Dr Jesse Heley

Research Associate
BA, MA and PhD at IGES. Photograph of Dr Jesse Heley.

Contact

Email: eyh@aber.ac.uk
Office: L1
Phone: +44 (0)1970 621 601
Fax: +44 (0)1970 622 659

Responsibilities

Researcher, the Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD)

Teaching Areas

Contributes to:

The City & Country: Processes of Conflict and Change (GG10210)

Positioning Political Geography (GGM1440)

Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis (PGM1120)

Research

Group Affiliation

  • New Political Geographies
  • WISERD Thematic Network on Employment, Skills and Training

Research Interests

Jesse's research is situated within the brosd fields of political geography, economic geography and spatial planning and is particularly concerned with rural restructuring. Currently, Jesse's work falls into five main areas:

  • The impact of relational conceptions of space: In particular, how concepts of relational space are being applied to rural studies and potential development in this field.
  • The evolution of spatial planning practice in the devolved UK and how conceptual shifts in spatial planning policy are unfolding on the ground.
  • The social and political implications of economic change in Wales in regard to shifting policy agendas on work and skills.
  • Rural gentrification and the performance of middle class identities in rural space.
  • Ethnography and the ethical implications of undertaking ‘native’, ‘local’ and ‘insider’ research.

Biography

Jesse received a BA in Human Geography with International Politics and an MA in Space, Place & Politics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.  Having completed his Ph.D. at the same institution on the subject of ‘Rurality, Class, Aspiration and the Emergence of a New Squirearchy’, Jesse was employed by IGES as a research assistant on a project entitled 'Rural People and the Land; a Case for Sustainable Connections'.

Dr Heley was appointed as a research associate for the Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods in January 2009.  A member of the localities team, his current work focuses on how people in mid Wales make sense of their locality, and how this translates into practice.  More specifically, his analyses contrast the understandings of mid Wales as employed by local government stakeholders with narratives of this ‘region’ as contained in Welsh Government policy discourse.  To this end, Jesse’s work examines and critiques the potential for region building and region shaping through such programmes as the Wales Spatial Plan.

Jesse is currently also working on a project with Dr Laura Jones and Dr Suzie Watkins which looks at older people’s rural lives.  Using the conceptual frame of counter-topography, this research focuses on the social, economic and political links between older people in the countryside, and the role of older people in contributing to the sustainability of rural communities.  

As the linked researcher to WISERD’s Employment and Training Thematic Reference group, Jesse has a working interest in the shifting policy agendas on work, skills and education in Wales.

Staff Publications

Journal Articles

2012

  1. Heley, J. and Moles, K. (Forthcoming) Partnership working in Regions: reflections on local government collaboration in Wales. Regional Science, Policy and Practice.
  2. Heley, J. and Jones, L. (Forthcoming) Relational Rurals: some thoughts on relating things and theory in rural studies.  Journal of Rural Studies.
  3. Heley, J. (Forthcoming) Soft spaces, fuzzy boundaries and spatial governance in post-devolution Wales. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.
  4. Heley, J., Gardner, G. and Watkin, S. (2012) Brave new localities? Cultures of local economy in a Celtic fringe region. European Urban and Regional Studies. DOI

2011

  1. Heley, J. (2011) On the potential of being a village boy:  an argument for local rural ethnography. Sociologia Ruralis 51 (3) pp. 219-237
  2. Smith, RJ., Heley, J. and Stafford, I. (2011) Woolworths and Wales: A multi-dimensional analysisSociological Research Online 15 (5)

2010

  1. Heley, J. (2010) The new squirearchy and emergent cultures of the new middle classesJournal of Rural Studies 26(4) pp 321-331

2008

  1. Heley, J. (2008) Rounds, Range Rovers and rurality: The drinking geographies of a New SquirearchyDrugs: education, prevention and policy 15(3) pp 1-7 

Book Chapters

  1. Woods, M., Heley, J., Richards, C. and Watkin, S. (2011) Rural people and the land, in I. Convery, T. Dutson, P. Davis and G. Corsane (eds) Making Sense of Place. Boydell and Brewer (in press).

Reports

  1. Convery, .I, Dutson, T., Heley. J., Richards, R., Rogers, R., Storey, D., Watkin. S. and Woods, M. (2008) Rural People and the Land – the Case for Connections, report to the Commission for Rural Communities

Selected Conference Papers

  1. Heley, J. and Jones, L. (2011) Relational Resilience? Considering older people’s connected rural lives, paper presented at WISERD Summer Conference, 28th June, Swansea University, UK
  2. Heley, J. (2011) Older people’s Connected Rural Lives Project, paper presented at The Age Agenda in Aberystwyth – building collaborative research with older people on the challenges of ageing in the 21st Century, 20th June, Aberystwyth University, UK
  3. Heley, J. and Stafford, I. (2010) The revival of regionalism? A multi-scalar approach to the reconfiguration of public service delivery in Wales, paper presented at Regional Studies Association Winter Conference, 25th November, London.
  4. Heley, J. (2010) Institutionalizing regions: Political Geographies of the Wales Spatial Plan paper presented at WISERD Policy Conference, 15th December, Cardiff University, UK
  5. Heley, J. and Moles, K. (2010) Partnerships, Power and Place, paper presented at WISERD Summer Conference, 28th June, Cardiff University, UK
  6. Heley, J. (2010) Institutionalizing Regions: Political Geographies of Contemporary Wales, paper presented at Regional Studies Association Annual Conference, 25th May, Pecs, Hungary
  7. Heley, J. and Watkin, S. (2009) Brave New Localities? Cultures of Local Economy in a Celtic Fringe Region, paper presented at Regional Studies Association Annual Conference, 6th April, Leuven, Belgium