Dr James Gregory

Dr James Gregory

Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology
Assistant Professor
Lecturer in Social Policy

Contact details

Address
School of Social Policy and Society
Muirhead Tower
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT

Dr James Gregory trained as a political philosopher at the London School of Economics. He maintains an active engagement with the concepts and principles of political and moral philosophy, applying these to normative and empirical investigations of contemporary social policy issues.

Qualifications

Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education, Higher Education Futures Institute, University of Birmingham (2022)

PhD, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Government (2006)

MSc Political Theory, London School of Economics and Political Science (1999)

BA (Hons) Politics, Philosophy and Economics University of Oxford (1998)

Biography

Dr James Gregory first trained as a political philosopher at the London School of Economics, before moving to the Fabian Society, where he developed a long-standing interest in housing and urban development. With nearly two decades of empirical research experience, Dr Gregory has maintained an active engagement with the concepts and principles of political and moral philosophy, applying these to normative and empirical investigations of contemporary social policy issues.

Until 2022 Dr Gregory was Senior Research Fellow at the Centre on Household Assets and Savings Management (CHASM) at the University of Birmingham, where he developed and led primary research on the relationship between social housing and wellbeing. The results of this research are presented in a major monograph – Social Housing, Wellbeing and Welfare (2022) – and he also published in Journals such as Housing Studies and the Journal of Social Policy.

Teaching

Dr Gregory developed and convenes the new BA Social Policy Module: Social Policy, Inequality and the Life Course.

Postgraduate supervision

Open to supervision of doctoral students seeking to examine the normative foundations of social policy and the welfare state.

Research

Dr Gregory is currently developing new research projects on the social determinants of mental health and subjective wellbeing. He is also researching intergenerational inequalities in the housing market, in the context of welfare regimes.

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Gregory, J 2022, Social Housing, Wellbeing and Welfare. Policy Press. <https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/social-housing-wellbeing-and-welfare>

Article

Angel, S & Gregory, J 2023, 'Does housing tenure matter? Owner-occupation and wellbeing in Britain and Austria', Housing Studies, vol. 38, no. 5, pp. 860-880. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2021.1912714

Gregory, J, Lymer, A & Rowlingson, K 2021, 'Personal savings for those on lower incomes: towards a new framework for assessing the role of the state in relation to savings schemes', Social Policy and Society. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474746420000640

Gregory, J 2016, 'How not to be an egalitarian: the politics of homeownership and property-owning democracy', International Journal of Housing Policy. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616718.2015.1115224

Gregory, J 2015, 'Engineering Compassion: The Institutional Structure of Virtue', Journal of Social Policy, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 339-356. https://doi.org/10.1017/S004727941400083X

Gregory, J 2014, 'The search for an ‘asset-effect’: What do we want from asset-based welfare?', Critical Social Policy, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 475-494. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261018314536134

Gregory, J 2013, 'The culture of liberalism and the virtue of ‘balance’', European Journal of Political Theory. <http://ept.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/04/17/1474885112473718.full.pdf>

Gregory, J 2010, 'The political philosophy of Walzer’s social criticism', Philosophy and Social Criticism. <http://psc.sagepub.com/content/36/9/1093.full.pdf>

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

Housing policy

Policy experience

Housing and neighbourhood policy.