Civil Society & Social InnovationImagine: Connecting Communities Through Research
Principal Investigator: Professor Kate Pahl (University of Sheffield)
The Imagine Project Working in partnership with local communities, we are exploring the social, historical, cultural and democratic context of civic engagement to imagine better futures and make them happen. This five-year project, running from 2013 – 2017, brings together a range of different research projects working together across universities and communities. Read more
Connectivity and conflict in periods of austerity: What do we know about the middle class political activism and its effects on public services?
Principal Investigator: Annette Hastings (Glasgow University)
2011
Our project was a scoping review of middle class community activism – research evidence of the taken-for-granted fact that the middle classes shout louder and get more. Our review identified four causal mechanisms that explain how and why the middle classes benefit disproportionately from the state as individuals and as community groups of activists. Read more
Reframing state-citizen relationships in a time of austerity
Principal Investigator: Professor Joe Painter (Durham University)
From 2012 to 2013
This project examines how the different policy stances of the Scottish and UK public sectors are being rolled out in a time of austerity. It will identify and examine the mechanisms through which the role of the state is being changed in light of the ‘Big Society’ and ‘Localism’ agenda in England and the Community Empowerment Bill in Scotland. Read more
Places for all? A multimedia investigation of citizenship, work and belonging in a fast changing provincial city
Principal Investigator: Professor Ben Rogaly (University of Sussex)
From 2011 to 2013
With residents of Peterborough as its focus, Places for All? explores the multiple and diverse place attachments and work and migration histories of people of all ethnic backgrounds, from people born in the city to those who arrived very recently. Read more
Leapfrog – transforming public sector consultation by design
Principal Investigator: Dr Leon Cruickshank, Lancaster University
From 2015 to 2017
The Leapfrog project will be a close collaboration with public sector and community partners to design and evaluate new creative approaches to consultation. Read more
The university of the village: universities connecting with rural communities
Principal Investigator: Professor Michael Wilson
From 2011 to 2012
This pilot project explored new modes of delivery, enhanced through Next Generation Access Broadband, and was interested to redraw the relationship between universities and rural communities and grant access to university outreach services for those communities. The project in St Agnes resulted in delivering a short film course to the participants who collaboratively made a film about their village. Read more
Valuing Different Perspectives
Principal Investigator: Dr Peter Matthews
2014
This project will run both a community-led and academic-led evaluation of project legacy from two previous Connected Communities projects – Community Hacking 2.0 and Ladders to the Cloud. At the heart of this proposal are complex issues of power, knowledge and methodology. Within this complexity are simple binaries that can be presented as poles: positivist-interpretivist; academic-community; participatory-external; quantitative-qualitative. Read more
Unearth Hidden Assets through Community Co-design and Co-production
Principal Investigator: Dr Busayawan Lam, Brunel University
From 2013 to 2014
We believe that each community has many valuable assets, for example people and spaces. However, many assets may not be visible to the majority of community members. This collaborative project works with communities to uncover hidden assets and unlock their potential. Read more
Measuring big society
Principal Investigator: Professor Richard Mitchell (University of Glasgow)
From 2010 to 2011
Big Society is a core element of the coalition government’s policy and ideology. It is not easy to define, but in essence a Big Society is one in which citizens and communities take a vastly increased role in managing shaping and delivering public services and the social and physical infrastructure of society. Read more
‘Connectors, not Communities, in Preventing and Responding to Violence and Disaffection; Marginalised Youth and Complexities of ‘Community’
Principal Investigator: Basia Spalek
From 2014 to 2015
A critical theme emerging from three scoping studies conducted as part of the Connected Communities programme is that, in relation to marginalised young people and their “connections and disconnections” with communities, key individuals [‘connectors’] working within and across multiple communities often play a significant role in mediating many of the critical issues facing their lives. Read more
