Dr Beverley Searle

Profile

I graduated from the University of York with a BA(Hons) in Social Policy (2001) and PhD (2005).  I held Postdoctoral Research Fellow positions at the Universities of Durham (2004-2009) and St Andrews (2009-2012) before being appointed as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Dundee (2013).  I was the Head of Geography & Environmental Science at Dundee (2016-2018) and promoted to Reader in 2022.  Following a move back to York, I joined the University of Leeds as Research Fellow in December 2023.   

Research interests

I am motivated by a vision of a wellbeing future, helping to inform how to achieve significant and extensive societal change towards more socially and environmentally sustainable futures. In particular, understanding wellbeing as a system and narrative of transformational change and the role of wellbeing in individual decisions, motivations and behaviours.  My approach is to explore wellbeing: as an outcome (how events/ circumstances impact wellbeing); as a precursor (how wellbeing impacts ability to function in society); and as an alternative narrative for sustainable futures (a wellbeing economy).  

I engage with quantitative and qualitative methods when questioning and challenging dominant ideas and social norms about what contributes to human wellbeing and welfare and have explored this through a critical analysis of asset-based welfare for example:  housing wealth, welfare and wellbeing (2009; 2012; 2013); assets, debt and poverty (2014; 2017); and intergenerational justice (2014) including an edited collection on Generational Interdependencies (2018). This is complemented by a more recent focus on human-environment relationships and sustainability with regard to community resilience (2018; 2021); and the transformational changes needed to address global challenges (2020; 2021), including lead editor of A Modern Guide to Wellbeing Research (eElgar, 2021,).

I am currently working on Wellbased, an EU project on health and energy poverty.  I am responsible for coordination of qualitative analysis using a realist evaluation of energy poverty alleviation initiatives in 6 European Cities. 

Qualifications

• PGCert (2009), Durham
• PhD (2004), York
• BA(Hons) Social Policy (2001), York

Professional memberships

• HEA Fellow