From contest to context: urban green space and public policy

an article by Julian Dobson (University of Sheffield, UK) published in People, Place and Policy Volume 12 Issue 2 (December 2018)

Summary

The role of urban green spaces in supporting mental and physical wellbeing is well evidenced. At a time when mental ill-health is seen as a major factor limiting the life chances of the poorest groups in society, the case for the provision and protection of natural urban environments would appear indisputable.

Yet establishing direct causal links between natural environments and specific health outcomes is complex and problematic. Different green spaces contribute to experiences of wellbeing in different ways for different people. Public policies that seek to employ green space to achieve health objectives through ‘interventions’ or ‘prescriptions’ are thus fraught with difficulties.

Rather than seeing green space as an instrumental factor or ‘dose’ in improving wellbeing, this paper, based on emerging findings from research in Sheffield, UK, argues that policymakers need to think of multifunctional natural environments as essential contexts for the promotion of wellbeing. Urban austerity, however, acts as a countervailing context-changing driver, reframing wellbeing within a narrative of public service cost control.

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Social media as a vehicle for user engagement with local history: A case study in the North East of Scotland

an article by Caroline Hood and Peter Reid (Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK) published in Journal of Documentation Volume 74 Issue 4 (2018)

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine issues associated with user engagement on social media with local history in the North East of Scotland and to focus on a case study of the Buckie and District Fishing Heritage Society, a small but very successful and professionally-run community-based local heritage organisation.

Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative approach using photo elicitation on social media was deployed in conjunction with analysis of the user interactions and the reach insights provided by Facebook to the page manager. Additionally, a focus group was used.

Findings
The research, although focussed on an individual case study, offers significant lessons which are more widely applicable in the local history and cultural heritage social media domain. Key aspects include user engagement and how digital storytelling can assist in the documentation of local communities ultimately contributing to local history research and the broader cultural memory. The significance of the image and the photo elicitation methodology is also explored.

Social implications
The research demonstrates new opportunities for engaging users and displaying historical content that can be successfully exploited by community heritage organisations. These are themes which will be developed within the paper. The research also demonstrates the value of photo elicitation in both historical and wider information science fields as a means of obtaining in-depth quality engagement and interaction with users and communities.

Originality/value
The research explored the underutilised method of photo elicitation in a local history context with a community possessed of a strong sense of local identity. In addition to exploring the benefits of this method, it presents transferable lessons for how small, community-based history and heritage organisation can engage effectively with their audience.

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In pursuit of “the welfare trait”: recycling deprivation and reproducing deprivation

an article by Michael Lambert (Lancaster University) published in People, Place and Policy Volume 10 Issue 3 (2016)

Abstract

Adam Perkins’ The Welfare Trait outlines the most recent attempt to provide substance to the existence of an underclass, based on the idea of a shared ‘welfare-induced’, ‘employment-resistant’ personality amongst benefit claimants.

Following in the footsteps of historian John Macnicol who went ‘in pursuit’ of the underclass, this article travels ‘in pursuit’ of the welfare trait by situating its claims in historical context through a comparison of the post-war study by William Tonge, Families without Hope, which sought to identify a common psychological maladjustment in ‘problem families’.

The common intention, methods and recommendations of the two studies underline their shared purpose: to transfer the social and policy problems associated with poverty from their socio-economic context and the culpabilities of the state to finding the problem in individual families, identifying their behaviour as problematic and proscribing solutions rooted around cultivating personal responsibility. in historical context

Full text (HTML) also available as downloadable PDF

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Rural and remote communities, technology and mental health recovery

an article by Oliver K. Burmeister (Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, Australia) and Edwina Marks (Barkly Regional Council, Tennant Creek, Australia) published in Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society Volume 14 Issue 2 (2016)

Abstract

Purpose
This study aims to explore how health informatics can underpin the successful delivery of recovery-orientated healthcare, in rural and remote regions, to achieve better mental health outcomes. Recovery is an extremely social process that involves being with others and reconnecting with the world.

Design/methodology/approach
An interpretivist study involving 27 clinicians and 13 clients sought to determine how future expenditure on ehealth could improve mental health treatment and service provision in the western Murray Darling Basin of New South Wales, Australia.

Findings
Through the use of targeted ehealth strategies, it is possible to increase both the accessibility of information and the quality of service provision. In small communities, the challenges of distance, access to healthcare and the ease of isolating oneself are best overcome through a combination of technology and communal social responsibility. Technology supplements but cannot completely replace face-to-face interaction in the mental health recovery process.

Originality/value
The recovery model provides a conceptual framework for health informatics in rural and remote regions that is socially responsible. Service providers can affect better recovery for clients through infrastructure that enables timely and responsive remote access whilst driving between appointments. This could include interactive referral services, telehealth access to specialist clinicians, GPS for locating clients in remote areas and mobile coverage for counselling sessions in “real time”. Thus, the technology not only provides better connections but also adds to the responsiveness (and success) of any treatment available.

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The co-dependent relationship of technology and communities

an article by Daniel W. Surry* and Fredrick W. Baker III (Auburn University, AL, USA) published in British Journal of Educational Technology Volume 47 Issue 1 (January 2016)

Abstract

Technology is one the defining features of humanity. It is ubiquitous in modern society and plays an important role in nearly everything that humans do. New technologies frequently spur our imagination, can evoke powerful emotions and often serve as the topic of heated debate. Many people are in awe of the power and potential of new technologies while others fear its increasing importance in human life.

New technologies can create new employment opportunities, spawn new businesses and even revitalize entire economies. Conversely, they can cause unemployment, destroy long-standing organizations and lead to global economic upheaval. While technology undoubtedly impacts people and societies in profound ways, people and societies also impact the development and use of technologies. The intelligence, dedication and support of numerous people, businesses and social groups are needed to develop even relatively simple technologies. Once developed, new technologies rely on a myriad of economic, social, human and political forces for their continued use and expansion.

The field of learning technologies serves as an important and interesting case in which to explore the complex relationship between technology and society. In this paper, we will provide an overview of some of the most important philosophical and theoretical views of the relationship between technology and social systems, describe key issues related to the topic that are important for Learning Technologists to consider, and provide a series of recommendations for research and practice.

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Condition of Britain briefing 2: Growing up and becoming an adult

an IPPR paper by Kayte Lawton (published November 2013)

This second briefing paper to be published as part of IPPR’ s Condition of Britain programme focusses on young people in their teens and early twenties. This phase of life has become, for many, more difficult and insecure in recent decades, and in this paper we consider the societal shifts that have made today’s young people less able to rely on support from stable families, clear routes into work, and opportunities to put down roots by buying a home of their own.

While Britain’s young people are, on the whole, optimistic, resourceful and ambitious, their path to adulthood has grown both longer and more insecure. Changes in family life have made it more difficult for young people to develop the character and emotional resilience they need to become happy and productive adults. The labour market and the education and benefits systems are failing a large number of young people who need more meaningful qualifications and greater assistance with securing decent jobs. What’s more, all young people deserve to benefit from a sustainable and affordable homeownership, and a better and more secure rental market.

Among the questions this paper asks are:

1. How can we strengthen local institutions that are capable of developing young people’s character, maturity and resilience?
2. How can we reform our benefits, job support and training to make sure every young person is learning or earning, and establish stable and coherent vocational options for those not pursuing an academic path?
3. What would be sustainable means of helping young people to realise their aspirations to own their own homes?

Presenting evidence and testimonies from a variety of sources and stakeholders, and this briefing paper offers an overview of the issues facing Britain’s young people, and outlines how we need to rethink both what society expects of young people, and what young people should expect of society.

The five briefing papers in this series are brought together with a new introduction by Nick Pearce, Graeme Cooke and Kayte Lawton in the Condition of Britain interim report, published in December 2013.

Full text (PDF 14pp) http://www.ippr.org/images/media/files/publication/2013/11/Condition-of-Britain-brief02-Growing-up_Nov2013_11487.pdf

Re-engaging marginalised young people in learning: the contribution of informal learning and community-based collaborations

an article by Debra Hayes (The University of Sydney, Australia) published in Journal of Education Policy Volume 27 Issue 5 (September 2012)

Abstract

In the twenty-first century, a socially just system of schooling prepares all young people to adapt to new technologies, and participate in a global economy that is highly differentiated at the local level.

In Australia and other countries where local markets have become heavily dependent on service economies, ‘working-class’ families are less able to exchange their labour for low-paid wages in factories and other industries, and they are more dependent on education and its accrediting authority than they have been in the past.

At the same time, the influence of markets on education has allocated schools to these families, which operate under the least favourable conditions and produce weak outcomes.

This paper illustrates how enterprising community collaborations can ameliorate some of these effects. It outlines relevant research about young people who do not complete school, and it describes the implementation of a learning programme in inner Sydney as a means of explicating some of the conditions required to re-engage young people in learning.

It is argued that a socially just system of schooling assists young people to construct life narratives in which they are able to chart their way through and around problems, and accumulate the skills, knowledge and dispositions they need to access the formal economy.

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Re-thinking Integration

an IPPR Briefing paper by  Clare McNeil and Myriam Cherti published by IPPR in October 2012

There has been an enormous amount of academic and policy work on the integration of minority cultural communities, especially certain Muslim communities, into “mainstream” society in the last decade.

Our task in this briefing is to outline a potential new approach, one that we call “everyday integration”. We believe that this approach, grounded in new academic work, provides a better way of both analysing and advancing the possibilities for the integration of different communities into a stable social order.

In academia, most work on integration has focused on supposed conflicts of values between minority communities and western liberalism, and the difficulties that these conflicts create for social life in European countries. Many of these debates have moved from academia into policy discourse, stemming from such events as the French headscarf controversy and the security implications of radicalisation and extremism.

For over a decade, this debate has been characterised by a simple choice between, on the one hand, a multicultural group-rights approach popular in much of the academic community and, on the other hand, an increasingly assimilative approach focused on developing a stronger sense of shared citizenship and national identity, which is popular among much of the policy community.

It is our contention that both of these models are mistaken. We propose that future work on the best ways of integrating minority communities into broader society should focus on everyday integration, that is, on sites where identities are constructed and reconstructed and where new possibilities of group allegiance are continually developed. In this briefing, we have suggest that four potential areas for further exploration in this regard are:

• early-years childcare
• shopping and consumption
• leisure activities
• supplementary education.

Difficult practical, ethical and scholarly questions remain, but we believe that “everyday integration” provides the possibility of a crucial new start for work in this vital policy area.

Full text (PDF 20pp)

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Families, communities and social change: then and now

an article by Nickie Charles (Centre for the Study of Women and Gender, University of Warwick) published in The Sociological Review (Special Issue: Community re-studies and social change) Volume 60 Issue 3 (August 2012)

Abstract

At the beginning of the 1960s, Colin Rosser and Chris Harris worked together on a community study in Swansea, south Wales, UK. It explored how families, in particular extended families, had been affected by social change since the early years of the 20th century.

The re-study, which began in 2001, investigated the nature of social change and how it had affected extended families in the four decades since 1960. Research that is framed in terms of contemporary sociological theory asks different questions from those that were asked in the 1950s when structural functionalism was the dominant paradigm.

The re-study, which replicated (as far as possible) the methodology of the original study, asked similar questions to those that had been asked in 1960. This meant that, inadvertently, it relied on a Durkheimian conception of society and social change.

In this article I explore some of the methodological implications of asking the same research questions 40 years apart and reflect on how the two studies differ in the way they address issues of ‘race’/ethnicity, gender and social class.

I suggest that asking the same questions allows an appreciation of the continuities as well as changes in how family and community are experienced.

A framework for assessing the impacts of community-based enterprises on household poverty

an article by Nuttamon Teerakul, Renato A. Villano, Fiona Q. Wood and Stuart W. Mounter, (School of Business, Economics and Public Policy, University of New England, Armidale, Australia) published in Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy Volume 6 Issue 1 (2012)

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe a framework developed for assessing Community-based Enterprises’ (CBEs&rsquo') impacts on poverty reduction at the household level in northern Thailand, in the context of the UN Millennium Development Goals. The focus is on the use of principal component analysis to develop a context-specific definition of poverty.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper explains how business performance measurement, impact assessment of development projects and poverty measurement have been integrated into a single poverty impact assessment framework in relation to CBEs. This framework has two key steps: identification of poverty groups and poverty components; and impact assessment of CBEs and other factors on household poverty.
Findings
The framework captures a number of qualitative and quantitative aspects of poverty necessary for an accurate relative measure for differing geographical, economic and cultural contexts.
Originality/value
The novelty of this paper’s approach lies in the design of the framework used to assess poverty impacts of CBEs at the household level. The framework combines three well-known, but traditionally separately used, methodologies in order to better explore the economic dynamic of CBEs on households. The paper is expected to be of high relevance, both theoretically and methodologically, to researchers undertaking similar poverty, micro-enterprise and social entrepreneurship studies in other developing countries.

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It’s cooperation, stupid: Why Richard Dawkins, Thomas Hobbes and Milton Friedman got it wrong

The argument of this pamphlet by Charles Leadbetter, published by IPPR in partnership with Co-operatives UK, is that we should jettison the assumption that humans are selfish, first and foremost. Instead, we should start from the assumption that most of the time, most people want to be cooperative.

Full text (PDF 66pp)

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Quality of life in ethnically diverse neighbourhoods

a report from the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions

by Rhys Davies and Clair Wilkins (Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods, Cardiff University), Eric Harrison and Elissa Sibley (Centre for Comparative Social Surveys, City University) and David Owen (Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations, University of Warwick)

Executive Summary

Overview

Many European countries have experienced a high level of immigration from all parts of the world in the past two decades and the population of visible minority ethnic groups has grown rapidly. Neighbourhoods with a high percentage of minority ethnic groups are expected to be relatively disadvantaged in social and economic# terms. The in-movement of an economically disadvantaged population will itself change the social character of a neighbourhood, increasing the average level of social exclusion and deprivation.

This report presents the results of a research programme that analyses the quality of life in ethnically diverse neighbourhoods in EU15 countries (Member States before the 2004/7 accession) based on the 2007 European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS). The focus of the analysis is on the comparative situation of neighbourhoods in which respondents to the EQLS state that the share of the population from racial or ethnic groups different from the majority population is relatively high (‘high- diversity neighbourhoods’). The analysis concentrates on the EU15 aggregate and 10 selected countries within it. The selection of these countries was pragmatic and reflects the available sample size within the EQLS of respondents who report that they live in these areas. A large majority of the respondents who report that they live in ethnically diverse neighbourhoods are native to their host country, as are their parents. Hence, this report does not provide a detailed picture of the lives of ethnic minorities.

Full paper (PDF 89pp)

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(Re)Analysing Community Empowerment: ...

Rationalities and Technologies of Government in Bristol's New Deal for Communities

an article by Julie MacLeavy (School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol) published in Urban Studies Volume 46 Number 4 (2009)

Abstract

Urban regeneration is increasingly framed around notions of community empowerment. Policy programmes seek to make communities visible and then strengthen and support them through the establishment of a leadership role in urban regeneration practices. At first glance, this appears to be a positive development. Yet commentators note how community partnerships – seen to invoke a “rolling back” of the state – are indicative of a particular economic logic that is governing urban policy provision. Partnerships, it is argued, constitute tokenistic organisations that do not represent the diversity of interests within a particular area. Instead, they work primarily in support of business or government agendas. This paper re-orientates this critique. Focusing on one example of a community-led urban regeneration programme – New Deal for Communities in Bristol – it explores the subjects and spaces to emerge in and through this new form of governance. By identifying the manner in which New Deal for Communities composes all participants as partnering subjects, it posits community engagement as the medium through which power is being reconstituted in extremely comprehensive ways. It then questions the possibilities for developing and sustaining alternative forms of collaborative practice.

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