. Reflecting on my own research, the social sciences can make a crucial contribution in supporting the vitality of our democracy. By sharing our expertise, relevant theories, evidence and examples with policymakers, practitioners, communities and the wider public, we can help to counter disinformation, help ensure that our democratic and public institutions are fit for purpose, that our policymaking reflects the challenges that people face in their everyday lives, that people have a say in the decisions that affect their everyday lives and feel part of their communities.
What does being a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences mean to you?
I am excited to be part of the Academy of Social Sciences’ community of leading scholars and to contribute to its mission of championing the importance of social science in meeting the challenges of today.