Dr Ian Cook

Ian's research largely focuses on cities, with a particular emphasis on four issues: (1) public spaces and subterranean places; (2) policy mobilities; (3) sex work; and (4) fictional cities and crime:

• Public spaces and subterranean places - Ian's research often focuses on two different parts of the city: parts that are public space and parts that are underground/subterranean. These two types of places merge in his current research project on pedestrian underpasses. A recent article by Ian and colleagues explores the sensory, gendered and aged dimensions of people's encounters with pedestrian underpasses. Elsewhere, he has continued the subterranean theme in an article examining the representation of the subterranean within crime fiction novels. 
• Policy mobilities - Perhaps his best known work is on policy mobilities. This work looks at the construction and movement of models of best practice. Much of this focuses on issues of planning, architecture and urban regeneration (e.g., Business Improvement Districts, suburban developments, waterfront regeneration, sporting mega-events). See his forthcoming book chapter on this issue. He has also written about the role of policy mobilities within sex work policymaking (viewable here and here). A key part of Ian's policy mobilities research involves looking at the methods through which policymakers learn about policies elsewhere, focusing in particular on study tours, conferences, award ceremonies and, most recently, lecture tours. He has also written with colleagues about the role of gender in policy mobilities.
• Sex work - Ian has worked on a number of projects about sex work, many with an urban focus. These projects include ones looking at how clients of sex work are policed (and the use of John Schools in the UK); the international circulation of sex work policy models; the role of platforms within contemporary sex work; activism by sex work academics; and the role of the body within digitally mediated sex work. He has also written recently on why off-street sex work is less actively policed than indoor sex work in England and Wales. 
• Fictional cities and crime - Ian is examining the representation of cities within crime dramas and crime fiction. He has explored this through an analysis of the crime drama Breaking Bad and looked at how subterranean places and time are represented in Ian Rankin's long-running John Rebus novels. He is currently writing a chapter comparing the ways in which academics and those in the media think about the relationship between crime and cities.

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• Crime and its relationship with cities, Cook, I. 1 Feb 2026, De Gruyter Handbook of Geographies of Crime, Berlin, Germany, De Gruyter
• Discipline-switching through a Bourdieusian lens: examining the experiences of academics moving into criminology, Cook, I., Stephens-Griffin, N., Laing, M., Barwick, D., Mitchell, S. 6 Jun 2026, In: The British Journal of Criminology
• Home-grown/Imported Policies: Understanding the Travels of Planning Policy, Cook, I. 15 Jan 2026, The Routledge Companion to Urban Planning, London, Routledge
• Lecture tours, cultural propaganda and policy mobilities: an exploration of architect-planner William G. Holford’s wartime visit to Sweden, Ward, S., Cook, I. 11 Jun 2026, In: Town Planning Review
• Policy mobilities and gender: a case study of the influence of the ‘Swedish model’ on Northern Ireland’s sex work policy, Dodds, L., Cook, I., Laing, M. 9 Sep 2026, In: Gender, Place, and Culture
• The roles of the body within digitally mediated sex work, Dodds, L., Cook, I. 13 May 2026, Digital technology and sex work, London, Palgrave Macmillan
• Police in England and Wales have, for many decades, intervened more in street sex work than indoor sex work, Cook, I. 1 Mar 2025, 50 Facts Everyone Should Know about the Police, Bristol, United Kingdom, Policy Press
• "Maybe I’m a quiet activist": sex work scholars and negotiations of ‘minor’ academic-activism, Laing, M., Cook, I., Baker, T., Calder-Dawe, O. 1 Feb 2024, In: Sexualities
• The subterranean in crime fiction: examining Edinburgh’s underground in Ian Rankin’s John Rebus novels, Cook, I. 27 May 2024, In: Social and Cultural Geography
• Platforms, sex work and their interconnectedness, Swords, J., Laing, M., Cook, I. 1 Mar 2023, In: Sexualities

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• Organising a conference, workshop, ...: Sex Work Research Hub Postgraduate Conference 2018

• Geography PhD September 01 2008
• Fellow of Advance HE