Dr Michael Buser

About me

I am Associate Professor of Collaborative Community Practice and Head of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Urban Environments. My research is socially engaged and interdisciplinary. In the last several years, I have focused on issues of care and community.  This centres on two main themes: a) water security and climate adaptation and b) health and wellbeing.  In terms of water, I am interested in the ways human lives are mediated through relations with water, infrastructures of water, and broader politics of water. My water security work has been supported by the British Academy and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to study community responses to climate and environmental change in India, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.  In the wellbeing research, I conducted a multi-year research project in Kashmir with schools, children and artists to support the mental health of young people who have experienced conflict and trauma. More recently, I have started exploring how our cities and neighbourhoods can be more dementia-inclusive and support healthy ageing.

Area of expertise

 

 

 

 

 

My research is collaborative, cross-disciplinary and community-oriented.  A few recent projects include:

I am PI for a project based in Kashmir funded by AHRC called 'the Art of Healing' . We are in our second round of activities with schools in the region and collaborating with artists and arts-based therapists to support the wellbeing of children.  Recent paper here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17533015.2023.2168710

I am leading a project funded by the British Academy to study the impacts of climate change, glacial melt, and water security in rural parts of Ladakh.

I was Principal Investigator for an AHRC-funded research network looking at relations of care in traditional water infrastructures in Rajasthan, India (2017-2018). Project website: https://rajasthanwater.weebly.com/.  We've published a paper in 'water alternatives' which can be found here: http://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/alldoc/articles/vol13/v13issue3/594-a13-3-12

I was Principal Investigator for the British Academy Knowledge Frontiers project:  Community resilience in locales of coastal erosion: local knowledge, culture and practice in the Upper Gulf of Thailand (2018-2019). https://thailandwater.weebly.com  

I am currently Director of Studies and/or supervisor for three PhD students:

·       Jenna Dutton: Gender based inequality in the city: the role and potential of urban planning

·       Sara Melasecchi: the impact of net zero transport policies on social justice: the case of Lawrence Hill, Bristol

·       Jo Bushell: Foodway values and practices of Somali immigrants and how these influence household sustainability.

 

Publications