Abstract

Societal metabolic analyses (SMA) offer a multi- and cross-scale method of understanding energetic and material flows at societal and other levels. SMA define and integrate views of: industrial sectors; workforce capacities; land use patterns; energy carriers and end uses; gross value added, and other primary material flows. Metabolic analyses can provide useful insights into options for social, economic, and energy policy instruments and test their coherence as plans to move toward the ‘greening’ of economies, ‘green recoveries’, net zero, and a more ecologically just world. Using the case of Scotland’s ‘net zero by 2045’, we use metabolic analyses to assess the challenges and trade-offs in trying to maintain stable household and paid-work sectors while transitioning to electricity and other low-carbon energy carriers and end uses while activating greener activities in land use and other industrial sectors. Through a number of different scenarios, we find Scotland to be extremely challenged by social and economic trade-offs in its quest to net zero by 2045. Scenarios include: status quo, net zero, progress to net zero, and de-growth. Other societal metabolic constraints and trade-offs are discussed. 

Biography

Jean Boucher

My name is Jean Boucher and I am an Environmental Sociologist and Macaulay Development Trust Fellow in Land Use and Societal Metabolism at The James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland. Currently, I am examining the Scottish and UK Government’s conceptions of “Green Recovery”—efforts to rebuild economies in a more environmentally sustainable way after the COVID-19 pandemic. My research focuses on how these conceptions are framed, communicated, and quantitatively measured. Additionally, I am developing Hutton’s research capacities in societal metabolic analyses, specifically by using Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM). This methodology, developed by environmental scientists Mario Giampietro and Kozo Mayumi, provides a framework for analysing the complex interactions between human societies and ecosystems.

Abstract

The unprecedented energy price crisis and state of Britain’s housing stock - the most poorly insulated in Europe, with high gas heating dependency – coupled with the cost-of-living crisis, has led to more than seven million UK homes currently experiencing “preventable fuel poverty”. A widescale housing “retrofit revolution” is urgently needed to not just improve living standards, but also enable carbon savings essential for climate action. Convergence of these issues – shifting to low-carbon economies and social justice concerns related to the processes and outcomes of industrial and infrastructural decarbonisation, particularly with regards to labour and income, has driven research on ‘just energy transitions’. This paper considers what a ‘just transition in housing energy retrofit’ might look like, by conducting a policy-focused systematic literature review on this topic, adopting an expanded gaze by drawing on feminist geographical perspectives of diverse economies of work, the foundational economy, and repair and care. Recognising that retrofitting UK homes to be low-carbon and energy-efficient has been touted as the “cornerstone of levelling up policy”, with potential to create jobs and bring economic growth for “regions most in need”, we extend dominant political economic approaches on decarbonisation, work, and place. Acknowledging piecemeal policy approaches to retrofit adopted to date have not created the contractor and skills base required for scaled transformation of housing stock, we highlight how dominant studies have tended to overlook implications of the energy transition for unwaged labour, ‘quality’ of jobs, and consideration of who benefits or becomes marginalised in the labour market. Presenting an approach that supports people as well as places facing labour market disadvantage, develops thriving communities and not just economic development, and values different forms of knowledge, skills and labour, this paper concludes by elaborating a research agenda for a just transition in housing decarbonisation. 

Biographies

Rachel Macrorie

Rachel Macrorie joined the Centre for Regional, Economic and Social Research (CRESR) as a postdoctoral Research Associate, having previously held research and teaching contracts at Utrecht University (The Netherlands) and The Urban Institute (University of Sheffield). She is an urban and environmental geographer whose research broadly anaylses the governance, practices, and politics of just urban sustainability transformations, with a focus on the built environment, digital infrastructures, energy, heat and water.  

Abstract

The UK’s reliance on fossil fuel energy has not only significantly contributed to the climate crisis, but also drives the current ‘cost of living’ crisis. The UK energy system is exposed to high oil and gas prices on international markets, which provide substantial financial returns to oil majors, investors and intermediaries, while placing a heavy financial burden on many households. Meanwhile, ‘smart local energy systems’, focussing on balancing energy generation with demand at local or regional scales and a more place-based approach to energy governance, are suggested as a way to decarbonise the energy system that avoids hugely expensive upgrades to national transmission networks. However, establishing these new energy systems will still require substantial upfront investment in infrastructure and workforce.

In recent years, citizen finance (community shares and other forms of crowdfunding) have become established as a means of funding small to medium scale renewable energy developments. Is there scope for using these newer finance approaches to provide investment in new local energy systems? What scope and what kind of role could citizen finance play, if any? And would using citizen finance distribute the financial returns on investment more equitably than conventional energy finance has to date? I will present the results of interviews with finance and energy professionals in the commercial and citizen sectors, and analysis of survey data on the socio-economic profile of community shareholders, to provide some initial answers to these questions. 

Biographies

Tim Braunholtz-Speight

Tim is a Lecturer and Research Fellow based in the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. He is currently researching city-level action to mitigate climate change, as a member of the CAST Centre. 

His other recent work includes a study of local energy business models and smart energy crowdfunding as part of the EnergyREV consortium, the UKERC Financing Community Energy research project, and a study of community infrastructure businesses funded by Power to Change. His previous experience includes studies of alternative finance in the UK, and community ownership and land reform in Scotland. Prior to joining the Tyndall Centre, he has held research posts at the University of Leeds, the Overseas Development Institute, the University of the Highlands and Islands, and Leeds Beckett University.

Abstract

Marginalised communities in Birmingham have been offered a unique opportunity to take part in the design and management of their new affordable homes. This pioneering model by registered provider Housing 21 breaks away from an elitist approach to cohousing, but faces many challenges and raises many questions. While people have urgent housing needs, community-led development takes time. While independent cohousing communities interact via email and social media, here some residents do not read or use smartphones. While cohousing members often actively seek to join this type of community, here members were introduced to the concept when being offered brand new homes. How can housing associations engage with marginalised communities effectively? What is the role of community organisations in developing engagement and capacity building? What does culturally sensitive design look like? Is the cohousing model suitable for this kind of partnership? At the end of a one year research project, we offer some answers and some further questions on the complex issue of housing co-production with marginalised communities.

Biographies

Yael Arbell

Yael is a research associate at CRESR, Sheffield Hallam University. Her research focuses on community-led housing, racial justice, and dynamics around diversity in communities. 

Tom Archer

Tom Archer is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research. Specialising in housing and community development, his work focuses on the affordability and supply of housing, and the collective ownership of physical assets. Tom has a background in policy and housing delivery, and his work aims to improve policymaking and the use of government and charitable funding. Tom’s recent work has centred on community-led housing, housing for older people, community ownership of assets and alternative housing tenures.

Abstract

This piece looks at the recent summaries of how ‘community-led housing’ could be encouraged in the UK and raises a perspective on a perceived oversight of what mixed-tenure developments could contribute for the future. It notes the invariable conflation of ‘affordability’ with ‘affordable housing’ but questions the extent to which a focus on the mainstream formats of providing ‘affordable housing’ to meet estimated housing need under-estimates what community-led projects can provide units for both rent and low-cost ownership within inclusive settings. 

Questions are raised on the extent to which a clear priority within the community-led sector for providing ‘social housing’ may act as a barrier to promoting projects which enable forms of ‘social’ units, at acceptable cost, to be created within wider cross-tenure outcomes, and in this manner negate the opportunity to utilise the kinds of financial resources that communities could already bring to delivering a shared realisation of new projects.  

A particular focus is given to what could enable a greater take-up of mixed-tenure projects and the take-up of different finical resources to complement those that could be available for ‘affordable’, and to the implications of this for achieving a greater number of alternatives to the outputs of mainstream housing providers.

Biography

Dr Martin Field and has been a long-term advocate, practitioner, and resident of community-led housing initiatives. Following 20 years of public sector roles at district, city and regional levels and with housing associations, engaging with local government and community delivery of housing, planning and urban design services, he then held academic positions in Leicester and Northampton. 

In being an active member of UK research networks on housing and neighbourhood initiatives, he has been a Board Director of the Community Self Build Agency, the UK Cohousing Network, the Confederation of Co-operative Housing, and a member of the Carnegie Trust Working Group that established the National CLT Network. 

His latest publications are “Creating Community-Led and Self-Build Homes – a guide to collaborative practice in the UK” (Policy Press, 2020) and Lead Editor of the new “Practical Guide to Cohousing” for the UK Cohousing Network (Diggers & Dreamers, 2022).

He is employed within the regional Community-Led Housing ‘Hub’ based in the East Midlands. He is also currently a part-time Parish Clerk in Leicestershire.

Abstract

In many societies, housing in the private rented sector (PRS) exhibits some of the most widespread and severe cases of energy poverty – a situation in which people are unable to attain sufficient levels of basic energy services, and a key form of energy injustice. However, research into the underpinning causes of these problems remains in the early stages, and has tended to focus relatively narrowly on landlord motivations for (not) improving energy efficiency. There has also been little investigation into whether and why certain socio-economic groups living in the PRS are more likely than others to experience energy poverty. Based on around 50 in-depth interviews with tenants and intermediary support organisations (such as housing and energy advisors), this research combines concepts of energy vulnerability with Bourdieu’s concepts of “field” and “capitals”. The analysis demonstrates how such vulnerability is rooted in the interaction between societal structures and multiple, intersecting forms of individual disadvantage that together render some groups more susceptible to living in sub-standard homes and with little capacity to change their circumstances. It is argued that to eradicate energy poverty in the sector will require substantial political-economic and cultural changes that go far beyond energy policy alone.

Biography

Neil Simcock is a Senior Lecturer in the Geography and Environmental Science Research Group at Liverpool John Moores University. His research focuses on inequality and vulnerability, particularly in relation to energy systems and the use of energy in the home. Much of his recent work has investigated the causes and consequences of, and potential solutions to, energy poverty. This work aims to uncover the institutional and structural arrangements that render some people more vulnerable to experiencing energy poverty, such as the design of housing and energy markets, transitions to "net zero" societies, and the stigmatisation of marginalised groups.

Abstract

Political earthquakes like the 2019 partial collapse of the Red Wall and recent crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic further revealed the UK’s deep-rooted socio-spatial inequalities, particularly in so-called ‘left behind’ communities across Northern England. Boris Johnson’s Conservative Government’s flagship policy of Levelling Up sought to address these spatial imbalances, particularly through 12 ‘missions’ which pivot upon enhancing the availability of well-paid jobs, living standards, improving public services, restoring a sense of local pride, and belonging, and empowering local leaders and communities to address place-based problems. However, the challenges to Levelling Up particularly in left behind places have been congealing for the past forty years and are deeply ingrained. Responding to scholarly calls for further qualitative research in left behind locales, this presentation utilises insights from 25 interviews with residents of post-industrial Redcar & Cleveland (R&C) in Teesside, UK; an archetypical left behind local authority area and central to the Levelling Up agenda. It documents how the locality’s problems are attached to the phase shift from post-war capitalism to neoliberalism, which laid the foundations for the emergence of localised problems. This includes the advance of insecure and poorly paid work, the decay of many of its local high-streets and crime. The presentation suggests these issues are entrenched and present barriers to Levelling Up; only bold policies and myriad and sustained investment is likely to significantly remedy problems in places like post-industrial R&C.

Abstract

Following the First Irish Home Rule Crisis in the 1880s the Guardian newspaper established itself as the ‘voice of Liberal England’ and an important influence in local and national policy. At the peak of Anglo-Irish political tension – the Irish War of Independence 1919-1921 - the Guardian was at the forefront of the debate, leading liberal discourse in its editorials and providing a public forum for policy discussion in the correspondence columns of the newspaper. This paper will demonstrate how the Guardian and its readership, as a keystone of liberal politics and culture in Britain, engaged with Anglo-Irish policy during this crisis.

First, the paper will illuminate the Guardian’s censure of British Government policy in response to Irish nationalism. Irish policy from 1919-1921 was rooted in violence that targeted poorer Catholic communities. It was described by the Guardian as ‘A Mad Policy’, ‘The Policy of Frightfulness’, and incapable of securing a sustainable peace. The paper will also reflect on the Guardian’s response to the Government’s press and public information policies, which were central to its attempts at ‘crisis management’ during the conflict and characterised by censorship and suppression. Finally, the paper will explore the role of the readership, predominantly based in Manchester, in shaping Britain’s Irish policy. The paper will argue that the Guardian and its predominantly English, educated middle-class readership, actively engaged with injustice in Ireland in the early twentieth century and forced change.

Biographies

Dr Kathy Davies is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) at Sheffield Hallam University. She is currently leading on oral history and archival research for JUSTHEAT, an interdisciplinary project exploring the social and cultural history of home heating in the UK, Finland, Sweden, and Romania. Kathy completed her PhD on the Manchester Guardian and the 'Irish Question' in November 2021 and has broader research interests in the history of newspapers in relation to politics, policy, and society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Prior to joining CRESR, Kathy was a researcher on the StreetLife Project with the University of York, exploring the history of the Yorkshire Evening Press, and also worked in public engagement with research at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library at the University of Manchester. Kathy is a strong advocate for interdisciplinarity and public engagement initiatives.

Abstract

Despite considerable recent investment within the sector, still little is known about young people’s engagements with heritage. Meanwhile, those potential outcomes are rarely married with key policy agendas concerning social polarisation and inequality, predominantly articulated through the UK Government’s recent policy instrument Levelling Up. Notwithstanding ongoing debates regarding the plausibility of this mission for meaningfully transforming the socioeconomic fortunes of ‘left behind’ places, these policy contexts demand that heritage organisations show evidence of a more ‘social’ offering for citizens. Conducted on behalf of Historic England, this paper examines seven young people’s projects that each utilise heritage to address social exclusion, to enhance health and wellbeing, and to improve the lives of young people. 

First, participation contributes to multiple personal development outcomes for young people. Second, place-based engagements with heritage offer unique opportunities for fostering identity and belonging, and empowering young people to reinterpret and re-present the places where they live. Third, participation can contribute to building strong cohesive communities. Fourth, heritage can promote social mobility and equip young people to stay residing in ‘left behind’ places, to stake a claim to them, and to contribute towards their revival. These outcomes each align with policy ambitions to cultivate ‘pride in place’.

We conclude by proposing recommendations for future heritage grant-based activities; namely that young people must be invited to explore aspects of heritage which they themselves consider to be important, that activities must be co-produced from the outset, and that work should focus upon outcomes for families, neighbourhoods and other stakeholders as well as young people. Finally, projects should embrace both the intercultural and intergenerational aspects of heritage activity, and should demonstrate meaningful commitments to partnership-working across the education, housing, transport and healthcare sectors. This will not only ensure the consolidation of learning but that the broader policy outcomes are realised.

Abstract

Europe region is home to a large number of ecodistrict sites that have  flourished in the last two decades. As we know, cities and urban areas account for a high percentage of energy use as well as greenhouse gas emissions, however it is widely recognized that cities are also best places where the bold actions against climate change can be taken. Cities around the globe, especially those in Europe, have committed to achieving sustainable development goals and net zero carbon. And many are already doing it in a number of ways, but in the urban planning context, ecodistricts are probably one of the best tools to express citie's commitment and demonstrate action in place.

This contribution seeks to highlight and bring experiences from a PhD thesis project that is exploring how ecodistricts are planned and designed based on case studies. The research considers an ecodistrict as a city component that applies green strategies and urban solutions by engaging cutting edge ecofriendly techniques, tools and technologies. It used data from three worldwide well-known case studies and elaborated them in several categories, including urban planning, mobility, energy, green areas and a few others. In this contribution, I will bring the lessons learned from three case studies and will explore the challenges of planning and designing city components as well as interactions between people and places. 

The thesis research includes some questionnaires with residents where they are specifically asked about their satisfaction with a number of elements including public places and green spaces, therefore resident's views would be added to the contribution.

Based on ecodistrict case study analysis and exploration, the research identifies a number of features that are critical for cities and ecodistricts in achieving their sustainability goals, but most importantly in providing green and healthy environment that would enhance the quality of life and wellbeing of their residents.

Finally, this research underscores the undeniable role of the ecodistricts in positioning cities as drivers of change, encouraging the use of innovative approaches in the urban planning and other aspects, as well as influencing other cities around the globe to use similar approaches.

Biography

Bard has over 23 years of professional experience in built environment as well as sustainability and climate change. From 2016-2022 has served as the UN IPCC Working Group II Technical Support Unit Director of Operations. Played critical role in technical support to successfully delivering and publishing the IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in Changing Climate (in 2019) and the IPCC Working Group II Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability (2022). Successfully facilitated intergovernmental process during the IPCC WGII AR6 scoping, outline approval, selection of authors, official reviews, and approval of the reports that serve as basis for the UNFCCC negotiations. Managed and coordinated six formal IPCC Government and Expert Reviews during the cycle. Compiled reports and spreadsheets with overall 91,244 review comments from 2,542 reviewers (Governments and Experts). 

Has been engaged as an expert with many EU funded organizations and projects, such as providing expertise on built environment adaptation, evaluating proposals for different EU calls and many other contributions. Was Lead Project manager on a World Bank Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Project. Has served as Conference Chair, Committee Member and Peer Reviewer for many International Conferences. Served as President of the board in 2020 AIACE and board member for many years. He has also organized sessions, such as kenotes, panel discussions that included renown international climate change scientists, architects, urban planners (Jan Gehl), mayors and ambassadors. Bard has submitted his PhD thesis on Ecodistricts/sustainable cities.

Abstract

Hybrid working and the pandemic have triggered significant changes in cities, including inner-city shrinkage and shifts in transportation modes and lifestyles. These changes have sparked interest in developing decarbonisation strategies to sustain socially and economically vibrant, inclusive cities that promote health and well-being through active mobility. While the mid- and long-term consequences of these changes are yet to be determined, researchers argue that the pandemic provides an opportunity to redefine the neighbourhood as an appropriate tool for allocating resources toward the targeted development of disadvantaged neighbourhoods with a high concentration of residents with low socioeconomic status and limited access to resources such as green space, food and amenities. Since it is now widely accepted that multiple aspects of the neighbourhood environment influence people's well-being, it is critical to investigate the wide range of environmental attributes associated with neighbourhood quality (NQ) in order to design high-quality (i.e., healthy, resilient, sustainable) neighbourhoods. 

Despite the recognisable significance of Neighbourhood Quality Index (NQI) as an active tool for benchmarking the quality of neighbourhoods in terms of their liveability and resilience, a holistic understanding of multiple attributes related to NQI remains elusive. Another limitation in prior research is the lack of studies exploring NQ based on objective measures of the environment. Most studies in this field have relied on residents’ perceptions of their environment (i.e., perceived satisfaction and safety), generally producing inconclusive results due to the subjective nature of users. This study reports the preliminary findings of a wider on-going research project aimed at developing an objective, comprehensive assessment tool for measuring NQ based on measurable, accessible, and reproducible environmental indicators. As such, it demonstrates the methodological findings, limitations and feasibility of developing the index through a pilot study in two disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK and Sydney, Australia.

Biographies

Ayse Ozbil Torun

Dr Ozbil Torun is an architect with a PhD degree in Architecture from Georgia Institute of Technology, US with a dissertation titled “Walking to the Station: The Effects of Street Connectivity on Walkability and Access to Transit”. Her research interests mainly lie in the fields of spatial modeling and urban form analysis using space syntax techniques. Her work is directed towards pedestrian-friendly neighborhood and street design strategies enhancing active transportation in cities. Her recent studies have focused on walkability and obesity, transit-oriented planning, and design of sustainable cities. Dr. Ozbil Torun has been a member of the editorial board of Urban Design International since 2012, and her work has been published nationally and internationally.

Abstract

This article attempts to examine the labour and employment transition in rural India based on fieldwork conducted in two nearby villages in the South India. 

Despite being near to each other, major differences were observed in the labour process, labour relations, wage trends and even the impact of macroeconomic policies on the labour market in the respective villages. While Veerasambanur was marked by a cultivator-labourer nexus which prevented collective action by the labourers, Vinayagapuram had a neat separation between the cultivators and the wage labourers. While conditions in Vinayagapuram are facilitative of consistent wage increases, the wage trends were erratic and inconsistent in Veerasambanur. The particularistic features of social relation of agrarian employment not only caused a divergence in the long-term wage trends between the villages, but it has also affected the efficacy of government measures of local employment generation. 

Even amidst differences, the gendered constitution of the agrarian labour force was a major point of similarity between the study villages. It is found that women’s unpaid work has a major role in sustaining the households engaged in farming. While the agrarian crisis, in general, caused men to out-migrate, the working of the social institutions ensures that women continue to concentrate in the agriculture sector, disproportionally bearing the work burden. Thus the ‘feminisation of agriculture’ would also mean the ‘feminisation of the agrarian crisis’ in the case of India.

The study finds that the labour transition in these villages, on the whole, is socially and ecologically embedded. 

Abstract

The cost-of-living crisis presents a serious challenge for many trying to cover the basics at present. But difficulty making ends meet is not a new experience for many on a low income – it is part of an ongoing crisis of living standards that ‘never stops’ (Hughes and Emmel, 2010). Rising inflation is increasing the risk and rate of poverty across the UK, and the current situation is pulling those already below the poverty line into deeper, more severe forms of financial crisis. How are those towards the very bottom of the income distribution being affected? To answer this question, this paper draws on in-depth qualitative interviews with 40 individuals who broadly reflect the demographic profile of those living more than 50% below the relative poverty line in the UK. Here, we focus on the experiences of those often poorly served through mainstream poverty analysis to reflect on how prevailing methods and data practices delimit ways of knowing, seeing and responding to economic crisis in highly unequal, neoliberal times.

In this paper, we examine the costs and contradictions of a poverty-debt trap intensified by high inflation and consider what bearing this has had on everyday coping strategies, relationships and health in low-income lives. Our findings highlight the private struggles and longer-term consequences of privation that are often mischaracterised or occluded in mainstream poverty analysis. We argue that those worst affected by global and local crises are also those most likely to fall outwith the counting process (both institutionally and politically), making their privation and the relations that structure marginality less visible in the research and policymaking process. Situating the cost-of-living crisis in a broader historical context, we demonstrate how the analytical frameworks adopted across the social sciences tend to reproduce an overly optimistic reading of poverty prevalence, dynamics and its effects.

Biographies

Daniel Edmiston

Daniel Edmiston is an Associate Professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the University of Leeds. His research focuses on poverty and inequality, local ecosystems of support, welfare politics and social citizenship across high-income countries. He currently holds a British Academy Wolfson Fellowship focused on the changing determinants, dynamics and policy implications of deep poverty in the UK.

Abstract

Marginalised households in low income communities  in the UK face acute financial pressures due to a series of factors including historically high inflation, rising interest rates, and the elevated costs of essential forms of consumption .  Some of these pressures on living standards can be attributed to exogenous shocks including Brexit, supply pressures in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the inflationary impacts of the war in Ukraine. However, a growing body of research on financialisation (Glyn, 2006; Lapavitsas, 2013; Blakeley, 2019) and rentierisation (Sayer, 2015; Mazzucato, 2018; Christophers, 2020; Standing, 2021)  has explored the political economy of financialised capitalism in ways that emphasise how processes of value extraction and profiteering bear down on household incomes and expenditure. This valuable work helps to denaturalise the cost of living crisis and surfaces otherwise hidden or opaque elements of financialised practices and systems that squeeze household incomes and extract wealth from low income communities. However, much analysis considers processes of extraction from the top down, remaining macro-structural in focus and failing to consider how these processes play out at the micro-level within households and communities. This paper addresses this gap by considering extraction processes from the bottom up, developing and humanising work on financialisation and rentierism to provide a new conceptualisation of ‘everyday extraction’. Specifically, taking the household as the core unit of analysis, it analyses expenditure of low income households and maps out how multiple and compounding processes of extraction drive up the price of consumer goods, thereby creating or exacerbating financial pressures.  We look at this in relation to core items of household expenditure: housing, transport and utilities. It concludes with a call to foreground conceptualisations of everyday extraction as part of a new research agenda as the basis for understanding forms of policy action needed to secure greater financial security and justice for low income households.

Biographies

Tom Archer

Tom Archer is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research. Specialising in housing and community development, his work focuses on the affordability and supply of housing, and the collective ownership of physical assets. Tom has a background in policy and housing delivery, and his work aims to improve policymaking and the use of government and charitable funding. Tom’s recent work has centred on community-led housing, housing for older people, community ownership of assets and alternative housing tenures.

Abstract

Small businesses can play an important role in society by creating and sustaining jobs for local people and supporting local economic activity, especially in left-behind or disadvantaged communities. Yet many sustainable small businesses in these communities cannot access mainstream finance and credit markets, leaving them unable to maximise their social and economic benefit. Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) offer an alternative avenue for small businesses to access finance whilst contributing to goal of developing more inclusive economies. Their relatively small scale allows them to take a much more personalised approach to loan decisions and credit management, while their non-profit status and social mission also ensure that the maximum amount of resource possible is reinvested into their mission.  However, the potential of CDFIs to contribute to economic development is being held back by under-capitalisation, particularly from mainstream financial institutions; and limitations in the evidence base concerning the reach, impact and financial viability of the CDFI model.

To begin addressing these challenges the Community Investment Enterprise Facility (CIEF), a £60 million CDFI investment fund, was established in 2018 with funding from Big Society Capital, Triodos, and Unity Trust Bank. CIEF was set up to help meet the capital needs of CDFIs, to make loans to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) operating in deprived communities. It also aimed to improve the evidence base about the CDFI model to leverage higher volumes of mainstream investment in the future.  More than three years since the first loans were made, almost all the available capital has now been lent to MSMEs, and novel evidence is emerging about potential benefits of growing CDFI lending. 

We will present some interim evaluation findings on the impact of the CEIF programme on the participating CDFIs and their lending to underserved MSMEs. The results so far indicate that the programme roll out has been largely successful, particularly during the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19, and that the programme has garnered increased attention for CDFIs from policy makers. It is too early to judge the long-term viability of the CIEF loan book, however, and current economic conditions create considerable uncertainty. We will also, therefore, discuss some of the challenges of evaluating such a long-term programme in the face of continued political and economic change. 

Biographies

Chris Damm

Chris is a Research Fellow based at the Centre for Regional, Economic and Social Research (CRESR), with extensive experience in the management, analysis, and reporting of quantitative and qualitative data. He is also a leading expert on data relating to the voluntary and community sector (VCS) and helps to coordinate and lead academic activity within this field, via several national networks and leadership positions.  He has several substantive areas of academic expertise, related to the VCS and its role within social policy, data science methods, social investment, and employment services.

Chris Dayson

Chris is Professor of Voluntary Action, Health and Wellbeing in the Centre for Economic and Social Research (CRESR) and 'Healthy and Active 100' research theme lead in the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC).

Chris's research focuses on local voluntary and community action and contribution it makes to health and wellbeing. He is a leading international expert on the topic of social prescribing and part of the National Academy for Social Prescribing's 'Academic Collaborative'. Within CRESR and AWRC Chris leads a portfolio of research and evaluation projects for local and national public sector bodies, voluntary sector organisations and charitable funders. His work is proven to have had an impact on local, national and international policy and practice.

Abstract

The distribution of charitable organizations in an equitable and socially just manner is a long-standing policy concern in the United Kingdom and many other jurisdictions. Geographic variations are important as they are linked to potentially inequitable service provision and opportunities for participation in voluntary activities. This study links large-scale administrative data on charities registered in England and Wales with local authority-level measures of material deprivation for six U.K. census years (1971–2021). Count and spatial regression models show evidence of nonlinear associations between charity density and social need, and changes in the shape of this distribution over time. In general, charity density is highest in the least deprived local authorities but this varies across different types of organizations and census years. These results provide important new insights into the evolving relationship between charity density and social need, and demonstrate the value of adopting more advanced, longitudinal statistical approaches for studying this phenomenon.

Biographies

Diarmuid McDonnell

My research examines a number of interrelated topics concerning the nonprofit/charity sector: funding sources and networks; measuring and modelling organisational and financial risk; evaluating regulatory interventions; and estimating geographical distribution of charitable activity. I have methodological and teaching interests in the use of administrative data, quantitative methods and computational social science. I have been commissioned to deliver and develop training courses and materials for the National Centre for Research Methods, Scottish Graduate School of Social Science, and Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data.

Abstract

Communities are facing on-going challenges to their resilience and sense of agency, with the Covid-19 pandemic and cost-of-living crisis providing a backdrop of uncertainty. There are many approaches aiming to support communities to increase their ability to respond to and live well through crises, but more can be done. Scotland’s policy landscape aims to provide an enabling state but there are gaps between policy and practice.

Corra Foundation’s approach is to work with communities in ways that attempt to bridge these gaps, looking at what works and why and sharing this learning to support more, better joined up approaches to develop. Our paper will provide an empirical review of three different ways of developing decision-making in communities through the work Corra Foundation undertakes, set in the wider policy landscape. We will consider the learning from three strands; participatory grant-making, resourcing through relationship building, and building participation infrastructures. 

From there, we will share insights from this work, recommendations on how to develop and maintain strong partnerships across different sectors of society, and where we hope to focus our action-based research next. 

Abstract

In recent years the UK’s government, voluntary sector and communities have moved from addressing one crisis to the next. In our work as evaluators and learning partners for place-based and systems change programmes (currently across 32 sites), we’ve observed the innovative and often immediate responses carried out in the public and third sectors. We’ve also seen funders introduce more flexible funding arrangements focusing on core costs and a rise in multi-sector working and new relationships sustained beyond crisis.  

However, we are also finding these systems are at capacity, and that innovation has been led by necessity and followed by burnout. Regardless of new good things, the work that is happening isn’t sustainable or designed to respond to more than one crisis at a time. In the main we have seen a return to previous ways of working including the return of public sector KPIs and complex procurement systems.

We believe the only way to change this is to develop long-term, multi-sector approaches that seek to understand how issues are interconnected, and why they persist over time. But in the context of low capacity and uncertain payoffs - this way of working is often considered idealistic and held back by the need for more convincing and rigorous evidence to show this type of approach works.  

We have a mission to make place-based / systems change approaches both accessible and preferable. To do this we have developed a structure that allows us to understand, test, measure and generate new evidence around which conditions drive forward long-term change in what contexts and why.  

In this session we will focus on the following: 

• Defining place-based and systems change as long-term solutions to complex problems 

• Exploring the conditions for successful long-term / place-based change based on what we have learnt from our evaluations, including what we’re learning about taking a root-causes approach 

• Setting out a model that will help us test and understand dynamic change

Biographies

Lily O'Flynn

Lily is Renaisi’s Principal Consultant for place-based work, she uses accessible and inclusive approaches that enable people delivering place-based work to reveal, understand and make sense of change in their area. She specialises in place-based evaluation to support clients to gain a robust and nuanced understanding of the differences they are making in places. She has expertise in long-term developmental approaches which include developing complex testable theories, using contribution analysis, embedding and using learning practice to drive change, and applying participatory approaches. 

Lily is the Project Director for some of the UK’s largest and most ambitious place-based evaluation and/or learning partnerships spanning 26 different sites, giving her a unique insight into the diverse approaches to local community led development and systems change. 

Kezia Jackson-Harman

Renaisi’s Senior Project Manager in Place and Systemic Change, Kezia brings people together to learn about, analyse and design inclusive change in their place. Her work across Renaisi’s portfolio of place-based and systems change projects includes facilitating local partnerships that are exploring place-based systemic change, designing place-based and systems change enquiry projects, and supporting the adoption of place-based and systemic change approaches within Renaisi.  As a learning partner Kezia provides ongoing advice and hands on capacity building support to six place-based networks that are targeting systemic change in women's poverty and youth unemployment, in programmes funded by Smallwood Trust and Youth Futures Foundation respectively. Kezia also leads our Place-based System Change Community of Practice, where she works with the community to share learning around place-based systems change in reflective and practical ways. Prior to joining Renaisi, she led thematic learning programmes and communities of practice for place-based funders, while working at UK Community Foundations. 

Abstract

Intertwined within a patchwork of different types of land use and land cover, wild spaces in cities emerge often ignored, disregarded or associated with negative connotations by society and conservationists alike, despite their growing importance to the future of cities. While many argue that these urban novel ecosystems are unworthy of conservation concern, others argue that given the pace of biodiversity decline and profound impact on the people and the natural world, biodiversity targets may be unrealistic unless action is to engage society with stewardship of nature that is left in cities. Despite the acknowledgement of the importance of wildness to the future of cities, very little is known about how individuals and society perceive urban wild spaces in cities for their potential biodiversity and conservation values, and to what extent ecological novelty is tolerated, given the prevailing view that society has become disconnected from wild nature. Drawing on early empirical data from the NovelEco project, this paper will report on how different urban communities think about nature in cities and show that the prevailing view of a lack of nature connectivity can be challenged.

Biographies

Clair Cooper

Dr. Clair Cooper is a research fellow with Trinity College Dublin exploring how different social groups (including young people and disabled groups) perceive informal wild spaces in cities. Clair's broader research interests involve exploring how we can connect people and nature to improve quality of life.

Abstract

Domestic heating is a major source of carbon emissions and therefore a priority for decarbonisation through low carbon systems and digitalisation. Yet, home heating transitions are deeply personal and significantly reorganise the way people use energy, triggering deeper transformations of societies, economies and cultures and manifesting these changes at the heart of the home. Presently, every heating transition is treated as a fresh challenge and efforts to learn across time and place and from citizens are rare, meaning that progress may be lost and injustices deepened. Our approach involves historic, current, and future-oriented analysis to identify how home heating transitions and associated technological change in living memory were designed, managed and experienced, the legacies of this and their implications for the current transition. We do this by combining progressive conceptualisations of justice, novel applications of oral history and the communicative power of the arts to support policy and practice to understand the justice implications of heating transitions. We work with communities leading, resisting and excluded from transitions to assemble a lasting archive of multi-media accounts of lived experiences of heating transitions, illustrating how they impact unevenly yet profoundly on the conditions of life. These lived experiences help bridge policy discourse and life worlds, fostering a fairer future for home heating where the negative impacts of technological and digital innovation are understood and mitigated. In this presentation we will discuss the project philosophy, methodology and some early emerging insights.

Abstract

This paper presents ethnographic research undertaken during Covid-19 lockdowns of an historic square in Margate, Kent, designed as an escape to wellness from smoggy twentieth century London. It describes a geographically situated case study of the square’s contemporary inhabitants; migrant populations of multiple deprivation that butted up against affluent ‘down from Londoners’ to draw attention to the divergences of ‘turning inwards’ enabled by the ubiquitous promise of universal internet-connectivity. The denial of access to established physical networks validated the incursion of technology into previously private domestic spaces – with online medical appointments, social life, food shopping, even exercise. Homelife was in this way directly transformed by inclusion to, or exclusion from the internetworked pandemic home. Our research explored this newly imagined fortress home’s promise for a better future as encountered by affluent residents, against the liminality, transient, and alternative view of home as experienced by the migrant, homeless, socially housed, and short-term renters who still sought the sanctuary of home in the local physical spaces of community. As such, the domestic spaces of home became ‘unmade’, for both wealthier and poorer in opposing ways – the former cocooned in the fortress designed home’s glimpse of a future living with pandemics, the latter active only in their physical networks. Our lockdown research exposed the destabilising and blurring of the boundaries and character of divided groups living distinct lives. Thus, the limits of another utopian architectural vision of an amorphous, technologically dependent and socially unified society, demonstrated its limitations.

Abstract

Northern Exposure has been a large scale social science study of four classic "red wall" locations in the North of England, running 2019-22, that has looked at questions of community relations and economic marginalisation in the North of England, and hence rethinking simplistic ideas of political disaffection in the aftermath of Brexit and during the COVID crisis. Our engagement with the Wakefield District gave us access to ongoing concerns, also intensely felt by the local authority, of understanding the sources of political disaffection across its peculiar urban geography (a geography also explored in other contributions to this panel). Our paper offers an initial snapshot of changing social and economic diversity in the district that can be related to the volatility of political outcomes in national and local elections in the district.

Biographies

Adrian Favell

Adrian Favell is Professor of Social and Political Theory at University College Cork, Ireland, and director of the Radical Humanities Laboratory there. He is formerly Chair in Sociology and Social Theory at the University of Leeds, where he directed the Bauman Institute. He is the author of various works on migration, multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism and cities, most recently a work in migration theory with Polity Press, The Integration Nation: Immigration and Colonial Power in Liberal Democracies (2022). In the aftermath of Brexit in the UK, he led the ESRC project Northern Exposure: Race, Nation and Disaffection in “Ordinary” Towns and Cities after Brexit. The project has generated a unique oral history archive of the experiences and views of diverse older residents in the North of England during the dramatic period since the referendum, and its website features debates, book talks and a documentary film. Website: https://northernexposure.leeds.ac.uk 

Abstract

Studies of African-Caribbean communities in the UK have typically focused upon London, younger members or specific issues and themes. This paper presents empirical evidence of community formation and development over the period from initial migration to the present. The paper examines issues of initial migration and settlement and the formation of local communities. Unlike popular and academic perception our evidence from interviews with members of these communities aged 50 and over in Halifax and Wakefield shows a picture of spatial dispersion in terms of housing, with limited development of community organisation and subsequently limited impact on local politics and policy.

Abstract

Caricatures of disaffected, white working-class rust belt communities continue to be central to nationalist politics and protectionist economics across the Global North. However, in the context of this ideological warfare we lack empirical understanding of the precise dynamics of such communities or informed analysis of their political engagement or orientation. This paper zooms in on Wakefield, West Yorkshire, a diffuse peri-urban district comprised of an historic urban centre surrounded by mining communities, small towns, rural expanse, and swathes of new build homes. In 2016 the district voted to leave the EU, in the 2019 General Election, the City of Wakefield elected a Conservative to Parliament ending 90 years of continuous Labour party representation, and in 2021 the controlling Labour group lost six seats to the Conservatives during the local council elections. The paper draws on qualitative research conducted in two council housing estates in the district, one in a peripheral ex-industrial town and another close to Wakefield city centre. The paper probes at some of the experiences of work, community and identity that have become so charged in mainstream political discourse and asks how we should be situating older whites in our accounts of contemporary England.

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative analysis of British Pakistani community development in Middlesbrough and Wakefield. Both have substantial and notable British Pakistani communities, but have been neglected in previous academic studies which have typically focused upon larger cities such as Bradford, Manchester, Birmingham and London. The data is based upon qualitative interviews with older (aged 50+) members of these communities and covers the period from the early 1960s to the present. Whilst in Middlesbrough there is now a distinctive commercial district of business serving and/or owned by British Pakistanis, the Wakefield community seems more marginalised and encapsulated within a very small neighbourhood. The paper will explore the development of these two communities.

Abstract

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, governments across the world imposed strict measures to curb the spread of the virus, among which social distancing measures and temporary lockdowns were maybe the most prominent. The pandemic, and the measures adopted, affected marginalised groups in particular. At the same time, it created a need to adapt for organisations serving these communities. 

This was particularly the case with third sector organisations which are a crucial part of the delivery of welfare for the most marginalised (e.g., refugees and asylum seekers, survivors of domestic violence, and the unhoused). These organisations have been credited with “specialist knowledge of clients’ needs, expertise and/or skills” (Murray, 2011, p. 280), strong links with the communities they serve and a particular ability to involve users and their communities and engage with ‘hard-to-reach’ groups (Chapman, Forbes and Brown, 2007; Murray, 2011).  

Based on semi-structured interviews, this paper examines the implications of the pandemic for third sector organisations in Wales and Scotland that provide advocacy and deliver services for marginalised groups. It highlights that these organisations experienced the pandemic as a time of opportunities and challenges. The findings show that the pandemic created new and exacerbated existing problems surrounding place-based issues (e.g., accessibility of services) for organisations and the communities they served whilst at the same time, the pandemic provided an opportunity to show the importance of these organisations as advocates for those communities both with local services and governments.

References

Chapman, T., Forbes, D., & Brown, J. (2007): “‘They have God on their side’: The impact of public sector attitudes on the development of social enterprise.” Social Enterprise Journal, 3(1), 78–89.

Murray, G. (2011): “Third sector commissioning and English local government procurement.” Public Money & Management, 31(4), 279–286.

Biographies

Katharina Sarter

Dr Katharina Sarter is Assistant Professor at the Institute for Employment Research at the University of Warwick. Research interests include public and social policy, governance, and the regulation of work. Katharina’s current work focuses on two topics, first, digitalisation and secondly, the strategic use of public procurement as a tool for the governance of services and the regulation of labour.

Abstract

This paper will present new insight into the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on older people’s social connections. The work is part of a larger project exploring how age-friendly initiatives can better support older people to remain socially connected to the places where they live, particularly in light of experiences of Covid-19 and reduced opportunities for face-to-face connectivity during the pandemic. 

This presentation will outline findings from participatory community mapping with older people and focus groups with voluntary and public sector service providers. The data reveals a multifaceted picture of ageing post-pandemic in the UK. Although there has been a formal end of lockdown restrictions, this is not the end of people's experiences and concerns; some older people are still self-defining as vulnerable with an ongoing impact affecting what they feel is less or riskier to engage in. The provision of support services continues to be affected in terms of older people's confidence to return and the availability of suitable spaces, services and resources. Due to restrictions in indoor spaces, there has been a re-discovery of outdoor and green places, the use of which continues beyond lockdown. There is also evidence of adaptability by rapidly engaging with new technology. Whilst regular online activities are continued and appreciated by those who can attend them, the digital exclusion of older people remains of concern. The presentation will conclude with a consideration of the implications for ‘age-friendly’ policy and practice as older people and service deliverers strive to understand ‘a new normality' in a post-pandemic context.

Biographies

Eve Blezard

Eve is an early career researcher passionate about improving local communities' sustainability through combined research and practice.  Eve’s Doctoral research was entitled: ‘Change, Loss, and Community: Residents’ narratives of life on a social housing estate.’ which explored the significance of community for residents on a regenerated housing estate.  

Following the conclusion of her studies, Eve worked as a Research Assistant on an Advance HE ‘Inclusive structures driving transformational change’ project with the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Centre at Salford University. Eve is presently working as a Research Fellow at Salford University on the collaborative research project, 'Developing Age-Friendly Communities in a post-pandemic world’ funded by The Dunhill Medical Trust.  Eve has a social housing practice background and spent over ten years working in the sector, including Customer Insight and Community Development roles. 

Kezia Jackson-Harman, Senior Project Manager, Renaisi

Renaisi’s Senior Project Manager in Place and Systemic Change, Kezia brings people together to learn about, analyse and design inclusive change in their place. Her work across Renaisi’s portfolio of place-based and systems change projects includes facilitating local partnerships that are exploring place-based systemic change, designing place-based and systems change enquiry projects, and supporting the adoption of place-based and systemic change approaches within Renaisi.  As a learning partner Kezia provides ongoing advice and hands on capacity building support to six place-based networks that are targeting systemic change in women's poverty and youth unemployment, in programmes funded by Smallwood Trust and Youth Futures Foundation respectively. Kezia also leads our Place-based System Change Community of Practice, where she works with the community to share learning around place-based systems change in reflective and practical ways. Prior to joining Renaisi, she led thematic learning programmes and communities of practice for place-based funders, while working at UK Community Foundations.

Lucy Terry, Senior Researcher, Local Trust

Lucy Terry is senior researcher at Local Trust, a charitable funder which administers the Big Local programme. She leads on a range of projects to do with evaluation and learning from Big Local, including developing the organisation’s links with academics interested in community-led change through commissioning research, supporting a PhD studentship, planning research seminars and more. As part of her work on Big Local, she has led research on power in resident-led partnerships and community leadership. Prior to Local Trust, she worked in research positions at New Local, a local government thinktank, and at the charity Revolving Doors.

Graham Duxbury, Chief Executive, Groundwork UK

Graham was appointed Groundwork UK’s Chief Executive in 2014 and leads work on behalf of the Groundwork federation to build national relationships and partnerships, generate income, develop programmes, and share learning through policy, research and communications. In that time, he has overseen major initiatives in the charity including a Future Jobs Fund programme creating 6,000 jobs for young people, the growth of Groundwork’s energy efficiency advice programmes and the management of major relationships with businesses and brands including Tesco, Cadbury, United Utilities, M&S and Balfour Beatty.  He has contributed to a wide range of Government and voluntary sector groups and task forces on subjects including parks and green spaces, access to nature, youth employment, fuel poverty and community empowerment. Prior to joining Groundwork as a press officer in 1998, Graham worked in communications and public engagement roles in a national visual impairment charity and for local authorities in Lancashire and West Yorkshire. He was awarded an OBE for services to communities and the environment in 2020.