Sanctions, Support and Behaviour Change: Understanding the Role and Impact of Welfare Conditionality
IHURER, in collaboration with four other UK universities, has been awarded an ESRC large grant to conduct a major study on the efficacy and ethicality of conditional welfare policies. The use of conditional welfare arrangements that combine elements of sanction and support in order to influence the behaviour of welfare recipients is an established element within welfare, housing, criminal justice and immigration policies. This five year research project creates a collaborative, international and interdisciplinary focal point for social science research on welfare conditionality by establishing an original and comprehensive evidence base across a range of social policy fields and diverse groups of welfare service users.
The study, led by Professor Peter Dwyer, University of York, will be informed by a comprehensive review of relevant academic literature, statistical data sources and policy documents, an international expert seminar series and consultation workshops with welfare service users and practitioners. The main fieldwork components comprise:
40 semi-structured interviews with ‘elite’ policy makers and actors.
24 focus groups (each with 6-10 respondents) with frontline welfare practitioners who implement policy.
1,440 repeated qualitative interviews with a diverse sample of 480 welfare service users subject to welfare conditionality i.e. this longitudinal element of the study will involve interviewing each participant three times over a two-year period.
Fieldwork will be undertaken in a variety of urban locations in England and Scotland. Led by Professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick, the IHURER team on the project also involves Dr Sarah Johnsen, Dr Beth Watts and David Watkins. IHURER will be involved in all aspects of the project, with a particular focus on the conceptual, theoretical and normative aspects of the study.
UK Poverty Worst in 30 Years
On March 29th, the Poverty and Social Exclusion (PSE) Team, of which IHURER is a member, released its stark first findings. The study revealed that over half a million UK children and over 3.5 million adults cannot afford to eat properly, and one in three households lack several minimum necessities of life. These results are bleaker than in than in any of the three previous PSE surveys in 1983, 1990 and 1999. Aside from being the largest study of poverty and deprivation ever conducted in the UK, the PSE Survey is unique in that asked the public what they think should be part of a minimum standard of living and measures poverty accordingly.
Within the six university team, IHURER’s Professor Glen Bramley and Dr Kirsten Besemer are particularly responsible for local services, housing, neighbourhoods, education and financial inclusion, and the way poverty in Scotland differs from the rest of the UK.
The results of the PSE study were broadcast on ITV, Thursday, 28 March, in a special 'Tonight' programme on ‘Breadline Britain’, followed by dozens of articles in national and local newspapers, as well as coverage on BBC Radio Scotland. Speaking in the Herald Glen Bramley said, ""The situation is already serious, but it is set to get worse as benefit levels fall in real terms, as real wages continue a three year decline and as living standards are further squeezed,".
Further information on this study can be found on the PSE website
Housing and Poverty Over the Lifecourse
IHURER has been selected by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to conduct research on the links between housing and poverty over the lifecourse, as part of its Housing and Poverty Research Programme . Led by Professors Mark Stephens and Chris Leishman, the team will examine how the experiences of five cohorts of households have evolved since the early 1990s. It will then make projections for the next 25 years, taking into account changing labour markets, demography and tenure.
The team also includes Sheffield University academics Dr Alasdair Rae and Dr Ed Ferrari, who will be providing analysis on the spatial distribution of housing and poverty.
ENHR Conference Comes to Edinburgh
The European Network for Housing Research (ENHR) conference is coming to Edinburgh in 2014. IHURER led a bid on behalf of four Scottish universities and the Chartered Institute of Housing to bring the conference to Scotland for the first time since 1994. Housing Minister Margaret Burgess said, "I would like to congratulate you and your colleagues on this achievement. This is excellent news… I very much welcome this opportunity to showcase the achievements of Scottish housing policy and the research strengths of Scottish Universities."
The conference theme will be "Beyond Globalisation: remaking housing policy in a complex world" and the plenary sessions will be organised around the themes of People, Place, Money, Land and Home. It will also feature a special session devoted to Scottish housing policy. Chair of the conference committee, Mark Stephens, said "Edinburgh is a fantastic city for a conference. But we will also give delegates the opportunity to experience more of Scotland and are developing study tours for Glasgow and Dundee."
The conference will take place on 1-4 July, with a special event for doctoral students and early career researchers beginning on 30 June.
Professor Mark Stephens Inaugural Lecture - Date for your Diary
Professor Mark Stephens will deliver his inaugural lecture, 'After the Iron Curtain. Housing in Post-Socialist Europe' on Thursday 31 October 2013, from 4pm. Further details will be issued in due course.
IHURER Blog
In January, IHURER launched a blog to share news, publications and insights from on-going research projects. The IHURER Research and Policy Blog is visited over 1000 times a month from 80 different countries, and features weekly articles from IHURER staff and selected postgraduate students. Interested readers can sign up for updates by email.
PhD Scholarships
IHURER is looking forward to welcoming six new PhD students for the 2013/14 session following a successful call for scholarship applications. Two students will be working with Professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick on research linked to the ESRC large grant 'Sanctions, Support and Behaviour Change: Understanding the Role and Impact of Welfare Conditionality'. Two students will work with Dr Neil Dunse on topics relating to 'Sustainability and Commercial Property Values' and one will work with Professor Colin Jones on 'Green Energy and Economic Growth'. The final student, who was awarded a competitive scholarship through the ESRC Scottish Graduate School for Social Sciences, will be working with Professor Mark Stephens on the 'Impacts of the Housing Benefit Welfare Reform'. Next year's scholarships will be advertised on our website in January 2014.
Recent IHURER Conference Participation
Dr Sarah Johnsen and Professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick gave plenaries and coordinated workshops at the Housing First Europe final conference in Amsterdam, 13-14 June. This event reported on the conclusions of a European Commission funded 'social experimentation' project which pulled together findings and lessons learned from pilot Housing First projects in five 'test sites' and a further five 'peer sites' across Europe.
IHURER was well represented at the European Network for Housing Research (ENHR) Conference in Tarragona, 20-23 June. Professor Mark Stephens gave a plenary on "The Housing Crisis in Europe" and presented a paper on housing reform in China. Professor Glen Bramley presented a paper on "The role of housing in the impoverishment of Britain" and Dr Kirsten Besemer presented "The social distribution of homelessness in Scotland".
Professor Mark Stephens gave a Keynote address on "Perspectives on China" at "Social Housing in Globalising Urban Contexts" workshop, University of Vienna, 5-6 April.
Professor Colin Jones, Dr Neil Dunse and Dr Nicola Livingstone attended the European Real Estate Society (ERES) annual conference in Vienna, 3-6 July where they presented a paper on "The Restructuring of the Institutional Real Estate Portfolio in the UK".
