Professor Steve Fothergill - Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, Sheffield Hallam University The Spring Budget announcement In the Spring Budget on 15 March, the UK government announced new plans for Investment Zones. These should not be confused with the Investment Zones announced in last September’s Growth Plan and then scrapped in November– there … Continue reading THE NEW INVESTMENT ZONES: An Assessment of their likely impact
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Co-ordinated macroeconomic policy remains the most effective response to the pandemic economic shock
The spread of Covid-19 has shaken people's lives around the world in an unprecedented way, adversely affecting their health, well-being, ability to work, and linked to this, their income. In response, Governments and central banks have put in place wide-ranging policies to protect people and businesses from the economic shock caused by the pandemic. They have been quick to don an 'economic life support machine', introducing a mix of innovative fiscal measures, unconventional monetary policy and financial 'stress' policies. Despite such active policy, the path to economic recovery remains uncertain in the absence of a vaccine or relevant medicinal therapeutics. What is clear is that policymakers are becoming central actors, walking a delicate tightrope between healthcare concerns and the future of our economies. As we debate how economic policy should navigate through future turbulent seas, this blog makes a simulated case for macroeconomic policy coordination.
COVID-19 and the need for behavioural science
Call for Research Participants Researchers in the Centre for Behavioural Science and Applied Psychology (CeBSAP) are conducting a survey to understand how people are responding to COVID-19 health recommendations in order to inform similar health guidance and messages and develop effective communication in the future. If you are interested in taking part, you can access … Continue reading COVID-19 and the need for behavioural science
Social Prescribing at a Crossroads
Social prescribing is a policy innovation that aims to improve health and wellbeing for people with complex health conditions by enabling healthcare practitioners to refer patients to activities provided by voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations (VCSEs) in their local area. Having started out as a bottom-up social movement lead by GPs and community organisations … Continue reading Social Prescribing at a Crossroads
Over used and fundamentally flawed: the problem with using the concept of ‘resilience’ in the context of economic hardship
Above: Paul Hickman led a study team comprising researchers from Sheffield Hallam University, The University of Sheffield and Queen's University Belfast, which explored the experiences of low income households across Northern Ireland. Two of the case study areas were in Derry/Londonderry (pictured). The difficult and uncertain times we live in has resulted in increasing attention … Continue reading Over used and fundamentally flawed: the problem with using the concept of ‘resilience’ in the context of economic hardship
Hot of the Press: Autumn 2019 Newsletter
Our new Autumn 2019 edition of the SIPS Newsletter is out now! Access the online version via the link below. This issue includes a preview of November's Festival of Social Science, an editorial from Professor Peter Wells considering the possible future for policy development in the UK, a blog from Professor Paul Hickman linked to … Continue reading Hot of the Press: Autumn 2019 Newsletter
Responding to Augar: Debating Sub-Degree Level Qualifications
BY NICK HILLMAN, DIRECTOR OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION POLICY INSTITUTE (HEPI) Will increased demand for sub-degree level qualifications at Levels 4 and 5 as envisaged by the Augar Review actually materialise? Many influential people rushed to condemn the Augar report, in some instances seemingly before they had even read it. At the Higher Education Policy … Continue reading Responding to Augar: Debating Sub-Degree Level Qualifications
Class, Collective Bargaining and Labour Rights
Bob Jeffery and Peter Thomas The proportion of workers employed in a workplace where a recognised trade union has collective agreements (over matters such as pay and working conditions) in the UK is just 26%, a historic low. In the public sector a majority of workers still find themselves in this position whereas in the … Continue reading Class, Collective Bargaining and Labour Rights
Call for Papers: Special Issue of People, Place and Policy on Contemporary Youth: Precarity, Resistance and (Re)imagined Futures
Special Issue Editors Co-Editors: Chris Devany: Chris.Devany@shu.ac.uk Adam Formby: A.Formby@yorksj.ac.uk Jennifer Hoolachan: HoolachanJ@cardiff.ac.uk Aims and Scope The youth phase has been described as a “privileged vantage point from which to observe processes of social change and continuity”. Over the last ten years since the financial crisis many aspects of young people’s lives have been reshaped, including (but … Continue reading Call for Papers: Special Issue of People, Place and Policy on Contemporary Youth: Precarity, Resistance and (Re)imagined Futures
Greenspace Governance: Statutory Solutions from Scotland?
By Jill Dickinson and Dr James Marson. Greenspace is widely acknowledged for providing a range of environmental, social and economic benefits, whether such greenspace comprises traditional Victorian parks, overgrown waste grounds, pocket parks or roadside nature reserves. The benefits provided by any type of greenspace are well established, and have been most recently articulated by … Continue reading Greenspace Governance: Statutory Solutions from Scotland?
The Sheffield Institute for Policy Studies 