Blog
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
‘It is time to connect the “civic journey” for our resilient generation’
29 July 2021
Dr Andy Mycock says empowering young people to become life-long engaged, active citizens must be a key ambition for any democratic society.
Embarking on a civic journey
21 June 2021
Today, we are announcing a transformational two-year research project, with generous support from the National Citizen Service CIC. Rooted in a powerful belief in community activism, entrepreneurial spirit and the civic potential of young people, we will be working with Huddersfield and
Levelling up and achieving an Upswing – Part III
22 April 2021
Matthew Flinders explains how a journey-based approach to youth engagement can have transformative potential.
Levelling up and achieving an Upswing – Part II
15 April 2021
Matthew Flinders calls for a ‘civic journey’ that’s focused on nurturing and understanding how and why people move in and out of civic spaces throughout their lives.
Meet our Inaugural Civic Scholars
8 April 2021
Meet the Scholars: Alice Lemkes Alice is a PhD student at the University of Leeds and is looking at the powerful role of narratives in regulating the lives and livelihoods of people experiencing ‘severe and multiple disadvantage’. Before starting the
Levelling up and achieving an Upswing – Part I
8 April 2021
For all its sweeping prose and upbeat analysis, Robert Putnam’s ‘The Upswing’ left Matthew Flinders downbeat. What’s needed, he suggests, is an ambitious vision for a new ‘civic journey’.
Re-building trust for the COVID decade
26 March 2021
Public trust in national government has declined over the last year, amid a perceived mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic across the UK. Britons have instead looked to experts and local leaders for information and advice about the virus, with trust