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Cherry Leonardi's research on local justice and traditional authority in Southern (now South) Sudan has influenced government policies and international aid agency programmes in the justice and governance sectors. It informed the drafting of a local government act by the Government of Southern Sudan [text removed for publication], by emphasising the importance and resilience of chiefship as a local institution of government and justice. It has also influenced the design of internationally-funded access to justice programmes in South Sudan, by recommending a bottom- up, empirical approach to judicial reform that focuses on the experiences and needs of litigants and local justice providers.
This case study captures the aftermath of the abolition of Regional Development Agencies and Government Offices in England after 2010. The research underpinning this case study analysed the shift from `regionalism' to `localism' in the North East of England and found that the abolition of the regional tier of governance in England did not invalidate the continuing need for multi-level policy coordination, networking and `voice' at the regional level. These findings, characterised as `Common-Sense Regionalism', directly led to the creation (by Central Government) of a Cross-Government Group of national and sub-national civil servants, representatives from local government and from the voluntary sector.
Research on African borderlands, conducted by Nugent at the University of Edinburgh since 1993, has impacted internationally on policy in this area across West African states between 2008 and 2013. It has assisted the shaping of regional integration and capacity-building by the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Firstly, it led to the formal adoption by the African Union Border Programme (AUBP) of the principle that grounded research is fundamental to the work of practitioners and policymakers tasked with easing the flow of people and goods across borders. Secondly, the research finding that borders have historically been made by border populations as well as by states has influenced the position adopted by the AUBP and ECOWAS that regional integration initiatives need to come from below as much as from above.
The Local Governance Research Unit (LGRU) undertook a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE), a not-for-profit local government association that provides policy and operational advice to over 300 councils. This partnership informed APSE's strategic policy review, co-producing a new model of the Ensuring Council, which was adopted by its national council, and used to brand and position APSE within local government. Seven evidence-based policy tools were created through the partnership and taken up and used by APSE for consultancy and membership services. Externally, APSE used these outputs to increase its influence over national policy.
Following extensive ethnographic research in South Asia, Durham Anthropology highlighted the pressing need to include indigenous knowledge (IK) in development practice and sustainable resource management. As part of our research we helped establish an NGO-based network with an explicit remit to promote and implement our research insights in Bangladesh. This network has had far-reaching effects, empowering local people and helping to promote agricultural resilience and sustainable livelihoods (e.g. in preserving seed bio-diversity). Development practitioners in Bangladeshi universities are now trained using methods based on our research. IK-aware development based on Durham research is also internationally recognised and implemented by UNESCO.
A major challenge to economic policy and public sector governance is how to provide a sustainable economic basis for less prosperous localities and neighbourhoods. Research findings demonstrated the need for a greater focus upon enterprise and jobs at a sub-regional level and improved co-ordination and integration of governance arrangements in order to tackle this issue. These findings influenced the development of national and local government policy and practice towards the economic development of deprived areas from 2004 onwards. Impacts were evident through shaping a significant re-orientation in policy approaches towards deprived neighbourhoods as well as the development of specific policies and governance practice.
The Middle East, Central Asia and Caucasus (the MECAC region) houses some of the most intractable conflicts in the world that demand fresh ideas and proposals about building stable societies and economies. The Institute of Middle East, Central Asia and Caucasus Studies (MECACS) has co-ordinated underpinning research to grapple with these challenges, and its impact includes (a) the local and Western policy-making community reassessing their policies and behaviour in key areas of foreign policy-making and conflict resolution; b) reports, cultural artefacts and exhibitions that have been used by civil society activists and cultural entrepreneurs to strengthen inter-communal dialogue and reflection; and c) a radical improvement in the career opportunities of individuals and the sustainability of institutions of higher education. The research has encouraged diverse benefits to Western policy-makers and to a broad set of regional actors. Involving both the political and regional elites representing sectors of society, culture and education, the influence of the research has been penetrating, comprehensive and self-sustaining.
The University of East Anglia (UEA) has worked with regional media organisations to facilitate and expand the collection, preservation, presentation and accessibility of film and television materials produced in East Anglia and held by the East Anglian Film Archive (EAFA). Unit support and research links with EAFA are informed by research into the strong connections between media consumption, local identity and sense of place developed by Higson and Jancovich, and Mills and Snelson. The impact is evidenced by substantial increases in the use of EAFA materials by two key groups - Anglian residents and non-academic researchers from across the UK.
The Warwick Network for Parish Research (WNPR) was established in 2003 to facilitate public participation in the making of history, specifically the production of new historical knowledge about parishes from the Middle Ages to the present. Parishes were fundamental units of governance, worship, and everyday life across Europe for over a thousand years, and the primary resources for family and community historians are archived by their parish of generation (in 2010/11 5% of the UK population visited a local record office, 60% of whom were researching family history). WNPR has helped formulate the place of locality in a globalising world and is a point of connection between independent researchers, local history societies, archivists and university-based scholars. It has supported non-academic historians in exploring their communities past and present, built capacity for independent research and writing, and encouraged local historians to contextualise their findings through engagement with wider historical debates. Impact has been achieved in three principal ways:
Since 1948, Leicester historians have transformed the way we look at the past by pioneering new methodologies centred on Local History. In the last two decades, this "Leicester Approach" has reconnected history to ordinary people, involving them in historical research and showing in practical ways the relationship between history and local communities. This case-study highlights the public impact of Leicester's latest research projects, which have systematically empowered local communities to explore, understand and enjoy their family, regional and cultural histories. In a fast-moving, migratory world, the projects enhance public awareness of a shared past, boost local place attachment, and foster cultural understanding and cohesion.