Welcome. This website comprises mostly Hilary's sociological papers and articles about patriarchy, (gendered) harmful practices (e.g. female genital mutilation / FGM) and thoughts on science, health, environmental issues, sociological analysis, social policy and good practice.
BURA’s Framework For Regeneration
The British Urban Regeneration Association’s Framework for Regeneration sets six criteria by which to assess the various political parties’ proposals for regeneration. A long and serious conversation about regeneration and sustainability is now required. Already, BURA has published responses to the recent Labour Government’s Budget, and the Conservatives’ paper on Big Society not Big Government.
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Deprivation Is Not The Same As Dysfunction
A political debate is developing about how to tackle ‘dysfunctional communities’ after the general election. Discussing how to improve things for people in ‘disadvantaged’ or even so-called ‘deprived’ locations is one thing, and many of us have made this the focus of attention over the past decade or three. But the repair of ‘dysfunctional’ communities is another matter – not least because this concept is desperately negative and is unfair to the decent majority.
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World Water Day – Too Big To Handle?
Monday 22 March 2010 is World Water Day, the annual date selected by UN-Water to remind us of the fundamental part water plays in all our lives. This year’s theme is Clean Water for a Healthy World.
Can there be any more pressing issue? Without clean water people die needlessly from horrible illnesses, without water at all they starve. But does all this have much influence on how we lead our lives in the western world?
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The Big WHY?
There’s an awful lot of advice out there at the moment, about how to cope with / take advantage of / simply survive the new economic and social climate (not to mention the environmental one) which we are assured we now all face. Well, I’m sure it’s true that things are changing, but my guess is it’s less certain that we actually know in what way or ways.
Is it time to shift the vantage point a little, and ask more often not just How?, but also Why?
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Knowledge, The New Currency In Regeneration
From regeneration to sustainability: A Northern take on knowledge ~ Knowledge is a neglected commodity in regeneration. It can be seen as the ‘new currency’ — the element in modern society which very largely distinguishes the empowered from the disempowered. But while much attention is paid to developing sustainable communities, very little is paid to the flow and accumulation or acquisition of knowledge or knowledges which might inform their settings and empower them.
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How do ‘evidence’ and ‘policy’ fit together? It’s one thing to hope the evidence will tell us what to do; it’s another to persuade everyone else that the logic of how to resolve a given situation is so compelling.
Evidence-based policies are a great idea; but different people ask for different sorts of evidence. And policy makers can only deliver what electors will accept. There’s a dialogue challenge here somewhere.
1968 And All That: The Tale Of A Jobbing Sociologist
Sociology as a discipline in the UK was shaping up during the 1960s; but there was still an air of mystery about the whole thing when I chose to study it. There was then no clear role model on which to base expectations. The discipline has however served me well ever since. For most of my working life I’ve been what might be called a Jobbing Sociologist. I wrote this account of my experiences for the BSA ‘Sociologists Outside Academia’ newsletter.
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The Economist Debate: Keynes Vs. The Free Market
The Economist magazine has had an online debate on the proposition that ‘We’re all Keynesians now’. The outcome was not encouraging. By two-to-one that idea was rejected in favour of the free-market. Perhaps some economists haven’t yet learnt that the current day physical realities of the contexts keep shifting, and that the science of human behaviour is ultimately an art, depending on facts but also feelings.
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Can Liverpool’s Arts And Culture Businesses Thrive Post-2008?
The Liverpool Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) represents all sectors of business in the city – including those who work in arts and culture. A current Chamber concern is therefore to maintain and promote the gains made during the city’s 2008 European Capital of Culture Year by Liverpool’s creative, arts and culture sectors. To promote this agenda, the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce and Industry has an LCCI Members’ Council has an Arts and Culture Committee, of which I am the founding chair.
Was Liverpool A Truly Inclusive Capital Of Culture In 2008?
Liverpool has made much of its community engagement programme during the city’s European Capital of Culture year, in 2008. But when does engagement become genuine social inclusion? Does inclusion require empowerment as well as contact? Or is the underlying emphasis on increasing tourism to bolster the local economy enough?
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La Princesse, a gigantic metal spider, came to Liverpool in early September 2008. This monster brought huge crowds to Liverpool’s city centre, as it enacted its story of ‘scientists’ and adventure.
There to attract ‘cultural tourism’ business to the city, at almost two million pounds one hopes this was a success. Whether, as claimed, it also engaged people successfully in ‘culture’ is also uncertain: at some point real cultural engagement surely also involves empowerment.
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Liverpool ’08: Cultural Turn Or Cultural Tourism?
The Architectural Association, London hosted a debate on Friday 5 December ’08 about Liverpool. Consequent upon the issue of Architectural Review earlier in the year about that city, the speakers at this seminar were asked by architect Brian Hatton, a staff lecturer at the AA, to consider whether Liverpool has experienced a Cultural Turn.
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If Only Scientists Could Remember… Science Has Its Responsibilities: My Piece In ‘Research Forum’
Research Forum has this week, 5 November 2008, carried an analysis (including an article by me) of A Vision for Science and Society, which DIUS, the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills launched on 18 July and concluded on 17 October. The debate is by no means over. This is a conversation which has as yet a way to run.
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PHSE Becomes Core Curriculum – At Last!
After much debate the Government has finally announced that Personal, Health and Social Education (PHSE) will be compulsory in schools at a level appropriate to each child’s age. This decision has been generally welcomed. But only a few years ago some of us, as educators, were still battling to save this entitlement and embed it into the curriculum.
DIUS Science And Society Consultation
The UK Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills has just conducted a consultation on Science and Society. What follows is a version of my submission to DIUS on this subject, covering issues such as the role of scientists in the service of government, the use of social science, the need to develop regional science strategies, engagement and stakeholding, the iterative way science evolves in its inevitably social context/s, and how different sorts of people feel about and become active (or not) in this process.
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From Regeneration To Sustainability: A Northern Take On Knowledge (& Knowledge Ecology)
This is a version of a Keynote Lecture delivered at the NUREC 2008 conference, in Liverpool on 28 July 2008. In it we explore the connections between Knowledge Economies and Ecologies, and Big Science and Regeneration (especially in regional and sub-regional settings such as the Daresbury Laboratories) and in respect of Sustainability. My thesis is that Knowledge is not yet recognised for the fundamental resource it surely is.
A similarly focused paper – ‘Knowledge: The new currency in regeneration’ – exploring further the ideas developed here, was published in the Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal in September 2009.
Regeneration Rethink: Acknowledging Equality And Diversity
Regeneration is a crowded field. It’s the market place to resolve the competing demands of social equity indicators as varied as joblessness, family health, carbon footprint, religious belief and housing. But it’s obvious something isn’t gelling in the way regeneration ‘works’. Could that something be the almost gratuitous neglect of experiential equality and diversity?
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Communities And The Public Realm: Places For People
If anything belongs to ‘the people’, it is surely the streets where we live and work. Streets are usually owned by the public authorities who exist to serve our interests.
But where are the civic procedures to reflect this common ownership in renewing or developing the public realm? And who and where are the ‘communities’ which must be consulted?
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Investment in scientific programmes often has added socio-economic value. But there is little evidence that good indices are available to measure what this impact might be for large-scale scientific regionally-based development. Whilst private investors guard their capital with care, only rarely do the criteria for evaluation of Big Science proposals include adequate consideration of the wider impact of public funds invested.
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BURA’s Regeneration Equality And Diversity Network Has Lift-Off
Today (20 February 2008) saw the formal launch of the British Urban Regeneration Association (BURA)’s Equality and Diversity Framework and Network. The event, at the Abbey Community Centre in Westminster, was attended by people from across the regeneration world, and produced much discussion about how BURA and its partners could move forward.
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Hilary Burrage 