21 Mar 2016
Professor elected as Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
Professor Darren Smith has been announced as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.
The fellowship, announced 3 March, recognises leading social scientists for their excellence in the field.
Professor Smith, School of Social, Political and Geographical Sciences, is an esteemed social scientist, with an established international reputation in Population, Rural, and Urban Studies.
He has made particular contributions to the understanding of contemporary migration processes and new social transformations. His work involves inter-disciplinary collaborations with Sociology, Social Policy, and Demography, leading to new insights to social science problems.
Professor Smith’s work has led to significant advancements in understanding the connections between population change and community conflicts in a range of changing urban, rural, and coastal places.
As part of his work, Professor Smith has identified ‘studentification’; making theoretical and conceptual contributions to knowledge of social impacts of the expansion of higher education on urban societies and economies.
His work in his area has had a global impact spawning new international scholarship on studentification in Europe, Asia, Australia, North America, and Africa. Geographers, sociologists, social policy, and planners are also engaging with the concept.
His research has had a wider impact by demonstrating the advantages of the strategic planning of student housing and university community engagement for harmonious town:gown relations.
His work shaped UK national housing and planning policy, and has fed into policy and practice used by local government, universities, Student Unions, private sector and community organisations.