Research
Research that travels—from evidence to practice.
Joe Quarcoo’s research connects human behaviour, urban systems, institutions and lived experience. Applied, interdisciplinary and inclusive, it asks not only what evidence reveals, but how knowledge can travel into policy, programmes, public conversation and accessible media.
His work spans social psychology, urban studies, public planning, community development, climate resilience, institutional practice and creative knowledge mobilisation.
Two completed MPhil research projectsUniversity teachingPublic-sector and international researchApplied evaluation and knowledge mobilisation
Research orientation
An applied and inclusive research practice.
Across disciplines, Joe’s work begins with people: how identity is formed, how institutions shape everyday life, whose knowledge counts and whether policy is experienced as inclusion or exclusion. He combines academic inquiry with public-sector practice, field observation, stakeholder engagement, monitoring and evaluation, and the translation of complex findings into forms that wider audiences can use.
Identity, dignity and belonging
Culture, self-esteem, agency, migration and the social conditions through which people understand themselves.
Inclusive cities and urban informality
Planning, street economies, settlement life and what the right to the city means in practice.
Institutions, policy and implementation
How formal systems, organisational capacity and frontline experience affect whether policy works for people.
Knowledge mobilisation and creative translation
Moving research beyond reports through teaching, facilitated dialogue, media, music and accessible public communication.
Selected research and applied inquiry
Where the thread leads.
Collaborative and international research
Research across institutions and borders.
Present and Visible: Napier Settlement and its Stories
Collaborative research with colleagues through the African Centre for Cities, documenting housing, livelihoods and everyday life in a South African informal settlement. Joe contributed as part of a wider research team; the work is not a sole-authored study.
Cornell Global Survey of City Leaders
Joe supported African outreach as part of the international research team behind the Cornell Global Survey of City Leaders, and later delivered a guest lecture on Musical Urbanism. He did not design or lead the survey.
Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre
In 2021 Joe worked as a Junior Researcher with the Urban and Policy Team, collaborating with Roop Singh and colleagues on climate vulnerability, policy and comparative urban research. Can’t Take the Heat was hosted by Roop Singh, not Joe.
Research formation
The formation behind the work.
- 01
MPhil in Social Psychology, University of Ghana
Research into culture, identity and self-esteem.
- 02
MPhil in Urban Studies, University of Cape Town
Research into urban informality, planning and everyday city life.
- 03
MINDS Fellow and Mastercard Foundation Scholar
Participation in the highly competitive MINDS Scholarship Programme, combining postgraduate study with intensive leadership development, pan-African learning and commitment to Africa’s development.
- 04
Andrew W. Mellon Scholar
Academic and interdisciplinary formation supporting urban-studies development.
- 05
Studying Cities: Social Science Methods for Urban Research, Erasmus University Rotterdam
2020.
- 06
Climate Adaptation in Africa, University of Cape Town
2020.
- 07
African Civic Engagement Academy, University of Georgia
Intensive civic-engagement and leadership training, 2021; formation supporting public scholarship and civic engagement.
Research, teaching and knowledge exchange
Research that moves through people and practice.
Joe’s research practice has developed not only through dissertations and institutional projects, but through teaching, facilitation, programme design and public communication. From supporting psychology learners at the University of Ghana between 2009 and 2020 to translating urban and social questions through public dialogue, media and music, he is interested in what happens after knowledge is produced: who can understand it, who can use it and whether it changes practice.
Teaching and learning
Psychology teaching and support for distance learners at the University of Ghana.
Facilitation and public dialogue
Convening conversations that connect evidence with lived experience and public participation.
Creative knowledge mobilisation
Using writing, media and music to make complex questions more accessible without diluting their substance.
Methods and ways of working
How Joe approaches inquiry.
- Field observation and place-based inquiry
- Interviews and engagement with lived experience
- Literature, document and policy analysis
- Monitoring, evaluation and institutional analysis
- Survey outreach and collaborative research support
- Knowledge mobilisation through writing, teaching, dialogue, media and music
Collaboration pathway
Put research to work.
Joe welcomes collaborations with universities, public institutions, funders, community organisations and interdisciplinary teams seeking rigorous inquiry, grounded engagement and more accessible ways of sharing what research reveals.