Background

I am a Lecturer in Economic Geography in the Centre for Urban and Regional Development (CURDS) within the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University. My research interests lie in raising critical questions about sub-national governing, politics and power. Within this, I currently have two main strands of research: firstly investigating the relationship between housing and the economy through increasingly entrepreneurial forms of housing governance (raising critical questions about transparency, accountability, ‘publicness’, politics and wider democracy) and secondly investigating gender inequality in local and regional development (raising critical questions about place leadership, devolution and power).

Before joining Geography as a lecturer in 2020, I was an ESRC Research Fellow here in 2018-2019 working on a project entitled 'Housing Hope: the place of politics and people in housing governance' and also a Research Associate in the School of Architecture Planning and Landscape at Newcastle. My research interests straddle urban planning, geography and housing studies and have been shaped though my previous ten-year career in town planning. I am committed to knowledge exchange with practice and communities alongside contributing to academic debates.

Research

I am a Lecturer in Economic Geography in the Centre for Urban and Regional Development (CURDS) within the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University. 

My current research project '(Re)Setting the Agenda: Investigating the Gendered Power-relations in the Leadership of Regional Development and Policy-making' runs from 2023-2025 and is funded by Regional Studies Association. This project challenges the masculine-coded forms of place-leadership in regional development by closely examining the different approaches to leadership that exist in regions, and ways in which different conceptualisations of power are enacted and shape policy-making and development visions.

A paper in Regional Studies sets this research agenda, and has been translated into a Heseltine Institute Policy Briefing.

Ongoing research on housing regeneration stems from my previous ESRC Fellowship project entitled ‘Housing Hope: the place of politics and people in housing governance’. This research developed my doctoral work in the Department of Geography at Durham University that examined neighbourhood housing regeneration. This research offers ways of reconceptualising the relationship of housing with the wider economy, politics and decision making.

My PhD project titled ‘The Local State of Housing: Deepening Entrepreneurial Governance and the Place of Politics and Publics’ examined how the governance of housing is transforming, with powerful impacts on inequality and local politics in British cities. It focused on a growing shift towards the local state becoming a housing developer, moving in increasingly entrepreneurial directions under times of austerity. The following dissemination reports have been written from this research:

• 'Experts and Evidence: Learning from Housing Market Renewal in Gateshead'
• 'Gateshead Regeneration Partnership: An Evaluation'

I have also worked on other research projects including:

• 'From doom to hope? Exploring the renegotiation of public services in challenging times' with Dr. David Webb and Dr. Ruth Raynor at Newcastle University
• ‘Brexit Futures’ with Prof. Ben Anderson and Dr. Helen Wilson at Durham University
• ‘Disposal: the housing crisis in Horden’s numbered streets’ with Prof. Rachel Pain at Durham University
• ‘Mapping Research Impact from Customer-Led Network Revolution’ with Prof. Harriet Bulkeley and Dr. Adam Holden at Durham University

Current PhD Supervision:

Brett Cherry

Minki Sung

Past PhD Supervision:

Jennie Day: Jennie Day - School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape - Newcastle University (ncl.ac.uk)

Teaching

I am currently teaching on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees which relate to my areas of research.

- I am Geography and Planning Liaison (Degree LK74)

- I teach on our Geography undergraduate degree (L701):

     Stage 3: Local & Regional Development (GEO3114): Module Leader & Lecturer

     Stage 2: The creative and knowledge-based economy (GEO2124) Berlin Field Trip: Lecturer

     Stage 1: Geographical Analysis (GEO1018): Lecturer

- I am a Personal Tutor & Dissertation Mentor

- I teach on the Human Geography Research MA:

     GEO8017: Geographical Concepts in Action 

Publications

• Articles

  • Ormerod E. Level with us, regional development is still 'man shaped': feminism, futurity and leadership. Regional Studies 2023, Epub ahead of print.
  • MacKinnon D, Kempton L, O'Brien P, Ormerod E, Pike A, Tomaney J. Reframing urban and regional 'development' for 'left behind' places. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy & Society 2022, 15(1), 39-56.
  • Davoudi S, Ormerod E. Hope and despair at the time of pandemic. Town Planning Review 2021, 92(3), 317-322.
  • Ormerod E, Davoudi S. Governing the pandemic, democracy at the time of emergency. Town Planning Review 2021, 92(3), 323-328.
  • Heslop J, Ormerod E. The Politics of Crisis: Deconstructing the Dominant Narratives of the Housing Crisis. Antipode 2020, 52(1), 145-163.
  • Ormerod E. The place of politics and the politics of place: Housing, the Labour Party and the local state in England. Political Geography 2020, 85, 102308.
  • Heslop J, McFarlane C, Ormerod E. Relational Housing Across the North-South Divide: Learning Between Albania, Uganda, and the UK. Housing Studies 2020, 35(9), 1607-1627.
  • Anderson B, Wilson H, Forman P, Heslop J, Ormerod E, Maestri G. Brexit: Modes of uncertainty and futures in an impasse. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 2020, 45(2), 256-269.
  • Ormerod E, MacLeod G. Beyond consensus and conflict in housing governance: Returning to the local state. Planning Theory 2019, 18(3), 319-338.

• Reports

  • Ormerod E. Levelling Up gender inequality in the UK: Leadership and development. Heseltine Institute Policy Breifing, 2023. Policy Briefing. In Preparation.
  • Ormerod E. Gateshead Regeneration Partnership: An Evaluation. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, 2018.
  • Ormerod E. Experts and Evidence: Learning from Housing Market Renewal in Gateshead. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, 2018.
  • Pain R, Heslop J, Ormerod E, Butler-Rees A, Crawshaw H, Davisson H, Dawson L, Fairhurst M, Galin M, Harman D, Holloway E, James T, Liu A, Chau C, Qing H, Read F, Smith M, Somerset C, Sporik E, Turner I. DISPOSAL: The Housing Crisis in Horden’s Numbered Streets. Durham University: Centre for Social Justice and Community Action, 2016.