Professor Mark Davis

Profile

My undergraduate degree was in Social Sciences at Newcastle University, a programme encompassing sociology, anthropology and political economy. I came to Leeds in 2000 for an MA Sociology degree, and then won a University scholarship to complete my PhD in the School. I became a temporary lecturer in 2008 and was promoted to Professor in 2022. Having held a number of leadership roles in my time at Leeds, I am now Deputy Head of School (Strategy).

My research applies sociological theory to grand challenge questions of sustainability and climate change. I’m particularly interested in a social relations of money and finance perspective, which I use to study just and inclusive transitions to decarbonised societies. Through a series of research projects (details below), I have created new interdisciplinary collaborations at the intersection of economic sociology and energy research. I am best known for founding The Bauman Institute at Leeds, a research centre I directed for 10 years until 2020, and for co-creating Local Climate Bonds – a new model of investment-based crowdfunding to help finance place-based net-zero infrastructure.

The sociological ideas shaping this work are captured in my latest book Crowdfunding and the Democratization of Finance (2021, Bristol University Press).

Since 2019, I am a member of the Editorial Board for the flagship journal, Sociology. I am a reviewer of grant applications submitted to the EC’s Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions and to Friends Provident Foundation’s ‘Fair Economy’ programmes. Early in my career, I worked in both Paris and Strasbourg as an advisor to the Council of Europe (2008-2011), and more recently was external examiner at the Brussels School of International Studies (2018-2021).

My research has been featured on podcasts (Another Europe, The Measure of Everyday Life, Cultural Life of Money and Finance, Local Zero Pod), radio (Why Don’t Economists?), and in national and industry-facing media (The Financial Times, The Guardian, and P2P Finance).

I am also a founding member of the Leeds Relational Energy Group.

Responsibilities

• Deputy Head of School (Strategy)
• Corporate Partnerships and Business Engagement Lead (Social Sciences)
• Founding Director of the Bauman Institute

Research interests

My focus on the relationship between economy and ethics emerges through a long-standing interest in Zygmunt Bauman’s sociology. During my PhD, I specialised in tracing the concept of freedom in his writings on consumerism, politics and morality, which led to my first book Freedom and Consumerism (Routledge, 2008) reviewed in the Times Higher Education Supplement. Subsequently, I completed a trilogy of books on Bauman’s work by editing two volumes, Bauman’s Challenge (Palgrave, 2010) and Liquid Sociology (Routledge, 2013). In 2017, I secured investment to establish The Papers of Janina and Zygmunt Bauman archive in Special Collections, and I am the senior editor of a three-volume book series of Bauman’s lesser-known ‘selected writings’ published by Polity: Culture and Art (2021), History and Politics (2023), and Theory and Society (forthcoming, 2024).

In parallel to this, I pursue empirical lines of enquiry to study alternative economic practices seeking to promote a fairer, greener and more inclusive society in the context of sustainability, equity and climate change. In 2015, I secured funding to hang out with the UK crowdfunding sector and subsequently worked with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Cambridge University to deliver regulatory change to improve protections for new investors in crowdfunding markets.

In 2018, I led a government-funded research project to assess the suitability of crowdfunding for delivering UK public sector infrastructure projects. I built a collaborative team of academic, business, industry, local authority, and legal / financial service partners to design a project that led to the co-creation of Community Municipal Investments (CMIs). Brought to market in 2020 as ‘Local Climate Bonds’, this model has raised over £8M for UK local authorities to fund place-based net zero projects. The CMI model inspired a UK-wide campaign led the Green Finance Institute.

More recently, I co-led a research team based at Leeds, Strathclyde and Sussex Universities to explore alternative approaches to domestic ‘retrofit’ – the installation of energy efficiency measures in buildings. Applying ideas from relational sociology, we developed a new ‘social relations of energy’ framework expressed through a series of publications (see below) to challenge the ‘rational actor’ model that typically shapes energy policy.

My work has been supported by a sustained series of research grants since 2012, to date totalling over £4.43M (value to Leeds £1.46M):

• 2021-2023: Finance and Procurement for Net Zero and Whole Person, Whole Place: Net Zero Neighbourhoods (both UK Energy Research Centre);
• 2018-2021: Prosumers for the Energy Union: Mainstreaming active participation of citizens in the energy transition (EC Horizon 2020);
• 2018-2019: Financing for Society: Assessing the Suitability of Crowdfunding for the Public Sector (UK Government Inclusive Economy Unit)
• 2017-2018: FUSION: The Effects of Financialization on employment and wealth distribution in the UK and Spain (EC Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions)
• 2015-2016: Financial Innovation Today: Towards Economic Resilience (Friends Provident Foundation charitable trust)
• 2014-2015: Alternative Finance Opportunities for Green Energy (Energy Systems Catapult Ltd)
• 2012-2016: Building Democracy? Exploring the Social Impact of Nationally Significant Energy Infrastructure Projects (Tidal Lagoon Power Ltd)

Other Academic Leadership roles:

• Mentor for Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow (SSP, 2020-2022)
• REF2021 Impact Case Study author (SSP, 2019-2021)
• Founder and Director of The Bauman Institute (SSP, 2010-2020)
• Director of Recruitment and Admissions (SSP, 2015-2018)
• Faculty Lead for Alumni and Development's Making a World of Difference Campaign (FSS, 2009-2018)
• Co-author of the University’s ‘Social Sciences Strategy’ (UoL, 2014)
• Director of Building Sustainable Societies (UoL, 2013-2016)
• Programme Manager, MA Social and Political Thought (SSP, 2010-2016)

Qualifications

• PhD Sociology
• MA Sociology
• BA (Hons) Social Science

Professional memberships

• Editorial Board of Sociology journal
• BSA Climate Change Study Group
• BSA Work, Employment and Economic Life Study Group
• BSA Theory Group
• Friends Provident Foundation: Programme Advisory Group

Student education

I am committed to enquiry-based learning and delivering a first-class student experience, sustaining a strong track record of research-led teaching at all levels and alongside my leadership roles. Listed below are the modules at Leeds that I’m involved in via team teaching:

Undergraduate Taught

• Sociology of Consumerism, SLSP3930 (UG3)
• Research Skills for Your Dissertation, SLSP3095 (UG3)
• States of Emergency, FOSS2001/FOSS3001 (UG2/3)
• Sociology and the Climate Crisis, SLSP2932 (UG2)
• Central Problems in Sociology, SLSP2730 (UG2)
• Making Sense of Society: Reading Social Theory, SLSP1201 (UG1)
• Sociology of Modern Societies, SLSP1020 (UG1)

Postgraduate Taught

• Research Strategy and Design, SLSP5501M
• Qualitative Research Methods, SLSP5308M
• Understanding Society and Culture, SLSP5314M
• Approaches and Methods for Media and Culture, SLSP5365M
• Contemporary Social Thought, SLSP5141M
• Fundamental Issues in Sociological Research, SLSP5122M

Doctoral Research

I welcome applications from prospective PhD students with interesting and impactful projects in the areas of economic sociology and energy research. I have supervised 7 doctoral students, all passing successfully, and currently supervise 5 PhD Projects:

• 2023: Menik Budiarti – Micro Business Growth among People with Visual Impairment in Indonesia
• 2022: Paula Cristina Corrêa Bologna – Housing Financialisation in Two Brazilian Capitals: An Ethnographic Approach to Debt and Gender
• 2020: Caroline Bentham – Quantitative Easing in theory and in practice: a critical interdisciplinary analysis
• 2019: Karl Lukas Chakravorty-Aspelin – Democratising Finance? An Evaluation of Global Innovations in Finance
• 2018: Sherif Youssef – Social Enterprises In-Transition: Social Welfare, Entrepreneurship and the Political Economy in the State of Cairo

Completed:

• 2020: Dr Robert Thornton-Lee – The Anonymous Function: Assessing the historical, social, and political importance of anonymity and its function in a digital age
• 2020: Dr Ben Hirst – Enterprise Cultures in Higher Education and the Creative Arts
• 2019: Dr David Wingate – Towards a Genealogy of Sustainable Consumption
• 2017: Dr Jack Palmer – What are the links between modernity and specific instances of colonial and postcolonial genocide in the Great Lakes region of Central Africa?
• 2016: Dr Natasha Barnes – Love, A Frame Analysis: Exploring the Organization of Emotion
• 2015: Dr Laura Cartwright – Permanently Temping? Learning, Earning and Precarity amongst young people in Yorkshire
• 2013: Dr Jasna Balorda – Genocide and modernity: A comparative study of Bosnia, Rwanda and the Holocaust

I have also hosted international PhD students since 2015: Soares (Brazil, 2015, 2016), Alvarez (Spain, 2019), Leiva (Mexico, 2019), and Bastero (Spain, 2018). I have also examined 7 doctorates, 3 internationally: Andrews (Melbourne, 2017), Aidnik (Tallinn, 2018), and Leiva (Valencia, 2020).

Research groups and institutes

• The Bauman Institute

Current postgraduate researchers

• Paula Correa Bologna
• Menik Budiarti