Alan Southern has worked at the University of Liverpool for over 20 years; previously, he was at the University of Durham. Alan’s work is focused on the social economy and he has taught and researched social enterprise, local economic development, regeneration and entrepreneurship for over three decades. He is published widely in these areas and he has helped to raise the profile of the social economy through organisations such as the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development and the Global Social Economy Forum.
In the last few years, Alan has worked to support the development of the social economy in the Liverpool City Region. He brought together practitioners, the Combined Authority and academics to develop plans for the sector and worked with the Metro Mayor to help put a quick response to the Covid pandemic in place. He has held non-executive roles on the boards of social enterprises.