Paul Thomas

Professor of Youth and Policy, University of Huddersfield

Paul Thomas is Professor of Youth and Policy at the University of Huddersfield and Director of Research in the University’s School of Education and Professional Development. Paul’s research focusses on how multiculturalist policies such as Community Cohesion and Prevent, have been understood, mediated and implemented by local policy-makers and educational practitioners.

Paul’s research has been developed in close collaboration with local authorities and their front-line education and community workers. It has led to the books Youth, Multiculturalism and Community Cohesion (2011) and Responding to the Threat of Violent Extremism – Failing to Prevent (2012), and to Paul giving oral evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee Inquiry in to Prevent in 2009. Paul is a qualified youth worker and has previously been involved in antiracist educational work. He is currently researching how the Prevent Duty has been understood and implemented by schools and colleges in England.

Project information

Paul is part of CREST-funded commissioned project, Community Reporting Of Violent Extremist Activity And Involvement In Foreign Conflict.

Recent publications

• Busher, J., Choudhury, T. and Thomas, P. (2020) ‘The introduction of the Prevent Duty into schools and colleges: Stories of continuity and change’ in J. Busher and L. Jerome (eds.)The Prevent Duty in Education: Impact, Enactment and Implications, pp.33-54, Basingstoke: Palgrave
• Thomas, P. (2020) ‘Britain’s Prevent strategy: Always changing, always the same?’ in J. Busher and L. Jerome (eds.)The Prevent Duty in Education: Impact, Enactment and Implications, pp.11-32, Basingstoke: Palgrave
• Thomas, P., Grossman, M., Christmann, K. and Miah, S., (2020), ‘Overcoming Barriers to Community Reporting on Violent Extremism by “Intimates”: Emergent Findings from International Evidence, Critical Studies on Terrorism, 13:4, 638-659
• Miah, S., Sanderson, P. and Thomas, P. (2020) 'Race' Space and Multiculturalism in Northern England: The (M62) Corridor of Uncertainty, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
• Busher, J., Choudhury, T. and Thomas, P. (2019) ‘The enactment of the counter-terrorism ‘Prevent duty’ in British schools and colleges: Beyond reluctant accommodation or straightforward policy acceptance’, Critical Studies on Terrorism, 12:3, 440-462
• Thomas, P., Busher, J., Macklin, G., Rogerson, M and Christmann, K. (2018) ‘Hopes and Fears – Community Cohesion and the ‘white working class’ in one of the ‘failed spaces’ of multiculturalism’, Sociology, 52:2, pp. 262-281
• Thomas, P. (2017) ‘Changing experiences of responsibilisation and contestation within counter-terrorism policies: The British Prevent experience’, Policy and Politics,45:3, 305-322
• Thomas, P., Grossman, M., Miah, S. and Christmann, K. (2017) Community Reporting Thresholds; sharing information with authorities concerning violent extremist activity and involvement in foreign conflicts, Huddersfield: University of Huddersfield
• Busher, J., Choudhury, T., Thomas, P. and Harris G. (2017), What the Prevent duty means for Schools and Colleges in England: An analysis of educationalist’s experiences, Huddersfield: University of Huddersfield
• Thomas, P. (2017) ‘Changing experiences of responsibilisation and contestation within counter-terrorism policies: The British Prevent experience’, Policy and Politics,45:3, 305-322
• Thomas, P., Busher, J., Macklin, G., Rogerson, M and Christmann, K. (2017) ‘Hopes and Fears – Community Cohesion and the ‘white working class’ in one of the ‘failed spaces’ of multiculturalism’, Sociology (early view online).Thomas, P. (2016) ‘Youth, terrorism and education: Britain’s Prevent programme’, International Journal of Lifelong Education, in-press
• Thomas, P., Busher, J., Macklin, G., Rogerson, M. and Christmann, K. (2015) ‘Understanding Concerns about Community Relations’ Identity papers: A journal of British and Irish studies , 1 (1), pp. 67-78
• Thomas, P. (2014) ‘Divorced but still co-habiting? Britain’s Prevent/Community Cohesion policy tension, British Politics, 9 (4), pp. 472-493
• Thomas, P. (2014) ‘Britain’s Prevent Programme: An End in Sight?’. In: Critical Perspectives on Counter Terrorism. London, UK: Routledge. pp. 169-186
• Sanderson, P. and Thomas, P. (2014) ‘Troubling identities: race, place and positionality among young people in two towns in Northern England’ Journal of Youth Studies , 17 (9), pp. 1168-1186