Who is involved?

Dr Vicky Habermehl

Vicky Habermehl was lead researcher on Whose Knowledge Matters. Her prior research has focused on Latin American Cities where she researched how the economy is understood and reshaped through crisis, narratives of economic informality and everyday economic practices such as economic solidarity initiatives, autogestion and popular economy. She has a PhD in Geography from the University of Leeds, focused on organising in-against-and-beyond crisis in Buenos Aires, Argentina, through the economy, state and territory. She has previously worked as a Research Associate at University College London in the project ‘Economics in the Public Sphere’ and at Brunel University in ‘Timescapes of Urban Change’. She is part of the Contested Cities international network.

Professor Beth Perry

Beth was the Principal Investigator of Whose Knowledge Matters.  Beth joined the Urban Institute in September 2016, following her appointment as a Professorial Fellow in the Faculty of Social Sciences. Her research focusses on co-production, urban governance and urban justice. Following degrees in European Studies and Modern Languages (BA Hons, University of Manchester) and European Integration (MA, University of Bradford), she joined the Centre for Sustainable Urban and Regional Futures (SURF) at the University of Salford and became its director prior to moving to Sheffield.  During this time she completed her PhD which focussed on the relationship between universities and the knowledge economy in the context of multi-level and multi-actor governance. From 2010 to 2019, she has been UK Programme Lead for the Mistra Urban Futures Centre (which is headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden) and sat on its International Board.

Professor Tim May

Tim was a Co-I on Whose Knowledge Matters and a Professor of Social Scientific Methodology at the Sheffield Methods Institute. He has been the international methodological advisor to the SMLIP, working on the role of boundary agents and the circulation of knowledge and decision-making in research practice. His interests lie in interdisciplinary working; collaboration with non-academic partners; policy-related research; management and organizational change; methodological innovation; reflexivity in social research and social life; philosophy of social science and social and political theory. He has written widely in these areas and also worked with many organisations in the public and private sectors.

Dr Vicky Simpson

As Research Programme Coordinator of the Sheffield-Manchester Local Interaction Platform for Mistra Urban Futures, Vicky works at the Urban Institute. Drawing on her research background, Vicky coordinates support across a portfolio of UK and EU research grants at the Urban Institute. Vicky obtained degrees from Manchester Metropolitan University BA (1997); MA (1998) and PhD (2004) and the University of Portsmouth (MSc, 2005). Vicky has also been awarded a Post Graduate Teaching Certificate (2009). After teaching, research and management appointments at Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Manchester and the University of Salford, Vicky joined the Urban Institute in September 2016.