With thanks to Nettes Derbyshire, Debra Gordon, Clare Harewood, Chantal Jackson, Jean-Claude Kabuiku, Toqueer Ahmed Quyyam, Marianne Walker and BVSC Research Over the summer of 2025 CUWb academics and community researchers were involved in two community festivals – the Neighbourhood Futures Festival which we co-host with Birmingham Settlement annually at their Nature and Wellbeing Centre, … Continue reading “Listening to public perspectives on urban wellbeing”
Author: Jessica Pykett
Community Research handbook published
Earlier in the year and throughout 2024 the Centre for Urban Wellbeing and Birmingham Voluntary Services Council (BVSC) Research to co-produce a guide for researchers to work in a values-led and inclusive way with community research. We hope that you find this a recipe for great research! It advances a values-led and inclusive approach to … Continue reading “Community Research handbook published”
Visiting Fellow, Johannes Melchert, University of Heidelberg reports on 6 months at the Centre for Urban Wellbeing
It’s hard to believe it’s almost been a year since I embarked on my Marietta Blau-Grant fellowship journey, funded by the OeAD (Austrian Agency for International Cooperation in Education and Research). As I look back, I realize that when I first started this adventure in October 2024, with an end date set for September 2025, … Continue reading “Visiting Fellow, Johannes Melchert, University of Heidelberg reports on 6 months at the Centre for Urban Wellbeing”
Community Researchers lead engagement on urban wellbeing inequalities, by Jean Claude Kabuiku
written by Jean Claude Kabuiku My recent two-day experience at outdoor events at the University of Birmingham and the Birmingham Settlement Neighbourhood Futures Festival during June 2025 was incredibly insightful. It was a fantastic opportunity to engage directly with local people and share perspectives on my work as a Community Researcher with BVSC and the … Continue reading “Community Researchers lead engagement on urban wellbeing inequalities, by Jean Claude Kabuiku”
New Beginnings, New Routes
Written by John Munro In this rich commentary John Munro, co-director of the Centre for the Study of North America and new associate member of the Centre for Urban Wellbeing tells us about their “New Routes” conversation series. Researchers from Tunisia, US, UK and Germany met to discuss Elsa Devienne’s award winning book focussed on … Continue reading “New Beginnings, New Routes”
Manchester-Barcelona calling! The Mindset Revolution team place young people at the forefront of policy change in mental health
Authors: Sonia Bussu (University of Birmingham), Saira Ali (peer researcher), Niamh Carroll (42nd Street), Ali Coleman (peer digital designer), Chimwemwe Chirwa (peer researcher), Sam Dixon (peer legislative theatre facilitator), Zarah Eve (Manchester Metropolitan University), Prateek Gupta (peer digital designer), Zainab Maria (peer digital designer), Juliet Oduro (peer legislative theatre facilitator), Linton Rainford (peer digital designer), … Continue reading “Manchester-Barcelona calling! The Mindset Revolution team place young people at the forefront of policy change in mental health”
Urban Wellbeing in Policy Roundtable: Reflections on valuing, sustaining and bringing partnerships to life
By Susie Drummond and Jessica Pykett What kind of partnerships work, how do they get started and how can they be valued and made to last? This is a recurrent question for academics, community organisations and policy makers who are focussed on knowledge exchange and engagement beyond their own sectors. Changing current two-way systems of … Continue reading “Urban Wellbeing in Policy Roundtable: Reflections on valuing, sustaining and bringing partnerships to life”
Research Resources: Ethics and Expertise
As part of the launch of the new ESRC Ethics and Expertise beyond times of crisis project, we have been searching through our pilot research and compiling some resources to get us started. Some of these we hope will be useful for researchers, data ethics professionals, civil servants and policy makers who are exploring the … Continue reading “Research Resources: Ethics and Expertise”
New ESRC research project launched: Ethics and Expertise 2023-2026
In May we launched a new ESRC funded project ‘Ethics and Expertise’ with research partners at the Universities of Bielefeld, Sheffield, Melbourne, Karlshochschule International University and Nuffield Council on Bioethics. Project Summary Governments are not currently following their own ethical advice during times of crisis, and we want to find out why, what this means … Continue reading “New ESRC research project launched: Ethics and Expertise 2023-2026”
Reducing Regional Divides
Making a meaningful difference through transformative change As we have outlined in this short report for Centre for Thriving Places, the UK’s regional economic divisions are both persistent and legendary. “The UK is one of the most regionally imbalanced economies in the industrialised world,” according to Lord Kerslake of the UK 2070 Commission – and this imbalance can have … Continue reading “Reducing Regional Divides”