Community, citizenship and participation

This research group is researching community, resilience, and the conditions that enable people to thrive.

Participation of different kinds contributes to a healthy community, a functioning democracy and also to high-quality research. This research theme explores participatory approaches that, through community empowerment and civic involvement, effectively utilise local assets, capacities and resources in order to address citizens’ needs.

Focusing on communities of place and communities of interest, our work investigates pathways to successful co-production and social innovation. The contextual importance of different geographies, policies and culture is central to this theme.

We thus explore how the concept of citizenship is interpreted and mobilised across different settings and scales of society: from urban and rural communities to the workplace and the state.

We work closely with government representatives as well as community groups, trades unions and social enterprises, co-constructing responses to social vulnerabilities, empirically testing new ideas through action research, participatory evaluation, surveys and outcome measurement.

In addition to advancing theories in the field, our research creates applied knowledge that informs community development practice, participation and co-production policies.

Here, you can explore some of our projects and the outputs of our work

Projects

WIGWAM-S

A co-design community project to develop realist programme theories around the impact of Men’s Sheds on positive health and wellbeing of socially disadvantaged, working-age men.

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Rural Assets: Policy and practice insights from the devolved nations

A study aiming to understand the impacts of the processes of community asset acquisition upon the empowerment, resilience and wellbeing of rural communities.

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T4VET

Implementation and evaluation of an accredited vocational trainer within Scotland’s Bravest Manufacturing Company’s progressive employment training programme for veterans.

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ELLY: Enjoy Life LocallY

A new community-led approach to incentivise, support, and sustain healthy weight and well-being.

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NESSIE (NIHR Evidence Synthesis Scotland Initiative)

NIHR Evidence Synthesis Scotland Initiative is a five-year (2023-2028) programme aiming to produce and disseminate timely, high quality and impactful evidence syntheses across a wide range of topics relevant to health care, public health and social care.

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GiG: The Gig Economy

The Gig Economy and its Implications for Social Dialogue and Workers’ Protection

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SIRIUS

Skills and Integration of Migrants, Refugees and Asylum Applicants in European Labour Markets

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Sustainable sheds

Sheds for Sustainable Development Project focuses on supporting Men’s Sheds in Scotland to be both financially and socially sustainable.

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Evaluation of Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act

The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 aims to empower communities through the ownership of land and buildings

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