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The research in this case study explored how media and cultural practices of communities are transforming in the digital age, and addressed the ways in which digital tools can enhance the lives of communities. There have been two main areas of impact: (1) contributing to the preservation, conservation and presentation of cultural heritage of communities; and (2) enhancing public and professional understanding of digital transformations in communities. The two main beneficiaries have been (i) local communities, and organisations working with and for communities in the South East of England, and (ii) professional communities of journalists and communicators in the UK and Germany.
Alliance researchers have devised and applied technologies that bridge the gap between the real and virtual worlds, linking digital data to physical entities. The ability to embed personal stories in objects and places has impacted on the way National Museums Scotland sources and displays collections, while Oxfam has used the research to bring added value to donated goods, leading to an increase in store sales of 53% over a week-long period. Mobile Visual Search technology has been taken-up by global brands and advertising agencies, including Nike, Disney, Vodafone, Nokia, Tesco, P&G, King & Partners, Mocom and Ogilvy, leading one industry expert to describe it as "the new model of marketing mobility". The work has led to a patent, the receipt of several awards, and influenced the formation of a spin-off company, Mobile Acuity (with revenue of over £0.5M to date), which has secured a major investment of over £1M, including from international corporation, [text removed for publication], to invest in the US and East Asia.
Our research on the ways in which digital platforms enable people to make and share creative material online, and thereby foster creativity in individuals and groups, has had a number of particular direct impacts on the media and cultural industries. At the LEGO Group, there have been several impacts, on policy, on training, and on product development. At BBC Children's, collaborative research about an online world for children led to changes in commissioning processes. At S4C, the work had an impact on digital media strategy, and led to a change in the company's statement of overall corporate aims and values.
Research by Professor Ruth Levitas (solely-authored and co-authored as indicated below) has transformed the definition and measurement of social exclusion and poverty in the UK and worldwide by national governments, the United Nations (UN), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Union (EU). It has also shaped the work of local actors in diverse contexts. It fed into the measurement of social exclusion in the 1999 Poverty and Social Exclusion (PSE) survey, which was distinguished by its incorporation of a social dimension into the measurement of social exclusion. Levitas took the lead role in developing the measurement of social exclusion in the 1999 PSE. Subsequent work involving Levitas on these issues was taken up by the UK Cabinet Office in 2006, resulting in the B-SEM (Bristol Social Exclusion Matrix) in 2007. The B-SEM forms the basis of the measurement of social exclusion in the 2012 PSE survey, the largest poverty survey ever undertaken in the UK. The impact of the 1999 PSE and the B-SEM has been global and profound since 2008 — nationally in the measurement of poverty and the use of direct indicators of material and social deprivation; and internationally in the measurement of both poverty and social exclusion. Public interest in the initial results of the 2012 PSE is indicative of the fact that the impact is continuing.
The research at Newcastle led by Dr Jane Gibbon has resulted in the development of a model of social accounting which has been co-produced with different third sector organisations. Impact can be demonstrated in three areas. First, a number of organisations have implemented the model, resulting in improved practice through a better understanding of their stakeholders' perspectives. Second, it has contributed towards the sustainability of these organisations, by allowing them to demonstrate the full extent of their work. Third, practitioner debate in both the accounting and third sector communities has been informed.
Research in UCL Information Studies enables innovative forms of cultural interaction which encourages a deeper, more personal experience for the public. Our crowd-sourcing transcription project, Transcribe Bentham, has enabled a worldwide audience to participate in the transcription of previously unstudied manuscripts. Our QRator project has empowered museum visitors to think of exhibits as social objects, discussing them with other visitors and curators in three important museums via social media. Both have been recognised and imitated as ground-breaking methods of creating partnerships between the public, the academy and cultural heritage institutions.
The research has explored the impact of welfare transformations on the activities of social workers on the frontline. A key concern has been to explore the gap between, on the one hand, social work ethical statements and the commitments of practitioners on entering the field and, on the other, the workplace reality of marketization, austerity driven cuts and a range of restrictions placed on workers by new regulatory regimes. The research explores the potential, internationally, for a new `engaged' social work practice that draws service users, carers, academics, and practitioners together in defence of good quality, value driven social work.
There is a growing demand for evidence of the impact that non governmental and private businesses are having. Research findings have led to a range of practical and policy developments related to encouraging organisations to measure their impact and use it both for their own development and to access more resources. This research has resulted in social impact measurement being introduced to many organisations and an improvement in the tools used. Research insights into how social impact can best be measured have led to changes in the practices of charities such as Citizens Advice and the use of a measurement tool by over 200 smaller organisations.
Research from the Digital arts strand of the CMR has had an impact in two related areas.
University of Manchester (UoM) sociologists have responded to escalating policy interest in the cultural and creative industries as generators of social and economic value; developing a more complex analysis of the significance of these sectors for understanding social inequality. Through a distinctive form of `cultural class analysis' (CCA), three key impacts are generated. Firstly, co-producing the BBC `Great British Class Survey' (GBCS) as a major public sociology intervention on understandings of `class'. Secondly, influencing new market research frameworks. Thirdly, applying CCA within the cultural sector, challenging policy understandings of how class inequalities are bound up with cultural participation. In a period of austerity and sharply increasing social, cultural and economic inequality, these impacts have successfully provoked renewed media and public engagement with issues of class division.