Partnering Opportunities

“Vision without Action is merely a dream – Action without Vision just passes the time – Vision with Action can change the world!” (Joel A Barker)

We have been doing some visioning with a view to action!  A few of our thoughts are outlined here.  We would like to identify partners interested in pioneering work in several research areas … if you are any way inclined to work together to turn these or similar visions into action please contact us

Social Enterprise Zone

The Enterprise Zone experience in the UK has been patchy, that is, relatively good in incentivising place-based investment but relatively poor in sustaining and growing it.

This is not surprising given that, from an investor’s perspective the former is driven by incentives to mitigate relative market failure and the latter dictated by straightforward market preference. Alternatively then, what might be achieved in terms of sustainable place-based investment by incentivising social enterprise specifically? To what extent are the economic and community benefits of social investment more likely to be sustained beyond any fixed incentive period despite persistent market failure? Is there an opportunity to designate a series of Social Enterprise Zones to explore their long-term impact on the fundamental culture of communities? Could the SEZ approach become a better ‘value for money’ alternative to cyclic, short-term socio-economic policy interventions?

Sustainable Healthcare Pathfinder

Pressures on local health and care systems are accumulating more than ever owing to greater life expectancy. Integrating technological and sociological activities at the neighbourhood level could be critical in responding to these pressures.

Effective use of new technology and digitised communication is part of the solution. Also, the scale of the challenge will mean more of us becoming carers, formally or informally. Observably, these two responses are so culturally distinct as to appear almost incompatible. Adaptive behaviour is arguably the process which will tie these two potentially reluctant partners together. So, can we effectively reconcile technology led projects like ‘Delivering Assisted Lifestyles Living at Scale’ (DALLAS) and social purpose movements like ‘Compassionate Communities’ / ‘Caring Communities’ which have evolved typically in isolation? Is there an opportunity to pilot an integrated, neighbourhood based approach to sustainable healthcare on a pathfinder basis?

Collaborative Community based energy distribution

Optimisation of domestic energy distribution networks will rely increasingly upon harnessing and managing the social capital within communities to achieve collective behaviour change.

The traditional engineering-led approach to delivering electricity and gas to our front doors is under stress. Local energy networks are driven, quite properly, by the need to maximise efficiencies in distribution and manage key assets (pipes, cables, sub-stations, pumps, etc) as effectively as possible. However, increasing demands upon ageing local infrastructure and changing energy source profiles, mean that future efficiencies in energy distribution and asset management will arguably be determined more and more by the quality of relationships between the distributors (DNOs / GDNs) and local communities / stakeholders. In this scenario, how can communities themselves shape consumption behaviours and collaborate creatively in the integration and optimisation of local energy demand and distribution systems? How could harnessing local social capital and the inherent ‘power of communities’ benefit the design and management of energy assets?

Positive Neighbourhood Benchmarking

We are good at benchmarking how poorly many communities across the UK are performing. We are not so good at recognising positive community-led change in local quality of life.

Knowing where any particular community or neighbourhood sits on a scale of relative (dis)advantage is important in determining where public intervention and social investment needs to be prioritised. Composite statistical measures, for example the Index of Multiple Deprivation, are invaluable in this respect. Equally important, arguably, is an understanding of how local communities / neighbourhoods – especially relatively disadvantaged ones – are changing and improving over time. The aspiration to achieve ‘sustainable, community-led regeneration’ typifies both the ‘bottom up’ and ‘top down’ perspectives on socio-economic change – on one hand addressing market failure to reduce the need for compensating public expenditure and on the other empowering positive change and improving perceived quality of life for residents. How can we effectively benchmark local communities to both incentivise and focus positive change and to re-inforce enterprising behaviours and relative achievements at the neighbourhood level?