LPIP Hub Place Fellow Helen O’Gara continues her series on the felt experiences of the community development workforce, ‘We Are Guests’. This second blog explores the emotional experiences involved in working with communities. Other blog in the series: We Are Guests – Part One As I talked with four people, from different parts of the … Continue reading “We Are Guests – Part Two”
Author: Guest
We Are Guests – Part One
As part of her Place Fellowship, Helen O’Gara presents a series of blogs exploring the felt experiences of community development professionals. Helen has spent time interviewing four community development practitioners across different parts of the UK who have been in the same place for between 19 and 50 years. The resulting series explores some of the themes, … Continue reading “We Are Guests – Part One”
What Needs To Happen To Make the Civic University Work? Learnings From Queens Communities and Place (QCAP) Belfast
Professor Kathryn Higgins and Dr Andrew Grounds show how QCAP demonstrates that effective civic engagement requires long-term institutional investment and system-level change in funding and incentives. Universities across the UK are under increasing pressure to demonstrate their civic role. Place-based partnerships, community engagement strategies and social value promises feature prominently in institutional strategies, and while … Continue reading “What Needs To Happen To Make the Civic University Work? Learnings From Queens Communities and Place (QCAP) Belfast”
Green and Pleasant Land? Rural Resilience in the Welsh Marches
Rural areas face a set of urgent and existential challenges. These will bite hard along the ancient boundary between Wales and England. “The bourgeoisie has subjected the countryside to the domination of city. It has built enormous cities; it has greatly increased the urban population relative to the rural, and has thus wrested a considerable … Continue reading “Green and Pleasant Land? Rural Resilience in the Welsh Marches”
“Data is Never Neutral”: Telling Stories About Place
This blog, by Dr Joseph Owen, explores how a place-based qualitative data observatory can connect stories, strengthen evidence, and shape more grounded local decision-making. It explores some of the key ideas from this policy briefing – Towards A Place-Based Qualitative Data Observatory. For some time now, I’ve been keen to translate our research on qualitative … Continue reading ““Data is Never Neutral”: Telling Stories About Place”
Why Public Systems Need to Learn from the Outside-In
In this blog, Mark Swift argues that public sector transformation is no longer driven solely from within institutions. Increasingly, the most valuable insights are emerging from the spaces between systems, communities, and lived experience. This blog discusses the findings in Mark’s recent report – The Outside-In: The Role of Social Entrepreneurs in Public Sector Transformation. … Continue reading “Why Public Systems Need to Learn from the Outside-In”
Ecological Citizenship: A Lens to Help Navigate Place-Based Action
Dr Amy Burnett (Middlesex University, Centre for the Understanding of Societal Prosperity and founder of Valuing Community) is a Local Policy Innovation Partnership (LPIP) Place Fellow. Amy is testing a definition of Ecological Citizenship to scaffold her research on regenerative innovation as a framework for inclusive, place-based sustainability transitions. In this blog, she introduces this … Continue reading “Ecological Citizenship: A Lens to Help Navigate Place-Based Action”
What AI Is (and Isn’t) Delivering for Local Government
Kevin Fenning discusses his new report looking at the use of AI in local government. Read the report – AI in Local Government: Adoption, Benefits and Challenges Artificial intelligence (AI) will be one of the defining technologies of the 21st century, offering the potential to massively expand the capabilities of computers, and likely ushering in … Continue reading “What AI Is (and Isn’t) Delivering for Local Government”
Using Arts-Based Methods To Bring Community, Business and Environmental Issues Into Dialogue
LPIP Fellow Allan Macleod introduces himself and the work planned during his place fellowship for the Local Policy Innovation Partnership Hub. I am passionate about helping community voices to be heard in policymaking and believe that research and community-based policymaking is the best way to deliver a more just and equal future for all. In my work … Continue reading “Using Arts-Based Methods To Bring Community, Business and Environmental Issues Into Dialogue”
Dialling Up Democracy: Renewing Trust Through Civic Innovation
Mark Swift discusses how participatory governance and democratic innovation can help rebuild trust in public life. This article draws on a policy working paper exploring how democratic innovation can strengthen trust, participation and governance in the UK. The full paper examines these ideas in greater depth and outlines practical pathways for “dialling up democracy” in the … Continue reading “Dialling Up Democracy: Renewing Trust Through Civic Innovation”