Stephen Sinclair

Stephen is a Professor of Social Policy and have been a member of the Yunus Centre since it was established at GCU.

His principal research interests are poverty and social security (particularly child poverty), social innovation and social policy in Scotland. He has also undertaken research on various aspects of financial exclusion and public service reform.

Recent research activities include an analytical partnership with the Scottish Government to support the delivery of the national child poverty strategy. Stephen also recently completed projects for the Poverty and Inequality Commission and the Edinburgh Poverty Commission. He has also collaborated with Yunus Centre colleagues on several research projects, including critically appraising Social Impact Bonds and co-authoring Social Innovation and Social Policy: Theory, Policy-Making and Practice (with Simone Baglioni).

Stephen is Co-Director of the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit at GCU and a member of the Child Poverty Action Group’s UK Policy Committee and its Scottish Advisory Committee. He is a joint editor of the Reviews section and member of the editorial board of the Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, and a referee for over a dozen international academic journals. Stephen is a Senior Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy, and also a member of the ESRC Peer Review College.

Stephen’s principal teaching is on GCU’s BA Social Sciences programme, where he teaches Sociology and Social Policy modules, in particular the third year Poverty, Inequality & Policy module. Stephen is also a module leader for the Graduate School’s MRes module Critical Review of Research.

Stephen has also supervised two successful Yunus Centre PhDs addressing different aspects of social innovation, as well as PhDs in Politics in the Glasgow School for Business and Society.