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This impact case study demonstrates how research has benefitted mixed couples in their relationships as well as charitable and other organisations engaged in supporting `mixed' couples.
Impact relates specifically to:
(i) development and deployment by charities and professional agencies of e-learning resources to support people in `mixed' relationships and families;
(ii) increased awareness and understanding by `mixed' couples and families, and professionals, of issues relating to specific `mixed' relationships in difference to those faced by all couples;
(iii) the improved efficiency and effectiveness of charities and professional bodies in dealing with `mixed' couple matters.
One of the main impacts of Bradford's ethnicity research is its influence on how the Substantive Equality Unit (SEU) was set up and continues to operate within the Equal Opportunities Commission of Western Australia. The SEU was established to address the challenge of creating equal and inclusive services, and ensuring their delivery, by all the departments of the Western Australian government for a diverse population. Its central role in promoting equality in the region is on-going and long-term. The beneficiaries of this impact are the government and minorities in the region, particularly Aboriginals and those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
The research has developed new approaches to the digital mapping of immigrant populations. It has been used to:
Professor Tariq Modood - awarded an MBE for services to social sciences and ethnic relations in 2001 - is one of the UK's most prominent analysts of and commentators on Muslims and multiculturalism. He has developed firm research-based arguments for why and how Muslims should be accommodated in Britain. The impact of his work since 2008 includes: the operation of legislation on religious discrimination and incitement to hatred; the operation of racial equality policies in higher education; the increasing prevalence of his view amongst Muslims and others that Britain's distinctive form of moderate secularism should be seen as a valuable resource for the accommodation of Muslims; his participation in the creation and enhancement of mechanisms of Muslim participation in governance; awareness raising and agenda setting through his regular contributions to public events and media discussions (traditional broadcasting and social media); and the continuing adherence to multiculturalism, despite challenges to it, among Muslim and government actors, and their awareness of the importance of the macro-paradigm level of analysis that he has developed
Eve Rosenhaft's research on Gypsies and Africans in Germany, which she has undertaken since the later 1990s, has had local and international impact. Her work has enhanced quality of life by helping individuals and communities to recover their own histories. The dissemination of her research findings has improved individual, public and local community understandings of the sources and consequences of racism, reinforcing people's capacity for self-reflection and positive behavioural change. The beneficiaries have included: Holocaust survivors and their families; schoolchildren; university students; teachers and other Holocaust educators; church congregations and their local communities; and, through the enrichment of their knowledge base, academics and practitioners in partner institutions.
Increasing immigration, the rise of the British National Party, and the London bombings put social cohesion firmly on the policy agenda. James Laurence and Anthony Heath's research (2008) on the predictors of social cohesion provided the key empirical foundation for policies implemented by the Department for Communities and Local Government from 2008 onwards. These policies in turn impacted the practices of local authorities in a variety of domains, including the allocation of social housing and the funding of community projects. The research was also cited by a number of organizations beyond government in their policy documents, from the Equality and Human Rights Commission to consultancies such as Ipsos MORI.
Work undertaken at the University of Manchester (UoM) has provoked debate, and challenged established lines of thought, by `myth busting' current claims about racial diversity and segregation — such as `Britain is becoming a country of ghettos' — which have hitherto dominated public and policy debate. A sociologically-informed demographic approach, developed at UoM, has been adopted by local authorities for monitoring neighbourhood population change and ethnic diversity. Additionally, research findings have been used by non-governmental organisations (NGOs), national policy-makers and local government to promote alternative, sociologically-informed understandings of race, segregation and diversity, challenging the current policy focus. Taken together, these twin interventions have resulted in increasingly critical and robust examinations of race, segregation and diversity, both nationally and locally.
The impact of this case study is that every preschool child in Northern Ireland has followed an educational programme, developed at Queen's University Belfast (QUB) from 2003 onwards, on respect for ethnic diversity. It has been adopted and embedded within practice by more than 1,200 preschool settings with more than 40,000 children in Northern Ireland and The Republic of Ireland. In Northern Ireland children as young as three years old have been shown to hold sectarian and racist attitudes. As a result of the work there were major changes on the attitudes of preschool children in terms of respect for ethnic diversity in Northern Ireland. A partnership with US-based Sesame Workshop and the BBC produced a children's television series. Every preschool child in Northern Ireland has seen the series. This has also resulted in less racist and sectarian behaviours amongst the pre-school population. There are early childhood programmes, based upon this work, to promote respect for ethnic diversity being developed in Indonesia, Kenya and Colombia.
Research in the area of Critical Disability Studies carried out at Manchester Metropolitan University has directly led to a change in government policy on the family finding process for 4,000 children in the UK currently awaiting adoption. At both national and regional level, the research has influenced the provision of services for disabled children and their families, ranging from the commissioning of short break services to funding decisions for charity. The research has also influenced the strategy of Scope, the disability charity, with regard to resilience in disabled people's lives, and contributed to the training of teachers for children with learning disabilities.