Academic Staff: Martin Smith

Professor Martin Smith, BA, MA, Ph.D. [Essex]

Professor

Telephone: +44 (0)114 222 1667
Fax: +44 (0)114 222 1717
Room: 2:04 Elmfield
Feedback & Consultation Hour: Tuesday 13.00 - 14.00

email : M.J.Smith@sheffield.ac.uk

Profile

Martin Smith was appointed to the Department of Politics at the University of Sheffield in 1990. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1995 and Professor in 1998. He was Head of Department from 2001 to August 2005. Before coming to Sheffield he worked at the Universities of Kent, York and Brunel. He did his Ph.D. on agricultural policy at the University of Essex between 1984 and 1987. He has also been a visiting Professor at the University of Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. Between 2005 and 2011 he was appointed Editor (with Matthew Festenstein) of the journal Political Studies. He is currently the Director of Research and Innovation for the Faculty of Social Sciences which involves responsibility for the faculty’s research strategy and funding, research assessment and postgraduate research students. Within this role he was involved in the establishment of the White Rose DTC.

His main research interests are in British Politics, Public Policy and the changing nature of the state. In particular he is interested in the reform of the state, policy networks and policy making, the changing nature of central government and the Labour Party.

Current Research

Recent research has revolved around the privatisation of security, the nature of new Labour’s political economy and the reform of the core executive.

Current Research includes:

• Governance and accountability
• The impact of retrenchment on local services
• The rise of the moral state

Teaching

I have taught a whole range of topics including British Politics, Public Policy, Political Economy and Security and the Domestic State. My aim in teaching is to ensure that students are aware of the latest research and develop a keen critical awareness. In my view the learning process is about developing the confidence to challenge ideas and approaches. I also think that it is important that students develop a conceptual understanding of the real world. It is the ability to use concepts to understand and explain the world that separates political science from journalistic or common-sense understandings of the world. If students develop a conceptual understanding they are able to apply particular ways of seeing to a whole range of real world problems.

Current teaching: MA level - POL6006 The State and (In)security

Key Publications

• Smith, M. J. (2009). Power and the State. Palgrave MacMillan, pp.307
• Kavanagh, D., Richards, D., Geddes, A., & Smith, M. (2006). British Politics. Oxford University Press, pp. 695
• Ludlam, S., & Smith, M. J. (2004) (eds). Governing as New Labour. Palgrave MacMillan, pp.308.
• Richards, D., & Smith, M. J. (2002). Governance and Public Policy in the United Kingdom. Oxford University Press, pp.307.
• Ludlam, S. & Smith, M.J. (2001) (eds). New Labour in Government. Palgrave Macmillan, pp.308
• Marsh, D., Richards, D., & Smith, M. J. (2001). Changing Patterns of Governance in the United Kingdom. Palgrave Macmillan, pp.288.

View Professor Smith's full list of publications.

PhD Supervision

I am happy to supervise research students on most aspects of public policy and in particular work on comparative policy networks, governmental reform, the Labour government, the core executive, the nature of the state and state theory.

Current and past supervisions include:

• Drugs policy in Mexico
• Risk and Environmental Policy in China
• Business and Climate change
• Privatising Security
• Britain and the Single European Act
• New Labour's Ideology
• Policy Networks in Hong Kong
• Privatisation Policy in Britain and Japan
• The Core Executive and Foreign Policy
• Administrative Reform in Mexico
• European Aerospace Policy