Dr Beth Watts-Cobbe is a Senior Research Fellow at I-SPHERE (Institute for Social Policy, Housing and Equalities Research), Heriot-Watt University.
Beth’s research focuses on homelessness, housing and welfare policy, and the ethical dimensions of social policy problems. She has written (with Suzanne Fitzpatrick) a book on Welfare Conditionality published in Routledge’s Key Ideas series; journal articles in Housing Studies, the Journal of Social Policy, the European Journal of Homelessness and Housing, Theory and Society; comment pieces for the Guardian, the Conversation and LSE’s Politics and Policy blog; and commissioned reports for funders including Crisis, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Shelter Scotland, Social Bite and Depaul UK.
Before joining I-SPHERE in 2013, Beth completed her PhD on legal rights-based responses to homelessness at the University of York. She has previously worked as a researcher at The Young Foundation, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Shelter. Beth is current chair of the Housing Studies Association, book reviews editor for the international journal Housing Studies and a board non-executive director of the Rock Trust.
Research Interests
- Homelessness and youth homelessness
- Rough sleeping and complex needs
- Social housing and security of tenure
- Welfare conditionality
- Political and moral philosophy and their application in social policy
Contact Details
Email: B.Watts-Cobbe@hw.ac.uk