Imogen Bayfield

Imogen Bayfield

Dr

    Accepting PhD Students

    20192025

    Research activity per year

    Personal profile

    Research Interests

    Imogen is an ethnographer who specialises in social cohesion, community relations, participatory development, community empowerment, collective organising and organisational governance.

    Her first monograph, Engaged Publics: Organising in Crisis, is due for publication with Bristol University Press in 2026.

    Imogen’s PhD was a study of the politics of ‘community empowerment’ through a close-up examination of the organisational life of three community groups engaged in a community empowerment programme. It sought to understand how those involved worked together to bring about change, and used this to generate broader insights into a) the paradigm of ‘community empowerment’; b) the role that communities have been expected to play in broader socio-political life, and how best to enable this; and c) the cultures of organising prevalent in contemporary Britain.

    She has conducted ethnographic research with communities and community groups across the UK, and she has a particular interest in the state-civil society nexus.

    Her post-doctoral research has included work on the challenges to social cohesion, including ruptures that lead to civil unrest.

    Imogen is interested in collaborating in, and supervising projects on, collective organising; spaces of radical or alternative organising; organisational/institutional ethnography; social cohesion; community politics; community relations; civil society; environmental politics.

    She has been involved with consultancy work on social cohesion and organisational culture, including Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

    Prior to joining the Centre for Peace and Security, she studied Migration and Diaspora Studies at SOAS; Anthropology at Durham; and classical piano at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

    Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

    In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

    • SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
    • SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
    • SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

    Education/Academic qualification

    Sociology, anthropology and development studies, Doctorate, Communities in Control? The Dilemma of Empowerment in Participatory Community Development, Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University

    1 Jan 20181 Sept 2022

    Award Date: 22 Mar 2023

    Migration and Diaspora Studies, MA, Destructive constructions: Brexit and the migrant 'other', SOAS, University of London

    1 Sept 20151 Aug 2017

    Award Date: 1 Sept 2017

    Anthropology, Degree, Musicality in the Western 'art' music scene, University of Durham

    1 Sept 201028 May 2013

    Award Date: 30 Aug 2013

    Keywords

    • H Social Sciences (General)
    • Social cohesion
    • communities
    • collective organising
    • small groups
    • participatory development
    • organisational governance
    • civic engagement
    • in/equalities
    • intersectional analysis
    • ethnography
    • organisational ethnography
    • social theory

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