The Centre for Public Policy Research is an interdisciplinary research centre focusing on critical analyses of social change and social in/justice. Our research contributes to national and international scholarship, policy debate, social activism, and personal, professional and organisational learning.

CPPR values and seeks to cultivate a friendly and collaborative culture. We are interested in promoting and supporting research by, and in partnership with, our students and with policymakers and practitioners from public and third-sector organisations and community groups. In addition to conducting theoretical and empirical research, we run innovative, socially engaged and policy-relevant taught programmes.

Scholarship in CPPR draws on a range of social science and humanities perspectives and methodologies. The Centre has expertise in education, sociology and social theory, anthropology, policy studies, applied philosophy, cultural studies and history, and in a variety of methods, with particular strengths in participatory, creative and arts-based methodologies.

CPPR is based in the School of Education, Communication and Society and its work has historically focused on understanding policy and practice in education, health and social care,including learning and socialisation processes in communities, the workplace and arts and cultural settings. As our membership has grown, so too has the diversity of our interests and expertise. Today, our cross-cutting research interests include:

• Children, youth and society
• Decoloniality and epistemic justice
• Emotions and embodiment
• Education theory and policy
• Ethics and public policy
• Gender and sexuality
• Governance, accountability and quality
• Health and social care
• Inequality and social class
• Migration, borders and the politics of belonging
• Pedagogy, curriculum and assessment
• Racialisation and racisms
• Social futures and social transformation
• Work and labour

We are interested in approaches to social and policy analysis that are both critical and problem-solving. Our interest in and interpretation of policy is rooted in a conception of policy as felt, made and remade in everyday life - that is, as co-constitutive of subjectivities and identities.

Members of CPPR also convene the Higher Education Research Group (HERG@KCL), the King's International Education Research Network and the Research and Education for Socio-Ecological Transformations (RE-SET) group.