Dr Thomas Davis

I am a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at Manchester Metropolitan University and a Visiting Researcher at Copenhagen Business School. I like to research sustainable enterprise and urban regeneration, in particular focussing on the redevelopment of postindustrial cities. Theoretically, I draw on philosophies of space and time to study these processes, especially the work of Henri Lefebvre and Walter Benjamin. Recently, I have also started to draw on the ecological thinking of Gregory Bateson.

My teaching activities primarily focus on experiential learning through participatory action research. Currently, I oversee student projects located across the ten boroughs of Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which involves students collaborating with a range of social enterprises engaged in important social, economic, and ecological work in the city. Alongside this, I coordinate a student-led social innovation regeneration project in Oldham, lecture on theories of social enterprise, and deliver foundational organizational strategy and ethics courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

I joined Manchester Metropolitan University in 2022, after earning my PhD at the University of Liverpool Management School in the same year.  I am currently a member of the European Group for Organizational Studies, Academy of Management, and Entrepreneurship as Practice academic research communities.

I am always interested in receiving doctoral supervision enquiries for research projects in the areas of sustainable enterprise, spatial theories of organizing, and historicized organizational research.