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Department of Geography

Staff Profile

Dr Andrea Armstrong

Research Associate in the Department of Geography
Telephone: +44 (0) 191 33 41856
Fax: +44 (0) 191 33 41801
Room number: W414

Contact Dr Andrea Armstrong (email at andrea.armstrong@durham.ac.uk)

Biography

Andrea completed her PhD in geography at Durham University in 2010. Her thesis entitled ‘Creating sustainable communities in NewcastleGateshead’ focused on one of the most controversial urban regeneration policies of recent years - the plan to create sustainable communities via Housing Market Renewal. Prior to her PhD she completed a BSc Environment and Development at Durham. Before entering higher education, she worked in a variety of posts in the health and social care, civil service and retail sectors.

Andrea is Research Associate with the Department of Geography and the Centre for Social Justice and Community Action (CSJCA). Her current research work involves the following areas:

  1. Community-based responses to climate change and energy, with a focus on micro-hydro, equity and vulnerability
  2. Community-based participatory research, with a focus on ethical issues and dilemmas
  3. Urban transformations, with a focus on geographies of demolition, mobile policies and urban imaginaries/visions

Previously, Andrea has worked on a range of projects e.g. AHRC Connected Communities Programme (Community-based participatory research: ethics and outcomes) which ran from March - October 2011. The aim of the project was to provide a critical overview of a range of literature on participatory approaches to community-based research with a particular focus on ethical issues and the evaluation of outcomes, drawing on national and international experience. The process of producing the literature review was participatory and involved academics from different disciplines at Durham University, an international advisory board and community partners. Andrea was also the researcher on the recently completed Beacon North East Co-Inquiry Action Research (CAR) project. The CAR project involved Durham and Newcastle University staff and community partners and aimed to explore co-inquiry as an approach to community-university collaboration. The main outputs from the project will be disseminated through the Beacon North East and National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) websites. She has also worked as an action researcher with the Thrive project in Thornaby on Tees exploring debt and financial exclusion and wellbeing with fifty low income households. Whilst working on her doctorate, Andrea taught on undergraduate modules in the Department of Geography, was an academic tutor for human geography and worked on numerous projects as a research assistant. These include working with Prof Harriet Bulkeley (Durham University) and other colleagues in Durham and Oxford Universities on World Bank (see publication below) and United Nations ‘Cities and Climate Change’ projects (co-authored book chapter May 2011. Andrea is a Fellow of Royal Geographic Society and a member of the Association of American Geographers.

Research Interests

  • Energy, equity and the financial crisis
  • Mobile policies
  • Space, power and regeneration (developing a relational understanding)
  • Community-based participatory research
  • Geographies of demolition
  • Social and material transformations (emotions, materiality, infrastructure and repair and maintenance)

Publications

Conference details

Reports: official

  • Armstrong, A & Pattison, B Delivering effective regeneration: learning from Bridging NewcastleGateshead. 2012.
  • Bulkeley, H., Schroeder, H., Janda, K., Zhao, J., Armstrong, A., Yi Chu, S. & Ghosh, S. Cities and climate change: the role of institutions, governance and urban planning. 2009.

Theses: PhD