UCL Policy Lab ’s Post

New from UCL Policy Lab comes 'Ordinary Hope: A Mission to Rebuild'. The publication brings together policy proposals in each of the government’s missions. It features Nick Plumb's essay on empowering communities to play a bigger role in delivering growth. Read it here 👇 https://lnkd.in/egr3RGi4

If you want to boast about world-renowned British culture and heritage in 21st century, you need to fund the arts and engage #youngpeople with it. Words of wisdom? Don’t think so. A damning report by the Campaign for the Arts and University of Warwick show, among other things: 🇪🇺UK has the 4th lowest arts funding among 25 European countries 📚 Funding for public libraries —a crucial access route to arts resources for many— has *more than halved* during 14 years of Tory government 📉 Massive employment inequality across the country, with more than 2.5x difference in earnings between North East and London, and median earning being below the median income in every region but London. 👧🏽 👦🏼 … and closest to my heart (and research): 1 in 2 children don’t engage with music or dance, with the number arts teachers and students declining by 23-47%. This is no surprise given arts isn’t considered a ‘strategically important’ subject by the government. But time and again, research shows the invaluable benefits of #arts from #physicalhealth and #wellbeing to personal & community #socialconnections. Why do governments overlook this evidence? Will Labour do any better? Cant wait to find out!! Full report here: https://lnkd.in/e8ydsxuA And kudos to my arts partners for carrying on their great work in this climate Freedom Foundation, Body Politic 🙌

Important to have a basic concept to guide recovery. It will have to be realistic and pragmatic with defined goals and everyone contributing. Change must involve all sectors to improve the situation. South Africa have lots of potential and wonderful people.

🚨 Do you think that citizens are more likely to approve of political decisions when a citizens' assembly was involved rather than experts? 🏛 Citizens' assemblies are being used more often and in many countries. That's why we thought that it would be important to find out how their involvement affects how citizens see policy decision. My (extremely talented!) PGT student Ben Heath and I analysed this question with a pre-registered conjoint experiment in the UK. The findings raise important questions about the impact of citizens' assemblies. 1️⃣ Citizens do not necessarily view policy decisions more positively when a citizens' assembly was involved in the decision making. 2️⃣ What matters most is whether citizens like a decision; if they do not like a policy decision, the process that generated it matters little. 3️⃣ We still need a better understanding of their strengths and limitations. This understanding is essential for an effective implementation. 📙 We found much more. Let us know if you are interested in the full results. We are happy to share a coauthored paper. 📬 What do you think about citizens' assemblies? Tell us! 🙏 Also, be sure to hire Ben Heath! He's got an exceptional skill set. It is a real pleasure to collaborate with him; we just submitted a coauthored manuscript to a journal. #democracy #citizens #politics #deliberation #politicalscience #research #findings #pgt #studentresearch #exeter #university #policymaking #publicadministration University of Exeter University of Exeter News Exeter Students' Guild

In the final report of our Decision 2024 series, our authors explore the loss of public confidence in institutions and the impact that has on the future of the nation’s democratic system. This report identifies the challenges public institutions face, the threats to society when trust in those institutions is diminished or lost, and how confidence in them can be restored. Read the full report via the link below. https://lnkd.in/dwFREJib

FG is probably the most unexamined party in Ireland; its origins and its evolution. We have consistently traded in the idea that flawed pedigree best describes FF legacy in Ireland. Leo's statement yesterday is indeed personal/political. In a party described by one historian as possessing an internal 'identity crises' and today one journalist quips 'I could not find anyone to stab me in the back, therefore I fell on my sword' re Leo. At the time Leo was in education at Trinity, we were nearing the end of the Clinton era and qualified in his discipline as Obama was starting his first term, and the Blair era passed the baton to Brown Labour, and the beginnings of the long term Tory rule in the UK into the present. The patterns in the UK is now very much reclaiming the enlightenment philosophy of Gordon Brown et al, and not that far removed from how Simon Harris is being backed, by many forms of individualist transcendence as the only show in town, worthy of merit for Facing The Rising Sun (McGahern). Many are reading the revitalisation/renaissance virtue revival in the signs across Europe in micro credential learnings and meritocracy as game changing and heavy hitting change. 'The Rose in the Cross of the Present' FG reconnaissance thinking is in back peddling mode; trying to reclaim its distinctive signature, more fulsomely. Once again, our national broadcaster is manifesting its depletion of resources. And its true, the spherical legacy cannot be decoupled from both the valence of the familiar, and the recent educational/economic legacy can often be weightless and/or conveniently forgets, to suit marketed sectoral advancement.

"There’s a great convergence it seems to me between the worlds of policy, of research and innovation and it’s applications. It’s very important that things are both discussed but also determined together, so the launch of the network will help that enormously." We heard from Greg Clark MP, Chair of the House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee about the value of collaborations between policymakers and academics, as he welcomed the launch of Surrey Policy Network. Watch the video in full here: https://lnkd.in/e-TWZzig Visit our webpage and join the network: https://lnkd.in/e4UJRhHW #policyengagement #impact #evidencebasedpolicy

Interested to see the Local Trust, Sheffield Hallam University and Demos competition asking for policy ideas that would turn "the most socially and economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods in England into thriving communities". There's a lot to be said but here's my humble entry in just 25 words of the permitted 2500: 1.     Redistribute through taxation alongside a universal basic income; 2.     Invest in local government innovation, subsidiarity and autonomy; 3.     Work with communities through enabling relationships and connections; 4.     Repeat. The point being that neighbourhoods struggling the most need a lot more than policy changes within the current political guardrails to become 'thriving communities'. I hope innovative and interesting ideas rooted in excellent existing practice comes forward. I fear that rhetoric on radical change and transformation needs to be set against a history of austerity and economic inequality. See the comp here: https://lnkd.in/eVf4tDCR

Equality is about making everyone the same, it assumes that our circumstance are all the same and hence is maintains the status quo. Maintaining the status quo is what the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland & the Human Rights Commission have done since being established on 1st October 1999. Imagine putting a PUL with no Irish or any knowledge of Irish as Commissioner for the Irish language. Thats what happens to race commission. Look at the poor state of race relations in Northern Ireland. It’s shameful. The state of Race Equity & Inclusion in Ireland and UK. Many people know that the vast majority of PUL & CNR communities don’t have race or cultural or the necessary competency skills, how do we know this, because it is not taught in school and at home. Recent meeting with senior civil servants have confirmed that these competency skills are not a priority. Racism is now a bigger problem than Sectarianism and still the politicians from the PUL & CNR know this and have chosen to do nothing, but pay lip service. Yet we live in a post conflict society with a history of violence, colonialism and exploitation. Northern Ireland society is a society riddled with complex trauma. Most people are unaware how this trauma plays out. #togetherwearestrong #unityindiversity #healing #EDIT for success

Pesch, U. (2021). Institutions of justice and intuitions of fairness: contesting goods, rules, and inequalities. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 27(2), 95–108. https://lnkd.in/giNXurzH ABSTRACT: This paper examines the intrinsic relationship between institutions and social justice. Its starting point is that processes of institutionalization invoke societal groups to articulate justice demands which, in their turn, give rise to processes of institutional redesign. In liberal democracies, demands for justice are articulated as a pursuit for emancipation and empowerment of groups that feel excluded by dominant categorizations. The imminent presence of this twin pursuit for justice can be explained by the conceptual inconsistencies that characterize the distinction between the public and private spheres. These inconsistencies also explain why demands for emancipation and empowerment are intrinsically ambiguous and inconsistent. To reconsider the question of how institutions are to be adapted to allow for social justice while acknowledging the plurality, ambiguity, and volatility of justice demands, the paper will propose an empirical and normative research agenda. KEYWORDS: Justice, fairness, equality, institutions, public/private distinction