Research
Financialisation
I research the tensions and contradictions in the management of financialisation, as well as other transformative processes in the global political economy, including technological and climate change. In my research, I am inspired by a range of critical and heterodox approaches, concepts/notions and methods, including critical realism (as meta-theory), Regulation Theory, post-Keynesian theory, Frankfurt School Critical theory, hegemony, aestheticisation, semiosis, ethnography, qualitative analysis and statistical analysis.
I conduct research on the financialisation of the Swedish model and the tensions and contradictions in the management of this process as well as the "imagined recovery" from the financial crisis in the micro economy of Iceland and the sustainability of the Tourist-led Economy which has emerged in the crisis' wake.
I pursue research on regional integration, both European and South American. I was founding co-chair of the Council for European Studies’ research network “European Integration and Global Political Economy”. In relation to South America, I have undertaken research on the challenges facing emerging market economies (semi-periphery) in managing its particular insertion into world markets (with Johannes Jäger, University of Applied Sciences Vienna, Annina Kaltenbrunner, University of Leeds, Jan Grumuller, Austrian Foundation for Development Research, and Adriana Nilsson, University of Liverpool Management School). This work has partly been undertaken under a project commissioned by the British Embassy to Brazil, the financial conduct authority of Brazil (CVM) and the Brazilian Central Bank. It was submitted as an impact case study for REF2021.
The Green Transition
There is widespread agreement on that humanity is facing its greatest ever challenge during coming decades: how to construct the economic, political and social foundations underpinning a socio-ecological equilibrium, that is a future in which socio-economic and ecological developments are not in conflict with one another. With global emissions of greenhouse gases still rising, reaching the Paris Agreement's objective of limiting temperature rises to 2 degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial times, ideally 1.5 degrees, will be no mean feat.
My work in this area combines theoretical and conceptual development with empirical research and policy development to support the Green Transition. I am strongly involved with the Liverpool City Council's IUK-funded Net Zero Living project endeavouring to develop a clear, feasible and effective Green Transition and to demonstrate how the strategy developed can be scaled up and replicated elsewhere.
Critical Grounded Theory
I am engaged in methodological research, including most recently trying to develop Critical Grounded Theory.