Welcome to the information pages for ENSGOV

The Environmental and Spatial Governance (ENSGOV) Research Group critically engages with spatial and regulatory practices that underpin and challenge effective and fair governance, particularly those associated with sustainable and just transitions. This includes issues such as public participation, environmental justice, housing, marine governance, energy transition and the social economy. The core focus of ENSGOV is its critical social science approach (particularly around issues of power, knowledge, spatial outcomes and resource distribution) and it seeks to progress this in a wider inter-disciplinary environment, working with researchers with expertise in issues such as health, design, natural science and from other social science perspectives. The research undertaken by ENSGOV is also strongly guided by processes of co-design and co-production with close partners from wider community, policy and practice organisations.

ENSGOV will contribute knowledge through a variety of research designs and will aspire to develop a common social science conceptual framework for its activities that will guide a series of critical, comparative and international case studies at different geographical scales, with a view to synthesising these into long term and ambitious, theoretical and impactful research outcomes.