Policy Studies Research Centre
- Research in the PSRC
- Recent Projects
- Research Funding
- Publications
- Events
- Contacting the PSRC
- Post Graduate Degrees
Research in the PSRC
The Policy Studies Research Centre is the research focus for the School of Social Sciences. The PSRC undertakes research at local, regional, national and international levels, in most areas of policy-relevant social research, including, in particular:
- community/social care and health care
- housing and urban regeneration
- poverty, crime and social exclusion
- social divisions (age, gender, disability, race, sexuality)
- crime prevention and reduction
- public policy and the politics of social policy
- health regulation
- complementary and alternative medicine
- comparative health care
Researchers within the PSRC and in the School more widely are skilled in most forms of social research including e.g. survey research, qualitative interviewing with individuals and groups, secondary data analysis, evaluative research, literature reviews, telephone surveys, longitudinal studies, policy analysis, comparative research and the use of geographical mapping and information systems. The PSRC works closely with researchers in other University Departments, especially in the areas of social work, health studies, tourism, law, psychology, food studies, educational partnerships, and community operational research.
Research groupings within the PSRC achieved ratings of 3a (Social Policy) and 3b (European Studies) in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise.
Many of the funders for research projects have also been research clients. However, research staff have worked with a wide variety of other organisations in the course of their work. The PSRC also collaborates with other research organisations where appropriate: recent partners have included university researchers in Salford, Hull, Nottingham, Lancaster, Sheffield, Manchester, Glasgow and Dundee. The PSRC is also involved with networks of researchers in other EU member states, currently on issues of housing and welfare policy.
Recent
projects
These have included research and consultancy, from small-scale projects to long-term research studies in areas such as:
| Anti-poverty work in local government | Leasehold reform |
| Black advocacy | Local government reform |
| ‘Care and repair’ | Mapping the voluntary and community sectors |
| CCTV evaluation | Offenders, especially young offenders |
| Charging and means-tested benefits | Probation work |
| Childcare audits | Race equality |
| Community care and housing | Racial justice |
| Community control | Research with ethnic minorities |
| Community development | Residential children’s services |
| Community economic audits | Rural social care |
| Community regeneration | Substance misuse |
| Community safety | Scottish devolution referendum |
| Community surveys | Tenants’ rights |
| Crime audits | The Child Support Act |
| Disaffected youth | Urban regeneration |
| Domestic violence | Voluntary sector compacts |
| European anti-poverty initiatives | Women in local government |
| Homelessness strategies | Working with children |
| Housing allocation | Youth unemployment |
| Housing for older people and disabled people | Youth homelessness |
Research
funding
Staff associated with PSRC have, over recent years, undertaken research and consultancy funded by:
Local government (e.g. Hull, and Lincoln City Councils; Rotherham, Oldham, North Lincolnshire, and Ashfield Councils; North Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Humberside County Councils; the Association of County Councils; and the Local Government Association)
Charitable foundations (e.g. Gulbenkian Foundation, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Nuffield Foundation, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust)
Central government (e.g. Home Office, Department of Environment Transport and the Regions, Scottish Office, Department of Social Security)
National voluntary organisations (e.g. Age Concern, Barnardo’s, NSPCC, Children’s Society, Design Age, Save the Children, NCH-Action for Children, Save the Children, Association of Directors of Social Services)
Regional and local voluntary organisations (e.g. Housemartin Housing Association, Grosvenor Housing Association, Cheviot Housing Association, Hull DOC, Housing 21, Church in Society, Crosby Community Enterprise Centre)
Health authorities (e.g. Basildon and Thurrock Health Authority, Yorkshire Health, Lincolnshire Health Promotion, Lincolnshire Health)
Quangos (e.g. Local Government Management Board, Training Agency, Rural Development Commission, Lincolnshire TEC, Housing Corporation, Communities Scotland)
Research councils (e.g. Economic and Social Research Council)
Publications
The PSRC publishes a series of Social Research Papers, describing work undertaken in association with the Centre. The most recent in this series are as follows, and a full list of this series and all other reports published by the PSRC is available by writing to Publications at the PSRC address (below).
Social Research papers
No 12: Tackling drug abuse: A multi-agency
approach
K. Brown
No 13: An Audit of children's needs
G. Craig, M. Elliott-White, S. Kelsey & S. Petrie
No 14: Evaluating CCTV: A critical case study
J. Jameson & K. Jones
No 15: Involving young people in anti-poverty work
M. Wilkinson
No 16: Pity the poor students: educational
success, social exclusion and exclusiveness
J. Knowles
No 17: Mapping the Voluntary and Community Sectors
in the East Midlands
P. Somerville and A. Rust
No 18: Evaluation of the Lincoln Crime and
Disorder Reduction Strategy: Year 1 Report
K. Brown, B. Cole and P. Somerville
No 19: Evaluation of the Lincoln Crime and
Disorder Reduction Strategy: Year 2 Report
P. Somerville and A. Rust
Other recent publications
Inclusive regeneration
P. Alcock, G. Craig, P. Lawless, S. Pearson, & D.
Robinson,1998
Evaluation of the Lincolnshire Probation Service
and the Lincolnshire Training and Enterprise Council
Employment Keyskills Programme
B. Cole, K. Brown and G. Brooks, 1999
Leasehold Enforcement in the North East
P. Somerville, 1999
Written Housing Allocation Policies and Social
Exclusion
P. Somerville, 2000
Mid-term Social Survey for Liverpool Housing
Action Trust
P. Somerville and A. Rust, 2000
Homelessness among Black and Minority Ethnic
Groups
P. Somerville, A. Steele and D. Sodhi, 2002
Chinese Community Organisations in London
C-K Chan and P. Somerville, 2002
Building Equality in Construction: Good Practice
Guidelines
P. Somerville, D. Sodhi, A. Steele, A.W. Gale, M.J.
Davidson and S. Rhys-Jones, 2003
The UK Chinese People: Diversity and Unmet Needs
C-K Chan, G. Bowpitt, B. Cole, P. Somerville and J-Y
Chen, 2004
Other events
The PSRC organises its own research seminars, workshops and conferences and other special events for those interested in the general field of social research. Recent events hosted by the PSRC and the School include the 1997 and 1998 conferences of the Social Policy Association, Age Concern’s sub-regional conference on the Debate of the Age, a regional conference on health services research, and a European conference on social deviance. The PSRC/Department hosted the annual conference of the Political Studies Association in Spring 2004 and the Housing Studies Association conference in Autumn 2005.
Contacting PSRC
The PSRC is supported by funding from research grants and commissions and by the University of Lincoln.
If you would like further information about research and consultancy from PSRC, if you have research needs that you would like to discuss with us, or if you would like to be on our mailing list for seminars, conferences, publications or events, please contact us:
Professor Peter Somerville
Head, Policy Studies Research Centre
Telephone: +44 (0) 1522 886267
Email: psomerville@lincoln.ac.uk
(particularly in relation to research on housing and regeneration, social and health care, and criminology)
School of Social Sciences
University of Lincoln
Brayford Pool
Lincoln
LN6 7TS
PSRC Facsimile: +44 (0) 1522 886780
Postgraduate research
degrees
If you are interested in pursuing postgraduate study by research for an MPhil or PhD degree, please contact Professor Peter Somerville. We have a substantial number of part-time and full-time MPhil/PhD students, whose areas of study include domestic violence, the New Deal, housing and community development, Sino-Soviet relations in the 1930s, the politics of direct action, Travellers’ education, the modernisation of local government, war crimes, refugees and asylum seekers, Pakistani politics, Syrian politics, international relations in the Maghreb, the social exclusion of older people, local government in Cameroon, and the policing of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-gendered people, housing and social disorder, community care in Europe, political participation in North Africa, consumers as victims, Nigerian police, Machiavellian New Labour, animal rights & refugees, asylum seekers and international migration.
Further information about Postgraduate study can be found here