Michael Keith has a personal chair, University of Oxford and is the Director of COMPAS (2008>), primarily working on projects in the Labour Markets, Citizenship and Belonging, Urban Change and Settlement, and Welfare clusters.
His research interests focus on the interface between culture, urbanism and migration. His current work develops past projects on the dynamics of urbanism, the study of cultural difference and the impact of migration on structures and processes of governance. One strand of this considers the politics of migration, integration, cohesion and everyday life in the United Kingdom. A second strand considers the dynamics of migration, city transformation and emergent markets in contemporary China.
Michael was formerly Professor of Sociology, Head of Department and Director of the Centre for Urban and Community Research (CUCR) at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He has also been a politician in the East End of London for twenty years and was at various times leader of the Council in Tower Hamlets, chair of the Thames Gateway London Partnership (2000-2006) and Commissioner on the National Commission on Integration and Cohesion (2006-07).
Current Research Projects
- Risk Cultures in China: An Economic Sociology?
- Cohesion, Integration, Migration: Urbanism, City Change, and the Future of Multiculturalism
- Social Externalities: China, India, Africa: ESRC Rising Powers Network
Selected Publications
Keith, M. (2013) 'Beyond European imaginaries? The paradoxical cartography of a Land of Strangers', Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 20(1): 24-30. DOI: 10.1080/1070289X.2013.763169
Keith, M. (2013) 'Discovering faith? The hidden contours of political participation and devotional practice in contemporary east London’, in J. Garnett and Harris, A. (Eds). Re-scripting religion in the city: migration, modernity and religious identity in global cities. Avebury: Gower.
Keith, M. (2013) ‘Scholarly Languages’: Migration, faith, ethnicity and political subjectivity’, in Garnett, J. and Harris, A. (Eds), Re-Scripting Religion in the City: Migration, Modernity and Religious Identity in Global Cities. Avebury: Gower
Keith, M. (2013) 'Scale jumping and time travelling? Urban exclusion, integration, riots and racism', in D. Loch (Ed.), Migrants in the political sphere of European societies: between normative values, political participation and social rights. Palgrave Macmillan. Europe in Transition: The NYU European Studies Series.