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Countering the Culture of Fear

Summary of the impact

This case study describes Waiton's research on `moral panics' around children, young people, and football fans. Increasingly, Waiton has developed a national profile as a `public sociologist' and has been invited to contribute to policy debates and processes related to his research. This has had an impact on practitioners and stakeholders in areas like community work, youth work and practices, and government committees.

Submitting Institution

University of Abertay Dundee

Unit of Assessment

Sociology

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Sociology
Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies
Philosophy and Religious Studies: Philosophy

3 Politics and Policy

Summary of the impact

Cultural studies at Middlesex has often exemplified the New Left tradition that played an important role in founding the discipline. It sees cultural research as part of a broad continuum informing and shaping political debate, policymaking and civic education. Facilitated by a series of e-publications, public events and other activities, many associated with the journal Soundings, and working with organisations such as the Guardian, Oxfam, Friends of the Earth and the Labour Party, this research has had a demonstrable impact on issues of intergenerational politics, ethical consumption and the role of identity in new political formations. Key beneficiaries are charities, NGOs, political parties, think tanks and members of the general public.

Submitting Institution

Middlesex University

Unit of Assessment

Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management 

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Sociology
Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies
History and Archaeology: Historical Studies

Increasing Awareness of Issues Affecting LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer) Communities and Cultures in Italy

Summary of the impact

The research has had a demonstrable impact in Italy, in the UK, and elsewhere, in the areas of Civil Society, Public discourse, and Cultural Life. Specifically, it has a) supported LGBTQ community initiatives; b) helped LGBTQ individuals to meet societal challenges and thereby improved their well-being; c) increased public awareness and understanding of human rights infringements experienced by LGBTQ individuals in Italy; d) generated publications and debates on the incorporation of the term `queer' in Italian discourses; e) directly influenced the writing practice of a contemporary Italian novelist and indirectly her readership. Beneficiaries: individuals and groups studied in the ethnographic research; LGBTQ populations in Italy and elsewhere, and sections of the public concerned with the politics of sexuality and gender.

Submitting Institution

University of Birmingham

Unit of Assessment

Modern Languages and Linguistics

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Sociology
Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies

Globalization and Culture

Summary of the impact

Professor John Tomlinson produces world-leading research on the cultural dimensions of the globalization process. His research findings influence policy at an international level, shape professional and public understanding of the consequences of globalization and encourage public debate about international cooperation. Tomlinson has acted as a consultant to national and international bodies including UNESCO and the BBVA Foundation (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria) in Madrid, influencing their thinking, policies and practices. He has shaped cultural practitioners' understanding of the cultural consequences of globalization through presentations to cultural bodies such as Impakt Arts Festival Utrecht and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

Submitting Institution

Nottingham Trent University

Unit of Assessment

Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management 

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Sociology
Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies

2. Bible, Church and Politics: The Politics of Christmas Report

Summary of the impact

Dr Stephen Holmes was commissioned by the Westminster think-tank Theos to write a report under the title The Politics of Christmas (2011). The report generated extensive discussion and reflection in the traditional media, online, and in church journals, in the UK and overseas, with the following impacts:

  1. Widespread increased awareness and discussion at an international level of the political context and claims of the gospel narratives;
  2. Changed attitudes and practices in churches in regard to the celebration of Christmas.

Submitting Institution

University of St Andrews

Unit of Assessment

Theology and Religious Studies

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration
Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies, Literary Studies

Socio-cultural Change and Social Class: Influencing Organisational, Public and Policy Understandings of Participation and Inequality

Summary of the impact

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.

Submitting Institution

University of Manchester

Unit of Assessment

Sociology

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration, Sociology

Shaping Public Understanding of and Creating New Audiences for Post-Socialist Punk

Summary of the impact

This research explored the political significance of punk in post-socialist Eastern Europe. It created a publicly available cultural artefact, RottenBeat, an electronic resource which presents high quality analysis and information on contemporary music scenes in the former USSR, Central, and South Eastern Europe, as well as searchable and accessible archives of audio, textual and visual materials. It supported new forms of artistic expression by bringing academics, journalists, artists and musicians into dialogue with each other thereby changing their understandings of punk and contributing to public debate about the need to protect human rights in Russia.

Submitting Institution

University of Warwick

Unit of Assessment

Sociology

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Political Science
Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies
History and Archaeology: Historical Studies

Value, debt, direct action and participatory democracy

Summary of the impact

David Graeber's research has four main interrelated strands. The first concerns the relationship between economic anthropology and anthropological theory; the second concerns a theory of value developed through comparative analysis in anthropology; the third concerns the concept of debt revealed in the historical and ethnographic record; and the fourth concerns the relationship between social theory, and direct action and participatory democracy. These strands have had immense impact, via two works in particular, Direct Action: An Ethnography (2009) and Debt: the First 5,000 Years (2011). Debt, in particular, has been acclaimed as one of the most insightful contributions to economic thought to have emerged from the post-2008 reflections on the banking and financial crisis. It is an agenda-setting contribution to discussions across the board and around the world, a singular achievement for an anthropological work. Such a wide public profile for an anthropological text merits comparison with the impacts of Mead, Lewis and Levi-Strauss.

Submitting Institution

Goldsmiths' College

Unit of Assessment

Anthropology and Development Studies

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Anthropology, Policy and Administration, Sociology

Stimulating popular debate around philosophy of mind and its ethical implications

Summary of the impact

Prof. Galen Strawson has developed ideas challenging our central conceptions of the self, freedom, agency, responsibility, and the nature of mental life. The impact of his research at the University of Reading has been a continuing one on cultural life and civil society, helping to shape the views of people outside the academy on these most important aspects of our thought about ourselves. Very unusually for an academic philosopher, Strawson has made significant contributions to popular debate on philosophy of mind, in particular free will and consciousness, and its implications for ethical thinking. This impact includes contributions on national and international radio, television, newspapers and blogs. Through these means, Strawson's radical thinking about subjectivity, the mind, personal identity, free will, and moral responsibility has had a direct impact on non-academic opinion and stimulated lively debate as a result.

Submitting Institution

University of Reading

Unit of Assessment

Philosophy

Summary Impact Type

Societal

Research Subject Area(s)

Philosophy and Religious Studies: Applied Ethics, Philosophy

Cultural Diplomacy and Cultural Value

Summary of the impact

Research undertaken by Professor John Holden of City University London on cultural diplomacy and cultural value has had a direct impact on cultural policy-makers both nationally and internationally. In the UK it has impacted specifically on the funding of cultural diplomacy activity and the operations of Arts Council England and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Internationally advice has been sought by politicians and cultural administrators around the world including the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Culture in New Zealand, Alberta's Minister of Culture and the Chairs of the main cultural organisations in Hong Kong. Through this, Holden has: (i) provided expert advice to governmental, third sector and private organisations in relation to cultural policy; (ii) influenced directly the thinking of senior government ministers in relation to arts and culture; (iii) proposed new ways of thinking about the methods and mechanisms by which culture and creative practice are supported through the distribution of public funds; (iv) contributed to the enhancement of frameworks supporting the creative industries, which in turn has aided economic prosperity for a range of individuals and organisations; and (v) helped creative industry professionals and those who support them to adapt to changing cultural values.

Submitting Institution

City University, London

Unit of Assessment

Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management 

Summary Impact Type

Cultural

Research Subject Area(s)

Studies In Human Society: Policy and Administration
Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies

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