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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.
This case study draws on work undertaken by the Centre for Social Action (CSA) to improve publicly funded services through service-user engagement in both research processes and service delivery. The centre combines applied social research with service and policy evaluation, consultancy, training and information services to the fields of youth work, community development and social and health care. The social action methodology for practice and research undertaken using this participatory approach has had an impact on services and policy internationally (e.g. classroom teaching in the US and the development of social work services in Eastern Europe), nationally (e.g. evaluations of national youth participation projects such as Participation Works and U R Boss for the Howard League) and locally (e.g. work with Leicester City Council). Impacts have been wide ranging, and include methodological innovation, development of training curricula and materials for practitioners, and policy changes which have a profound impact on people's lives.
Using her self-transformation methodology [5], Dr Angela Espinosa worked with an Irish eco-community, which had previously tried to self-organise with little success, to help community members identify and develop new structures, systems and mechanisms that improved performance and contributed to dealing with key viability threats. They acquired skills in community self-transformation, allowing them to: a) improve the community organisation; b) enhance connectivity and communications; c) complete the expansion of the ecovillage, d) sell and build more eco-houses, overcoming financial threats; and e) design and develop several new green businesses.
This case study reports on two projects in the field of public service interpreting and translation:
1) Supporting third sector organisations in providing assistance to non-UK nationals through a volunteer trainee community interpreter engagement project, developed in partnership with voluntary and community sector service providers.
2) Improving understanding of the ethical issues confronted in interpreting practice in welfare service delivery settings, through research on professional inter-cultures, obtained between service providers and interpreters in welfare service delivery.
The Regeneration and Facilities Management (FM) research programme brought together different disciplines, focused on engaging with communities of people and organisations to transfer good practice to public sector services management. It included seven members of staff, five PhD students, five grant-funded research projects, RAE2008 funded PhD projects and other non-grant projects; employing applied or action research approaches in working closely with organisations for the development and implementation of research outputs.
The theme of community engagement and empowerment has resulted in organisational policy changes, improved social sustainability and continuing professional development; changing practice in public service management and strategy development.
The O4O action research project generated positive impacts for older people living in some of Europe's most remote and rural areas. It helped to shift perceptions of older people as a burden on society and towards recognition of the value they can bring to their communities as well as their potential to be involved in services design and delivery. The project underpinned the development of several older people's services that have generated employment opportunities and health/wellbeing improvement. The project challenged some of the assumptions in social enterprise/co-production policy and helped to identify the types of support that older people, and rural communities more widely, may need in order to develop their own service delivery organisations. O4O was recognised by the European Commission (EC) for its contribution to addressing the challenge of demographic change and supporting active aging.
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.
This case study concerns the development, adoption and dissemination of innovative `community-owned' approaches to the sustainable management of social-ecological systems (SES) within the Guiana Shield region of South America. Spanning the countries of Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and areas of Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia, this region is of recognized global significance for carbon storage, fresh water resources and biodiversity. Its indigenous, Amerindian communities have a potentially crucial role to play in sustainable conservation policy and practice. However, local economic and cultural changes, extractive industries, and global dynamics such as climate change are bringing profound challenges to these local communities and their SES. Research at Royal Holloway has responded to these challenges by involving indigenous peoples in both biodiversity science and sustainability policy. The work allows indigenous communities to identify, through participatory research methods, the most effective practices they have for surviving and thriving sustainably.
The impacts of the research are of four main types:
The University of Northampton's (UoN) social enterprise research has created new knowledge in the field of social entrepreneurship, which has informed the definitional debate, as well as identifying the added-value that social enterprises deliver to their beneficiaries. This has provided the evidence-base for the launch of a whole-institution strategy at the University to become the leading HEI for social enterprise in the UK. The research has also led to the University supporting external social enterprises and assisting them to deliver organisational growth and change. The University's research has also led to it becoming a leading evidential contributor to policy-makers in the UK.
There has been a growing interest in the concept of social enterprise - that is organisations that are trading but with a social purpose. The research at Middlesex University has Influenced policies of state support to social enterprises demonstrated through references to research in policy documents and acknowledgement by key policy makers working in a range of UK national departments and Scottish Government. Research findings have influenced how government measures the size of the social enterprise sector and the supply of social investment funds, feeding into strategy documents of the Cabinet Office and supporting the development of Big Society Capital. Research has also stimulated the growth of individual social enterprises, with one reporting an increased turnover of 20% over 2 years.