Mark Cullinane is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the School of Applied Social Studies. He holds a PhD in Social Science from UCC. His doctoral research critically explored the contemporary role of Irish public service media in the mediation of national political and economic life, combining ethnographic observation of journalistic and editorial practices in the newsroom with analysis of media framings of key political developments in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008, in addition to an assessment of the practice of formalised public participation structures within the governance structures of Irish public service media. 

As Postdoctoral Researcher, Mark is contributing to an Irish Research Council-funded study on local participatory governance in Ireland. In the post-crisis context of wider changes in the Irish policy landscape of local and community development, this mixed-methods study is inquiring into the policy, practice and democratic possibilities of recently-instituted participatory forms of local governance (including county-level Public Participation Networks and Local Community Development Committees) which involve third sector and civil society actors in governance roles alongside elected members of local government