Dr Heather Buckingham

Heather Buckingham

School of Social Sciences
University of Southampton
Southampton
SO17 1BJ

Position: Senior Research Assistant
Telephone: (023) 8059 5859
Email: H.Buckingham@soton.ac.uk

Biography

Heather Buckingham completed a BSc (Hons) in Geography at the University of Southampton in 2005 and subsequently obtained an MA (Research Methods) in Urban Economy and Culture, also in the School of Geography at Southampton. Her docotral research was undertaken in the division of Sociology and Social Policy at Southampton, supervised by Professor John Mohan and Dr Silke Roth. Her PhD thesis was entitled:

‘Accommodating Change? An investigation of the impacts of government contracting processes on third sector providers of homelessness services in South East England ’.

This research explored the impacts of government contracting and the associated tendering and monitoring processes on third sector organisations.

Research interests

Heather’s current research is focused on the changing role of the third sector in service provision in the UK welfare state. This reflects a broader interest in social welfare issues, particularly from a geographical perspective. Heather is also interested in the synthesis of qualitative and quantitative methods, and how these can be applied to studying social phenomena at a range of scales from national policies to individual social relations. This relates to her interest in understanding how social policies are implemented and experienced in practice by those providing and receiving public services.

Work in progress

Heather is currently involved in a Third Sector Research Centre project investigating the geographies of social enterprise, working with Prof. Steven Pinch and Prof. Peter Sunley. This project is examining how factors such as access to finance and local capacity-building influence the emergence and growth of social enterprises and contribute to spatial variations in their distribution.

Selected publications

Articles in journals
 Buckingham, H. 2009 Competition and contracts in the voluntary sector: exploring the implications for homelessness service providers in Southampton. Policy and Politics, vol. 37, no. 2, 235-254.
Working papers
 Buckingham, H., Pinch, S. and Sunley, P. 2010 The regional geography of social enterprise in the UK: a review of recent surveys, TSRC Working Paper 35  On-line article
Seminar and conference presentations
 Buckingham, H. 2009 Exploring the significance of values in a changing policy context: insights from faith-based and secular homelessness service providers in the UK . Paper presented to Welfare and Values in Europe Conference. Uppsala, 26-28th March 2009  On-line abstract
 Buckingham, H. 2008 Competition, contracts, and control: do changes to voluntary sector homeless services in the UK matter? Paper presented to Royal Geographical Society - Institute of British Geographers Annual International Conference. London, 27-29 August 2008  On-line abstract
 Buckingham, H. 2008 Healthy Competition? Exploring the implications of competitive tendering for homelessness service providers. Paper presented to NCVO/VSSN Researching the Voluntary Sector Conference. University of Warwick, 9-10 September 2008  On-line abstract