Prof Simon Guy

My research aims to critically understanding the co-evolution of design and development strategies and socio-economic processes shaping cities. This approach has involved: the development and application of an innovative sociotechnical approach to researching architecture, urban development, technological innovation and urban change; analysis and integration of previously disconnected research fields - architecture and urban planning, the property sector and utilities industry, and the stimulation of a collaborative, inter-disciplinary methodological approach.

Drawing upon my graduate and post-graduate studies in urban sociology, and previous professional experience as an engineer, I have pursued, in parallel, three main strands of research. Firstly, I have been exploring the social construction of design, principally focusing on the field of sustainable architecture. My concern has been with the contested nature of urban sustainability as it is played out within competing discourses of green building. By analysing sustainable architectures in the plural, my work has identified a diverse range of interpretations of the environmental challenge, imagined futures and suggested pathways to sustainability, Secondly I have researching the socio-economic processes underpinning urban development processes and practices. Here my concern has been with the interaction of built environment professionals with distinct design strategies and operating in diverse contexts of development practice. A key objective of this work has been to connect social and economic perspectives on real estate practice and to link debate about property to wider analyses of urban change. Thirdly, I have been studying the changing logic’s of infrastructure networks (energy, transport, telecoms, water and waste), and their relationship to urban change. This work has involved the development and application of sociological theory and methodology to understanding urban technical networks in general, and the social, economic and environmental implications of infrastructure privatisation and liberalisation in particular. A key objective has been to identify connections between the reconfiguration of technical networks and the design and development of buildings and cities. In each area of research I have sought to develop and apply theoretical and methodological insights from a range of disciplines (notably science and technology studies, urban and environmental sociology and cultural studies), thereby offering new perspectives on architecture, planning, property and infrastructure studies and connecting them to wider debates about urbanism. This is a deeply interdisciplinary venture. I work closely with academic colleagues with specialisms in architecture, planning, economics and engineering and with partners from the professions and industry. It is also an international agenda. I have developed close working relationships with academics in Europe and North America with whom I have completed both funded research projects and edited books.

Books

2008 (forthcoming) 'Sustainable Architecture: Theories, Discourses, Plans', Routledge (with Farmer, G).

2005 'Sustainable Architectures: Cultures and Natures in Europe and North America', Spon, (eds) (with Moore, S).

2002 'Development and Developers: Perspectives on Property', Oxford: Blackwells (eds) (with Henneberry, J).

2001 'Urban Infrastructure in Transition: Networks, Buildings, Plans – Earthscan', (Marvin, S. and Moss, T.).

2000 'A Sociology of Energy, Buildings and the Environment: Constructing Knowledge', Designing Practice, Routledge (with Shove, E.)

Refereed papers

2007 STS and the City: Politics and Practices of Hope, Science', Technology and Human Values, in press, December. (with Coutard, O).

2007 'Enlightening Energy Use: the co-evolution of household lighting practices', International Journal of Technology Management, in press. (with Crosbie, T).

2007 ' Discipline and Disruption: Making Senses of the City', Senses and Society, Vol. 2, No. 2,pp. 247-252.

2007 'Back to the Future: Privatising Water in the Copperbelt', Zambia, Geoforum, Vol. 38, Issue 5, pp. 869-885. (with Senkwe. B).

2007 Sustainable Architecture and the Pluralist Imagination', Journal of Architectural Education, Issue 60, No. 4, pp. 15-23. (with Moore, S).

2006 'Technological Convergence, Cultural Diversity: Socio-Technical Perspectives on Energy and Building', Environment and Planning C, Vol. 24, pp. 645-659.

2005 'Cultures of Architecture and Sustainability: a critical commentary', Building Research and Information (Special Issue on Regionalism and Sustainability), 33(5), 468-471.

2004 'Ilôts de Développement', Diversité des Stratégies Immobilières dans les Villes en Grande Bretagne, Annales de la Recherche Urbaine, No. 97, pp 75-82 (with Henneberry, J).

2002 'Digital Space meets Urban Space: Socio-Technologies of Urban Restructuring in Downtown San Francisco', City, Cities, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 369-382 (with Graham, S).

2002 'Visions of Ventilation: Pathways to Sustainable Architecture', International Journal of Environmental Technologies and Management, Vol.2 No.1/2/3, pp. 187-199 (with Farmer, F).

2002 'Bridging the Divide: Complimentary Perspectives on Property', Urban Studies, Vol. 39, No. 8, pp. 1471-1478, July (with Henneberry, J).

2002 'Development Cultures and Urban Regeneration', Urban Studies, Vol.39, No.7 June, pp. 1181-1196 (with Henneberry, J and Rowley, S.).

2002 'Sustainable Buildings: Meanings, Processes, Users', Built Environment, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 5-10.

2002 'Interpreting Green Design: Beyond Performance and Ideology', Built Environment, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 11-21 (with Farmer, F).

2001 'Reinterpreting Sustainable Architecture: The Place of Technology', Journal of Architectural Education, 54/3, February, pp. 140-148 (with Farmer, G).

2001 'Constructing sustainable urban futures: from models to competing pathways', Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal: Journal of the International Association for Impact Assessment, Vol. 19, No. 2, June, pp. 131-139 (with Marvin, S.)

2001 'Views of the City: multiple pathways to sustainable transport futures', Local Environment, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 121-133 (with Evans, R. and Marvin, S).

2000 'Understanding Urban Development Processes: Integrating the Economic and the Social in Property Research', Urban Studies, Vol. 37, No. 13, pp. 2399-2416 (with Henneberry, J).

2000 'Networks in Development: Infrastructure, Buildings andthe Social Construction of Demand', Networks and Communication Studies, NETCOM, vol. 14, no. 3-4, pp.237-251.

1999 'Understanding Sustainable Cities: Competing Urban Futures', European Urban and Regional Studies, 6(3), pp. 268-275 (with Marvin, S).

1999 'Towards a New Logic of Transportation Planning?', Town Planning Review, April (with Marvin, S).

1999 'Pathways of smart metering development: shaping environmental innovation', Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 23, pp. 109-226 (with Marvin, S. and Chappells, H.).

1999 'Making a Difference: SSK and Urban Energy Policies, Science', Technology and Human Values, Vol.24, No.1, Winter, pp.105-131 (with Evans, R. and Marvin, S.).

1999 'Privatised Networks, Cities and Regions in the UK', Progress in Planning, Vol.51, Part 2, pp. 89-165 (with Marvin, S. and Graham, S.).

1998 'Developing Alternatives: Energy, Offices and the Environment', International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol.22, No.2, pp.264-282.

1998 'Electricity in the Marketplace: Reconfiguring the Consumption of Essential Resources', Local Environment, Vol.3, No.3, pp.313-331 (with Marvin, S.).

1997 'Property in a Risk Society: Towards Marketing Research', Urban Studies, Vol. 34, No. 1, January, pp 125-140 (with Harris, R.).

1997 'Splintering Networks: Cities and Technical Networks in 1990's Britain', Urban Studies, Vol. 34 , No. 2, February, pp 191-216 (with Graham, S. and Marvin, S.).

1997 'Infrastructure Provision, Development Processes and the Co-Production of Environmental Value', Urban Studies, Vol.34, No.12, pp.2023-2036 (with Marvin, S.).

1997 'Constructing Myths Rather than Sustainability: The Transition Fallacies of the New Localism', Local Environment, Vol.2, No. 3, pp. 311-318 (with Marvin, S.).

1997 'Smart Meters and Privatised Utilities', Local Economy, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp.119-132 (with Marvin, S.).

1997 'Consuming Water: Evolving Strategies of Water Management in Britain', Journal of Urban Technology, Vol. 4, No.3 pp. 21-45 (with Marvin, S.).

1996 'Privatised Utilities and Regional Governance: The New Regional Managers?', Regional Studies, Vol.30.8, pp. 745-751 (with Graham, S. and Marvin, S.).

1996 'Disconnected Policy, the shaping of local energy management', Environment and Planning (C): Government and Policy, Vol.14, No.1, pp145-158 (with Marvin, S.).

1996 'Transforming Urban Infrastructure Provision: The Emerging logic of Demand Side Management', Policy Studies, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 137-147 (with Marvin, S.).

1996 Wasser als Ware. Die Privatisierung der Wasserversorgung in Grosbritaannien, Prokla, Jahrgang, Vol. 102, No. 1, pp. 37-61 (with Marvin, S.).

1996 'Managing Water Stress: The Logic of Demand Side Infrastructure Planning', Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, March, Vol. 39 (1), pp 125 - 131 (with Marvin, S.).

1995 'Re-configuring Urban Networks: The Emergence of DSM in the UK', Journal of Urban Technology, No. 3, Summer, pp 45 - 58 (with Marvin, S.).

Book chapters

2008 (forthcoming) ‘Beyond Japonisme: Critical Pragmatism and Japanese Urbanism’, in Moore, S (eds) Pragmatic Sustainability: Theoretical and Practical Tools, MIT Press.

2008 (forthcoming) 'Fluid Architectures: Ecologies of Hybrid Urbanism' in Whilte, D and Wilbert, C (eds) TECHNONATURES: Environments, Technologies, Spaces and Places in the Twentieth First Century, MIT press.

2007 'Constructing Sustainable Urban Futures: From Models to Competing Pathways', in Deakin, M et al. (eds) Sustainable Urban Development, Vol 2, Routledge, pp. 492-509. (with Marvin, S).

2005 'Urban Properties: Spaces, Places and the Property Business', in Turok, I., Gordon, I., Harding, A. and Buck, N. (eds) Changing Cities, Plagrave, pp. 223-241 (with Henneberry, J and Bramley, G).

2005 'Multiple Pathways to Sustainable Transport Futures: Experts, Users and the Planning Process', in Rohracher, H (eds) User Involvement in Innovation Processes: Strategies and Limitations from a Socio-Technical Perspective, Munich: Profil, pp. 245-263 (with Evans, R and Marvin, S).

2004 'Shadow Architectures: War, Memories and Berlin’s Futures', in Graham, S (eds) Cities, War and Terrorism, Blackwells, pp. 75-92.

2004 'Consumption, Energy and the Environment, in Encyclopedia of Energy', Elsivier, pp. 687-696.

2004 'Economic Structures, Urban Responses: framing and negotiating urban property development', in Boddy, M and Parkinson, M (eds) CITY MATTERS: Competitiveness, Cohesion and Urban Governance, pp. 217-234, Policy Press (with Henneberry, J)

2004 'Digital Space meets Urban Space: Sociotechnologies of Urban Restructuring in Downtown San Francisco', in Coutard, O, Hanley,R and Zimmerman, R (eds) The Social Sustainability of Technical Networks, London: Routledge pp. 54-68 (with Graham, S)

2004 'The Paradoxes of Sustainable Architecture', in Guy, S and Moore, S (eds) Sustainable Architectures: Cultures and Natures in Europe and North America, Spon, pp. 1-12 (with Moore, S).

2004 'Re-Interpreting Green Design: Beyond Performance and Ideology', in Guy, S and Moore, S (eds) Sustainable Architectures: Cultures and Natures in Europe and North America, Spon, pp. 15-30 (with Farmer, G).

2004 'Reflections and Engagement: Towards Pluralists Practices of Sustainable Architecture', in Guy, S and Moore, S (eds) Sustainable Architectures: Cultures and Natures in Europe and North America, Spon, pp. 221-239 (with Moore, S).

2004 'Regional Electricity Companies and the Colonisation of Urban Space in the U.K.: Changing Logics of Infrastructure Management', in Zanon, B (eds) Sustainable Urban Infrastructure: approaches, solutions, methods, Temi Editrice, pp. 30-44.

2002 'Developing Interests: Environmental Innovation and the Social Organisation of the Property Business', in Guy, S and Henneberry, J (eds.) Developers and Development: Perspectives on Property, Blackwells, pp. 247-266.

2002 'Approaching Development', in Guy, S and Henneberry, J (eds.) Developers and Development: Perspectives on Property, Blackwells, pp. 1-18 (with Henneberry, J).

2002 'Interpreting Development', in Guy, S and Henneberry, J (eds.) Developers and Development: Perspectives on Property, Blackwells, pp. 285-302 (with Henneberry, J).

2001 'Transforming Urban Infrastructure Provision: The Emerging Logic of Demand Side Management', in Willis, K, Turner, R and Bateman, I (eds) Urban Planning and Management, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 135-145 (with Marvin, S).

2001 'Reconnecting Networks and Buildings: the Development Process and the Reshaping of water, Energy and Transport Demands', in Miller, C (eds) Planning and Environmental Protection, Oxford: Hart Publishing, pp. 197-213 (with Marvin, S).

2000 'Framing Environmental Choices: Mediating the Environment in the Property Business', in Fineman, S (eds.) The Business of the Environment, Routledge, pp. 199-215.

2000 'Contested Constructions: The Competing Logics of Green Buildings', in Fox, W (eds.) The Ethics of the Built Environment, Routledge (with Farmer, S).

2000 'Models and Pathways - The Diversity of Sustainable Urban Futures', in Williams et al (eds.) Achieving Sustainable Urban Form, Oxford: E&FN Spon (with Marvin, S).

2000 'Locating Sustainability: Competing Visions of Urban Technology', in Benson, J and Roe, M (eds) Urban Lifestyles: Spaces, Places, People, Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema, pp. 201-208 (with Farmer, S).

2000 'Mobility Planning in Action: The Institutional Contexts of Transport Management', in Offner, J M (eds) Transport and Land-Use Policies: Innovations in Institutional Arrangements for Co-ordination, European Commission, pp. 75-80.

1999 'Splintering Networks: the Social, Spatial, and Environmental Implications of the Privatisation and Liberalisation of Utilities in Britain', in Coutard, O. (eds.) The Governance of Large Technical Systems, Routledge (with Graham, S, and Marvin, S).

1999 'Evil Developers and Green Fairies', in, Fairweather, B., Elworthy, S., Stroh, M., and Stephens, P. (eds) Environmental Futures, Macmillan Press, pp. 199-215.

1999 'Beyond the Myths of the New Environmental Localism', in Atkinson et al (eds) The Challenge of Environmental Management in Urban Areas, Ashgate (London), pp. 203-312 (with Marvin, S).

1998 'Creating Networks: Towards a New Paradigm of Transport Planning', in Offner, J M (eds) Transport and Land-Use policies: Resistance and Hopes for Co-ordination, European Commission, EUR 18285, pp. 19-32 (with Marvin, S).

1995 'Developing the Disciplines: A Sociology of Energy Efficiency', Chapter in Wylie, V. (eds) The Environmental Agenda: Taking Responsibility, Pluto Press, pp 19 - 34 (with Shove, E.).

Research grants

(2007) EU/ESF Research Network  Sociotechnical Studies of Architecture and Urbanism, Euros 475,500, Principal Investigator (submitted awaiting outcome.)

(2006) ESRC seminar series (2007-9) - Rethinking the urban experience: the sensory production of place, co-applicant, £15000 .

(2004) Engineering and Physical Science Research Council/Carbon Trust - Low Carbon Buildings Programme, Carbon Reduction in Buildings: A sociotechnical study of carbon use in buildings. Total budget approx. £3,0025,374. A multi-Institution consortium. I am Principal Investigator for social science case work corresponding to £400K of total budget.

(2004) British Commonwealth Collaboration Award
£5000. To be a visiting Professor at Department of Architecture, Waseda University, Tokyo for six weeks from April 1st 2005.

(2004) Natural Environment Research Council/Scottish Power Dorothy Hodgkin Postgraduate Award
For PhD student to study Renewable Energy and Buildings in Newcastle Upon Tyne, £75,000.

(2002) European Commission - Framework Five - Environment and Climate Programme, New Intermediary Services and the Transformation of Urban Water Supply and Wastewater Disposal Systems
Euros 306,540 (total grant, Euros 1,748,238), Principal Investigator.

(2001) British Commonwealth PhD Studentship Reforms, Consumers and Gender: the Social Organisation of Water in The Copperbelt Province of Zambia
Project Supervisor, £7,185.

(2000) University Research Committee PhD Studentship award
Developing Designs: Devonshire Terrace and the Research Hotel.

(1999) ESRC PhD Case-Award Pathways into the Home: Smart Meters and Changing Modes of Engagement in the Information Society
9/99-9/2001, Principal Investigator, £24,000.

(1999) ESRC case-award Pathways into the Home: Smart Meters and Changing Modes of Engagement in the Information Society
9/98 - 9/2001 AccuRead industrial sponsorship, Principal Investigator, £9,000.

(1999) Northumbria Water TOSCAM - Institutional Contexts of Future Water Management Strategies 1/99 - 12/99, Co-Investigator, £10,000, (Principal Investigator, Professor Enda O’Connell, £70,000).

(1999) Californian Institute for Energy Efficiency Market transformations - Greening Commercial Property in California
7/99 - 12/2000, Principal Investigator $10,000.

(1998) ESRC Cities and Economic Competitiveness Programme Economic Structures, Urban Responses: Framing and Negotiating Urban Property Development
4/98-4/2000, Principal Investigator, £70,000 (A collaboration with John Henneberry, University of Sheffield, total grant £123,000).

(1998) ESRC Global Environmental Change Dissemination fund, Environmental Flows: Pathways to Sustainable Infrastructure
International Workshop, Spring 1998, Principal Investigator, £3,500.

(1998) ESRC Cites and Economic Competitiveness Programme, International Conference on Urban Futures, Technological Futures
April, Co-Investigator (with Simon Marvin and Stephen Graham), £5,000.

(1998) DAAD Anglo-German Foundation, Senior Fellowship Award
July, Dm.4000, Sole Investigator.

(1998) University Research Committee PhD Studentship award. Understanding Buildings: Competing Conceptions of Design and Development 9/98 - 9/2001, Sole Investigator.

(1997) European Commission - Framework Four - Environment and Climate Programme, Citizen Involvement in the Ecological Modernisation of Household Related Public Utility Sectors
1/98 -12/98, Principal Investigator, £9,000, (subs-contract to Professor Gert Spaargaren, University of Wageningen, the Netherlands).

(1997) Engineering and Physical Science Research Council's Towards Sustainable Cities Programme, phase two Unlocking the Potential of New Metering Technologies
1/1/97-31/12/99, Principal Investigator, £17,433 (collaboration with Alan Day, University of Bath, total project value, £205,188).

(1996) ESRC Global Environmental Change Programme Developing Alternatives: Environmental Innovation and the Property Business phase 4 1/4/96-15/1/98, Sole Investigator, £63,810.

(1995) Engineering and Physical Science Research Council's Towards Sustainable Cities Programme Smart Utility Metering and the Sustainable City
1/4/96-31/3/97, Co-Investigator £56,317).

(1995) Engineering and Physical Science Research Council's Towards Sustainable Cities Programme Demand-Side Management of Urban Resources: Fine Grain Modelling for Sustainable Strategies
1/1/96-31/12/97, Co-Investigator, £59,000 (Principal Investigator, David Parker, Dept. of Surveying, total project value £157,000).

(1995) EC Framework 4 Environment and Climate Programme Sustainable Infrastructure Flow Management
1/4/96-31/3/98, Principal Investigator £112,000 (total project value approximately £450,000).

(1995) Innovative Transport and Land-use Planning: Competing modes of network management, COST Programme, European Community
1/9/96-31/8/2000, £EC funding travel costs, Sole Investigator.

Visiting research fellowships

2005 Waseda University, Department of Architecture, Tokyo, Japan. 6 week British Commonwealth funded Visiting Professorship.

2005 University of Leuven, Department of Architecture and Planning, Belgium. Visiting Professor for 2005.

2004 University of Texas, Austin, Department of Architecture, USA, Visiting Professor, 1 month.

2003 Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture, (IFZ), Graz, Austria. Invited Fellow, 1 month.

2000 University of California, Davis and Berkeley, USA. One month visit (summer) funded research into sustainable Architecture/Property development funded by California Energy Commission Fellowship.

1999 University of California, Davis and Berkeley, USA. Two month visit (summer) funded research into sustainable Architecture/Property development funded by California Energy Commission Fellowship.

1998 Institute for Regional and Structural Planning (IRS) Berlin, Germany. One month (July) conducting collaborative research and lecturing on environmental dimensions of urban development funded by a DAAD Senior Fellowship Award.

1997 University of California, Davis and Berkeley, USA. One month visit (October) lecturing and advising of research into sustainable Architecture/Property development funded by California Energy Commission Fellowship.

1997 CNRS Laboratory of Technology, Territory and Society, Paris, France. One month (June) visit collaborating on network management research funded by EUNIT (European Network on Industry, Innovation and Territory) Research Fellowship.