Policy Studies Research Centre

• Research in the PSRC
• PSRC Projects
• Research Funding
• 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.

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: 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.

PSRC 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)

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.

Contacting PSRC

If you would like 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

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 had 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.