03 · Recent & ongoing research

Research
field

Current programme

A connected inquiry into how abstract systems become material in streets, infrastructures and everyday spatial practices.

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Abstract diagram for Living on the Corpse of Neoliberalism

Project

A Lefebvrian inquiry into street, design, governance and appropriation in Glasgow. The project examines how post-industrial restructuring, municipal fragmentation, infrastructure, austerity and everyday spatial practices become entangled in the contemporary city.

Central question

How are the abstract systems of neoliberal urbanism made material, ordinary and contestable in the street?

Henri LefebvrePolitical economyUrban governanceEthnography
Abstract diagram for Perceived Neoliberal Glasgow

Project

A public-facing study of how advertising, city branding, event publicity and public information are noticed, remembered and interpreted in Glasgow streets. It approaches visual messages as part of the material and affective organisation of public space.

Central question

How do ordinary street-level messages shape people’s impressions of places and of the city more broadly?

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Public perceptionStreet mediaField studyVisual culture
Abstract diagram for Street Furniture and Public Life

Project

A connected programme of historical, theoretical and empirical work tracing how street furniture became politically significant under neoliberal urban restructuring, and how public agency persists through appropriation, modification and everyday use.

Central question

What can mundane urban objects reveal about changing relations between state, market and citizen?

Street furnitureNeoliberalismRight to the cityAffordance
Abstract diagram for Reading Public Design as Spatial Production

Project

A theoretical project that uses spatial production to read public design beyond intention, authorship and formal qualities. It focuses on the operational life of designed environments: how they are governed, maintained, financed, inhabited and contested after completion.

Central question

How can design critique account for the institutional and everyday life of public objects and spaces?

Design critiqueSpatial productionInstitutionsMaintenance