Tallulah Sutton (2021)

Tallulah’s PhD research, Devolution and Localism: The Promise and Pitfalls for British Democracy, develops a deeper, more nuanced understanding of how political engagement and participation are practiced, contested and transformed, particularly in the context of growing perceptions of a democratic crisis. She explores the evolving concept and practical reality of English devolution, assessing the extent to which current initiatives adequately address both economic disparities and democratic deficits. Adopting a broad historical perspective, she investigates the uneven and diverse development of devolution across England and the wider UK. She sheds light on contemporary challenges such as persistent geographical inequalities, shifting national and civic identities, the erosion of traditional partisan loyalties and the rise of populist alternatives. Her aim is to develop a policy response in which devolution meaningfully reinvigorates democracy by readmitting the demos, rather than merely representing another bureaucratic iteration of technocratic and elite capture that further insulates power (kratos) from the masses.

Tallulah’s MPhil dissertation, Salford, Bucking the Trend: Examining the Strength of Labour’s Heartland in Brexit Britain, (published) explores Labour’s pronounced and consistent support in the City of Salford, asking what distinguishes its local political landscape from the national context. It also challenges dominant narratives of the ‘Left Behind’, a term used as shorthand for economically deprived people and places, often depicted as a monolithic mass speaking with a singular exclusionary nationalist, populist and parochial voice and ultimately blamed for Brexit.