We fund research to understand the role of community and place in economic, social, physical and emotional well-being in the UK. We want to understand how policy and practice interventions related to community may address disadvantage.
We are interested in how social capital and other attributes enable a community to function effectively, and how this affects the outcomes of individuals and families living in those communities. This includes how people’s well-being is affected by issues of trust and confidence and by their interactions with different localities, structures, systems and institutions.
Our research into community seeks to understand how communities either reduce or reinforce discrimination, diversity, disadvantage and inequalities. We want to explore both communities rooted in place and those made up of broader trans-local or virtual networks of relationships.
Our impact in community
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The Government Office for Science drew on research from the Beyond Us and Them project which studied community connections during the pandemic and has made a wealth of data available to researchers. Findings highlight the importance of engaging local communities when developing and delivering services.
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Analysing data from 100 countries, research led by Dr Miguel Ramos finds individuals experience a dip in quality of life in response to increases in religious diversity, associated with reduced trust. However, quality of life returns to initial levels over time. The initial negative effect on well-being is fully cancelled out by the positive effect of mixing with members of different groups.
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Research led by David Philips at the IFS highlighted that council tax bills and local authority funding arrangements are arbitrary and unfair. The researchers concluded that revaluation and reform of council tax could be part of the ‘levelling up’ agenda, and could help the poor, young and disabled.
