Professor Simon Parker
Professor

Profile

Biography

Before joining the Department of Politics and International Relations at York in 1995 Simon Parker was Junior Research Fellow in Sociology at Jesus College, Oxford where he was appointed in 1992 soon after completing his doctorate in the Social and Political Sciences faculty at the University of Cambridge.

Between 1998 and 1999, he was Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Italian Studies at University College London. He became a Senior Lecturer in Politics at York in 2005, and from April to September 2007 Dr Parker was Visiting Professor in Sociology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

In 2010, he was Hallsworth Visiting Professor in Political Economy at the University of Manchester and in 2014 Visiting Research Associate at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Simon is Co-Chair of the University of York Migration Network (MigNet) with Sara de Jong, Co-Director with Daryl Martin of the Centre for Urban Research (CURB) and former Director of the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of York.

Research

Overview

Simon Parker's research interests broadly centre on urban studies and urban theory, socio-spatial informatics, the politics of asylum and immigration; and comparative European politics (with particular reference to Italy). At the undergraduate level he teaches State, Economy and Society (with Werner Bonefeld) and Governmentality: Michel Foucault & the Analytics of Power. At the post-graduate level he teaches Politics of Migration for a range of MA degrees provided by the Department of Politics and York Law School.

Simon is the author of Cities, Politics and Power (Routledge 2010) and Urban Theory and the Urban Experience: Encountering the City (Routledge, 2004; second edition 2015) as well as co-editor of The New Italian Republic (Routledge, 1996). He has published numerous chapters on urban and regional studies/urban theory and on contemporary European politics together with articles in British Politics; City; Electoral Studies; Environment and Planning A; the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research; Information, Communication & Society; the Journal of Southern Europe & the Balkans; The London Journal; Near Futures; Territory, Politics, Governance; Theory, Culture & Society and Urban Geography. Current projects include a historical investigation of migration policy and politics in London (1880-to present) on going ESRC funded research into the trans-Mediterranean European refugee ‘crisis’ (2015-to present) and together with Charlotte O’Brien of the York Law School a study of EEA nationals in the UK under the ESRC’s Governance After Brexit programme. Simon is also co-investigator with Indrajit Roy and Nicole Lindstrom of the ESRC Citizenship futures: ‘the politics of hope’ in India and Europe research programme.

Simon Parker is Co-Chair of the University of York Migration Network (MigNet) with Sara de Jong and Co-Director with Daryl Martin of the Centre for Urban Research (CURB). He was formerly Director of the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of York.

Supervision

Potential research degree projects involving urban and regional politics (especially European and North American), critical urban studies (especially theoretical and interdisciplinary approaches), the politics of immigration, refugees and asylum seeking.

Previous research students and topics:

• Steve Hirschler (USA) The Biopolitics of Asylum Seeker Housing Provision in the United Kingdom: The COMPASS Asylum Housing Project and the Securitisation of Home.
• Jen-Shin (Dolly) Yang (Taiwan) Urban governance and mega-events in an era of globalisation: A comparison of the London 2012 and Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
• Eli Auslender (USA) Brick-by-Brick Integration: The Effect of Multi-Level Governance on Refugee Housing and Integration in Germany.
• Luke Carroll (Isle of Man) Fringe Gentrification and the Critique of the Contemporary Urban Dreamworld.
• Ching-Yu Chang (Taiwan) Should I Stay Or Should I Go? Mobility and settlement decision-making among highly skilled Taiwanese migrants in the United Kingdom.

Current research students and topics:

• Melissa Williams (UK) We are here to stay Inna Inglan: The role of Immigration Legislation in ‘Un-Homing’ British Born Windrush Descendants.
• Ge Huang (PR of China) Ethnic Identity and Integration Trajectories: Experience of Second-Generation Japanese Brazilians (Nikkeijin) in Japa
• Zhihao Ma (PR of China) Empirical Research on Identity and Political Participation of Chinese Peasant-workers. 

External activities

Memberships

• Association for the Study of Modern Italy
• Political Studies Association
• British Sociological Association
• Research Committee 21, International Sociological Association
• Fellow Royal Society of Arts

Editorial duties

• International Advisory Board, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
• International Advisory Board, CITY