Ronan Paddison: reflections on a supervisor, mentor, friend

ABSTRACT

This is a composite paper bringing together six personal reflections on being supervised as doctoral students by Ronan Paddison. It contributes insightful and poignant voices of experience to a special issue commemorating the academic contributions – here with wider implications beyond the immediately ‘academic’ – of Ronan Paddison (1945–2019), the founder and for many years Editor-in-Chief of this journal, Space and Polity. The six sets of reflections have been authored independently of one another, but their cumulative effect is to demonstrate the depth of ‘hidden’ academic (and related) contribution made by Ronan to nurturing early career academics formally (through the doctoral supervision process) and more informally (in numerous ways and sometimes continuing well beyond the submission and award of a thesis). (Editorial abstract)

KEYWORDS:

• Supervision
• PhD
• Mentor
• Collegiality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

David Beel is Former research student supervised by Professor Ronan Paddison at the University of Glasgow. David Beel is Senior Lecturer in the Future Economies Research Centre at Manchester Metropolitan University.

John Crotty is Former research student supervised by Professor Ronan Paddison at the University of Glasgow.

Iain Docherty is Dean of the Institute for Advanced Studies and Professor of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Stirling. He is Former research student supervised by Professor Ronan Paddison at the University of Glasgow. His research and teaching addresses the interconnecting issues of public administration, institutional change and city and regional competitiveness, with particular emphasis on the structures and processes of local and regional governance, policies for delivering improved economic performance and environmental sustainability, and the development and implementation of strategic planning and transport policies. Iain has worked with and advised a range of private sector, governmental and other organisations including governments and public agencies in the UK, US, Australia, Canada, The Netherlands and Sweden, and the OECD. In 2015 he was appointed by the ESRC and Innovate UK as one of five Thought Leaders working to integrate scientific innovation and social science research across the UK, and he is currently one of the Co-Investigators and Infrastructure Theme Lead of the £1.2m ESRC Productivity Insights Network, which aims to bring together leading social science academics to help address the UK economy’s resilient productivity gap.

Jim McCormick is Former research student supervised by Professor Ronan Paddison at the University of Glasgow.

Norman Rae is Former research student supervised by Professor Ronan Paddison at the University of Glasgow.

Derek Stewart is Former research student supervised by Professor Ronan Paddison at the University of Glasgow.