Researcher: Dr Andrew Walker, Local Democracy Research Centre at the Local Government Information Unit
Title: Measuring and monitoring the benefits of housing-based interventions to strengthen social cohesion through international comparative analysis
Overview: Local councils have a potentially transformative role in strengthening social cohesion by facilitating integration, particularly of vulnerable communities, providing opportunities for greater social mixing, shared use of space, skills and employment opportunities.
Little systematic research has been done to map and compare social cohesion programmes that are conducted in different national jurisdictions. There is a particularly important gap in knowledge on how these programmes are monitored and evaluated. This presents a challenge for sharing good practice as well as demonstrating the co-benefits to wellbeing, the economy and service of resilience within the community.
Through mixed methods research, using case studies and interviews, this project seeks to answer the research questions:
Do councils in different jurisdictions measure and evaluate housing-based interventions that are intended to increase and strengthen social cohesion? If so, how?
This research will help to fill the knowledge gaps by investigating the benefits that accompany housing-based social cohesion programmes adopted by local authorities across Europe, and how these programmes are evaluated so that interventions can be measured and monitored.
Status: Ongoing, commenced 2025
Outputs: To follow