Reports and research

Investing in Social Growth: Can the Big Society be more than a slogan?

1 September 2010 | Authors: Geoff Mulgan, Phoebe Griffith,

The Big Society’ was promoted by government as a framework for thinking about how this might happen. As an idea it has been much criticised both for vagueness and for diverting attention from spending cuts. This report sets out how

The Young Foundation and the Web: Digital Social Innovation

1 September 2010 | Authors:

In 2010, over 27 million Britons had a Facebook profile, 40 per cent of internet users uploaded self-created content to the web, and the same amount posted messages to chat sites, blogs and newsgroups. Digital technology was transforming our professional

Turning the Corner: Beyond incarceration and re-offending

1 August 2010 | Authors: Anton Shelupanov, Neil Reeder, Robert Patrick, Rushanara Ali,

Political and economic upheavals open up opportunities for more radical reform of the justice system. But reformers have struggled to come up with proven alternatives to incarceration which are cost effective, progressive and able to secure public confidence. Turning the

Why communities matter: What do people and places need from the Big Society?

1 August 2010 | Authors: Saffron Woodcraft,

In this briefing we put forward practical ideas about what communities need from the Big Society to support local engagement, social renewal and improve local quality of life. These ideas are drawn from four years of research at the Young

Why do some people get involved? How to encourage local activism and help communities to self-organise

1 August 2010 | Authors: Lucia Caistor-Arendar,

This paper was produced as part of the Neighbourhood Futures programme, a partnership with six local authorities exploring the impact of the economic downturn on community empowerment and neighbourhood engagement. The programme ran between 2009 and 2010 involving the London

How can neighbourhoods be understood and defined?

1 August 2010 | Authors:

This is a review of what is and is not known about neighbourhoods and communities. It starts to analyse the characteristics of neighbourhoods, including how they are defined and the role of the local public realm in bringing them together.

What is an empowering authority? Community empowerment and organisational culture

1 August 2010 | Authors:

This paper builds on The Young Foundation’s practical experience with local authorities to develop and deepen understanding of how organisational cultures affect the success of neighbourhood working. It looks at how culture interacts with structures, people and processes and highlights

Managing the risks of neighbourhood governance

1 August 2010 | Authors: Saffron Woodcraft,

This discussion paper puts forward a framework for managing the risks of neighbourhood governance: There are strong arguments in support of neighbourhoods being given the powers to act on very local issues, to control local liveability services and community assets,

Capital Ideas

1 July 2010 | Authors: Geoff Mulgan, Jitinder Kohli,

We see innovation in action every day in our lives. When we think of innovation, most of us think of the private sector. And that’s hardly surprising since private-sector innovation accounts for more than 85 percent of economic growth in

Scaling New Heights

1 July 2010 | Authors: Geoff Mulgan, Jitinder Kohli,

President Clinton once said, “nearly every problem has been solved by someone, somewhere. The challenge of the 21st century is to find out what works and scale it up.” The question of scaling is a great issue for any progressive

Cohesive Communities

1 July 2010 | Authors: Alessandra Buonfino, Geoff Mulgan, Rushanara Ali, Sarah Hewes,

This report was commissioned by Local Government Improvement and Development to investigate how local authorities and the voluntary and community sector (VCS) can work more productively together to build empowered and cohesive communities. The research took place over a period

Listen, Participate, Transform: A social media framework for local government

30 June 2010 | Authors: Mandeep Hothi,

This think-piece, the second in a series from the Young Foundation’s Local 2.0 project, provides local authorities with a simple, practical framework to base their social media activity on. For those working in local government, social media is soon to