Collaborative research

Exploring the Role of Adaptive Capacity on Democratic Performance (ERAC-DP)

This three-year Trans-Atlantic Platform project involves four countries – the US, Canada and Poland as well as the UK. The UK strand is funded by the ESRC.

It is headed up by CSR Visiting Professor Tom Bryer, who is Professor of Public Administration at University of Central Florida. Dr Victoria Foster and Prof Jo Crotty are the UK PI and Co-I. The interdisciplinary team has expertise in Public Administration, Political Science, Social Science and Economics. We are integrating organisational theories, sociological theories, and democratic theories to analyse and report recommendations for practice that improve adaptive capacity, democratic legitimacy, and ultimately stronger public health participation and outcomes for diverse publics.

The research uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the health, social and economic wellbeing inequalities that emerged during the COVID-19. It considers the extent to which a range of organisations, government and third sector, were able to adapt during the pandemic and how this affected (in)equitable outcomes for vulnerable populations.

ERAC-DP project

Supporting small local enterprises in Skelmersdale: The role of anchor institutions

This participatory research project, resourced by Research England’s QR Strategic Priorities Funding, explored some of the contributions that the small local enterprise sector makes and looked at how it might be enabled and developed, particularly through its links with anchor institutions. It also aimed to understand some of the challenges involved in establishing and maintaining small local enterprises in Skelmersdale.