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Continuity and Change: The role of volunteers in community businesses

Blog 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’

Blog 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.

Why don’t they ask us? The role of communities in levelling up

Publication 14 July 2021

How have policies and interventions for local economic development affected communities in England? As the government commits to ‘ensure no region is left behind’, our research explores what works for UK communities – and what doesn’t.

Embarking on a civic journey

Blog 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

Blog 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

Blog 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

Blog 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

Blog 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

Blog 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

Understanding local patterns of volunteer activity during COVID-19: three ways to contribute your perspective

Blog 3 March 2021

Together with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), The Young Foundation and The Institute for Community Studies are conducting new research to understand the various ways in which volunteers have been (and continue to be) active within local authority

Undisciplined Spaces

Blog 5 February 2021

Students have been partnered with community researchers drawn from across the UK and together, are identifying issues of marginalisation or exclusion in a local area to tackle, deploying creative research approaches (e.g. digital diaries, visual arts, storytelling etc) to do

The Need for Digital Skills

Blog 19 January 2021

Inevitably the current health crisis has dramatically increased the importance of us all being digitally connected. How we work, learn, play and connect with friends, family and our communities, relies on us being digitally included. 2020 will forever be the