About ISR

Established in 2019 and officially launched by Jane Brophy MEP, the Institute for Social Responsibility (ISR) is Edge Hill University’s cross-disciplinary research and knowledge exchange initiative.

With a remit to critically examine broad conceptualisations of social responsibility across all disciplines, the Institute is committed to exploring the opportunities for cross sector collaboration and co-operation and to draw on the experience of practitioners.

ISR is committed to sustaining a vibrant research culture at Edge Hill and thus provides research support in the form of training, research and knowledge exchange funding and annual research fellowships. ISR is also home to the Evaluation Policy Unit, dedicated to the assessment of public policy and public policy research.

ISR also supports annual research fellowships, giving academics the space to work on external funding bids to support research on social responsibility. ISR also provides enhanced research support training for staff and provides a home to the research unit for Evaluation and Policy Analysis, dedicated to the assessment of public policy. In addition, the work of ISR is supported by visiting fellows from a range of disciplines, and an external advisory board.

Our mission

ISR will contribute to the ongoing development of a sustainable and vibrant research culture at Edge Hill University by acting as an inter-disciplinary, cross-departmental hub, co-ordinating and supporting research, promoting practitioner and community engagement and assessing public policy within the sphere of social responsibility
Embracing a range of conceptualisations of social responsibility from across the public, private and third sectors, the Institute will both initiate and support research, provides an interface for practitioners and academics to inform new ways of working and learning, create a platform for knowledge exchange, and assess the impact of UK public policy through the Policy Evaluation Unit (EPA).

Our aims

Assist in the generation of a vibrant and stimulating research culture at Edge Hill University
Make a positive impact on pressing issues in the realm of social responsibility by supporting and initiating independent, internationally recognised research.
Emphasise the co-production and exchange of knowledge both during and as an outcome of our research and public policy assessment with practitioners and academics alike.
Contribute to debates on social responsibility and enhance policy formation – regionally, nationally and internationally – through a range of public events and practitioner engagement.
Showcase interpretations and conceptualisations of social responsibility and citizenship within the public, private and third sector, and intersections therein.
Host Visiting Professors, Visiting Fellows, and to host Practitioners in Residence, to work directly with staff, students and our established networks.
Provide support for established and new research centres across the University that seek focus on specific areas of ISR’s remit.
Assist in the development of academic staff through the provision of research training

Meet the team

An image of Jo Crotty smiling into the camera.

ISR Director, Professor Jo Crotty

Jo is both Director Knowledge Exchange and ISR. Combined these are university-wide roles furthering excellence in research and knowledge exchange. Jo’s research interests lie in civil society development, corporate social responsibility, environmental management and state-society-business relations, predominantly in former Soviet Union countries, with particular focus on Russia and Ukraine. Jo has published circa 70 journal articles, conference papers and book chapters, including British Journal of Management, Sociology, Non-profit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly and Organization Studies. She has also presented papers at international conferences including Academy of Management Annual Meeting and the British Academy of Management where she has been nominated and won prizes. She has been awarded research funding from ESRC, where she is part of the review college, and the British Academy. She is also a member of the Editorial Board of Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management Journal.

An image of Victoria Foster looking into the camera, there is various greenery in the background.

ISR Associate Director (External Relations), Dr Victoria Foster

Victoria draws on her background in Fine Art to inform her work with marginalised groups with the aim of consciousness raising and providing a critique of current policy initiatives. She has carried out a number of research projects that have employed a range of arts-based and participatory research methods in order to achieve this aim. This approach to research enables a critical exploration of those elements of life that are often hidden or disregarded. These methods and their underlying theories are outlined in her book Collaborative Arts-based Research for Social Justice. Victoria has been the recipient of an ESRC CASE award for her doctoral research and an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship. She has worked on large scale NIHR-funded research as well as a wide range of smaller projects. She is currently leading a QR-SPF project, ‘Growing the Small Local Enterprise Sector in Skelmersdale’ which is using a participatory methodology to explore principles of community wealth building.

ISR Fellow (Research and External Funding), Dr Laura Eastlake

Laura is a Director of EHU Nineteen Centre for Nineteenth Century Studies. She is a literary scholar and historian of the nineteenth century and her work explores the cultural legacies of the Victorian age, how they continue to shape or shadow cultures today, and how nineteenth-century heritage can be used to drive visitor economies and regeneration in the present. She is the author of Ancient Rome and Victorian Masculinity (Oxford University Press, 2019) and has curated exhibitions on topics including science and medicine in the nineteenth century, Victorian humour, and the history of the ‘femme fatale’ from the ancient world to the silver screen. Her current research explores Britain’s cultural relationships with refined sugar from the nineteenth century to the present. Working with museums and the UK drinks industry, this project will think about how we navigate cultural, health, and policy relationships with contested substances.