Alistair Kefford

Overview

I am a historian of twentieth-century Britain, with a particular specialism in the period from 1945 to the present day. I am interested in the changing nature of governance and statehood across the twentieth century - specifically the dramatic expansion of government''s role in the management of people, places and economies - and the impact of these changes on the everyday lives and experiences of ordinary people. My research draws together insights and approaches from the various sub-fields of modern British history - political, cultural, social and economic histories - and I often focus on the modern British city as a site where these different aspects of historical experience collide and interact. I aim to place the story of twentieth-century Britain within a wider framework of modern statehood and political economy, without losing sight of the richness and diversity of socio-historical experience. My research speaks strongly beyond the discipline of history; to those working in the adjacent fields of critical urban studies, geography, and political economy, and to those concerned with present-day urban and social policy and the future prospects of our cities.

Recent research has included: work on the implications of post-war consumerism for urban landscapes, governance and politics; addressing the economic dimensions of post-war urbanism and the impact of urban renewal on processes of deindustrialisation; and assessing the challenges which mass affluence and consumer-citizenship posed for post-war welfarism and social democracy by looking at 1950s kitchens (among other things..)

I am currently working on a number of related strands of research:

A monograph study on cities, welfare statehood and affluence entitled ''Planning for Affluence: Cities and the Management of the Consumer Economy in Post-war Britain''

A project investigating the post-war rise and present day predominance of commercial property development in shaping the physical, economic and political geographies of British cities

A project on the twentieth century rise of spatial planning and territorial management as a key tool of the British imperial social state, focusing on the critical (and often overlooked) imperial dimensions of the development and operation of British planning

Biography

I studied for an undergraduate degree in History at Manchester, considering (among other things) the radical urban politics of reggae in Kingston, JA, and the Northern Soul scene in 1970s Manchester. From 2007 to 2010 I worked in local government, in a busy city planning department, which led to me returning to academia to undertake an MA in Urban Regeneration and Development, funded by the School of Environment and Development at Manchester. I couldn''t keep away from History, and so returned to Manchester''s History Department to undertake a PhD in Economic and Social History in 2011. This research was funded by the ESRC, and examined the governance and planning of British cities between 1945 and 1979. I was appointed lecturer in Modern British History at Manchester in September 2016.