Dr Nicholas Acheson

The third sector and older people in Ireland, north and south: mapping and analyzing the roles, functions and capacity of voluntary and community organizations for old people

This project, funded through a research grant from the Royal Irish Academy, has studied the development of the respective roles of voluntary action in the lives of older people in Ireland’s two jurisdictions in the light of the changing demographics of ageing and the changing policy context.  The research has revealed the emergence of very similar patterns in voluntary organization in both jurisdictions in the past 15 years notwithstanding a divergence in policies and priorities in each jurisdiction particularly following the introduction of the institutions and social protection of the UK welfare state to Northern Ireland in the 1940s. Analysis of the recent development of policies in pensions and social care in each jurisdiction is providing a basis for adding to knowledge of the relationship between welfare regimes and voluntary action in contemporary welfare states. This book length project, managed by Professor Arthur Williamson was researched and written by Acheson with a Dublin-based independent researcher, Brian Harvey. It is due to be published in 2008.

Voluntary Action and Community Relations in Ireland

This project, funded by the Northern Ireland Community Relations Council and the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister, aimed to explore the role of voluntary action in Northern Ireland in promoting better relations between the two main ethno-religious blocks, focusing in particular on local community development and welfare orientated organizations. The project was managed in collaboration between Acheson and Williamson with Professors Ed Cairns and Maurice Stringer of the School of Psychology at the University of Ulster assisted by a reference group of representatives of voluntary  organizations managed by the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action. The research was conducted and written up by Acheson. Its findings were published in a report, Voluntary Action and Community Relations in Northern Ireland, in 2007. Conference papers have been presented at the 2006 World Sociological Congress in Durban, South Africa, at the 2006 meeting of the Irish Social Policy Association and the 2006 research meeting of the Voluntary Sector Studies Network and the National Council of Voluntary Organizations at the University of Warwick.

Follow up work is ongoing including the preparation of a further bid for funding to investigate the relationship between bridging and bonding social capital in voluntary organizations and inter-ethnic political trust. This will aim to combine the replication of quantitative research into trust and ethnic diversity in other jurisdictions with a more detailed ethnographic study of the management of difference within voluntary organizations.

Dr Nicholas Acheson & Professor Arthur Williamson

Two Paths: One Purpose -- Voluntary Action in Ireland, North and South (ISBN 1904541 12 7) 

This 370 page book, published by the Institute for Public Administration in Dublin, is the outcome of a research project funded by The Royal Irish Academy. It is the first comparison between the voluntary sector in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Jointly written with Brian Harvey and Professor Jimmy Kearney, the book's eight chapters present a detailed study of the development and scope of the voluntary and community sector in each jurisdiction and considers the two sectors in the broader framework of the British Isles and the European Union. The book describes the policy, legislative and regulatory basis for the sector in each part of Ireland and the respective systems of governance and accountability. Having compared the levels of development of the sector in the two jurisdictions, the book identifies examples of good practice that may be of value to the other jurisdiction and draws conclusions about how, and why, the paths of the two sectors diverged and converged and why different or similar models evolved.

Dr Arthur Aughey

1 Constitutional Futures 2 Project

The UK is going through a period of unprecedented constitutional change.  The changes have been introduced piecemeal, and they have mainly been written about and analysed in a piecemeal way.  One exception to that was the Constitution Unit’s 1999 book Constitutional Futures, which was the first attempt to view the New Labour government’s constitutional reform programme as a whole, and to forecast the cumulative impact of all the different constitutional changes. Constitutional reform contains many items of unfinished business, with further changes still to come.  These changes may come from a Conservative government under David Cameron as well as from a Labour government under Gordon Brown. What is different about the approach, and working method, of the Constitutional Futures 2 Project is that it will set out (as in the original Constitutional Futures) to explore the interactions and interplay between the different constitutional changes, and to assess their cumulative impact.  The plan is do so in a more systematic way, borrowing from the foresight techniques developed in futurology to identify the main trends and forces in play and to identify a range of future scenarios. The CF2 Project is funded by Leverhulme and is directed by Prof Robert Hazell of the Constitution Unit, University College London. It will be conducted over 12 months, from January to December 2007 and the outcome will be a major book Constitutional Futures 2 to be published by Oxford University Press. I will be responsible for the section on The Future of Britishness.

 

2 Politics of an English Parliament (part funded by a British Academy Travel Grant)

The research aims are to examine the membership of the CEP and the character of its organisation; consider what publics the CEP seeks to mobilise in its cause and how its message is received; explore the diversity of purposes within the CEP; and to investigate the appeal of contemporary English nationalism.The research objectives are to identify the main actors in the CEP and the organisation’s structure; assess its effectiveness in reaching and influencing target publics; clarify the diversity of views within the organisation; and deepen our understanding of the politics of English nationalism.

According to Robert Hazell England remains ‘the gaping hole in the devolution settlement’ because there is no party consensus about the options for its governance (2000: 278). One logical remedy to the ‘gaping hole’ is an English Parliament and this project explores the politics of an English Parliament through a detailed examination of the Campaign for an English Parliament (CEP). Some important and exciting research has been done recently in the area of ‘slippage’ between institutions and English identity. First, there is the work of Susan Condor and others in social psychology which has addressed such questions as ‘identity management’, and ‘vernacular constructions of national identity’ (Condor 2000; Condor and Abell 2006). Second, there is the work of Anthony Heath and John Curtice, in their long term analysis of British Social Attitudes and in their more recent study of National Identity and Constitutional Change in England (Curtice 2006; Curtice and Heath 2000). These studies have tracked both the appeal of options for English governance and the waxing of English national identity. Third, there is the work of Robert Hazell at the Constitution Unit which has addressed the emergence of the English Question as a key aspect of constitutional ambiguity and potential instability (Hazell 2006). While acknowledging the strengths of these contributions, they have their limits for this specific research project. The first explores public attitudes without political context; the second, public opinion without reasoned political debate; and the third examines context and debate but has not considered in depth the organisation of opinion within a lobby group like the CEP. This research bears directly upon the current academic and public debate about national identity in England and about its most effective expression within the United Kingdom. The expression ‘politics of an English Parliament’ has been chosen deliberately because it is an ‘idea’ as well as a potential ‘institution’ and the research will examine the complex meanings of that idea as much as the particular organisation advancing it. The value of researching the activity of the CEP is not that it represents a significant political constituency if measured by its membership but that it provides a distinctive focus for exploring the politics of English nationalism. Researching the CEP as an organisation gives the project a clear focus but it also permits a wider intellectual engagement with the contemporary politics of Englishness.

 

3 'Theorising Multiculturalism and Social Cohesion in Canada and the UK: Lessons for Policy Implementation and Civic Engagement' (with S Hodgett, S O'Connor, N Acheson) Funded by The Canadian High Commission £14,000

The thesis is that there has developed in the UK in the last decade an increasingly skeptical attitude towards multiculturalism. Multi-Ethnic Britain (2000) was perhaps the high-water mark of multiculturalism in the UK but it expressed the ambivalence of the concept. On the one hand, in demanding less of its citizens in terms of nationality, multiculturalism expected too much in terms of civic virtue. On the other, in appealing to universal (liberal) principles to defend particular cultural practices it risked contradiction. The lesson of Islamic extremism in the new millennium also appeared to mean that the country must be secure enough to maintain its civil rights and that in turn meant no large enclaves of cultural exceptionalism. Multiculturalism ‘at its worst’, according to John Lloyd, condoned or tried to explain away prejudices and sectarian attitudes in the name of respecting difference. The new challenge was to propose a sense of national belonging ‘that is capacious enough for all who wish to live within it peacefully – in an atmosphere of mutual tolerance’. The accent was now on ‘mutual’ rather than ‘tolerance’. David Goodhart had already reflected on the erosion of a common culture in the UK. Citizenship ‘is not just an abstract idea about rights and duties; for most of us it is something we do not choose but are born into – it arises out of a shared history, shared experiences and, often, shared suffering’. Multiculturalism, he argued, had the effect of attenuating what was formerly shared. The mixed response to Goodhart’s arguments revealed that there remains a lively debate about what definition of community does suffice to include as many people as possible without it becoming meaningless. My contribution to this study will trace the references within that lively debate to the Canadian experience and especially to the influence of the work of Canadian theorists such as Kymlicka and Banting. This will involve surveying the publications and papers of the new Department of Local Government and Communities; think-tanks such as Demos, IPPR, Policy Xchange, Civitas; the academic literature; and the relevant journalism. It will also involve qualitative interviews with some of the key figures in the British debate such as Goodhart, Parekh, Crick, Phillips and Ailibhai-Brown.

Dr Roger Austin

The Dissolving Boundaries programme

This programme is funded by the Department of Education in Northern Ireland and the Department of Education and Science in the Republic of Ireland.  It is jointly managed by Dr Roger Austin and colleagues in the School of Education at the University of Ulster and staff in the Education department of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.  It was set up in 1999 as a research and development programme to explore the conditions under which ICT could be used most effectively to enable cross-border links between schools. Since then teachers in thirty new schools, special, primary and post-primary, have been recruited annually on each side of the border and provided with professional development in the use of both video-conferencing and computer conferencing.  Annual reports and details of research publications arising from this programme are available at dissolvingboundaries.org

To date, over £1,000,000 has been invested in this programme which is continuing to examine 'best practice' in the use of ICT for bridge-building and citizenship.

Professor Paul Carmichael & Professor Colin Knox

Beyond Devolution - Widening And Deepening The New Governance Of Northern Ireland
eyond Devolution - Widening And Deepening The New Governance Of Northern Ireland

Professor Paul Carmichael and Professor Knox completed work (2006) on their ESRC funded research into the sub-regional governance of Northern Ireland.  The research undertaken was located under Theme B: Governance and the Constitution of the Council's 'Devolution and Constitutional Change' Programme.  The overall aim was to examine the impact of devolution on the wider structures of regional and local government, be they elected local authorities, non-departmental public bodies, board, trusts etc.  They conducted a comprehensive review of the literature on local government systems and intergovernmental relations between devolved/regional and sub-ordinate units of government, as well as of public attitudes within Northern Ireland to devolution and the work of the Executive/Assembly and wider public sector.  Interviews and meetings were undertaken with key stakeholders.  In particular, they have forged close links with senior officials within the Review of Public Administration.

Among their principal findings are that:

1.  There is a widely held belief in the principle of devolution, even if the nature of its operationalisation remains contested.

2.  There is a widely held belief that devolution should not stop at the regional/provincial level, but that it must be pursued in keeping with the principles of subsidiarity.

3.  The concept of 'multi-level governance', originally conceived and applied to understanding and interpreting the European Union's relationship with its Member States, is of potentially significant value in helping to explain the growing complexity of regional/sub-regional governmental relationships.

4.  Local government - specifically, elected local authorities - despite their paucity of functional responsibilities remain the pre-eminent locus of local political expression and cultural identity.  a majority of the population would welcome an expansion of their role and powers.

5.  Non-departmental public bodies (widely referred to as 'quangos') enjoy a less favourable place in the popular imagination and the arrangements governing their very existence, as well as the appointment of the boards and their responsibilities, are widely regarded as in urgent need of reform.

6.  The fate of devolution and the reform of the wider system of public administration are inextricably linked such that any substantive changes in sub-regional arrangements can and must entail commensurate adjustments in the configuration of the devolved central government departments and, indeed, a reassessment of their functional responsibilities in terms of policy-making and implementation.

An ESRC peer review of the project concluded that the research work was ‘outstanding’ and has resulted in several papers published in key academic journals (see SPRI publications section under Carmichael and Knox for more details). Carmichael and Knox have secured a contract with Manchester University Press for a book entitled 'Government and Public Administration in Northern Ireland' planned for publication by the end of 2007.

 

Modernising Local Government in Northern Ireland

Carmichael and Knox have been awarded (2007) an ESRC grant under the Impact Grants Scheme entitled ‘Modernising Local Government in Northern Ireland’. The awards are made to previous grant holders to undertake new and additional activities that are likely to have an impact on policy and practice. The work will be undertaken as part of the drive by the ESRC to improve ‘knowledge transfer’, defined as the exchange of good ideas, research results, experiences and skills between researchers and (in this case) the public sector. Specifically, the study will build on Carmichael and Knox’s previous ESRC project on the Review of Public Administration (above), by engaging with the local government sector in Northern Ireland as it attempts to modernise under proposals outlined in the Government’s paper ‘Better Government for Northern Ireland’ 2006.

The focus of the research will be to work with the local government sector during a period of change up until the new shadow councils are established and help inform the modernisation process now demanded of local government in Northern Ireland. The local government modernisation agenda in other parts of the United Kingdom has by-passed Northern Ireland. There is no equivalent of the Lyons Enquiry which considered the finance, functions and future role of local government in England. Most importantly, however, there is a huge capacity deficit at both political and official level to undertake the new functions proposed for local government in Northern Ireland.

 Dr Alan McCully

Recent Research in Northern Ireland: Informing Curriculum Change Funded by the Nuffield Foundation

This is a grant to facilitate the publication of summaries of nine recent research projects into the teaching of History in Northern Ireland from a range of local and international researchers.  The summaries are accompanied by commentary overviews indicating the implications for curriculum change and practice.

Dr Pat McGregor

Predicting Short Run Changes in Fertility in Northern Ireland: proposal as part of NILS Responsive Scheme, jointly funded by ESRC and RDO

Northern Ireland has in recent years shared the slight upturn in fertility evident in some European countries. This contrasts with the steady fall in fertility from the peak of the ‘baby boom’ in the 1960s that is associated with increased female participation in the labour market and delay in the age of child bearing. Any change in the pattern of fertility has profound consequences for the provision of public services, particularly in education and health care.

This study seeks to explain the level of fertility by using the individual level data available in the NILS sample. Various regression models will be employed to explain births in the period 1997 – 2006 by three sets of variables. The first of these comprises the characteristics of the potential mother in 2001 and will be based upon the census. The second consists of the characteristics of the area where the potential mother resides. This is a measure of the environmental factors upon individual fertility and will be based upon NINIS. The final set of variables takes account of the background of the potential mother and will be based upon the linked 1991 census records.

Based upon the explanation of births 1997 – 2006 a forecasting model will be constructed.

Professor Sile O’Connor

Young people’s aspirations and women reconciling life in and outside the home in Northern Ireland

This research was commissioned by the Bogside and Brandywell Women’s group and is funded by the Community Fund, from 1/10/03 to 30/9/05.The qualitative study uses interviews to examine whether women living in the most disadvantaged areas of Northern Ireland, Protestant and Catholic, urban and rural, may face obstacles that go beyond the issue of reconciling life outside the home with the demands of caring for children.Focus groups with young people in the same areas explore how poverty impacts on their aspirations for the future.

The contact researcher is Goretti Horgan (75177, g.horgan@ulster.ac.uk).

Professor Bob Osborne 

Participation in higher education in Northern Ireland

£65k from the Department for Employment and Learning. This project involves three major surveys all concerned with future participation in further and higher education in Northern Ireland. The first survey is of Year 14 school pupils and is concerned with their intentions in relation to proceeding into higher or further education or training and employment. The survey pays particular attention to those seeking entry to higher education and where they intend undertaking their studies. The second survey replicates the survey for the equivalent students in further education colleges. The third survey is of Year 12 students and seeks to understand how they view their opportunities in terms of going on for further study, training or employment. The study builds on a qualitative study undertaken in 2005/06 for OFM/DFM and will end in Summer 2007.

Cross-Border Higher Education Collaboration in Europe

£4k from the Nuffield Foundation to examine cross-border higher education collaboration in Europe and to assess the lessons for the island of Ireland. This research was reported in European Journal of Education (2006)Cross Border Higher Education Collaboration in Europe: Lessons for the ‘two Irelands’?’ Volume 41,1,115-129.

Implementing Equality Policies in Northern Ireland and Canada: A review of Progress and Prospects

£25k from the Leverhulme Trust. The award of a Fellowship for 2006/07 is to enable comparative work to be undertaken into equality policies in Northern Ireland, Canada and Britain. Papers have been given in the universities of Dalhousie and Western Ontario in Canada and an informal seminar at the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission. Current work involves a joint paper Professor Carol Agocs of Western Ontario on employment equity in Canada and fair employment in Northern Ireland.

Professor Rosalind Pritchard

Gender Inequality in British and German Univesities

Leverhulme Research Fellowship

TESOL for Distance Delivery: Phonetics, Microteaching and Teaching Practice

Higher Education Innovation Fund

Intercultural Outreach: English as an additional Language

Higher Education Innovation Fund

Professor Alan Smith

Responsibility for the management and completion of over 15 externally funded research and development projects, exceeding £2 million since 2001; for evaluations commissioned by charitable and government bodies; and for policy research on behalf of the Department of Education for Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the UK Department for International Development (DfiD), the World Bank, International Fund for Ireland (IFI) and UNESCO.

2001-02    Integrated Education in Northern Ireland (with Prof A Gallagher, QUB)

                Nuffield Foundation, £68,132

2000-02    National Identity and the History Curriculm (with A McCully, Dr K. Barton)

                Royal Irish Academy, £3,830

2001-02    Young Children and Sectarianism (with Dr P Connelly)

                NI Community Relations Council, £15,000

2002-05    Teacher Education and the Global Dimension (with L Clarke)

                UK Dept for International Development (DFID), £279,071

2002-03    Citizenship Education in NI (with Dr U. Niens)

                Council for the Curriculum, Exmainations and Assessment (CCEA), £29,411

2002-03    Special Needs Education: Parent Survey (Prof R McConkey, U. O'Connor and B. Hartop)

                Department of Education (NI), £24,439

2002-03    Review of Community Relations Policy in Education (with B. Hartop, U. O'Connor)

                Department of Education (NI), £22,938

2003-04    Evaluation of the Bill of Rights in Schools Project (with Dr J. Reilly, Dr U. Niens)

                Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, £7,735

2003-07    Evaluation of the Introduction of Citizenship to the Curriculum (with Dr U. Niens)

                Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA), £88,830

2003-07    Teacher Education in a Divided Society (with A. McCully)

                Department Education (NI), £112,000; International Fund for Ireland (IFI) £123,000

2003-04    A Right Based Approach to Education Policy, Planning and Development

                UNESCO Paris, £21,645

2002-07    Education for Pluralism, Human Right and Democracy

                Atlantic Philanthropies, £1,358,114

2005-08    Values and Teacher Education Policy in Northern Ireland (Smith, Moran, McCully, Clarke)

                ESRC TLRP, £126,000

2006-09    International Development Unit

                DFID, £299,613

2007-08    Legacies of Conflict: The Basque Country, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Ireland (Smith, Wilson, Magill)

                European Union, (£169,000)

2007-11    International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) (Smith, O'Connor, Gallagher)

                DE/CCEA, £132,044       

Dr Brian Taylor

Single Assessment Tool for the Health and Social Care Needs, including Care Management, of Older People in Northern Ireland

Brian Taylor is co-grant holder with Brendan McCormack, Professor of Nursing Research for a two year project 2006 -2007 to develop, pilot and prepare for implementation a Single Assessment Tool that will provide a unified tool for assessment and care planning for the health and social care needs of individual older people in Northern Ireland. This is funded by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety for Northern Ireland. This project involves professionals from medicine, social work, nursing, pharmacy and a range of allied health professions including occupational therapy, dietetics and podiatry, and every Health and Social Care Trust and Health and Social Services Board in NI including both acute hospital and community services. Other UU staff involved are Mrs Bridget Murray, Lecturer in Rehabilitation Sciences and Professor Frank Dobbs, Director of the Institute of Postgraduate Medicine and Primary Care. The team – which includes a full-time Project Officer, Mrs Joanne McConville and half-time Research Associate, Dr Paul Slater – has worked extremely hard and creatively, and the product has wide support across health and social care professions as a result of the inclusive developmental process. This project is due to complete the Assessment Tool and accompanying Guidance by December 2007 as planned, and has been given an extension to March 2008 to complete the training of professional trainers and to report to the DHSSPS on implementation issues.
Further information at: http://www.science.ulster.ac.uk/sat/ and http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/ec-single-assessment-tool.

 

Health & Social Care Services Research Studentship

Brian Taylor is co-supervisor with Mary McColgan, Head of School of Sociology & Applied Social Studies for a DHSSPS Research & Development Office 4-year Health & Social Care Services Research Studentship for a candidate to undertake the MSc Evidence Based Social Intervention at the University of Oxford and then a PhD at UU on: 'The use of research and professional knowledge in reports by Social Workers for the higher courts under the Children (NI) Order 1995 and the Adoption (NI) Order 1987'. This Studentship was awarded in spring 2006, but it was not possible to appoint a suitable candidate to commence in autumn 2006 or autumn 2007. This has been forwarded in autumn 2007 to the University Research Office with a view to appointing for commencement at Oxford in autumn 2008 followed by the PhD 2009-12.

Primary Care Research Network

The DHSSPS Research and Development Office has identified seven Recognised Research Groups for NI, which attract priority for funding in addition to being important networks for collaboration. The RRG in Epidemiology and Public Health – to which Brian Taylor belonged – was closed during 2006 as part of a reconfiguration of RRGs following a review. Most participants in that RRG have realigned themselves with existing RRGs (such as Cancer) or with the newly formed RRG on Vision. However those with health and social care service interests - such as quality, risk and decision making by professionals, patients and clients - have no obvious alternative support mechanism. During 2007 Brian Taylor contributed to a successful funding application to the Research and Development Office to set up a Primary Care Research Network in NI with colleagues from Primary Care, Pharmacy and the Director of the Clinical Research Support Centre. He is now a Member of this Research Network.

     

Professor Arthur Williamson & Dr Nicholas Acheson

Two Paths: One Purpose -- Voluntary Action in Ireland, North and South (ISBN 1904541 12 7) 

This 370 page book, published by the Institute for Public Administration in Dublin, is the outcome of a research project funded by The Royal Irish Academy. It is the first comparison between the voluntary sector in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Jointly written with Brian Harvey and Professor Jimmy Kearney, the book's eight chapters present a detailed study of the development and scope of the voluntary and community sector in each jurisdiction and considers the two sectors in the broader framework of the British Isles and the European Union. The book describes the policy, legislative and regulatory basis for the sector in each part of Ireland and the respective systems of governance and accountability. Having compared the levels of development of the sector in the two jurisdictions, the book identifies examples of good practice that may be of value to the other jurisdiction and draws conclusions about how, and why, the paths of the two sectors diverged and converged and why different or similar models evolved.

               

Politics & International Studies

Social Work & Social Policy & Administration

Education