Fast scholarship is not always good scholarship: relevant research requires more than an online presence.

Blogging and social media are tools to facilitate engagement, but are they in danger of being treated as ends in themselves? Catherine Durose and Katherine Tonkiss argue for more awareness on how the research process can democratise knowledge. Rather than quickly responding to recent events, scholars should look towards sustained engagement with the participants of research and those affected by it

Towards the ‘Big Society’: What role for neighbourhood working? Evidence from a comparative European study

Under the New Labour government, the neighbourhood emerged prominently as a site for policy interventions and as a space for civic activity, resulting in the widespread establishment of neighbourhood-level structures for decision-making and service delivery. The future existence and utility of these arrangements is now unclear under the Coalition government's Big Society proposals and fiscal austerity measures. On the one hand, sub-local governance structures might be seen as promoting central-to-local and local-to-community devolution of decision-making. On the other, they might be seen as layers of expensive bureaucracy standing in the way of bottom-up community action. Arguably the current value and future role of these structures in facilitating the Big Society will depend on how they are constituted and with what purpose. There are many local variations. In this paper we look at three case studies, in England, France and the Netherlands, to learn how different approaches to neighbourhood working have facilitated and constrained civic participation and action. Drawing on the work of Lowndes and Sullivan (2008) we show how the achievement of civic objectives can be hampered in structures set up primarily to achieve social, economic and political goals, partly because of (remediable) flaws in civic engagement but partly because of the inherent tensions between these objectives in relation to issues of spatial scale and the constitution and function of neighbourhood structures. The purpose of neighbourhood structures needs to be clearly thought through. We also note a distinction between 'invited' and 'popular' spaces for citizen involvement, the latter being created by citizens themselves. 'Invited' spaces have tended to dominate to date, and the Coalition's agenda suggests a fundamental shift to 'popular' spaces. However we conclude that the Big Society will require neighbourhood working to be both invited and popular. Citizen participation cannot always replace local government - sometimes it requires its support and stimulation. The challenge for local authorities is to reconstitute 'invited' spaces (not to abolish them) and at the same time to facilitate 'popular' spaces for neighbourhood working.Big Society, local government, neighbourhood, neighbourhood management, community

Generating 'good enough' evidence for co-production

Co-production is not a new concept but it is one with renewed prominence and reach in contemporary policy discourse. It refers to joint working between people or groups who have traditionally been separated into categories of user and producer. The article focuses on the coproduction of public services, offering theory-based and knowledge-based routes to evidencing co-production. It cites a range of ‘good enough’ methodologies which community organisations and small-scale service providers experimenting with co-production can use to assess the potential contribution, including appreciative inquiry, peer-to-peer learning and data sharing. These approaches have the potential to foster innovation and scale-out experimentation

The expansion of arms-length government is not necessarily at odds with democratic accountability

How democratic is arms-length government? Catherine Durose, Jonathan B. Justice and Chris Skelcher argue that those who consider it to be an undemocratic phenomenon over-simplify, and make the case for assessing the question in a more citizen and community focussed manner

Design for public policy: Embracing uncertainty and hybridity in mapping future research

Addressing contemporary public policy challenges requires new thinking and new practice. Therefore, there is a renewed sense of urgency to critically assess the potential of the emerging field of ‘design for policy’. On the one hand, design ap- proaches are seen as bringing new capacities for problem-solving to public policy de- velopment. On the other, the attendant risks posed to effective and democratic policy making are unclear, partly because of a limited evidence base. The paper synthesises recent contributions in design research, policy studies, political science and democratic theory which have examined the uses of design for public policy making. Mapping out areas of debate building on studies of design from policy studies and from within de- sign research, we suggest promising directions for future crossdisciplinary research in a context of uncertainty

Governing at arm's length: eroding or enhancing democracy?

This review article debates the democratic consequences of arm’s length governance challenging the prevailing view that its use is necessarily counter-democratic and a poor substitute for direct control by elected politicians. The article explores the roots of the dominant ‘democratic deficit’ perspective on arm’s length bodies in the agency problems generated by political delegation, but also addresses the potential for democratic enhancement posed by the different theoretical lens of polycentrism. The article considers the conditions that are necessary to activate citizens to engage with arm’s length governance. Our conclusion develops the normative implications for the design of public governance.</jats:p

Working the urban assemblage:A transnational study of transforming practices

This article places those working for change in urban neighbourhoods at the centre of debates on urban transformation, directing attention to the importance of human agency in the work of assembling urban transformation. Drawing on cross-national qualitative fieldwork undertaken over 30 months shadowing 40 urban practitioners in neighbourhoods across four European cities – Amsterdam, Birmingham, Copenhagen and Glasgow – our research revealed the catalytic, embodied roles of situated agents in this assembling. Through exemplar vignettes, we present practices in a diverse range of socio-material assemblages aimed to address complex problems and unmet needs in the urban environment. The practices we studied were not those of daily routines, but were instead a purposeful assembling that included nurturing and developing of heterogeneous resources such as relationships, knowledges and materials, framed through an emerging vision to inform, mobilise and channel action. This article brings together assemblage-theoretical and practice-theoretical ideas, with rich empirical insight to advance our understanding of how the city may be re-made

Design & Policy: Current Debates and Future Directions for Research in the UK

This report produced by the Design|Policy Research Network led by University of the Arts London and University of Manchester, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), showcases the significant role of design in shaping public policy and proposes an agenda for the future direction of research in the UK. The UK is a leader in the use of design in government and policy and there is a growing range of practice and research connecting design and public policymaking – such as service design, interaction design, communication design, urban design, and strategic design and the emerging fields of policy design and ‘design for policy’. Over an 18-month period, the collaborative, cross-disciplinary research network organised workshops and engagement sessions to consolidate and better articulate the emerging relations between research and practice in design and public policy processes producing a novel, evidence-based and contextual understanding of the potential for design in relation to policy. Network leads Professor Lucy Kimbell (Central Saint Martins, UAL) and Professor Liz Richardson (Department of Politics, University of Manchester) worked closely with the cross-government Policy Design Community, which includes over 75 local and central government organisations and over 500 individual members, to engage officials in the network’s activities. The organisers engaged several hundred people including policy makers in central and local government, design consultants alongside academics and doctoral students working across design and policy studies, including setting up a new LinkedIn group with over 700 members. The report outlines directions for future research and makes recommendations for those involved in research, knowledge exchange and policy ecosystems including UKRI and the Civil Service, to advance knowledge at the intersection between design and policymaking. It also includes the voices of 10 early career and established researchers whose practice and research engages across the contexts of policy making, including UAL doctoral student Daniella Jenkins (Central Saint Martins), developing feminist pensions policy, and Dr Lara Salinas (London College of Communication), who works with local government to support collaboration to address net zero. Co-authored by Professor Kimbell and Professor Richardson with Catherine Durose, Professor of Public Policy and Co-Director of the Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, Practice and Place at the University of Liverpool and Ramia Mazé, Professor of Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability at London College of Communication, this report sets out a clear vision to underpin the further development of design in government and public policy. ISBN 978-1-3999-7069-