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Biography

James Rees is a Research Associate at the Institute for Political and Economic Governance (IPEG). He is working on the English Regions Devolution Monitoring project, which is led overall by the UCL's Constitution Unit. He is also involved in a variety of research projects with IPEG's Prof. Alan Harding, as well as a project on the Voluntary and Community Sector under the Knowledge Creation and Transfer Programme for the North West Improvement Network (NWIN).

James recently gained his PhD in the School of Environment and Development at Manchester University. His PhD considered the utility of a gentrification perspective for the interpretation of attempts to created mixed communities and repopulate inner city areas in low-demand Housing Market Renewal (HMR) Pathfinders, and more widely in British urban policy. He received his first degree in Geography at the University of Oxford in 1999, and an MA in International Relations and Development Studies at the University of East Anglia in 2001.

Past policy-orientated projects include involvement in the National Evaluation of New Deal for Communities (at Centre for Urban Policy Studies, University of Manchester), developing the Prospectus for NewHeartlands HMR Pathfinder (with CUPS and IPEG) and research on developing City-Regions in England for ODPM.

Main research interests:

• Contemporary debates and critical perspectives on urban regeneration and development: gentrification and revanchism
  
  
• Policy aspects in urban regeneration, urban renewal and renaissance: mixed communities and mixed tenure policy, social housing policy
  
  
• Urban policy evaluation
  
  
• City-regions and sub-regionalism