Institute of Citizenship, Society and Change

The Institute benefits from a wide range of researchers from across the University. We are well placed to respond to urgent and profound questions concerning a sustainable future, relationships among individuals and communities, arts and culture, public institutions of health, welfare and security.

The Directors of the Institute are Professor Ulrike Zeshan, Professor Lynn Froggett, Professor John Whitton, and Professor Mark Dooris, with research backgrounds that reflect the cross-disciplinary nature of the Institute.

Overview

Citizenship, civil society and the public realm itself are currently in flux. These are affected by Brexit, austerity, a refugee crisis and mass migration, increase in global energy demand, climate change and environmental degradation, terrorism, violence against women and children, political instability and polarisation. We are doing research into how the future is to be imagined, who is to be included in any new settlement, and on what terms.

The Institute will respond to these new social challenges by working together across disciplines, generating new fields of enquiry, new questions and new responses. This Institute is made up of 13 research groupings drawn from across the University. Our researchers have been awarded nearly £6m in research funding, from sources including the EU Horizon 2020 programme, Big Lottery, public bodies, UK and European research councils, the Home Office, and local councils and trusts.

Aims and vision

Our aim:

The Institute aims to develop new ways of thinking about inequality, insecurity, diversity and fragmentation and building responsive services for sustainable communities. It will do this through:

Social justice and sustainability
Relationships, risks and safety
Community and the public realm

Our vision:

To produce high-quality research to address urgent questions for people and society
To recognise new political and global contexts
To advance wellbeing, public good, civil society, democracy and sustainability
To focus on impact and action
To pioneer distinctive and innovative methodological approaches

Measures of our success will be through:

Year on year growth in transdisciplinary research activity, grant capture, quality outputs and impact
International academic recognition as an Institute for addressing urgent questions regarding the future of society
International influence on policy and practice, by 2025, to achieve effective implementation of strategic solutions we have identified
A rich research environment that facilitates the growth of PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and early career researchers
Added value-enhancing student experience and community engagement

We will do this by:

‘Cross-pollinating’ ideas, skills, knowledge and resources across Centres and disciplines
Providing shared/pooled resources and advantages of scale
Providing ‘seedcorn funding’ for transdisciplinary ideas
Offering a peer review process and other assistance to support successful publication and bidding
Enabling a stronger projection to the outside world

Institute staff members

Christine Barter - Reader in young people and violence prevention, CONNECT centre.
Michelle Baybutt - Reader in Sustainable Health and Justice.
Helen Codd - Principal Lecturer, The School of Law and Social Science / Centre for Criminology & Criminal Justice.
Emily Cooper – Lecturer in Human Geography.
Deborah Crook – Research Fellow, The Centre for Children and Young People’s Participation
Sharon Doherty - Healthy University Co-ordinator.
Mark Dooris - Professor in Health and Sustainability.
Isabela Fairclough - Critical Discourse Analysis / Research Unit for Speech and Language.
Alan Farrier - Researcher, Healthy & Sustainable Settings Unit.
Adrian Friend – Professor of Architecture
Lynn Froggett - Professor of Psychosocial Welfare.
Jo Guiver - Researcher and Management School Sustainability Lead.
John Horne - Professor of sport and sociology.
Erik Knudsen - Professor, Faculty Director of Research in the Faculty of Culture and Creative Industries
Cath Larkins - Professor, Director, The Centre for Children and Young People’s Participation.
Champika Liyanage - Professor in Facilities Management.
Julian Manley - Social Innovation Manager, Centre for SME and Enterprise Development.
Mick Mckeown - Professor of Democratic Mental Health
David Morris - Professor of Mental Health, Inclusion and Community.
Hugh Ortega-Breton – Senior Research Assistant, Psychosocial Research Unit.
Nick Palfreyman - Leverhulme Trust Research Fellow, International Institute for Sign Languages and Deaf Studies (iSLanDS).
Ioan M. Charnley-Parry - Researcher, Energy and Society Research Group.
Ioannis Prinos - Social Innovation Researcher
Julie Ridley - Reader in Social Policy and Practice.
Rachel Robbins - Guild Senior Research Fellow. Social Work / CONNECT centre.
Alastair Roy - Professor of Social Research
Candice Satchwell - Professor of Literacies and Education.
Helen Spandler - Professor of Mental Health Studies.
Nicky Stanley - Professor of Social Work, Co-Director, CONNECT Centre.
Nigel Thomas - Emeritus Professor of Childhood and Youth.
Tim Thornton - Professor of Philosophy and Mental Health.
Jiayi Wang - Principal Lecturer and Subject Leader for Chinese.
John Whitton - Director, UCLan Energy.
Gemma Wibberley - Research Fellow. Institute for Research into Organisations, Work and Employment.
Aidan Worsley - Professor & Executive Dean for Business, Law and Applied Social Studies.
Adrian Wright - Lecturer in Marketing and Public Relations.
Rick Wylie - UCLan Samuel Lindow Academic Director.
Ulrike Zeshan - Professor & Director, International Institute for Sign Languages and Deaf Studies (iSLanDS).

Publications and outputs

Baybutt, M., Dooris, M. and Farrier, A. (2018) Growing Health in Prison Settings. Health Promotion International. doi: 10.1093/heapro/day037.

Bennett, T., Wibberley, G. and Jones, C. (2019) The Legal, Moral and Business Implications of Domestic Abuse and its Impact in the Workplace. Industrial Law Journal, 48 (1). pp. 137-142. ISSN 0305-9332.

Chantler, K., Robbins, R, Baker, V. and Stanley, N. (2019). Learning from Domestic Homicide Reviews in England and Wales, Health and Social Care. https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.12881.

Durosaiye, Isaiah Oluremi, Hadjri, Karim and Liyanage, Champika Lasanthi (2019) A critique of post‑occupancy evaluation in the UK. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 34 (1). pp. 345-352. ISSN 1566-4910.

Fairclough, I. (2019). Deontic power and institutional contexts: The impact of institutional design on deliberation and decision-making in the UK fracking debate. Journal of Argumentation in Context 8(1): 138-173.

Farrier, A., Baybutt, M. & Dooris, M. (2018) Mental Health and Wellbeing Benefits from a Prisons Horticultural Programme. International Journal of Prisoner Health. doi: 10.1108/IJPH-11-2017-0055.

Farrier, A., Baybutt, M. and Dooris, M. (2019) Mental health and wellbeing benefits from a prisons horticultural programme, International Journal of Prisoner Health, 15(1): 91-104. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPH-11-2017-0055.

Froggett, L., Manley, J. Smith, M., and Roy, A. (Eds) (2019) Social Work and the Visual Imagination: Seeing with the Mind’s Eye. London: Routledge.

Hardman, M., Adams, M., Barker, M., & Beesley, L. (forthcoming 2019). Food for all? Critically evaluating the role of the Incredible Edible movement in the UK. In: Certomà, C., Noori, S. & Sondermann, M (eds) Urban gardening and the struggle for social and spatial justice. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 302-329.

Larkins C. (2019) Excursions as Corporate Agents: A critical realist account of children’s agency. Childhood 26(4) 414–429.

Larkins, C. and Wainwright, J. (2020) ‘If rich people gave more money to poor people’: Children’s perspectives on reducing offending and implications for social citizenship. Child and Youth Services Review 10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104702.

Long, S. and Manley, J. (Eds.) (2019). Social Dreaming: Philosophy, research, theory and practice. London: Routledge.

Reynolds, L (2019). ‘Émergence du secteur de l’énergie municipale au Royaume-Uni: modèles et enjeux’ in Douzou, Guyon & Luck ‘Les territoires de la transition énergétique’, Lavoisier, Paris ISBN : 978-2-7430-2443-7.

Rutherford, Benedict, Zerbian, Tanya, Dooris, Mark T and Froggett, Lynn (2023) Community Hubs in Lancashire and South Cumbria: Emergence, Development and Next Steps Research Project: Final Report. Project Report. UNSPECIFIED.

Sagara, K. and Palfreyman, N. (2020) Variation in the numeral system of Japanese Sign Language and Taiwan Sign Language: A comparative sociolinguistics study. Asia-Pacific Language Variation, 6 (1). ISSN 2215-1354.

Satchwell, C., Larkins, C., Carter, B. and Davidge, G. (2020) Making meaning through fictional writing with disadvantaged young people: stories as findings in collaborative research data analysis. Qualitative Research https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794120904892.

Shorrock, S.; McManus, M. & Kirby, S. (2019), 'Investigating the Characteristics of Vulnerable Referrals made to a Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs (MASH)'. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 13(2). Pp.201-212.

Shorrock, S.; McManus, M. & Kirby, S. (2020), 'Profile of repeat victimisation within multi-agency referrals'. International Review of Victimology. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0269758020902890.

Spandler, H. and Poursanidou, D. (2019) Who is included in the Mad Studies Project? The Journal of Ethics in Mental Health, 10. ISSN 1916-2405.

Wainwright J. and Larkins C. (2019) Race, ethnicity, young people and offending: the elephant in the room. Social Identities.

Whitton, J. and Charnley-Parry, I. (2019). Chapter 14 - The Long Hello: Energy Governance, Public Participation, and ‘Fracking’. In The Palgrave Handbook of Managing Fossil Fuels and Energy Transitions, Edited by Geoffrey Wood and Keith Baker. ISBN:978-3-030-28075-8. Springer Nature.

Woods, A, Hart, A and Spandler, H. (2019) The Recovery Narrative: Politics and possibilities of a genre. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry. ISSN 0165-005X.

Zeshan, U. and Palfreyman, N. (2020) Comparability of signed and spoken languages: Absolute and relative modality effects in cross-modal typology. Linguistic Typology. ISSN 1430-0532.

Projects

News and events

Parenting and intimate partner violence guest seminar

21 July 2020 – online

Professor Rebecca Macy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA, presented her webinar as part of our Connect Centre online seminar series.

UCLan seeks community partners to work on social change projects

24 May 2019

The Institute brings together experts in many areas that affect modern society; including environmental crisis, poverty, inequality and social exclusion. Interested parties are invited to work collaboratively with the researchers on developing practical projects to tackle a variety of issues, with the Institute using its expertise to apply for funding from a variety of external sources. More information about the Institute’s launch event, its aims and how you can get involved can be found here.

Research seminar with Professor Paul Willis

18 November 2019 UCLan Preston campus.

Prof. Paul Willis is the author of many foundational works, including Learning to Labour, Profane Culture and The Ethnographic Imagination. In this seminar, Paul briefly reviews his intellectual formations over many years and explains his notions of, and approaches to, 'Cultural Autonomy' and 'Cultural Production'. He explains how they were applied to his recent research in China, it's astonishing cultural change and flux and how new cultural forces and interests interact in student experience, alongside the ancient disciplinary Chinese school.

Institute away days

16 April 2018 (Gujarat Art Centre, Preston) and 18 June 2018 (Tickled Trout Hotel, Preston).

Both away days provided members an opportunity to get to know one another and each other’s research interests. An update of Institute activities has been provided at each event, with these updates focusing upon the work the Institute is doing to ensure a transdisciplinary research culture is created within UCLan. By creating an inclusive environment, the role of the Institute has become much clearer, with members identifying potential transdisciplinary research projects and developmental opportunities. The Institute now aims to build upon the ideas to emerge from the away days.

New directions in researching with children training

14 June 2018, Tickled Trout Hotel, Preston.

The training was led by Dr. Amanda Bingley (Lancaster University) and Dr. Virginia Morrow (University of Oxford). Amanda demonstrated the role of creative play as a means of communication, whilst Virginia discussed the ethical challenges of conducting research with children. The event was well attended, with participant feedback illustrating the relevancy and usefulness of the training:

“The speakers complimented each other and were equally engaging from their own area of specialism. Excellent and loved that it was a manageable number of people”.

“It was good to hear other people’s views on conducting ethical research”.

Systematic review training

19 and 20 June 2018, UCLan.

A two-day systematic review training workshop, held at UCLan, was delivered by the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-Ordinating (EPPI) Centre. The EPPI Centre’s training is specifically designed for social scientists, with their training having a high global reputation. Day one of the training consisted of a general introduction to systematic reviews, with meta-analysis being covered during day two. The training was advertised to academic staff and PhD students, with participants enjoying the style, length and content of the sessions.

“Amazing workshop facilitated by extremely knowledgeable people”.

“This two-day workshop was invaluable for my further development”.

Sustainability research workshop

4 July 2018, Cotton Court, Preston.

Following on from the Institute’s second away day, it was identified that sustainability was a strong theme amongst members. To help develop member’s interest in this area, a one-day research workshop was organised to discuss complex questions around sustainability and social change. During the day, high quality discussions and exchanges occurred, with research interests and capacities spanning numerous areas, including food, health, transport, energy and the built environment. The potential for a sustainability themed film seminar series and a regular sustainability research group meeting was also discussed.

Climate resilience, social justice and COVID-19 recovery in Preston
The ‘Climate Resilience, Social Justice and COVID-19 Recovery in Preston’ project explored, both conceptually and with stakeholders from Preston’s anchor institutions and diverse communities, how disruption from one threat might galvanise momentum to address another.
Dr Ursula Pool and Dr John Scanlan have been working with a consortium of local partners, in West Cumbria, to develop an Arts Council England bid - ‘Creative People and Places’.
Wednesday 26 January 2022
Children and young people are seldom taken seriously as experts on their own lives, particularly those who are marginalised due to disability, economic or social circumstances.
Wednesday 6 October 2021
In the United Kingdom, Europe and Japan, research led by children and young people and members of the universities Centre for Children and Young People’s Participation, has informed and changed public policy regarding children and young people’s rights.
Wednesday 11 August 2021
In 1995, the University of Central Lancashire became one of the first universities to establish a Healthy University initiative.
Wednesday 11 August 2021
The Research team led by Professor Nicky Stanley as part of the Connect Centre for International Research on Interpersonal Violence and Harm, established in 2013, focuses on how to prevent and respond to violence and abuse in the lives of young people and children.
Wednesday 11 August 2021