Mike Aiken

He has been involved with IVAR since 2004 on projects concerned with community development, advocacy, state/third sector representation mechanisms, community participation, impact and measurement, and community asset ownership.

Previous work: In the last two years, he has: designed and delivered short courses on advocacy and social policy at universities in Germany and Mexico respectively; guest lectured at Birkbeck, Sheffield Hallam and Ulster; and been an invited speaker at the Building Change Trust (Belfast), the Scottish Universities Institute (Glasgow), Beyond the Squares (London School of Economics), Critical Management Conference (Leicester) and Voluntary Sector Studies Network (VSSN) seminar (London). He has published academic articles, book chapters and essays on civil society and advocacy, social enterprises, and an independent voluntary sector. Mike had previously worked in the sector for over 20 years at the Development Trusts Association, Community Matters and SCADU and remains active in local community action, national networks and campaigns.

Other interests: Mike holds an MA in Social Policy from the University of Sussex and a PhD from the Open University where, at the Co-operatives Research Unit, he remains a Visiting Research Fellow. He is an active member of the VSSN (UK), Social Policy Association Action Research Network (CARN) and European Social Enterprise Research Network (EMES, Belgium).