Dr Steven Jakes

My long-standing interests are in the broad field of issues of economic change, spatial development and social disadvantage in the developed world. These interests have also drawn me into specific work on relationships between resort decline and social exclusion and on dynamics and processes of change within the economies of English seaside resorts and deprived neighbourhoods. The core concern of my research is to improve understanding of the range of factors influencing area-based deprivation in English seaside resorts and to promote their integration into regeneration policy and practice. My interest is also in examining spatial concentrations of deprivation in seaside resorts, at the neighbourhood level, and the extent to which they can have a compounding effect upon residents of deprived areas and contribute to social exclusion. My main analytical approach is the use of quantitative methods. I have created a national seaside resort database comprising an extensive range of social, economic and demographic measures for seaside regions, districts, wards and neighbourhoods. My PhD research resulted in the construction of said database, which is composed of time-series data drawn from an array of sources. No other database of this nature has ever existed in the UK. The national seaside resort database therefore constitutes a significant and valuable academic resource. My future research agenda entails reviewing and processing the extensive secondary data I gathered during my PhD and publishing more in-depth analyses from this material. My PhD supervisor (Prof. Sheela Agarwal) and I  intend to more systematically examine influences on deprivation, raised by my PhD, particularly the interplay and relative importance of processes of labour market inequality, housing market change and migration. That said, we have a keen interest in pursuing relationships and partnerships with external organisations and other researchers interested in social and economic change in English seaside resorts.