10259 research outputs found
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Understanding Society: Waves 1-15, 2009-2024: Special Licence Access, Wellbeing Acorn
No full textAbstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.Understanding Society (the UK Household Longitudinal Study), which began in 2009, is conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex, and the survey research organisations Verian Group (formerly Kantar Public) and NatCen. It builds on and incorporates, the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), which began in 1991.This dataset contains Wellbeing Acorn geodemographic segmentation codes (group and type) for each household in every wave of Understanding Society, together with a household identification number (hidp) allowing it to be linked to the main Understanding Society data files. The dataset is produced by matching the Wellbeing Acorn segmentation against every Understanding Society household at the postcode level.
The Wellbeing Acorn segmentation system itself is developed and maintained by CACI Ltd and is designed by analysing demographic data, social factors, health and wellbeing characteristics in order to provide an understanding of the population’s wellbeing across the country. Group is the higher layer containing 5 segments providing a snapshot of the population from the least healthy to the healthiest. The more granular level is Type, containing 25 segments, to provide more detailed insights about the population to better understand their demographic, lifestyle and health characteristics. For details on the Acorn segmentation structure and how is it is produced please refer to the documentation and the Caci website.
These data have more restrictive access conditions than those available under the standard End User Licence (see 'Access study data' for more information).
Please see the Geographical Lookup Tables and Main Survey User Guide Geography documents for further details.
Latest Edition Information
For the 2nd edition (December 2025), Wave 15 data have been added, and the documentation has been updated.</p
UKFood Combined Dataset: Statistical Matching of the Living Costs and Food Survey with the National Diet and Nutrition Survey, 2018-2019
No full textAbstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The UKFood dataset provides a statistical match of the Living Costs and Food Survey (LCFS) and the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS), combining food purchases and expenditure at the household level with nutrient intake at the individual level. It was produced as part of the Imperial College Business School Fiscal INCentives for Health improvement: repurposing consumption taxes on food (FINCH) project (funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)). The LCFS is a nationally representative survey conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), designed to collect information on household spending patterns across the entirety of the UK. It is widely used to produce official UK family spending and food consumption statistics. In particular, the Food Family module (conducted by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) records participants' food and drink purchases in a two-week diary, documenting quantities, expenditures, and nutrients for over 500 types of food. The NDNS, funded by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and conducted by NatCen and the University of Cambridge MRC Epidemiology Unit), gathers detailed information on food and nutrient intake from a representative sample of the UK population. This project employed statistical matching techniques to merge individuals from LCFS and NDNS, utilising a set of common variables in both datasets to create a new dataset containing household food expenditure and individual nutrient intake data. A predictive mean matching imputation technique facilitates the fusion of the two datasets that include samples from the same representative population and share a suitable subset of common variables for the 2018/19 fiscal year. The UKFood dataset encompasses a rich array of sociodemographic characteristics, including household size, ethnicity, tenure, marital status, sex, age, socioeconomic classification (SEC), UK regions, and the number of children in the household. Importantly, it also includes a range of nutrients at both individual and household levels (such as energy (kcal), protein, fat, carbohydrate, and sugar), enabling comparisons of nutrient purchases and intakes for a representative sample of the UK. This new dataset supports analyses of the impacts of fiscal policies, which necessitates an assessment of both household expenditure and finances, as well as individual nutrient intakes.DocumentationThe UKFood User Guide, Raw Variables Guide and ReadMe file are available via the Documentation tab. The Stata do-file information and codebook file are available for download alongside the data files, by registered UKDS users.</p
Cannabis Africana: Drugs and Development in Africa, 2022-2024
No full textThe foundation of the Cannabis Africana project was pioneering and ethically rigorous fieldwork on insider perspectives of actors in the il/legal cannabis trade and its regulation. This was done through in-depth interviews with difficult to access market insiders and regulators in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe. We shared/archived a key component of this interview data in the form of redacted interview transcripts. Interviews were of diverse lengths, from a few minutes to up to 1.5 hours. Interviews used a general interview topic guide with open questions; but they explored different elements of this guide depending on the expertise of the interviewee. Due to geographical focus of the research, the archived transcripts are categoried by country of origin (Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe. In the four countries, interviews were conducted in different languages spoken by the local and international research teams, including Swahili, Yoruba and Tsonga. All interviews were translated and transcribed into English.Cannabis is ubiquitous in sub-Saharan Africa, with a long history interwoven with numerous groups' cultural practices, and increasingly a valuable economic commodity. Despite this, little is known of these roles, the predominant source of knowledge about the substance and its various uses being drawn from police and state sources. As a result, there is a lack of understanding about how cannabis is used and perceived - beyond its status as an 'illegal drug' - and what roles it plays in the lives of people in sub-Saharan Africa. The proposed research project will develop a deeper, more nuanced understanding of cannabis in Africa, focusing not only on its 'traditional' uses, but on its contemporary growth as an economic cash crop and source of livelihoods, in a global context where drug policy is in flux. To do this, the project focuses attention on four interrelated areas, all of which draw on newly gathered empirical data in 3 chosen sites: South-Western Nigeria, Western Kenya; South Africa's Eastern Cape.
First, an historical account serves as the foundation of the project, exploring the roles that cannabis has played in Africa's history, both in terms of governance and in the daily livelihoods of many of the continent's people. Drawing on fresh archival research and oral histories, the project aims to highlight the long history that cannabis has had and the lessons that can be drawn for current debates and perceptions of the substance. These debates and perceptions, it should be noted, are shifting in many countries in Africa today, with the submission of this proposal coming at a time at which South Africa is officially considering the legal status of cannabis in the courts.
Following on from this historical point of departure, the second focus of the proposed project aims to understand the contemporary socioeconomic roles of cannabis, its uses, the practices associated with it, and indeed, the meaning it holds for farmers, traders and consumers. This area of the project will explicitly explore cannabis' links to rural and urban livelihoods and so-called 'development' by drawing on evidence gathered through interviews and small scale surveys, which will be collected in 3 case study sites across the continent. The study will, for instance, gather the unheard voices of cannabis farmers who live in the remote Transkei area of South Africa or Nigeria's Cocoa Belt.
The third area that our research will focus on are the various cultures of consumption that exist around the substance. While the existing literature has hinted at these, they remain largely unexplored despite varying greatly between, for instance, the urban and rural contexts of the continent. As such, this part not only draws on the data of the above two, but also explores a wider corpus of cultural practices, discourses and products, such as music and fiction, in order to shed light on the meanings that cannabis has taken on, aside from being an 'illegal drug' over time in the 3 study sites.
Finally, the fourth area highlights the role of drug policy, focusing on the impact that regulatory environments have on the production, distribution and use of cannabis in the case-study sites. It will reveal how regulation and prohibition has impacted on the lives of people and their ability to enact their economic and cultural practices. The project provides a deeper understanding of the relationship between cannabis and policy towards it, probing the history of cannabis policy, with the aim of understanding and developing more effective and more just governance strategies today.
With its focus on cannabis and its illicit economies and cultures of consumption, the project will illuminate a substance of critical importance for the continent, filling a vast lacuna in our knowledge of drugs in Africa, and will tackle a key case-study of drugs and development, one made all the more important given the liberalisation of cannabis policies elsewhere in the world.</p
Growing Up in Scotland: Cohort 1: Sweep 9, 2017-2018: Special Licence Access
No full textAbstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The Growing Up in Scotland (GUS) study is a large-scale longitudinal social survey which follows the lives of several groups of Scottish children from infancy through childhood and adolescence. It aims to provide important information on children, young people and their families in Scotland. The study forms a central part of the Scottish Government's strategy for the long-term monitoring and evaluation of its policies for children and young people, with a specific focus on the early years. The study seeks both to describe the characteristics, circumstances and experiences of children in their early years in Scotland and, through its longitudinal design, to generate a better understanding of how children's start in life can shape their longer term prospects and developmentSince 2005 fieldwork has been undertaken by the Scottish Centre for Social Research. The survey design for Birth Cohort 1 consisted of recruiting the parents of an initial total of 5,217 children aged 10 months old in 2005 and interviewing them annually until their child reached age six. Further fieldwork was then undertaken at ages 8, 10, 12, 14 and 17-18 with a sample boost added at age 12.Data for sweeps 1-9 were collected via an in-home, face-to-face interview with self-complete sections. Fieldwork for sweep 10 was disrupted due to the COVID pandemic. As a result, the final portion of the data was collected via web and telephone questionnaires. Sweep 11 data were gathered via web, telephone and face-to-face surveys of cohort members and their parent/carer.Further information about the survey may be found on the Growing Up in Scotland website.In May 20205, data and documentation for Cohort 1, Sweeps 1-11 were released as individual studies (SNs 9373-9383 and 9386-9387). Previously they were held under one study (SN 5760) which has been withdrawn from the data catalogue.Main Topics:The main carer questionnaire covered the following topics:household informationnon-resident parents (NRP)schoolparentingactivitieschild health and developmentemploymenteducation and ethnicityreligion and languagesincome, expenditure and managing financiallyhousing and accommodationThe child self-completion CASI questionnaire covered the following topics:life satisfactionsupport (significant adult)health and wellbeing (health related quality of life and perception of own weight)hyperactivity/inattentionschoolfriendsrelationship with peersgoing online and using technological deviceschild behavioursrelationship with resident parentsaspirationsA self-completion PAPI (Pen and Paper Interview) questionnaire was completed with any resident partner of the main adult respondent.A topic overview covering all sweeps, is available on the GUS website.</div
Labour Force Survey Two-Quarter Longitudinal Dataset, October 2024 - March 2025
No full textAbstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.Background
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a unique source of information using international definitions of employment and unemployment and economic inactivity, together with a wide range of related topics such as occupation, training, hours of work and personal characteristics of household members aged 16 years and over. It is used to inform social, economic and employment policy. The LFS was first conducted biennially from 1973-1983. Between 1984 and 1991 the survey was carried out annually and consisted of a quarterly survey conducted throughout the year and a 'boost' survey in the spring quarter (data were then collected seasonally). From 1992 quarterly data were made available, with a quarterly sample size approximately equivalent to that of the previous annual data. The survey then became known as the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS). From December 1994, data gathering for Northern Ireland moved to a full quarterly cycle to match the rest of the country, so the QLFS then covered the whole of the UK (though some additional annual Northern Ireland LFS datasets are also held at the UK Data Archive). Further information on the background to the QLFS may be found in the documentation.
Longitudinal data
The LFS retains each sample household for five consecutive quarters, with a fifth of the sample replaced each quarter. The main survey was designed to produce cross-sectional data, but the data on each individual have now been linked together to provide longitudinal information. The longitudinal data comprise two types of linked datasets, created using the weighting method to adjust for non-response bias. The two-quarter datasets link data from two consecutive waves, while the five-quarter datasets link across a whole year (for example January 2010 to March 2011 inclusive) and contain data from all five waves. A full series of longitudinal data has been produced, going back to winter 1992. Linking together records to create a longitudinal dimension can, for example, provide information on gross flows over time between different labour force categories (employed, unemployed and economically inactive). This will provide detail about people who have moved between the categories. Also, longitudinal information is useful in monitoring the effects of government policies and can be used to follow the subsequent activities and circumstances of people affected by specific policy initiatives, and to compare them with other groups in the population. There are however methodological problems which could distort the data resulting from this longitudinal linking. The ONS continues to research these issues and advises that the presentation of results should be carefully considered, and warnings should be included with outputs where necessary.New reweighting policyFollowing the new reweighting policy ONS has reviewed the latest population estimates made available during 2019 and have decided not to carry out a 2019 LFS and APS reweighting exercise. Therefore, the next reweighting exercise will take place in 2020. These will incorporate the 2019 Sub-National Population Projection data (published in May 2020) and 2019 Mid-Year Estimates (published in June 2020). It is expected that reweighted Labour Market aggregates and microdata will be published towards the end of 2020/early 2021.
LFS Documentation
The documentation available from the Archive to accompany LFS datasets largely consists of the latest version of each user guide volume alongside the appropriate questionnaire for the year concerned. However, volumes are updated periodically by ONS, so users are advised to check the latest documents on the ONS Labour Force Survey - User Guidance pages before commencing analysis. This is especially important for users of older QLFS studies, where information and guidance in the user guide documents may have changed over time.
Additional data derived from the QLFS
The Archive also holds further QLFS series: End User Licence (EUL) quarterly data; Secure Access datasets; household datasets; quarterly, annual and ad hoc module datasets compiled for Eurostat; and some additional annual Northern Ireland datasets.
Variables DISEA and LNGLST
Dataset A08 (Labour market status of disabled people) which ONS suspended due to an apparent discontinuity between April to June 2017 and July to September 2017 is now available. As a result of this apparent discontinuity and the inconclusive investigations at this stage, comparisons should be made with caution between April to June 2017 and subsequent time periods. However users should note that the estimates are not seasonally adjusted, so some of the change between quarters could be due to seasonality. Further recommendations on historical comparisons of the estimates will be given in November 2018 when ONS are due to publish estimates for July to September 2018.
An article explaining the quality assurance investigations that have been conducted so far is available on the ONS Methodology webpage. For any queries about Dataset A08 please email [email protected].
Occupation data for 2021 and 2022 data filesThe ONS has identified an issue with the collection of some occupational data in 2021 and 2022 data files in a number of their surveys. While they estimate any impacts will be small overall, this will affect the accuracy of the breakdowns of some detailed (four-digit Standard Occupational Classification (SOC)) occupations, and data derived from them. Further information can be found in the ONS article published on 11 July 2023: Revision of miscoded occupational data in the ONS Labour Force Survey, UK: January 2021 to September 2022.2022 WeightingThe population totals used for the latest LFS estimates use projected growth rates from Real Time Information (RTI) data for UK, EU and non-EU populations based on 2021 patterns. The total population used for the LFS therefore does not take into account any changes in migration, birth rates, death rates, and so on since June 2021, and hence levels estimates may be under- or over-estimating the true values and should be used with caution. Estimates of rates will, however, be robust.Production of two-quarter longitudinal data resumed, April 2024In April 2024, ONS resumed production of the two-quarter longitudinal data, along with quarterly household data. As detailed in the ONS Labour Market Transformation update of April 2024, for longitudinal data, flows between October to December 2023 and January to March 2024 will similarly mark the start of a new time series. This will be consistent with LFS weighting from equivalent person quarterly datasets, but will not be consistent with historic longitudinal databefore this period.Main Topics:The two-quarter longitudinal datasets include a subset of the most commonly used variables from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), covering the main areas of the survey.<br
Commercial Victimisation Survey, 2023
No full textAbstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS) is a survey of the extent of crime and crime related issues experienced by business premises in England and Wales. It provides additional detail on the extent of crime to be used alongside the other main sources of information on crime. These are the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) (formerly the British Crime Survey), which covers crimes against private individuals and households, and the Police Recorded Crime statistics, which cover crimes reported to the police. In common with the CSEW, the CVS also includes crimes that are not reported to the police. The Police Recorded Crime data tables are available from the GOV.UK website.The CVS was previously run as a standalone survey in 1994 and again in 2002. The CVS was then run as an annual publication from 2012 onwards. A break occurred from 2019 to 2021 where CVS underwent a re-design following a consultation, where the coverage of the survey was expanded to cover all commercial business premises. A standalone CVS was run in 2021, covering only the Wholesale and Retail sector, to provide insights on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.Further information on the CVS, with links to findings by year, can also be found on the GOV.UK Crimes against businesses statistics webpage.This data collection is the 2023 iteration of the Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS), a survey of the extent of crime and crime related issues experienced by business premises in England and Wales. It provides additional detail on the extent of crime, to be used alongside the other main sources of information on crime. These are the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) (formerly the British Crime Survey), which covers crimes against private individuals and households, and the Police Recorded Crime statistics, which cover crimes reported to the police.
The CVS was previously run as a standalone survey in 1994 and again in 2002. The CVS was then run as an annual publication from 2012 onwards. A break occurred from 2019 to 2021 where CVS underwent a re-design following a consultation. A standalone CVS was run in 2021, covering only the Wholesale and Retail sector, to provide insights on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2022 onwards, the coverage of the survey has included all commercial business premises.
The 2023 CVS aims to estimate the extent and nature of crime affecting all commercial business premises in England and Wales. The data includes the prevalence and frequency of crime affecting business premises in England and Wales: as well as impacts on premises, crime prevention measures taken up by premises, experiences of the police, and attitudes to the police.Main Topics:Businesses were asked which of a number of types of crime they had experienced in the 12 months prior to being interviewed. For each one they had suffered, they were asked about the number of occasions they had been victim to that type of crime, the effect of it on their business and the cost of the most recent incident. The survey also asked respondents whether they had reported the incidents to the police; the extent of the losses suffered; their crime prevention precautions; and their concerns about problems of crime and antisocial behaviour in the local area.Prevalence of crime affecting business premises
Nature of crime experienced by premises
Implementation of crime prevention measures</ul
Digital Platforms and the Future of Urban Mobility: Metadata and Documentation, 2020-2023
No full textRelationships between (often private) digital mobility/transport platforms and cities and urban contexts have become better understood in recent years. Much work has focused on individual or small number of platforms and their relationship to a particular city or small numbers of cities. Less well-developed is i) understanding of what the implications of multiple (often dozens) of digital mobility/transport platforms are for existing metropolitan public transport systems and ii) for how urban and metropolitan public authorities can shape the platformisation of metropolitan public transport systems.
To build better understanding of these issues, the data collection strategy of this project involved 1) a programme of documentary analysis and 2) a programme of 74 semi-structured interviews. The documentary analysis involved documents grouped as: ‘Greater Manchester other case study material’; ‘Greater Manchester public authorities’; ‘Intermediaries, consultancies’, ‘Miscellaneous’, ‘National government and agencies’; ‘North East other case study material’; ‘North East public authorities’; ‘Platform providers’ (with sub-categories of: ‘Car-share and car clubs’; ‘DDRT’; ‘MaaS and journey planning’; ‘Micro-mobility’; ‘Public transport operational and RTI’; ‘Ride-hailing’; ‘Ticketing and payment); ‘Traditional transport providers’; ‘West Midlands other case study material’; ‘West Midlands public authorities’. Interviews were undertaken with multiple representatives within metropolitan transport authorities, including in areas of strategy and innovation, digital transformation, bus reform, future mobility, infrastructure, and ticketing, with national level policymakers, various platform companies, transport operators, local authorities and academics.Digital platforms are pervasive. In 2015 every one of the top ten trafficked US websites was a platform and platform businesses hold each of the top eight spots in Chinese web traffic rankings. Many platforms that are being experimented with appear to be reconfiguring urban services. That is to say, they are disrupting the ways in which urban services and systems such as mobility, energy, water and waste are currently organised.
Urban platforms pose challenges and opportunities for many areas of urban life. Here we focus on one domain of urban platforms, urban mobility, where a large number of platforms are emerging in different ways and to a variety of ends in particular places. These include, for example platforms that focus on ride-hailing (e.g. Uber), journey planning (e.g. CityMapper), on-demand bus services (Vamooz), mobile ticketing and fare management (JustRide), carpooling (Faxi), and bicycle sharing (BIXI).
While there is much debate about digital platforms in general as a macro phenomenon, much of this is 'place-blind' and consequently misses much of what is happening on the ground in different urban areas. The overarching aim of the research is to understand how digital mobility platforms are re-shaping city-regional transport systems and their governance - and what the geographical and social implications, opportunities and challenges of this are. To address this aim, the project has four objectives:
1. To critically analyse the various global trajectories of urban platform innovation and how they are imagined and organised;
2. To assess how knowledge and policy associated with these various urban platform innovation trajectories circulate between urban contexts;
3. To investigate how these trajectories combine and embed in city-regional contexts and with what implications for socio-spatial re-organisation;
4. To develop pathways to societal impact via city-regional transport strategy and policy and through wider public debate on urban transport policy and the future of urban mobility.
We plan to integrate the research findings into a contribution towards the overarching aim of the proposal, i.e. how and why global trajectories of urban platform innovation combine and embed in specific city-regional contexts. The integrated findings and how this can help us to anticipate the future of urban mobility, will be presented in a book-length monograph.
As well as having significant implications for academic debate, the proposed emphasis on mobility platforms and city-regional restructuring is equally significant to city-region transport strategy and policy development - especially given the fast changing and highly unpredictable characteristics of this innovation area. The UK national government recognises the future of mobility as a critical challenge and English city-regions and other sub-national areas as key places for 'fostering experimentation and trialling' (DfT, 2019). Through both its Industrial Strategy (IS) White Paper and its Future of mobility: urban strategy, Government seeks to position the UK as becoming a 'world leader' in shaping the future of mobility as we are 'on the cusp of a profound change in how we move people, goods and services around our towns, cities and countryside' (HM Government, 2017, p.48).
Those engaged in city-regional transport policy are faced with profound challenges about what the future of urban mobility looks like and require up to date, policy-relevant research that identifies current mobility patterns and how various new urban mobility service innovations may reconfigure these to meet strategic priorities and current and future mobility needs. Through building relationships with city-regional policymakers, addressing this research need has the potential to contribute to closing a knowledge gap for policy development.</p
Patronage, Elites and Power Relations, 2021-2022
No full textThis project explored systems of patronage within civil society and the connections between civil society, civic stratification and elite formation. It considered the origins and destinations of patrons in civil society organisations and institutions, as well as the significance of different educational institutions and occupational profiles in affording privileged access to elite positions within civil society. Interviews were conducted with patrons and trustees from a sample of diverse civil society organisations in Wales, with multiple patrons from each organisation profiled and interviewed.WISERD celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Over time it has grown into an international research institute that develops the next generation of research leaders. Our research brings together different disciplines (geographers, economists, sociologists, data scientists, political scientists) to address important issues for civil society at national and international levels. Our social science core provides a strong foundation for working with other disciplines including environmental science, engineering and medicine to transform our understanding and approaches to key areas of public concern. Our aim is to provide evidence that informs and changes policy and practice. This Centre will build on all previous WISERD research activities to undertake an ambitious new research programme. Our focus will be on the concept of civic stratification. This is a way of looking at divisions in society by focusing on the rights and obligations and practices of citizens and the role of civil society organisations in addressing inequalities in those rights and obligations. We will examine and analyse instances where people do not have the same rights as others (for example people who are migrants or refugees). We will also look at examples of people and groups working together within civil society to win new rights; this is referred to as civic expansion. Examples might include campaigns for animal rights or concerns about robots and Artificial Intelligence. We will investigate situations where people have the same rights but experience differences in their ability to access those rights; sometimes referred to as civic gain and civic loss (for example some people are better able to access legal services than others). Lastly, we will explore how individuals and groups come together to overcome deficits in their rights and citizenship; sometimes referred to as forms of civil repair. This might include ways in which people are looking at alternative forms of economic organisation, at local sustainability and at using new technologies (platforms and software) to organise and campaign for their rights. Our centre will deliver across four key areas of activity. First our research programme will focus on themes that address the different aspects of civic stratification. We will examine trends in polarization of economic, political and social rights, looking at how campaigns for rights are changing and undertaking case studies of attempts to repair the fabric of civil life. Second, we will extend and deepen our international and civil society research partnerships and networks and by doing so strengthen our foundations for developing further joint research in the future. Third, we will implement an exciting and accessible 'knowledge exchange' programme to enable our research and evidence to reach, involve and influence as many people as possible. Fourth, we will expand the capacity of social science research and nurture future research leaders. All our research projects will be jointly undertaken with key partners including civil society organisations, such as charities, and local communities. The research programme is broad and will include the collection of new data, the exploitation of existing data sources and linking existing sets of data. The data will range from local detailed studies to large cross-national comparisons. We will make the most of our skills and abilities to work with major RCUK research investments. We have an outstanding track record in maximising research impact, in applying a wide range of research methods to real world problems. This exciting and challenging research programme is based on a unique, long standing and supportive relationship between five core universities in Wales and our partnerships with universities and research institutes in the UK and internationally. It addresses priority areas identified by the ESRC and by governments and is informed by our continued close links with civil society organisations.</p
Trust, Human Rights and Civil Society Within Mixed Economies of Welfare, 2020-2021
No full textThis project examined the issues, progress and challenges facing Civil Society Organisations as they deliver, and shape, welfare and press for the advancement of human rights. We examined developments in domiciliary and community based adult social care. In particular, we explore policy developments and practice in Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland, looking to provide new insights into the territorialisation of welfare in the wake of devolution in the UK in 1998/9. In turn this tells us about the efficacy of different welfare mixes and policy divergence in a quasi-federal UK. The original data gathering associated with this work involves multiple semi-structured interviews with national and local third sector organisations concerned with social care delivery, complemented by interviews with regulatory and other state bodies. A key research question is: ‘how do third sector organisations perceive the issues, progress and challenges of their welfare delivery role?’. In the wake of the pandemic, we also sought practitioners’ views on the impact of the COVID-19 emergency on third sector organisations’ social care delivery and how responses were also shaped by the unique context found in each of the four nations.WISERD celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Over time it has grown into an international research institute that develops the next generation of research leaders. Our research brings together different disciplines (geographers, economists, sociologists, data scientists, political scientists) to address important issues for civil society at national and international levels. Our social science core provides a strong foundation for working with other disciplines including environmental science, engineering and medicine to transform our understanding and approaches to key areas of public concern. Our aim is to provide evidence that informs and changes policy and practice. This Centre will build on all previous WISERD research activities to undertake an ambitious new research programme. Our focus will be on the concept of civic stratification. This is a way of looking at divisions in society by focusing on the rights and obligations and practices of citizens and the role of civil society organisations in addressing inequalities in those rights and obligations. We will examine and analyse instances where people do not have the same rights as others (for example people who are migrants or refugees). We will also look at examples of people and groups working together within civil society to win new rights; this is referred to as civic expansion. Examples might include campaigns for animal rights or concerns about robots and Artificial Intelligence. We will investigate situations where people have the same rights but experience differences in their ability to access those rights; sometimes referred to as civic gain and civic loss (for example some people are better able to access legal services than others). Lastly, we will explore how individuals and groups come together to overcome deficits in their rights and citizenship; sometimes referred to as forms of civil repair. This might include ways in which people are looking at alternative forms of economic organisation, at local sustainability and at using new technologies (platforms and software) to organise and campaign for their rights. Our centre will deliver across four key areas of activity. First our research programme will focus on themes that address the different aspects of civic stratification. We will examine trends in polarization of economic, political and social rights, looking at how campaigns for rights are changing and undertaking case studies of attempts to repair the fabric of civil life. Second, we will extend and deepen our international and civil society research partnerships and networks and by doing so strengthen our foundations for developing further joint research in the future. Third, we will implement an exciting and accessible 'knowledge exchange' programme to enable our research and evidence to reach, involve and influence as many people as possible. Fourth, we will expand the capacity of social science research and nurture future research leaders. All our research projects will be jointly undertaken with key partners including civil society organisations, such as charities, and local communities. The research programme is broad and will include the collection of new data, the exploitation of existing data sources and linking existing sets of data. The data will range from local detailed studies to large cross-national comparisons. We will make the most of our skills and abilities to work with major RCUK research investments. We have an outstanding track record in maximising research impact, in applying a wide range of research methods to real world problems. This exciting and challenging research programme is based on a unique, long standing and supportive relationship between five core universities in Wales and our partnerships with universities and research institutes in the UK and internationally. It addresses priority areas identified by the ESRC and by governments and is informed by our continued close links with civil society organisations.</p
Parenting Pre-Schoolers With Avid Appetites: Understanding Differential Susceptibility to Obesogenic Environments for Future Intervention Efficacy, 2021-2024
No full textThe APPETItE data comprises a multiple mixed methods approach, including an online survey of feeding practices and perceptions of child food approach behaviours, a qualitative study of parents’ experiences of feeding children with avid appetites, an ecological momentary assessment study to capture emotion and feeding practice across time and context, as well as a randomized controlled experiment to examine effects of feeding practice on child food intake. Types of data: Data generated were both quantitative and qualitative. New data were generated by a survey, interviews, ecological momentary analysis, experimental laboratory methods, and co-creation methods. All pre-registrations, data, data dictionaries and analysis code are openly available as soon as study papers are published at https://osf.io/r6789/Childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century, of major societal concern, placing children at high risk of diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers in adulthood. Typically, childhood obesity begins in infancy and early childhood, with 90% of children who have obesity at 3 years continuing to have overweight or obesity in adolescence. Understanding the factors which may help to prevent or reduce the risk of childhood obesity, and applying this understanding to develop effective interventions, is of key importance to solving this complex policy and practice challenge.
It is well established that a healthy home environment is protective against the development of obesity. However, some children are more vulnerable to the development of obesity than others, due to their genetic susceptibility to an environment where highly palatable food is plentiful and accessible. Children's appetite and eating behaviours link this genetic risk and the development of obesity. Children's appetite avidity is manifest in their 'food approach' behaviours, which have considerable heritability. Food approach behaviours include wanting to eat (or eating more) in response to the sight, smell or taste of palatable food, greater enjoyment of food, rapid eating, weaker sensitivity to internal cues of 'fullness', as well as eating in response to emotion. Parental feeding practices are a key component of the child's food environment and have the potential to exacerbate or minimise these food approach behaviours across time. However, it can be very difficult for parents of children with high food approach to manage their eating behaviour effectively, and parents report feeling powerless, frustrated and desperate for solutions. Therefore, whilst feeding practices are key intervention targets to change children's eating behaviour and child weight outcomes, there has been little evaluation of how feeding practices interact with children's food approach behaviours to predict eating behaviour and weight gain across time, or how feeding practices can be best tailored for children with high food approach behaviours to protect against the development of obesity. In this project, we will undertake the longitudinal analyses and experimental studies which are needed to disentangle these effects. We will use a wide range of methodologies to answer the questions in this study, including behaviour genetics, longitudinal studies, experimental laboratory studies, qualitative methods, questionnaire measures, and measures which assess children's eating behaviours and parental feeding practices in varied settings in real time. We will use a combination of existing cohort data and collection of novel data from children and families where children show high levels of food approach. Working with parents of children high in food approach behaviours, we will then use the knowledge we generate in those studies to co-develop recommendations for the future design of an intervention focused on parent feeding practices for children with high food approach behaviour.
We do not know what the best advice regarding feeding practice is for parents of children with avid appetites. In particular, we are lacking an evidence base for which feeding practices work best to protect such children from the development of overweight. Current public health advice regarding children's eating and weight is generic, ineffective, and does not tackle variability in children's appetite avidity, which makes behaviour change even more challenging for parents who struggle to manage their child's eating behaviour. Using current theory to inform complex intervention development, our research will examine how parents interact with their pre-school children with avid appetites in the food context, evaluate how these interactions predict short and long-term effects on obesogenic eating behaviour and develop recommendations for intervention.</p