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The Institute for Community Studies goes live.

Blog 15 October 2019

Two years after first discussing the idea of relaunching the Institute, today our Manifesto gives a fantastic summary of what’re we’re about and our mission. You can get a sense of all those collaborating on research in and with communities

History and the challenge of community today

Blog 15 October 2019

Based on the research I did for Me, Me, Me?: the Search for Community in Post-war England my historical starting point would be: There has never been a ‘golden age’ of community and Britain has been a strongly individualist society for generations

The word “community” is at risk of losing all meaning

Blog 15 October 2019

Over the years, it has become a staple in corporate-speak, and there seems to me a sad correlation between the rise of the word in marketing and the slow demise of community itself. Everyone now “cares about the community,” especially

The biggest challenge for politics, for all of us, is to reconnect community with place.

Blog 15 October 2019

The biggest challenge for politics, for all of us, is to reconnect community with place.  My job involves turning in places with my camera, spending a couple of days to take the temperature, then moving on. But In 2017 I

Remembering the original Institute for Community Studies

Blog 14 October 2019

Two former employees of the original Institute for Community Studies reflect on Michael Young’s approach to creating change… Michael Young thought that the best way of understanding people’s lives was to ask them, ideally by talking to them himself.  He

How being a community researcher reconnected me to my home town

Blog 11 October 2019

I was born in this town. My family all live in this town. As a child, I played out on the streets with my friends in this town. In the winters we made snowmen and had snowball fights. In the