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Is Another Internet Possible? Power Struggles for Ownership and Control of Cyberspace

Summary of the impact

Franklin is a key participant in a formative period for global media and communications, in which power struggles over ownership and control of the internet are intensifying. Her work presaged the current global outcry over illegal forms of state-sponsored online surveillance and non-transparent forms of corporate storage and control of personal data. She combines participatory action research and critical theory with a leadership role in advocacy on human rights for the online environment. Focusing on UN and intergovernmental arenas in internet governance, her research unpacks how public, private, and civil society actors look to frame the terms of debate around diverging priorities for the internet's future design, access, and use. Her work has put human rights and principles advocacy for the internet onto the international human rights and internet governance agendas. It has played a formative role in increasing recognition — at the UN and European Union for instance — that online we have rights too.

Submitting Institution

Goldsmiths' College

Unit of Assessment

Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management 

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration, Political Science, Sociology

Contributing to public policy on accountability and standards in public life

Summary of the impact

Woodhouse's research has conceptual and instrumental impact in the UK and internationally. Instrumentally, her research has provided the basis for recommendations on accountability made by political groups, such as parliamentary committees. These relate to the mechanisms by which accountability is secured and to the constitutional relationships between Parliament and the executive, ministers and their civil servants, and MPs and their constituents. Conceptually, this impact concerns the debate by political actors on political accountability, whether of individual Members of Parliament for the standards to which they adhere or individual Ministers for their responsibilities within and outside their departments.

Submitting Institution

Oxford Brookes University

Unit of Assessment

Law

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration, Political Science
Law and Legal Studies: Law

The Politics of Security, Sovereignty and Intervention

Summary of the impact

Dr Lee Jones' research on sovereignty, intervention and security in Southeast Asia has helped non-academic users understand this region and formulate policies towards it. This research is typical of work conducted in the School of Politics and International Relations' (SPIR) interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of Global Security and Development: it explores interactions between international and domestic social, economic and political processes, is based on regional expertise, and generates policy-relevant findings. Dr Jones' audiences have included the UK parliament, UK and other European government departments, the Myanmar government, civil society organisations, and the general public via the media.

Submitting Institution

Queen Mary, University of London

Unit of Assessment

Politics and International Studies

Summary Impact Type

Political

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration, Political Science

Influencing international economic policy on growth and governance (Mushtaq Khan)

Summary of the impact

Professor Mushtaq Khan's re-examination of the orthodox approach to good governance - that sees `good governance' as a precursor for economic growth - has significantly influenced long-term international development funders, informing thinking, policy and practice through its sustained, well-evidenced case that a different set of `developmental' governance capabilities are required for economic growth in developing countries, which in turn serves as an effective catalyst for achieving good governance. The research has resulted in his appointment to a number of high-profile advisory roles for international organisations such as the UN, the World Bank and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD).

Submitting Institution

School of Oriental & African Studies

Unit of Assessment

Anthropology and Development Studies

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Economics: Applied Economics
Studies In Human Society: Political Science

Introducing benchmarking practices for UN peacebuilding

Summary of the impact

Professor Richard Caplan's research explores the challenges that arise in the context of post- conflict peace- and state-building. His work on exit strategies and peace consolidation led the UN Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) to ask him to examine specific challenges to designing and implementing transitional strategies in peace operations, and to suggest how these challenges could be met more effectively. This work initiated a process within the UN to introduce more rigorous benchmarking practices for peacebuilding, laid the foundations for the development of a common UN methodology for measuring peace consolidation and played an instrumental role in the production of a United Nations handbook on peace consolidation monitoring, entitled Monitoring Peace Consolidation - United Nations Practitioners' Guide to Benchmarking (United Nations, 2010). The handbook is being used to support practitioners engaged in peacebuilding across the UN system.

Submitting Institution

University of Oxford

Unit of Assessment

Politics and International Studies

Summary Impact Type

Political

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Political Science

2) UK Policy on Tibet

Summary of the impact

Mills has acted as invited advisor to the Scottish Parliament's Cross-Party Group on Tibet since 2008. During this time he has drafted four major briefing papers on Tibetan political, religious and human rights issues: `The 2008 Protests in Tibet: Main Facts & Analysis' (2008); `Issues of Sovereignty in the Sino-Tibetan Dispute' (2009); `Religious Policy and State Control in Tibet" (2010); " Self-Immolation Amongst Tibetans, 2009-2012' (2012). All of these papers have been ratified by the Cross Party Group as its principal output to the Scottish Parliament, and distributed to European parliaments and human rights organisations. These papers have since been extensively used by the UK Foreign Affairs Select Committee on Human Rights, as well as by human rights and Tibet organisations.

Submitting Institution

University of Aberdeen

Unit of Assessment

Anthropology and Development Studies

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Political Science
History and Archaeology: Historical Studies
Philosophy and Religious Studies: Religion and Religious Studies

Improving governance, policy and practice in adult safeguarding and in self-neglect

Summary of the impact

The research has had significant impact in three key areas:

  • shaping the Care Bill 2013: it influenced the Law Commission's recommendations on legal reform and directly shaped key elements of the legislation;
  • stimulating changes to the governance arrangements of Safeguarding Adults Boards (SABs): it produced a benchmarking template for SABs, informed guidance to Directors, and led to strengthened SAB governance arrangements;
  • influencing procedures, practice and workforce development strategies in self-neglect work: supporting new multi-agency procedures in localities, and providing an evidence base that has improved capacity assessment and approaches to intervention, to the benefit of service-users.

Submitting Institution

University of Sussex

Unit of Assessment

Social Work and Social Policy

Summary Impact Type

Legal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services
Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration

POL03 - Thinking and working politically: changing development policy and practice

Summary of the impact

Adrian Leftwich's work has made a decisive contribution to changing the way that decision-makers understand `politics' in development policy and practice. Specifically, Leftwich contributed to a step change in the UK Department for International Development's (DfID) approach to the governance agenda, from a narrow technocratic focus on administrative capacity—formal structures and rules—to a much broader conceptualisation of governance as a political process. His `thinking and working politically' framework, encompassing leadership, coalitions and political economy analysis, has shaped the thinking, not only of DfID, but also the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and major international NGOs.

Submitting Institution

University of York

Unit of Assessment

Politics and International Studies

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration, Political Science

Incorporating Socio-Economic Group Rights Within Global Development Goals

Summary of the impact

Emerging from investigations of social exclusion during the 1990s, the Unit's research into minority rights has led to outputs and consultancy ranging across political participation, identity, rights protection and international criminal law. The impact claimed here falls in two main channels. Firstly, research on socio-economic group rights, amplified by Castellino's work as co-chair of the relevant UN delegated group, has made a significant input into the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2015-30. Secondly, research has been incorporated into practice and capacity- building through projects involving judiciaries, advocates, statutory bodies, and NGOs. Beneficiaries include the public across 194 states who will benefit from implementation of SDGs over their 15 years lifespan; and civil society bodies and their users.

Submitting Institution

Middlesex University

Unit of Assessment

Law

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services
Studies In Human Society: Political Science
Law and Legal Studies: Law

British Justice with reference to the Gulf Monarchies

Summary of the impact

Drawing from his extensive research on the politics of the United Arab Emirates, Christopher Davidson provided a key expert witness report in Britain's longest running extradition case, resulting in a significant legal impact for the United Kingdom. The resulting judgement in the case has subsequently become a point of reference for disputes over extradition law in a number of other countries, indicating international reach. Davidson's evidence was considered as crucial to the outcome of the case, with key beneficiaries including persons under threat of extradition to countries with records of human rights abuses, as well as human rights organisations seeking to advance consideration of human rights in international extradition agreements.

Submitting Institution

University of Durham

Unit of Assessment

Politics and International Studies

Summary Impact Type

Legal

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Political Science, Sociology
Law and Legal Studies: Law

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