Dr Steve Connelly

Room number: D11f
Telephone (internal): 26916
Telephone (UK): 0114 222 6916
Telephone (International): +44 114 222 6916
Email: s.connelly@sheffield.ac.uk

Academic profile

I graduated from Oxford with a BA in Physics & Philosophy and then took up a career in overseas development. I was awarded an MSc in Forestry and its Relation to Land Use by the Oxford Forestry Institute in 1988.

Having worked in India, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Eritrea I returned to the UK with a commitment to public participation in governance and sustainable development, and an intellectual interest in why these desirable goals are often not achieved. This led to a PhD, at Sheffield’s Department of Town & Regional Planning, on the impact of local authority policy processes on public involvement in Local Agenda 21.
I was appointed as Lecturer in the Department in 2002 and Senior Lecturer in 2011.

Research interests

My research is connected to the core question: in a policy making world dominated by norms of public participation and partnership, what happens to values of environmental sustainability, justice and democracy? This has involved field work in Sheffield, the Peak District National Park, Egypt and South Africa.

Current research

Flowing from the ‘core question’ above is research in several interlinked areas: public and other stakeholder engagement with complex governance structures, with a focus on legitimacy and representation; planning for sustainable development in both democratic and non-democratic societies; the role of professionals in mediating values in planning and development; explaining ‘governance’ through the interaction of discourses and institutional structures; critical realist policy analysis.

I’m interested in these issues in the global North and the South, and so in developing new theoretical approaches which bring together ideas about informality and governance.

I’m involved in two projects investigating aspects of stakeholder involvement:

• As part of the EPSRC-funded URSULA project on sustainable river corridor development, I’m working with other social scientists to investigate the stakeholder and discursive processes involved, including the processes of interdisciplinary knowledge creation within the project itself and the links between these and the policy community
• An action research project with Sheffield City Council, developing innovative approaches to community involvement in integrated service delivery.

Recent research has included comparing participation from the planner's perspective in the contrasting political environments of Egypt and South Africa and investigating how community-run organisations construct and maintain their legitimacy in the context of urban regeneration in the UK.

I supervise a group of PhD students who share overlapping interests and would welcome applications for PhD study from people interested in joining this exciting and innovative group. For further information click here.

Teaching

My current teaching is on environmental policy at undergraduate level, sustainable urban planning and design for the MA in International Development & Planning, and principles of social science research for the Faculty’s doctoral students. Throughout I draw directly on my current and recent research, and also on principles of student-centred teaching developed within the university and in previous work in community adult education with the Workers’ Educational Association.

Details of the modules on which I teach can be found here:

TRP333 Environmental Policy and Planning
TRP602 International Planning Project
FCS 660 Foundations of Research

Key publications

• Connelly, S. (2011) 'Constructing legitimacy in the new community governance' Urban Studies 48(5): 929-946
• Connelly, S. (2010) 'Participation in a hostile state: how do planners act to shape public engagement in politically difficult environments?' Planning Practice & Research 25(3): 333–351
• Connelly, S. (2009): 'Deliberation in the face of power: Stakeholder planning in Egypt', Policy and Society 28: 185-195
• Connelly, S. (2007) 'Mapping sustainable development as a contested concept' Local Environment 12(3) pp. 259-278.
• Connelly, S. (2006): Looking inside public involvement: how is it made so ineffective and can we change this? Community Development Journal, 41 (1) pp. 13-24.

Other information

My principal administrative role in the department is connected to internationalising the curriculum and student body. I’m the Programme Director for the MA in International Development & Planning, and co-Director of the MA in International Development (run jointly with the Department of Geography).

MA in International Development and Planning
MA in International Development

As International Students Tutor, I support and advise International students, including prospective students, about matters which pertain to them specifically. I aim to improve their experiences of being a student in our department. (See also International Students.)

I am an active member of the University’s international development network of academics and students (SIDNet) and I have research links with scholars in South Africa and Egypt.

Outside the University I’m active in the campaign to save Portland Works, a unique part of Sheffield's industrial heritage, and a Trustee for the Peak District & South Yorkshire branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE). I’m also a member of the Nuclear Consulting Group.