Brian Jacobs

Political Studies Association UK

BA Hons. Economics and Politics, University of Leeds, 1971
MA Politics, University of Leeds, 1973
Graduate Certificate in Education, Huddersfield College of Education, 1974
PhD Public Policy, Keele University, 1978

I have experience of conducting performance assessments and evaluations involving public and third sector organisations.

My research concentrates on urban policy and urban governance, having single authored four books in the field as well as other publications and papers. Early research concerned the role of ethnic minorities in the policy process while more recent research has concentrated on the management of community regeneration with a focus on UK local government and international policy experience.
I am also interested in community resilience and crisis management, performance and evaluation in community programmes and public services, regeneration partnerships, communities of practice and the grid/group approach applied to community cultures.

Completed research includes:
Performance management in a Local Strategic Partnership: This research studied performance management in Stoke-on-Trent Local Strategic Partnership with findings published in 2009
Strategy and partnership in regions and cities: Economic development and urban regeneration in Pittsburgh, Birmingham and Rotterdam: The results of the research are in a book published in 2000 and reviewed on the US Department of Housing and Urban Development web site: (see links).

Membership of centres:
Creative Communities Unit
Institute for Applied Creative Thinking (I-ACT)

Books
Jacobs, B. (2000). Strategy and partnership in cities and regions: Economic development and urban regeneration in Pittsburgh, Birmingham and Rotterdam. Houndmills: Macmillan.
Jacobs, B.D. (1992). Fractured cities: Capitalism, empowerment and community in Britain and America. London: Routledge.
Jacobs, B.D. (1988). Racism in Britain. London: Christopher Helm.
Jacobs, B.D. (1986, reprinted 2009). Black politics and urban crisis in Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Co-edited books
Boin, A., Comfort, L. and Jacobs, B. (Eds.), (2011, forthcoming), Megacrises. Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas.
Jacobs, B. D., & Walzer, N. (Eds.) (1998). Public-private partnerships for local economic development. Westport: Praeger.

Editor of special editions
Jacobs, B. (2005). Editorial Introduction - Urban vulnerability: Public management in a changing world. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 13(2), 39-43.
Jacobs, B.D. (Ed.) (1997). Urban crisis: Complexity and risk – an editorial statement. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 5(3), 127-130.

Journal articles
Jacobs, B. (2009) Developing performance management in a Local Strategic Partnership: Context and critical issues. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 22 (5), 432- 444
Jacobs, B. (2009). Mega-cities under adversity: Ideology, governance, and risk. Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations Magazine National Safety and Security and Crisis Management, October, 28-29.
Jacobs, B. & Suckling, S. (2007). Assessing customer focus using the EFQM Excellence Model: A local government case. The TQM Magazine, 19(4), 368-378.
Jacobs, B. (2004). Using Soft Systems Methodology for performance improvement and organizational change in the English National Health Service. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 12(4), 138-149.

Book chapters
Jacobs, B., Mulroy, S., & Sime, C. (2002). Theories of change and community involvement in North Staffordshire Health Action Zone. In K. Judge (Ed.), Learning form Health Action Zones (pp. 126-132). Chichester: Aeneas.
Jacobs, B. (2001). Crisis in the Metropolitan Police: The Stephen Lawrence case. In U. Rosenthal, L. Comfort & A. Boin (Eds.), From crises to contingencies: A global perspective (pp. 74-88). Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas.
Jacobs, B. D. (2001). Community sociology. In N. J. Smelser & P. B. Baites (Eds.), International Encyclopaedia of the Social and Behavioural Sciences Volume 4 (pp. 2383-2387). Paris: Pergamon.
Jacobs, B. D. (2000). Partnerships in Pittsburgh: The evaluation of complex local initiatives. In S. P. Osborne (Ed.), Managing public-private partnerships for public services: An international perspective (pp. 219-234). London: Routledge.
Jacobs, B. D., & Dutton, C. (2000). Community issues in urban regeneration. In P. Roberts & H. Sykes (Eds.) Urban regeneration (pp.109-128). London: SAGE with the British Urban Regeneration Association.