Professor Matthew Johnson

Professor

School: Communities and Education

I am Professor of Public Policy at Northumbria University, Chair of the Common Sense Policy Group, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS), Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA) and founding Editor of Global Discourse. My work is centrally concerned with addressing issues of inequality, social justice and exclusion both in my native North East and beyond. I have led a number of engagement-rich, high-impact, interdisciplinary and international projects. I have secured over £3m to fund this work, focusing most recently on examination of the public health case for Basic Income as a means of mitigating health and economic inequalities.

Recent work has been covered on BBC2 Politics Live, Sky, ITV Tyne Tees News, and in the Guardian, BBC, Independent, Daily Mirror, Evening Standard among others. The coverage has fostered debate on the broader issues and policy, with the Independent committing its support to Basic Income.

I have a commitment to participatory research and have led a number of co-produced and co-directed projects, including an international, interdisciplinary, participatory study entitled ‘A Cross-cultural Working Group on “Good Culture” and Precariousness’, which involved a research network of over 30 academics and embedded exchanges between community members from Ashington, Northumberland and Aboriginal groups around Brisbane. Two films covering the project have been produced by Brightmoon Media. I am a regular contributor to national and international media.

I am Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, have been nominated for a National Teaching Fellowship three times, and have taught at the Universities of Newcastle, Queensland, Iceland and York. I was the founder and co-ordinator of the Association for Academic Outreach (AfAO), which facilitates research, development and dissemination of outreach good practice by and for academics.

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Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

I lead the Common Sense Policy Group, which examines the relationship between material conditions, public policy and health and wellbeing. In particular, our research is concerned with examining the impact of financial insecurity on health and wellbeing, economic and social behaviour and policy and voting preferences.

We explore these issues via a combination of economic and health microsimulation modelling with complex survey-based approaches, including conjoint experimentation and adversarial co-production of narratives to persuade opponents of progressive policy.

These approaches have underpinned development of policy and policy analysis in areas including a Greend New Deal, public utilities, childhood and early years, education, housing, transport, democratic reform and taxation. We set out a cohesive, feasible, affordable and popular Beveridge-stle approach to rebuilding Britain in Act Now.

We have made particularly prominent contribution to understanding of the role of cash-based means of mitigating financial insecurity and improving key outcomes of critical importance to society via our pioneering work on Basic Income. This has been funded by NIHR and Wellcome Trust and has led to our involvement in evaluation of the Welsh basic income pilot for care leavers and numerous other pilots and trials.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Act Now: A vision for a better future and a new social contract, Johnson, M., Dorling, D., Driscoll, J., Hardill, I., Hobbs, C., Johnson, E., Lawson, N., Nadel, J., Nettle, D., Pickett, K., Polanski, Z., Pollock, A., Reed, H., Robson, I., Stark, G., Taylor-Robinson, D., Wilkinson, R. 1 Jul 2024
Basic Income: The Policy That Changes Everything, Johnson, M., Pickett, K., Nettle, D., Reed, H., Johnson, E., Robson, I. 27 May 2025
Examining the relationship between income and both mental and physical health among adults in the UK: Analysis of 12 waves (2009-2022) of Understanding Society, Reed, H., Nettle, D., Parra Mujica, F., Stark, G., Wilkinson, R., Johnson, M., Johnson, E. 6 Mar 2025, In: PLoS One
Short-term changes in financial situation have immediate mental health consequences: Implications for social policy, Nettle, D., Chevallier, C., de Courson, B., Johnson, E., Johnson, M., Pickett, K. 1 Mar 2025, In: Social Policy & Administration
Can the ‘downward spiral’ of material conditions, mental health and faith in government be stopped? Evidence from surveys in ‘red wall’ constituencies, Johnson, M., Johnson, E., Reed, H., Nettle, D. 1 Feb 2024, In: British Journal of Politics and International Relations

Professional Activity

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Invited talk: RSA Report Launch: Levelling the Mental Health Gradient in Young People: How Universal Basic Income can address the crisis in anxiety and depression 2022
Invited talk: The Health Dividend: The Potential of Unconditional Basic Income in Addressing Health Inequities 2023
Invited talk: Pathways to health for them and for us 2021
Invited talk: Universal Basic Income: Pathway to a healthy society? 2021
Invited talk: Expert Testimony: Catholicism and anti-domination: the institutional case for UBI 2021

Further Information

Media

My work has been covered by the The New Statesman, The Independent, Financial Times, The Independent, Al Jazeera, the BBC and various other newspapers and outlets.

I have contributed to LabourList, Foreign Affairs and various other platforms.

I have been interviewed on, among other things, Basic Income, British politics, regional politics in the North East and North West, Aboriginal politics, cultural diversity. I previously provided BBC Radio General Election night analysis. I am more than happy to be interviewed on the broad topics outlined under ‘research interests’ above.