Professor Nick Ellison

Research

Current research interests and projects

• Social media and local government with particular reference to emerging forms of citizen participation at local level.
• Theories of citizenship and belonging with a particular interest in forms of online participation.
• The comparative politics of social policy, including the impact of global economic pressures on developed welfare systems.

PhD supervision

Supervision interests:

• Social citizenship and social rights in developed welfare systems
• Forms of citizen participation
• Social media and (local) governance
• Labour market and pensions policies in developed welfare systems
• The impact of global economic pressures on welfare states

PhD students:

• Barry Kew on animal rights
• Maria Griffin on Direct payments and welfare governance
• Ali Hajighasemi on The Swedish welfare state
• Kevin Caraher on the Malaysian pensions system
• Mark Edwards on evolutionary theories of citizenship
• Ruth Patrick on the lived experience of welfare reform
• Dan Edmiston on individuals' understandings of social citizenship

Recent publications

Books

Ellison, N. and Haux, T. (eds.) (2020) Handbook on Society and Social Policy, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. 

Ellison, N. (2006). The Transformation of Welfare States? London: Routledge.

Burrows, R. and Ellison, N. and Woods, B. (2005). Neighbourhoods on the Net:
The Nature and Impact of Internet-based Neighbourhood Information Systems, Bristol, the Policy Press/Joseph Rowntree.

Ellison, N. and Pierson, C. (eds.) (2003). Developments in British Social Policy 2, Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Articles

Ellison, N. (2013). Citizenship, Space and Time: Engagement, Identity and Belonging in a Connected World, Thesis Eleven, 118 (1): 48-63.

Ellison, N. and Hardey, M. (2013). Developing Political Conversations? Social Media and English Local Authorities. Information, Communication and Society, 16 (6): 78-98.

Ellison, N. and Hardey, M. (2013). Social Media and Local Government: Citizenship, Consumption and Democracy, Local Government Studies, published online July 2013.

Beckett, A. E., Barrett, S., Ellison, N. and Shah, S. (2010). Away With the Fairies: Disability within primary- age children's literature, Disability and Society, 25 (3): 373-86.

Dwyer, P. and Ellison, N. (2009). ‘We Nicked Stuff From All Over the Place’: Policy Transfer or Muddling Through?, Policy and Politics, 37 (3) 3: 389-407.

Ellison, N. and Burrows, R. (2007). New Spaces of (Dis)engagement? Social Politics, Urban Technologies and the Rezoning of the City, Housing Studies, 22 (3): 295-312.

Ellison, N. and Ellison, S. (2006). 'Opportunity for All'?: New Labour, New Localism and the Opportunity Society’, Social Policy and Society 5 (3): 337-48.

Ellison, N. and Burrows, R. (2004). Sorting Places Out? Towards a Social Politics of Neighbourhood Informatization, Information, Communication and Society, 7 (3): 321-336.

Ellison, N. (2000). Proactive and Defensive Engagement: Social Citizenship in a Changing Public Sphere, Sociological Research Online, 5 (4): 15.

Ellison, N. (1999). Beyond Universalism and Particularism: Rethinking Contemporary Welfare Theory, Critical Social Policy, 19 (1): 57-87.

Ellison, N. (1997). Towards a New Social Politics: Citizenship and Reflexivity in Late Modernity, Sociology, 31 (4): 697-717.

Book Chapters

Ellison, N. (2012). 'Neo-liberalism', in P. Alcock, M. May and S. Wright (eds.), The Student's Companion to Social Policy, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Ellison, N. (2011). 'The Conservative Party and the Big Society', in C. Holden, M. Kilkey, and G. Ramia (eds.), Social Policy Review 23, Bristol: The Policy Press.

Ellison, N. (2011). 'The Conservative Party and Public Spending', in H. Bochel (ed.), The Conservative Party and Social Policy, Bristol: The Policy Press.

Dwyer, P. and Ellison, N. (2009). 'Work and Welfare: the Rights and Responsibilities of Unemployment in the UK', in M. Giugni and P. Statham (eds), The Politics of Unemployment in Europe: Policy Issues and Collective Action, Aldershot: Ashgate.

Ellison, N. (2000). 'Labour and Welfare Politics', in B. Brivati and R. Heffernan (eds), Labour's Century, Macmillan.