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I study and teach public policy, or what governments do or do not do, why and how. My main research interest is participatory governance, or ways of involving citizens, and particularly those groups often at the margins of social and political life, in making policies that affect them directly, in a way that responds to their needs and demands. I’m also interested in doing research with citizens as co-researchers to reframe problems and research questions, by taking their perspective. My research has a strong practical focus and this is also why, after my PhD in Government at the London School of Economics, I spent a few years working in the third sector, before coming back to academia, where I helped to design and evaluate innovative processes to strengthen democracy through citizen participation and community engagement. I joined ManMet in 2018.
I'm passionate about teaching and helping students challenge their assumptions, strengthen their critical thinking skills to question the status quo, and develop as confident, independent thinkers. All my sessions are highly interactive and problem-based. I am a strong believer in the value of close integration of research and teaching and my research often informs the content of the modules I teach. By encouraging my students' active participation, I try to make a class about knowledge co-creation.
“When everyone in the classroom, teacher and students, recognizes that they are responsible for creating a learning community together, learning is at its most meaningful and useful.”
― bell hooks, Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom
I like incorporating practical exercises and small group work to encourage students to reflect on how new ideas could be applied to their own context. As my students progressively build their confidence and communication skills, I ask them to contribute actively to the teaching, so that they develop ownership of the materials. One example of how I apply this reflective approach is the “adopt a country” game, which I often use when teaching public policy. At the beginning of the academic year, each student “adopts” one country and is responsible to carry out and share research on its institutions and policies throughout the year. This way we share the knowldege and multiply the learning. I also like making the most of online tools to build an online learning community with my students, making learning more fun and interactive.
Teaching qualifications:
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Before joining Man Met, I was a Research Associate at UCL, where I led a participatory evaluation of integrated care as a Researcher-in-Residence. This is a model of participatory research, where the researcher is embedded in the organisation under evaluation and becomes a core member of the operational team, with the aim to narrow the gap between academia and professional practice. This study had several important impacts, as it supported research capacity building of the organisations involved and contributed to improving partnership working. You can read the final report here.
Soon after my PhD, I worked in the third sector for a few years. For Involve, a think tank working on democratic innovations, I produced several policy papers on participatory and deliberative democracy and helped design and test NHS Citizen, an innovative deliberative system commissioned by NHS England. I helped develop and curated Participation Compass, a platform on citizen engagement methods aimed at practitioners, civil society and policy makers. This is an anthology on public engagement, which I co-edited when working at Involve - Engage 2020.
As a senior researcher at Local Trust, a London-based charity funded by the Big Lottery, I helped to develop and implement the evaluation plan of a large community development programme, Big Local, involving 150 communities across England, working closely with community groups and policymakers. For Local Trust I coordinated work by the School of Public Health Research on the impact of community control on community health and well-being. I also developed a research network encouraging community-led research and collaboration between communities and their local universities. See some of my publications for Local Trust here.
External Examiner for Leeds Beckett University
Link Tutor for UCEN Public Services
Studying politics and public policy prepares you for a number of exciting government jobs, in the civil service or local government; it can help you become a more critical political correspondent for the media, an effective policy analyst for a think tank, a researcher for charity or an international organisation, and much more. Whether you choose to pursue a career as a community activist or a policy wizard, understanding power dynamics, why and how policies change, or why certain policies never even get on the agenda, can help you unpack the relationship between different interests, between state institutions and citizens. This knowledge will help you navigate the world better as a citizen and perhaps contribute to the social change you want to see.
I am interested in supervising PhD research in the following areas:
I am also interested in research work using participatory methods (e.g. action research; participatory action research; coproduction; researcher in residence, etc.)
Leeds Beckett University (2020-to date)
J-P. Gagnon, H. Asenbaum, D. Fleuss, S. Bussu, P. Guasti, et al. R. Dean, P. Chalaye, N. Alnemr, F. Marquardt, A. Weiss. (2021). The Marginalized Democracies of the World. Democratic Theory. 8(2), pp.1-18.
S. Bussu, M. Marshall (2020). (Dis)integrated care? Lessons from East London. International Journal of Integrated Care. 20(4),
S. Bussu, M. Tullia Galanti (2018). Facilitating coproduction: the role of leadership in coproduction initiatives in the UK. Policy and Society. pp.1-21.
S. Bussu (2015). Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Councillor’s Dilemma between Strong Mayors and Citizens’ Needs. Local Government Studies. 41(6), pp.841-860.
S. Bussu, KPR. Bartels (2014). Facilitative Leadership and the Challenge of Renewing Local Democracy in Italy. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. 38(6), pp.2256-2273.
S. Bussu (2019). Collaborative governance: Between invited and invented spaces. In: Handbook of Democratic Innovation and Governance. Edward Elgar Publishing, pp.60-76.
S. Bussu, MT. Galanti (2015). Local Governments at the Time of the Crisis. In: The Year of the Bulldozer. Berghahn Books,
M. Lalani, S. Bussu, M. Marshall (2018). #Integrated care at the frontline: a participatory evaluation of locality level multi-professional teams in east london. In: Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Glasgow, Scotland, 5/9/2018.
S. Bussu (2018). Integrated care: learning from East London. In: British Journal of General Practice. Royal College of General Practitioners, London, UK, 23/3/2018.
A selection of invited papers:
ESRC Festival of Science, online event (November 2020), Imagination, Margins and Tacit Knowledge: Co-producing research during physical distancing
Dublin, June 2020, PSA PDD conference, 'Democratic Innovations and Systemic Change' Roundtable – panel speaker (cancelled due to Covid-19)
Manchester, February 2020, MMU Research Centre for Applied Social Sciences (RCASS) research showcase event – panel speaker
London, 21 October 2019, Symposium on Public Engagement in Health organised by GCU. Title of the talk, “NHS Citizen: a participatory system within the English NHS”.
London, 20 September 2018, UCL, Primary Care and Population Health, public seminar on “Participatory approaches to research”.
London, 24 May 2018, UCL, Seminar on Ethics in Participatory Action Research, part of the MSc on Homeless and Inclusion Health.
London, 17 January 2018, University of East London, Guest Lecture on “Integrated care: learning from East London”.
London, 6 December 2018, King’s College London, “Co-producing Knowledge: The opportunities and challenges of collaborative research”, part of a seminar series on public facing research organised by The Brilliant Club.
London, 29 March 2017. Barrow Cadbury Trust - Community action and social media. Presenting a study on Big Local communities’ presence on social media.
Salford 8 November 2016. ESRC Festival of Social Science: NIHR/ SPHR seminar: What is “collective control” for communities? Panel speaker.
London 30 August 2016. RGS (Royal Geographical Society) Annual Conference. 'Next to us’ thinking and doing: universities working with local communities to promote social justice. Roundtable - Panel speaker
Recent conference papers:
PSA, Participatory and Deliberative Democracy specialist group, July-September 2020. As convenor of the group, I organised and chaired a series of webinars and a three-part event in collaboration with ECPR and APSA’s Democratic Innovations groups.
ECPR virtual conference (August 2020), chair of two panels on Participatory governance and social movements.
Lecce, 12-14 September 2019, SISP (Italian Political Studies Association) Annual Conference. Presenting two papers: Democratising the Policy Process: a Critical Analysis of Democratic Innovations for Policy-making; From governance-driven democratization to democracy-driven governance: democratic innovations in the 21st century
Wroclaw, 4-7 September 2019, ECPR Annual Conference. Panel co-convenor and paper presenter. Panel title: The second wave of democratic innovations: democratic renewal or new tyranny? Title of the paper: From governance-driven democratization to democracy-driven governance: democratic innovations in the 21st century
Nottingham, 15 - 17 April 2019, PSA 69th Annual International Conference – Title of the paper Democratising the Policy Process: a Critical Analysis of Democratic Innovations for Policy-making.
London, 22 March 2019, Qualitative Health Research Network (QHRN) Conference ‘Crafting the Future of Qualitative Health Research in a Changing World’ – Panel Title Participatory Research. Title of the paper: Rules of engagement: ethics issues in participatory research.
Hamburg, 22-25 August 2018, ECPR General conference – Panel title: Expectations towards citizens in democratic innovations – good, bad or just different? Title of the paper: Collaborative Governance: between invited and invited spaces.
London, 23rd March 2018, BJGP – poster presentation Integrated care: looking at intermediate care in East London.
As a convenor of the PSA specialist group on Participatory and Deliberative Democracy (since March 2020), I organised/ co-chaired:
Events and workshops for practitioners and policymakers:
Nottingham (September 2016), Workshop on Community-led Research;
Reading, University of Reading (November 2015), Event on Collaboration between Communities and Universities;
London, University of Westminster (October 2014), Different with Digital, Social media and Local representation.
As a conference coordinator for the PSA Graduate Network (2009-11), I organised two PSA graduate conferences in Edinburgh (April 2010) and Oxford (December 2010).
Books: Edward Elgar; ECPR Press
Journals: Public Administration, Public Management Review, Local Government Studies, Qualitative Research; Administration & Society