Christopher Holmes was recently awarded funding by Friends Provident Foundation and Barrow Cadbury Trust to run a deliberative democracy project on economic policy in the UK: The Citizens’ Economic Council on the Cost of Living. The final project report can be read here with shorter coverage here and here.

His work on this project went on to inform the Climate Change Committee’s approach to public participation in UK net-zero policy, specifically their Citizens’ Panel project which involved UK citizens in the discussion about how the UK should meet climate goals fairly. The project also produced evidence for an Inquiry on Benefit Levels in the UK and was also presented to the UK All-party Parliamentary Group on Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax as part of a report on economic governance. He won a social science impact prize for this work in 2024.

Christopher was awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship for the 2014-15 academic year, which funded research pertaining to a subsequent research monograph . The book situates various strands of post-2008 economic populism in the context of long-run change in the history of ideas (see also reviews here and here).

Christopher joined King’s in July 2016 having previously held lectureships at the University of Warwick and the University of Southampton. He received his PhD from the University of Warwick in 2010. Prior to that he received his MA Research Methods (Pol Sci) and BA Political Science from the University of Birmingham (UK).

Research

Christopher maintains a wide research portfolio, underpinned by a fundamental interest in the role of economic ideas in public debate and policy process. He has explored this interest in varied domains, including public participation and deliberative democracy, environmental policy and financial and monetary governance, as well as more conceptual work on the history of economic ideas and global ethics. Some particular areas of interest include:

• Public participation in policy process, especially deliberative approaches
• Environmental governance, especially the role of alternatives to GDP in policymaking
• The political economy of financial regulation and monetary systems, both national and supranational
• The history of economic ideas, especially the evolution of fundamental concepts like ‘market’, ‘growth’, ‘money’ etc.
• Applications of the work of Karl Polanyi to various contemporary policy problems, especially the rise of populism in recent years.

As well as continuing to work on these strands, Christopher has recently begun new research on higher education pedagogy, specifically on how to foster higher level academic skills in light of recent developments in artificial intelligence, and will be publishing on this soon. He also has a longer-term book project in development on models of the individual in economic thought.

External positions

• Advisory board member for UK Climate Change Committee Citizens’ Panels project, 2024-25
• Advisory board member for fiscal policy modelling company PolicyEngine (2024-)
• External examiner for European Institute of Management and Finance, Cyprus (2025)

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK

• Scientific Committee member of the Karl Polanyi Institute, Canada
• Major grant reviewer for Austrian Science Fund
• Academic reviewer for following publications: Routledge RIPE Book Series in Global Political Economy, Environmental Values, Economy and Society, New Political Economy, Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Review of International Political Economy, Public Administration, History of Political Thought, Theory Culture and Society, Review of International Studies, International Political Sociology, Global Perspectives, Journal of Common Market Studies, Review of Evolutionary Political Economy
• Reviewer for Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) London Interdisciplinary Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership scheme

Office hours

2025-26 office hours TBC

Teaching

Christopher currently teaches three modules: Capitalism, Liberalism and Democracy (masters level), The Political Economy of Money (undergraduate year three) and Introduction to Politics (undergraduate year one). Over the course of his career he has taught a wide variety of modules on economics, political science and international political economy. He holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice.

PhD Supervisions

Christopher currently supervises one PhD student, Haydn Shephard, who is working on a thesis entitled “Split personality: The material, the ideal and the mixed moral economy of economic liberalism”. He has supervised six PhD students to successful completion previously, working on a range of topics including flood resilience, environmental and wellbeing indicators, central bank governance and fiscal policy.

Expertise and public engagement

Christopher is happy to discuss on issues in relation to any of his interests.

Hear him discussing: Engaging citizens on economic policy: what role can deliberative methods play? At a National Centre for Social Research event held in December 2023, here.

He also gave a summary of his public participation work in a video for King’s, available here.

Also, here is a lecture delivered in collaboration with Faculti on his book, Polanyi in Times of Populism. Watch it here.

Service

Christopher has undertaken a wide variety of leadership and administration roles whilst at King’s, including two faculty level positions – Associate Dean Doctoral Studies and Assessment Board Chair – as well as a variety of department level positions including Research Committee Chair, Postgraduate Research Chair and Admissions Tutor. He is currently the department’s Careers and Employability Lead.