Staff profile

I joined the Department as a Research Fellow in 2007, working on the 'Comparative analysis of how local system factors affect progress tackling health inequalities' research project, having previously combined working as a local government officer with postgraduate research. Since then my research has developed in three fields: health inequalities; climate change adaptation; and post-industrialism and class. In each of these areas I have a strong interest in the application of complexity theory to policy and governance systems and how the political economy functions relative to these. For example, my interest in health inequalities centres on the implications of both methodological and ideological framings for how this issue is understood and addressed. My research in this area focuses on the application of both complexity theory and qualitative comparative analysis to health inequalities and links to broader debates about governance and public policy implementation. 

I recently completed a book called Social Policy, Political Economy and the Social Contract that ties together a range of diverse but related research interests that I have developed throughout my academic career, through employing complexity and social contract theory to understand the trajectory of the political economy and its interrelationship with policy. I am now working on research into the UK Government’s Levelling Up agenda alongside ongoing research into health inequalities and the impact of air pollution on brain health.

I previously worked as a researcher on the Built Infrastructure for Older People's Care in Conditions of Climate Change (BIOPICCC) project. This project focused on developing research strategies to help ensure that the infrastructures and systems supporting the health and social care for older people (aged 65 and over) will be sufficiently resilient to withstand harmful impacts of climate change in the future, up to 2050. A key output was the BIOPICCC Toolkit https://www.dur.ac.uk/geography/research/researchprojects/biopiccc/toolkit/comprising online resources to assist local authorities, partner organisations, and neighbourhood and community groups to undergo the process of cross sectoral local level resilience planning. 

I was a Teaching Fellow in the Department between September 2012 and June 2015, acting as module convenor for the Sociology of Social Exclusion (level 2) and Policy Related Evaluation and Research (Level 4) modules. I also taught the level 3 Urban Studies module in SASS in 2010/11. Since July 2015 I am a lecturer in the School and have added the Social Policy Level 3 and Level 4 modules to my teaching portfolio alongside teaching on the Work and Professions and Health and Place level 3 modules.

• Health inequalities
• Place-based policy and governance systems
• Complexity theory
• Political economy
• Social contract theory
• Climate change adaptation and resilience
• Qualitative comparative analysis

• Health and Social Theory

• Built Infrastructure for Older People’s Care in Conditions of Climate Change (BIOPICCC)
• Comparative analysis of local strategies to tackle health inequalities.
• Extreme events and vulnerable people: Harnessing science to practice

• 2020: Co-imaging health and wellbeing: Developing Participatory Case-Based Computational Modelling(£9468.32 from )
• 2020: Enabling children and young people's involvement in whole system action to reduce inequalities in the social determinants of health (SPHR/Fuse/WP4)(£159.69 from National Institute for Health Research)
• 2019: SPHR Children and Young People (CYP) WP1(£55484.92 from National Institute for Health Research)
• 2018: Effects of climate change on social care delivery(£3162.50 from )
• 2015: BIOPICCC Toolkit Impact Development(£11049.00 from Epsrc)
• 2015: Big Local Project Phase 2(£1635.00 from NIHR)
• 2013: Adaption and resilience to a changing climate coordination network(£7557.00 from Epsrc)
• 2013: Emergency events and vulnerable people: Harnessing science to practice(£18750.00 from NERC - Natural Environment Research Council)
• 2010: Children's Services Evaluation(£10000.00 from North East Improvement & Efficiency Partnership)

Authored book

• Wistow, J (2022). Social Policy, Political Economy and the Social Contract. Policy Press.
• Wistow, J, Blackman, T, Byrne, D & Wistow, G (2015). Studying Health Inequalities: An Applied Approach. Policy Press.

Chapter in book

• Oven, K., Wistow, J. & Curtis, S. (2019). Older people and climate change: Vulnerability and resilience to extreme weather in England. In People and climate change: Vulnerability, adaptation and social justice. Reyes Mason, L. & Rigg, J. Oxford University Press. 68-86.

Journal Article

• Griffin, Naomi, Wistow, Jonathan, Fairbrother, Hannah, Holding, Eleanor, Sirisena, Mihirini, Powell, Katie & Summerbell, Carolyn (2022). An analysis of English national policy approaches to health inequalities: ‘transforming children and young people’s mental health provision’ and its consultation process. BMC Public Health 22(1): 1084.
• Griffin, Naomi, Phillips, Sophie M., Hillier‑Brown, Frances, Wistow, Jonathan, Fairbrother, Hannah Holding, Eleanor, Powell, Katie & Summerbell, Carolyn (2021). A critique of the English national policy from a social determinants of health perspective using a realist and problem representation approach: the ‘Childhood Obesity: a plan for action’ (2016, 2018, 2019). BMC Public Health 21: 2284.
• Holding, Eleanor, Fairbrother, Hannah, Griffin, Naomi, Wistow, Jonathan, Powell, Katie & Summerbell, Carolyn (2021). Exploring the local policy context for reducing health inequalities in children and young people: an in depth qualitative case study of one local authority in the North of England, UK. BMC Public Health 21(1): 887.
• Telford, L. & Wistow, J. T. (2020). Brexit and the working class on Teesside: Moving beyond reductionism. Capital and Class 44(4): 553-572.
• McGowan, V., Wistow, J. Lewis, S., Popay, J. & Bambra, C. (2019). Pathways to mental health improvement in a community-led area-based empowerment initiative: Evidence from the Big Local ‘Communities in Control’ study, England. Journal of Public Health 41(4): 850-857.
• Curtis, S., Oven, K., Wistow, J., Dunn, C. & Dominelli, L. (2018). Adaptation to extreme weather events in complex health and social care systems: The example of older people’s services in England. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 36(1): 67-91.
• Curtis, Sarah, Fair, Alistair, Wistow, Jonathan, Val, Dimitri V. & Oven, Katie (2017). Impact of extreme weather events and climate change for health and social care systems. Environmental Health 16(S1): 128.
• Cairns, J., Wistow, J. & Bambra, C. (2017). Making the case for qualitative comparative analysis in geographical research: a case study of health resilience. Area 49(3): 369-376.
• Wistow, J., Curtis, S. & Bone, A. (2017). Implementing extreme weather event advice and guidance in English public health systems. Journal of Public Health 39(3): 498-505.
• Wistow, J., Dominelli, L., Oven, K.J., Dunn, C.E. & Curtis, S.E. (2015). The role of formal and informal networks in supporting older people's care during extreme weather events. Policy and Politics 43(1): 119-135.
• Warren, J., Wistow, J. & Bambra, C. (2014). Applying qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) in public health: a case study of a health improvement service for long-term incapacity benefit recipients. Journal of Public Health 36(1): 126-133.
• Warren, J., Wistow, J. & Bambra, C. (2013). Applying Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to evaluate a public health policy initiative in the North East of England. Policy and Society 32(4): 289–301.
• Blackman, T., Wistow, J. & Byrne, D. (2013). Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis to understand complex policy problems. Evaluation 19(2): 126.
• Blackman, T., Wistow, J. & Byrne, D. (2011). A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Factors Associated with Narrowing Health Inequalities in England. Social Science & Medicine 72(12): 1965–1974.

Report

• Chapman, Tony Mawson, John Robinson, Fred & Wistow, Jonathan (2018). How to Work Effectively with the Third Sector. A discussion paper for public sector organisations. Durham, Institute for Local Governance, Durham University.
• Curtis S., A. Fair, J. Wistow, D. Val & K. Oven (2015). Impact of extreme weather events and climate change for health and social care systems. Living With Environmental Change.