Dr Michael Howcroft

  • Future Leaders Fellow (Urban Studies & Social Policy)

Biography

I am a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow in the Division of Urban Studies and Social Policy. The four-year Civic Imaginary Partnerships project works closely with local and national policy partners, community organisations and creative practitioners to develop long-term ethnographic understandings of how communities collectively reimagine and reinvent their places. It explores the concept and method of the civic imaginary, its international reach and applications, and its potential as a broker between local authorities and communities. The project builds on my earlier projects, especially my PhD (Human Geography at the University of Hull, 2021), which, through the framework of the civic imaginary, explored some of the political and cultural behaviours of Hull. 

I was Research Associate with the AHRC Place Programme (2023-2024) and held an ESRC Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship exploring pride in place at the University of Southampton (2022-2023). I was Research Fellow at the Southampton Institute for Arts and Humanities, working on the AHRC funded Feeling Towns project. I was also Research Associate at the University of Sheffield, on the Spaces of Hope project and a member of the team exploring the soft-power impacts of Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool, funded by the British Council.

Before the PhD, I was an actor and director, working on theatre productions in the UK and internationally. I am an experienced facilitator of focus groups and creative workshops, regularly collaborating with poets, youth theatres, visual artists, playwrights, musicians, community-based artists and film makers. I co-created the short, animated film titled ‘How Proud?’, funded by the AHRC Place Programme.

Research interests

  • Civic imaginary theory and praxis
  • Emotional geographies, particularly the spatial, political and cultural geographies of pride and shame
  • Cultural mega-events
  • Community-led planning
  • Creative ethnographic methods

Research groups

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022
Number of items: 13.

2025

Baker, Catherine, Atkinson, David, Grabher, Barbara and Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122 (2025) Bridging the “sport/culture silo”: the Eurovision Song Contest and its lessons for sporting and cultural mega-events. International Journal of Cultural Policy, (doi: 10.1080/10286632.2025.2521115) (Early Online Publication)

2024

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 and Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122 (2024) Advancing People-Centred, Place-Based Approaches. Other. University of Glasgow, Glasgow. (doi: 10.36399/gla.pubs.342111).

Inch, Andy, Slade, J., Brownill, S., Ellis, G., Howcroft, M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122, Humphry, D., Leeson, L., O'Hara, G., Sartorio, F. and Robbins, G. (2024) Community action, counter-professionals and radical planning in the UK. City: Analysis of Urban Change, Theory, Action, (doi: 10.1080/13604813.2024.2427437) (Early Online Publication)

Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122, Marsh, Nicky and Owen, Joseph (2024) Levelling Up, affective governance and tensions within 'pride in place'. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, (doi: 10.1177/23996544241268342) (Early Online Publication)

Marsh, Nicky, Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122 and Owen, Joseph (2024) "Pride in place" beyond the metrics: Insights from the Feeling Towns project, AHRC Place Programme Policy Brief. Other. University of Glasgow, Glasgow. (doi: 10.36399/gla.pubs.321921).

Baker, Catherine, Atkinson, David, Grabher, Barbara and Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122 (2024) Culture, Place and Partnership: The Cultural Relations of Eurovision 2023. Documentation. British Council.

Baker, Catherine, Atkinson, David, Grabher, Barbara and Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122 (2024) Soft Power, Cultural Relations and Conflict through Eurovision and Other Mega-events: A Literature Review. Documentation. British Council.

2023

Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122 (2023) The cultural politics of civic pride through Hull UK City of Culture 2017. Arts and the Market, 13(3), pp. 138-158. (doi: 10.1108/AAM-08-2021-0043)

Owen, Joseph and Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122 (2023) Pride(s) in Place(s) Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Pride. Royal Geographical Society Conference 2023, London, UK, 29 August -1 September 2023.

Baker, Catherine and Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122 (2023) Gay Bod: civic and LGBTQ+ pride after Brexit in a city on the margins of the UK and Europe. In: Loftsdóttir, Kristín, Hipfl, Brigitte and Ponzanesi, Sandra (eds.) Creating Europe from the Margins. Routledge: London, pp. 108-124. ISBN 9781003269748 (doi: 10.4324/9781003269748-7)

Chao, Annlin, Frears, Ella, Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122, Owen, Joseph and Marsh, Nicky (2023) How Proud? [Artefact]

2022

Marsh, Nicky, Clarke, Catherine, Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122 and May, Will (2022) Towns and the Cultural Economies of Recovery: A Multidisciplinary Mapping. Project Report. And Towns.

Marsh, Nicky, Ashton, Daniel and Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122 (2022) Written evidence submitted to Reimagining where we live: cultural placemaking and the levelling up agenda. Other. Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, UK Government.

This list was generated on Mon Jun 30 16:01:12 2025 BST.
Jump to: Articles | Book Sections | Research Reports or Papers | Conference or Workshop Item | Artefact
Number of items: 13.

Articles

Baker, Catherine, Atkinson, David, Grabher, Barbara and Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122 (2025) Bridging the “sport/culture silo”: the Eurovision Song Contest and its lessons for sporting and cultural mega-events. International Journal of Cultural Policy, (doi: 10.1080/10286632.2025.2521115) (Early Online Publication)

Inch, Andy, Slade, J., Brownill, S., Ellis, G., Howcroft, M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122, Humphry, D., Leeson, L., O'Hara, G., Sartorio, F. and Robbins, G. (2024) Community action, counter-professionals and radical planning in the UK. City: Analysis of Urban Change, Theory, Action, (doi: 10.1080/13604813.2024.2427437) (Early Online Publication)

Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122, Marsh, Nicky and Owen, Joseph (2024) Levelling Up, affective governance and tensions within 'pride in place'. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, (doi: 10.1177/23996544241268342) (Early Online Publication)

Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122 (2023) The cultural politics of civic pride through Hull UK City of Culture 2017. Arts and the Market, 13(3), pp. 138-158. (doi: 10.1108/AAM-08-2021-0043)

Book Sections

Baker, Catherine and Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122 (2023) Gay Bod: civic and LGBTQ+ pride after Brexit in a city on the margins of the UK and Europe. In: Loftsdóttir, Kristín, Hipfl, Brigitte and Ponzanesi, Sandra (eds.) Creating Europe from the Margins. Routledge: London, pp. 108-124. ISBN 9781003269748 (doi: 10.4324/9781003269748-7)

Research Reports or Papers

Madgin, Rebecca ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0323-8212 and Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122 (2024) Advancing People-Centred, Place-Based Approaches. Other. University of Glasgow, Glasgow. (doi: 10.36399/gla.pubs.342111).

Marsh, Nicky, Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122 and Owen, Joseph (2024) "Pride in place" beyond the metrics: Insights from the Feeling Towns project, AHRC Place Programme Policy Brief. Other. University of Glasgow, Glasgow. (doi: 10.36399/gla.pubs.321921).

Baker, Catherine, Atkinson, David, Grabher, Barbara and Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122 (2024) Culture, Place and Partnership: The Cultural Relations of Eurovision 2023. Documentation. British Council.

Baker, Catherine, Atkinson, David, Grabher, Barbara and Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122 (2024) Soft Power, Cultural Relations and Conflict through Eurovision and Other Mega-events: A Literature Review. Documentation. British Council.

Marsh, Nicky, Clarke, Catherine, Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122 and May, Will (2022) Towns and the Cultural Economies of Recovery: A Multidisciplinary Mapping. Project Report. And Towns.

Marsh, Nicky, Ashton, Daniel and Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122 (2022) Written evidence submitted to Reimagining where we live: cultural placemaking and the levelling up agenda. Other. Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, UK Government.

Conference or Workshop Item

Owen, Joseph and Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122 (2023) Pride(s) in Place(s) Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Pride. Royal Geographical Society Conference 2023, London, UK, 29 August -1 September 2023.

Artefact

Chao, Annlin, Frears, Ella, Howcroft, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1171-6122, Owen, Joseph and Marsh, Nicky (2023) How Proud? [Artefact]

This list was generated on Mon Jun 30 16:01:12 2025 BST.

Grants

2024-2028: Civic imaginary partnerships: cultures of participation and local decision making UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship Grant number: MR/Y017404/1

2022-2023: Pride, shame and the civic imaginary: UK cultural festivals and the levelling up agenda ESRC Post-Doctoral Fellowship Grant number: ES/X004139/1

2022-2023: Feeling Towns: the role of place and identity in governance and local policy AHRC AH/W008696/1, (Co-Investigator. P-I Nicky Marsh)

Supervision

 

Professional activities & recognition

Research fellowships

  • 2024 - 2028: UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship
  • 2022 - 2023: ESRC Post-doctoral Fellowship

Selected international presentations

  • 2025: Regional Studies Association (Porto, Portugal)
  • 2025: American Association of Geographers (Detroit, USA)
  • 2024: Regional Studies Association (Florence, Italy)
  • 2023: University of Iceland (Reykjavik, Iceland)
  • 2023: Royal Geographical Society (London, UK)
  • 2023: Regional Studies Association (Ljubljana, Slovenia)
  • 2023: American Association of Geographers (Denver, USA)
  • 2023: Political Studies Association (Liverpool, UK)

Additional information

Michael is a visiting researcher at the University of Bologna and a member of the Community Ownership Fund evaluation steering committee (Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government).