The 2022/23 CRESR Seminar Series ran from October 2022 - June 2023 and all the details relating to each seminar can be found below. If you have any queries relating to these, please contact us.

Download 'Shutting up shop: hardship and hope on Britain’s high streets' slides (PDF, 37.4MB)

Abstract

Britain’s high streets are a crucible in which the future of local economies is being forged. They simultaneously present images of despair - shuttered shops and zombie malls - and new possibilities, seized on by those who see the opportunity to build alternative and community-focused economies. The fragility of the traditional shopping hub has been exposed by digitisation, austerity, and Covid-19, leading to the loss of more than 400,000 jobs between 2019 and 2021. Familiar department stores are vanishing, leading to the closure of 83% of UK department store space in the five years to 2021. High street regeneration has recently become a government priority with initiatives such as the Towns Fund and Future High Streets Fund, as well as new powers proposed in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill. This talk focuses on how ‘hope’ could be more than a trip down memory lane to the days of the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker. Drawing on newly published research, it examines the opportunities and threats to community-based organisations in seeking to revitalise local high streets. Using the lens of place attachment (Manzo and Devine-Wright, 2021) it explores how local economic development is also a venture in constructing meaning and identity in and for places.

Biography

Julian Dobson's research examines the role of places in developing more equitable and sustainable future, with a particular focus on urban green spaces, high streets and town centres, and the role of 'anchor institutions' such as universities. He is the author of How to Save Our Town Centres and has spoken at UK and international events on the future of town and city centres.

Download 'Community-led housing: Lessons from research and practice' slides (PPTX, 5.8MB)

Abstract

The UK has faced persistent challenges in providing the housing that people need. A heady mix of problems have become apparent in terms of the supply, affordability and quality of our housing. And yet, entrenched practices, relations and resource distributions make alternative forms of housing production and management difficult to foster. In some areas, groups of people have sought to remedy these issues through ‘community-led housing’. What defines this activity is 1) meaningful engagement in the planning and management of housing by a defined community, 2) ownership or stewardship of that housing by an appropriate community organisation, and 3) ensuring the benefits arising from this activity accrue to a defined community in the long term. In practice, this has taken many and varied forms. Drawing on empirical evidence from evaluations and research projects conducted in the last five years, our speakers will reflect on the development of community-led housing in recent times, the formation and sustainability of enabling infrastructure, and the opportunities for meeting diverse needs through community-led approaches. This will reveal the potential of this activity to remedy longstanding failings in our housing system, but also the fragility of this form of action, and the relations and contingencies which can hinder community-led projects. The lessons will resonate beyond this niche field, and will be relevant to those interested in community and voluntary action and governance, place-making and regeneration, and models for sustainable development. We will hear from four speakers, who are all leading academics in the field of community-led housing in the UK.

Biographies

Dr Yael Arbell – Yael is a Research Associate and works within CRESR’s Housing and Place and Sustainable Futures clusters. Yael specialises in qualitative methods and is interested in a critical realist approach to research. Prior to joining CRESR Yael completed a PhD in Human Geography at the University of Leeds (2021), focusing on community-led housing in the UK. Her research interests are broad and include housing, diverse economies, racial justice, community-led projects, just transitions and other social aspects of sustainable projects.

Dr Tom Archer - Tom is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR). Specialising in housing and community development, his work focuses on the affordability and supply of housing, and the collective ownership of physical assets. Tom has a background in policy and housing delivery, and his work aims to improve policymaking and the use of government and charitable funding. Tom’s recent work has centred on community-led housing, housing for older people, community ownership of assets and alternative housing tenures.

Philippa Hughes - Philippa is a researcher interested in enabling citizen engagement with housing and the built environment. Her PhD research explored the factors that influence the development of community led housing in England and the role of professional support for community groups in growing the movement. She has also worked with the Confederation of Cooperative Housing to develop several case studies of community-led housing used to train community-led housing advisers. Prior to starting her post-graduate studies Philippa worked for the housing and homelessness charity, Shelter. She is involved in tenants organising through Sheffield Acorn.

Dr Tom Moore - Tom Moore is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography & Planning at the University of Liverpool. Tom's principal research interests are in housing policy and practice and community planning, with a particular interest in the ways in which citizens participate in and influence the planning system. He is also interested in issues of social and spatial equity and justice and these are mediated by housing interventions. He has conducted research on forms of community-led housing for nearly 15 years has been funded by a range of public, private and third sector organisations. He is currently working on research and evaluation of community-led housing for black and minority ethnic communities, and forms of transnational collaboration between community-led housing alliances.

Download 'Foundational liveability and the cost of living crisis' slides (PPTX, 646.5KB)

Abstract

The current "cost of living crisis" has a prehistory in the 2010s and it's about more than household disposable and residual income. The three pillars of household liveability - income, essential services and social infrastructure- are all crumbling. This requires some thought about our political response because we cannot expect too much from the central state.

Biography

Karel Williams is a principal in Foundational Economy Research Ltd which produces low cost, disruptive research (https://foundationaleconomyresearch.com/) and chair of the membership organisation Foundational Alliance Wales. He edits the Manchester Capitalism series of paper backs and his new book Nothing Works will be published in summer 2023.

Links

• Foundational Economy Research Ltd (FERL) is three ex-academics and two academics who did the research reported in the presentation - https://foundationaleconomyresearch.com/
• The Foundational Economy Collective (the Collective) is a network of European academics - https://foundationaleconomy.com/

Download 'Moving homelessness prevention Upstream Reflections on the development and implementation of a promising school-based intervention' slides (PDF, 950.3KB)

Abstract

In the UK, as in many other countries, first experiences of homelessness often occur as a child or young person. Recognising this fact, and in response to calls for homelessness prevention efforts to move further upstream, a school-based intervention is being piloted in Wales, drawing on lessons from the seminal Geelong Project in Australia. This presentation reports on the development and implementation of Upstream Cymru. It tracks the challenges of adapting a universal screening tool for the Welsh context; developing collaborations between services, schools and academia; and the dilemmas of implementing a school-based intervention through a pandemic. Drawing on new survey data collected during the pilot, and linked education and homelessness administrative data, the presentation will both confirm and contradict many long-standing assumptions about who is most at risk of becoming homeless and what this means for effective early intervention.

Biography 

Peter is a Professor in the School of Geography and Planning at Cardiff University, UK where the primary focus of his research and advisory work is homelessness prevention. His work has had considerable impact, including on the development of legislation and practice in multiple countries. Currently he is an Editor for the International Journal on Homelessness.

Kirsten Gram-Hanssen

Download 'Why do most of us consume as much as we do?' slides (PDF, 3.1MB)

Abstract - Why do most of us consume as much as we do?: We know that affluence impact consumers consumption and CO2 emissions negatively, however, we also know that most consumers in a wealthy country as Denmark have far too high emissions compared to what is sustainable in a long-term perspective. In this presentation I will focus on energy consumption in Danish homes, as a case study to investigate why years of efficiency policy have resulted in more efficient homes and appliances, but not in lowering energy consumption in homes. I will use a practice theoretical perspective, which emphasise that routines and technological infrastructures are important in understanding how norms of the good life develop. I will also delve into how the mismatch of the demography, with a population consisting of still more singles, and a housing stock build for families with several children posses a future challenge. We see to some extend a political interest, and consumers concerned with the climate, however, too often both interests may forget some of the most crucial aspects of continuously raising consumption.

Biography: My research is centered on housing, everyday life and consumption from a climate and energy perspective. It examines differences in household consumption practices and explains these differences within a perspective of theories of practice that emphasizes the importance of routines and technical infrastructures. In this research I document that the social organization of everyday lives means at least as much to the energy consumption of homes as the technical energy efficiency of buildings and appliances. I also research how new technologies such as private photovoltaic systems and smart home control of light, appliances and heat affect everyday life and energy consumption. I am a frequent speaker at national and international events and have been project leader of numerous research project financed by European and Danish research councils.

Anna Hawkins

Download 'Understanding the Drivers of High Consumption in support of Decarbonisation' slides (PDF, 467.3KB)

Abstract - Understanding Drivers of High Consumption in Support of Decarbonisation: The message that we need to reduce consumption in order to achieve decarbonisation targets is gaining traction, however this message is not being supported by consumption reduction programmes or policies that target especially excessive or problematic areas of consumption. Our work argues that to achieve a just transition, we need to differentiate between communities of consumers because some communities are having the greatest impact and have the greatest capacity to change. In recognition of the fact that consumption can often become habitual and difficult to change, we seek to understand more about the socio- cultural and structural forces that drive and stabilise high-consumption lifestyles so that these insights can support the development of targeted consumption reduction programmes in the future.

Biography: Anna is an environmental social scientist at Sheffield Hallam University with teaching and research interests that focus upon just sustainabilities and equitable resource consumption. In recent years their work has explored socio-spatial health inequalities, food insecurity, hard to reach energy users and high-consumers of resources.

Marta Baltruszewicz

Download 'Social outcomes of energy use in the United Kingdom: Household energy footprints and their links to well-being' slides (PDF, 1.4MB)

Abstract - Social outcomes of energy use in the United Kingdom: Household energy footprints and their links to well-being: How are household energy footprints distributed in the UK? Who are those with the highest and lowest footprints? Is it true that well-being always increases with more income? And how much energy is needed to live well? These questions navigated my research on the UK’s household energy footprints and their links to well-being. In this presentation, I will present the UK’s household direct and indirect energy footprints in relation to their well-being. I use both quantitative (input-output method) and qualitative analysis to relate footprints with conceptualizing and operationalizing objective well-being based on the theory of human need. I will focus on inequalities in energy distribution and explain how the top energy users with high well-being in driving excess energy use. I will also discuss who is the most vulnerable to energy poverty and what types of social and physical lock-ins we can observe that stop households from consuming less energy while maintaining high well-being. I will conclude by discussing shortly questions of sufficiency, overconsumption and the context within which we satisfy our needs.

Biography: Marta has an interdisciplinary background in sociology, industrial ecology and ecological economics. Recently, she finished her PhD at the University of Leeds, at the Sustainability Research Institute. Her work was a part of the Leverhulme Trust project, Living Well Within Limits. Her research focused on the analysis of energy footprints at the household level to understand the energy service dependency of human need satisfaction. Currently, she lives in Trondheim, Norway and works as a consultant for Asplan Viak, helping city councils and private organizations assess their carbon footprint and make their sustainability agenda more action oriented.

Download 'What do we know about nature-based social prescribing to support health and well-being?' slides (PDF, 10MB)

Abstract

In this talk Professor Ruth Garside and Dr Becca Lovell will talk about their work on the use of nature-based activities within social prescribing pathways. Becca will first talk about recent MRC funded work to clarify the active mechanisms of nature-based activities, focusing on what we know about if and how they work to address poor mental health. Ruth will discuss the Defra funded evaluation of 7 test and learn (pilot) sites in the tackling and preventing mental ill-health through green social prescribing project.

Biographies

Becca Lovell, Senior Lecturer in Biodiversity, Health and Policy: Dr Becca Lovell is based at the European Centre for Environment and Human Health, WHO Collaborating Centre on Natural Environments and Health at the University of Exeter Medical School. Becca focuses on evaluating, synthesising and translating evidence of the links between nature and health for policy and practice (see www.beyondgreenspace.net). She is interested in the multiple roles of the natural environment in determining equitable population health; ‘what works’ in nature based-health interventions and the delivery of nature-based solutions; and how better understandings of the ways in which we as individuals and communities value natural environments could inform decision making and ways of working.

Ruth Garside, Associate Professor: I am a social science researcher specialising in evidence synthesis. I have over 20 years’ experience using quantitative and qualitative research methods to investigate a range of policy relevant health and social care questions. My work has informed national policy customers including the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), Defra and the Home Office. I am particularly interested in using a broad range of evidence to investigate the interconnections between environment and human health, methods of synthesis for qualitative research and in theory led methods of review. Recent projects focus on evaluating the mental health impact of nature-based social prescribing.

Download 'Ageing Well For All' slides (PPTX, 9.6MB)

Abstract

There are almost 11 million people aged 65 and over in the UK, that is 19% of the total population. In 10 years’ time, this is predicted to increase to 22% of the population – almost 13 million people.

Whilst many older people enjoy the benefits of living longer and living better, ‘Ageing Well’ for many from the social minority communities is a struggle - a time of continuous financial hardship, ill-health and reduced life-expectancy.

We are seeing a rise in poverty amongst older people and a reduction in their life expectancy. Almost one in five homes headed by someone aged 60 or older is in a condition that endangers their health. Additionally, the proportion of older people in the private rented sector has almost doubled in the last decade with 11% of older people now in this sector with the associated financial and tenure insecurity.

How do people view the UK housing stock? Is it a product to own and generate wealth? What about the affordability of housing? Is it a commodity to generate wealth, always resulting in inequality between ages and sections of society? Will we ever see accessible and affordable housing for all for an increasingly ageing population?

These are just some of the issues and challenges that will be discussed on the 7th June and we look forward to your participation.

Biography

Abdul has over 30 years’ experience of procuring affordable housing and sustaining places, as well as extensive experience of local government, charity and third sector environments. He currently works at the Abbeyfield Society overseeing development and asset management and worked previously with the Housing Corporation/Homes & Communities Agency.

Abdul has considerable Non-Executive Director experience – including as Vice Chair of Manningham Housing Association, Chair of Firebird, and board member of Unity Enterprise and Johnnie Johnson Housing Trust. Abdul is a member of the National Housing Federation’s Delivering Great Homes Group shaping policy solutions with government.

He co-founded the ‘Ageing Well Network’ and is a member of Muslim Council of Britain’s Research and Documentation Committee.