Ben Gidley is a Senior Researcher at COMPAS, primarily working on projects in the Citizenship and Belonging, Urban Change and Settlement, and Welfare clusters.
He has a PhD in Sociology from the University of London. His research has included ethnographic and policy-focused research on contemporary urban multiculture, and historical research on Jewish migrants in East London.
His research interests include the impact of new forms of diversity on local contexts in the UK; both new and old forms of intolerance and conviviality; and the politics of migrant citizenship and belonging, both today and historically.
Selected publications
2010, with Keith Kahn-Harris, Turbulent Times: The British Jewish Community Today. London: Continuum. Summer 2010 (Review by Jewish Quarterly, Review by The Jewish Chronicle)
2009, "A note on the awkwardness of the ethnographer" Sociological Review, 57, 3: Post-colonial Bourdieu.
2009, with Marjorie Mayo et al, "Community empowerment and community cohesion: parallel agendas for community building in England?" [.pdf] Journal of Social Intervention: Theory and Practice, 18, 1.
2009, “Ghosts of Kishinev in the East End” in Nadia Valman and Eitan Bar-Yosef, eds, The ‘Jew’ in Late-Victorian and Edwardian Culture: Between the East End and East Africa. London: Palgrave
2008, with Marjorie Mayo et al, Community Engagement and Community Cohesion. Bristol: The Policy Press, 83 pp.
Summary [.pdf], Full report [.pdf]
2007, “Youth Culture and Ethnicity: Emerging Youth Multiculture in South London” Paul Hodkinson and Wolfgang Deicke, eds, Youth Cultures: Scenes, Subcultures and Tribes 2007, London: Routledge Advances in Sociology series, pp.145-160