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Since the Bradford Riots in 2001, research at Bradford has helped to defuse underlying tensions between deprived, multiethnic communities and between them and the local state thus strengthening community resilience in the city. Building on global research, particularly in Latin America, we have introduced participatory and peace-building methodologies into the locality, but with implications beyond it. The Programme for a Peaceful City enhances our impact through academic-practitioner reflection spaces. Our research with rather than on communities fosters their voice in policy, contributing to a non-confrontational response to the EDL in 2010, 2012 and 2013 and bringing community activists from Bradford's diverse communities together to co-create the ESRC-funded Community University (Comm-Uni-ty) in May 2013.
The research highlighted here has had a major impact on the design of community led planning (CLP) and neighbourhood planning in England since 2006; initially within the voluntary and community sector and subsequently on policymakers' thinking. This has shaped the trajectory of policy development nationally since 2010 and influenced the way in which local authorities and other intermediary organizations (such as the Rural Community Action Network (RCAN) / Action in Communities in Rural England (ACRE) / Rural Community Councils (RCCs) in England) have approached community-led planning (CLP) and subsequently Neighbourhood Planning (NP). The work has had a significant impact on the NP approach and therefore on the public through the 2011 Localism Act. This legislation led to the `Supporting Communities in Neighbourhood Planning' (SCNP) programme, funded by Communities and Local Government (CLG) since 2011 to a value of circa £20m overall (which includes a 2013-15 tranche of £9.5 Million). The case study lead researcher (Parker) is now co-ordinating a large part of this programme while on 80% secondment at the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI)/Planning Aid England (PAE) (2012-2014).
Research undertaken by Monro from the Centre for Research in the Social Sciences (CRISS) into the continuing marginalisation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people has influenced UK and international policymaking and practice. Addressing key issues concerning relationships between LGBT people and state institutions, the research findings have helped to shape the development of practice in central government departments, local authorities, housing associations, healthcare and community organisations and voluntary sector associations. This impact has resulted in improvement to the material and social conditions of LGBT people, enhancing their ability to contribute to society and the economy, in line with the EU Horizon 2020 theme of promoting inclusive, innovative and reflective societies. The case study provides evidence that the research has raised awareness about LGBT issues. This cultural shift is crucial to improving the life experiences and economic productivity of LGBT people, given the lack of understanding that they commonly face, and the negative impacts on their wellbeing of prejudice and social erasure.
Research conducted within the University of East London's Institute of Health and Human Development (IHHD) is reshaping the development, commissioning, delivery and evaluation of interventions to address the wider determinants of health and health-inequalities, and has had impacts on public policy, service design and, ultimately, public health and wellbeing. Grounded in close relationships with policy-makers and end users, UEL's primary research into community development and co-production has informed the design of health improvement interventions, delivered through the cross-institutional, community-based Well London project. Research findings have driven Big Lottery funding priorities, contributed to parliamentary debates on health, informed NICE and Local Government guidance, shaped Marmot Review Team and NESTA policy, and led health authorities to commission new services and adopt new approaches to service delivery.
Successive Scottish Governments, local authorities, statutory bodies and sector agencies have sought to address issues of community (re)engagement with their historic environment within community-building and place-making social agendas. Through History Tomorrow, our commercial history unit, we have been central to initiatives designed to restore property of the past to communities. Our major impact is with Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) projects like Prestongrange, Kilmun, and the Ochils Landscape Partnership (OLP), where community volunteers were trained and empowered to undertake their own research, thereafter becoming trainers themselves. Imparting such training skills to community volunteers restores a sense of possession of their `own' histories and effectively inculcates post-funding sustainability amongst them.
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.
The Disaster and Development Network (DDN) researches and facilitates the implementation of disaster risk reduction strategies to improve community resilience in the poorest communities of Southern Africa and South Asia. The DDN aims to initiate life-saving health policies and disaster risk reduction strategies through local engagement and policy intervention. This Case Study focuses on the way interventions based on DDN research have been implemented at local level, exemplified through community resilience-building in Bangladesh, Mozambique, Nepal, Pakistan and Zimbabwe. DDN research has impacted the United Nations Hyogo Framework for Action, the latest international strategy for disaster reduction.
This case study focuses on community cultures and social movement activism, offering an understanding of participatory arts organisation and practice, and the history of radicalisation for new generations of activists, demonstrating the following impact:
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:
Policymakers worldwide have struggled to identify the optimum size for units of local government. The received wisdom has been that large councils are more efficient but less responsive to local needs. Researchers at the Centre for Local and Regional Government Research (CLRGR) in Cardiff Business School (CBS) undertook the first comprehensive empirical analysis of the impact of size on the performance of local authorities and studied whether partnerships between councils offer a better way of gaining the critical mass needed to achieve economies of scale than reorganising councils to produce larger organisations. The results directly influenced the policies of Welsh Ministers to encourage collaboration between councils and informed the decision by the Coalition Government to halt local government re-organisation in England.