Blog
Talking transitions: the road to net zero
22 September 2022
This short film hears from members of the public, to gain a greater understanding of their concerns, and find out just how much – or how little – people understand about the challenge we face on the road to net zero.
Navigating the ‘postcode lottery’ of volunteering opportunities
15 September 2022
Lack of opportunity, patchy citizenship education, and an outdated view of why young people engage hinder volunteering, finds a new report.
Research Digest: What can quantitative approaches learn from The Beatles?
22 August 2022
I’ve written before about the growing use of more rigorous quantitative approaches to community and third sector research. A great example is the way the School for Social Entrepreneurs used control cohorts to evaluate its pioneering Match Trading programme. By doing
Building meaningful relationships between researchers and society
9 August 2022
Our evaluation of UKRI-funded research projects seeks to better understand the value and scope of ‘citizen science’.
Research Digest: ‘Knowledge is NOT power’
30 June 2022
Over coffee last month with Professor Rebecca Madgin, Director of the AHRC’s Place-Based Research Programme, I was introduced to the concept of ‘felt experience’. I had been talking about the mysterious way that successful community businesses taking over pubs, shops, libraries
Research Digest: Enough of the ‘grands projects’
24 May 2022
Hang around the ‘community development scene’ for more than a few years and you’ll probably develop a weary resignation about the endless cycling and recycling of well-meant policy interventions. I last saw this at the recent Local Trust levelling up conference
People shaping places, places shaping people: Community asset ownership
16 May 2022
Catch up on this roundtable that brought together policymakers, community business leaders, researchers and sector experts to explore how asset ownership encourages communities to become more effective stewards in their places.
Research digest: ‘Lessons in navigation’
29 March 2022
Nearly a quarter of a century after Google introduced the world to the joys of online searching (and the dangers of the filter bubble), user experience is all – and as we add ever more material to the Institute for
Research digest: ‘Variety is the spice of life’
25 February 2022
Good news! If you’re looking for a break from endless critiques of the government’s Levelling Up White Paper, you’ve come to the right place. This series of research digests is all about taking the longer view and making sense of
Exploring marginalisation with ‘compassion and empathy’
25 February 2022
In an ambitious project, undergraduate students from the faculties of Arts and Humanities and Social Science and Public Policy at Kings College London, were partnered with community researchers to identify issues of marginalisation or exclusion in their local areas. Funded by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, the
Research digest: ‘None of us is as smart as all of us’
25 January 2022
We at the Institute for Community Studies are an ambitious bunch. In the summer of 2021, we embarked on a project to collect in one place everything we know about what’s working in communities across the UK and beyond. Six
Continuity and Change: The role of volunteers in community businesses
23 September 2021
Community businesses help make places better in a real way. From saving local shops and creating leisure facilities to providing training opportunities for local people and helping to build affordable housing. Yet none of this would be possible without the