HISTORYLITERATURE&LANGUAGES

PSYCHOLOGYECONOMICS

LAWMEDIEVAL STUDIES

ARCHAEOLOGYCLASSICS

GEOGRAPHYLINGUISTICSSOCIOLOGY

AFRICAN&ORIENTAL STUDIESTHEOLOGY&RELIGIOUS STUDIES

PHILOSOPHY&ETHICSHISTORYOFART&MUSIC

ANTHROPOLOGYINTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

POLITICAL STUDIES

PASTPRESENTANDFUTURET H E P U B L I C VA LU EO F T H E H UM A N I T I E S& S O C I A L S C I E N C E S

CONTENTS 2 Introduction by Sir Adam Roberts

8 Quote, Unquote

10 Strengthening Policy Making14 Case Study One:

Understanding Social Exclusion

16 Generating Economic Impact20 Case Study Two:

Humanities for Business: A Brave New World?22 Case Study Three:

Intellectual Property and Technology Law

24 Tackling Social Issues28 Case Study Four:

War Crimes and the Holocaust30 Case Study Five:

The Multi-cultural Barnsley Project32 Case Study Six:

The Socialisation of Sexually Explicit Imagery

34 Recognising Cultural Value38 Case Study Seven:

Recreating Renaissance Interiors at the V&A40 Case Study Eight:

The “Voices” Partnership

42 Addressing Global Challenges46 Case Study Nine:

Tackling Climate Change

48 Advancing International Understanding52 Case Study Ten:

Bride-Price, Poverty and Domestic Violence

54 The British Academy

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This booklet illustrates how research andscholarship in the social sciences andhumanities, nurtured and led by Britain’sworld-class universities, contribute to thecultural, social and economic health, wealthand reputation of the UK. It shows thepublic value of the country’s investment inthese subjects.

The humanities explore what it means to behuman: the words, ideas, narratives and theart and artefacts that help us make sense ofour lives and the world we live in; how wehave created it, and are created by it. Thesocial sciences seek to explore, throughobservation and reflection, the processesthat govern the behaviour of individuals andgroups. Together, they help us tounderstand ourselves, our society and ourplace in the world.

As the UK’s national academy for these fieldsof study, and a major source of funding forthem, the British Academy has a particularresponsibility to champion the value theydeliver, and achieve recognition for it. Thisbooklet provides examples and case studiesof how that investment helps maintain theUK’s position, in challenging times, as one ofthe major knowledge-based economies. Asits title suggests, there is special importanceat such times in understanding and learningfrom the past, and in rigorously analysing thepresent, if we are to continue to innovate andbuild for the future of our society.

INTRODUCTION

Sir Adam Roberts President, British Academy

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The UK has an outstandingly strongresearch base in the social sciences andhumanities. Each day thousands ofextraordinarily gifted economists, lawyers,historians, linguists, philosophers, critics,archaeologists, geographers, sociologists,anthropologists and psychologists makeimportant contributions to our shared publiclife – analysing the human and ethicalimplications of scientific and medicaladvances, exploring the social andeconomic impact of global issues such asclimate change or international security,influencing new kinds of businessinnovation, uncovering new perspectives onour cultural heritage or undertaking reviewsand enquiries which often lead to therevising or refocusing of public policy.Their endeavours also extend beyond theimmediate needs of the economy,underpinning the culture of open andinformed debate essential to any civilized,democratic society.

We have chosen throughout this booklet touse a broad definition of the public value,and the social and cultural benefits, of theseareas of expertise and scholarship.Economic impact is only one part – but avery important one – of public value, and itis one that we have not neglected within thenarratives that follow.

Indeed, the contribution UK universitiesmake to the overall economy is immense.

The taxpayer now pays less than half thecosts of our universities, yet this investmentof some £12bn (£23bn in public and privateincome)

“is transformed into an economic footprint in our

society worth almost £60 billion in jobs, exports,

innovation and added value.”

This equates to almost 5% of GDP.1

Although there has been a tendency to seeSTEM subjects (Science, Technology,Engineering and Maths) as the key to thesuccess of universities and to nationaleconomic recovery, the humanities andsocial sciences also play a crucial part. Thetable overleaf, based on data from theHigher Education Statistical Agency (HESA),provides an illustration of one aspect of this– namely the attractive power of thesesubjects. It shows something well known –that a majority of UK students choose tostudy arts, humanities and social sciencedisciplines. But it also shows something lesswell known, that a large and increasingnumber of international students come hereto study these disciplines, and of course tolive – and spend – here in the UK. In2008/09 a combined total of 222,000international students from all over the worldwere studying these subjects here. TheHESA figures suggest a rise of over 60%since 2001/02. This is notably higher thanthe equivalent increase in the number ofinternational students coming to the UK tostudy ‘sciences and other disciplines’.

1 Calculation based on UK GDP of £316bn in Q4, 2009. Figures quoted by Lord Mandelson, ‘The Future of HigherEducation’, Dearing Lecture, Nottingham University, 11 February 2010. Full text available at:http://nds.coi.gov.uk/content/detail.aspx?ReleaseID=411156&NewsAreaID=2

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2 Source: HESA. Figures in the table include both undergraduates and postgraduates, and both full-time and part-timestudents. All figures have been rounded up or down to the nearest 5. We have excluded from the table students incertain combined programmes which cannot be identified as falling within one of the two disciplinary areas shown inthis table: these were more numerous in 2001/02 than in 2008/09. Raw data available at:http://www.hesa.ac.uk/index.php?option=com_datatables&Itemid=121&task=show_category&catdex=3The first row (AH&SS) includes town and country planning, but not architecture or building related degreesThe second row (S&OD) includes architecture and building related degrees

3 Punching our Weight: The Humanities and Social Sciences in Public Policy Making, British Academy, London, 2008.Available at: http://www.britac.ac.uk/policy/wilson/

4 Leading the World: The Economic Impact of Arts and Humanities Research, Arts and Humanities Research Council,Bristol, 2009. Available at: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/About/Policy/Documents/leadingtheworld.pdf

Teaching and research in the humanitiesand social sciences has economic value in awide variety of ways, direct and indirect.For example, it shapes vital ethical, socialand legal issues. It also provides anessential underpinning to the cultural sector– the arts, heritage and tourism industries,publishing and broadcasting – and to theknowledge economy in general. Socialscience research informs and influenceslegislation, and it contributes to soundmanagement and team-working acrossindustry and public services. Moregenerally, language, religious, cultural andpolitical expertise form a crucial element ofBritain’s ‘soft power’ in internationaldiplomacy, cultural relations and trade.

In the last two years there have been threeuseful reports specifically addressing thecontributions of the social sciences andhumanities to the national life of the UK.

The first was a British Academy Report,Punching our Weight, that lookedparticularly at the role of social sciences inpolicy making.3 The second was an Arts andHumanities Research Council (AHRC)survey, Leading the World, examining theeconomic impact of research in the arts andhumanities.4 The third was an Academy ofSocial Sciences/Economic and SocialResearch Council (ESRC) report on Well-being, giving examples of social science inaction within the UK.5 The presentpublication – the only one of these to coverboth the humanities and the social sciences– seeks to supplement and update theseearlier reports.

This booklet appears against thebackground of a disturbingly polarizeddebate in the UK, in which the rival claimsof STEM and non-STEM subjects are treatedas necessarily antagonistic. This is an old

Table showing numbers of Higher Education students in the arts, humanitiesand social sciences2

2001/02 2008/09(and % change since 2001/02)

UK Other EU Non EU UK Other EU Non EU

Arts, humanities 836,265 46,430 84,805 1,073,465 70,845 151,185

and social sciences2 (+28%) (+53%) (+78%)

Sciences and other 693,245 38,365 60,005 829,115 45,300 97,425

disciplines2 (+20%) (+18%) (+62%)

Total all subjects 1,529,510 84,795 144,810 1,902,580 116,145 248,610

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story, often retold. In 2004 the formerBritish Academy President Lord Runcimanwrote:

“Too often government statements and official

pronouncements refer approvingly to the

undoubted contributions made by the natural

sciences, engineering and technology to wealth

generation, economic prosperity, knowledge

transfer, innovation, and the development of new

businesses, products and services, while failing

to acknowledge the equally important

contributions made by the arts, humanities, and

social sciences.”6

Sadly, that statement remains largely truetoday; the enormous achievements of non-STEM disciplines are often overlooked – evenwhen these involve, as so often, vitalinterdisciplinary research spanning thenatural and social sciences. Thesemisconceptions are potentially verydamaging, especially at a time of diminishingresources. As modern research has becomemore and more interdisciplinary, and wemove increasingly beyond the sterile andoutdated notion of a society of ‘two cultures’,the mutual dependencies of ‘hard’ scienceand the humanities and social sciences havebecome ever clearer.

However, there are encouraging signs ofrecognition of the breadth of skills that arerequired in a modern economy. As DavidWilletts said last year in the House ofCommons, “a dynamic and well-balancedeconomy needs to draw on the dynamism

and research capacity of universitydepartments in the arts and humanities aswell as those in STEM subjects.”7

A major new McKinsey report has providedquantitative estimates of this impact: “Indeveloped economies, almost 90 percent ofvalue-added growth comes from servicesand only 10 percent from goods-producingindustries.”8 There is no binary divide here:the McKinsey report is explicit that manyservices do depend on a scientific andindustrial base, and may themselves requirescientific knowledge. But it is clear, too, thatthey also require a range of other skills andthis is increasingly being recognised byothers. A new report from the League ofEuropean Research Universities argues:

“It is talent more than technology that society or

business needs from universities. Research and

the people trained in it inspire many of the ideas,

aspirations and actions that contribute to the

vitality of society and its capacity for bold

creativity in responding to whatever the future

might bring.”9

There is no simple way of demonstrating thesubtle and unexpected ways in whichacademic disciplines “contribute to thevitality of society”. Research and teachingoften has effects in ways which may becaptured in narratives as much as instatistics. This booklet provides evidence,mainly in narrative form, of the rigour,precision and flair of work in the humanities

5 Making the Case for the Social Sciences, no.1, Well-being, Academy of Social Sciences, 2010. Available at:http://www.acss.org.uk/docs/Making%20the%20Case/wellbeing_brochure_view.pdf

6 Foreword to That Full Complement of Riches, British Academy, London, 20047 David Willetts MP, Shadow Secretary for Innovation, Universities and Skills, speaking in the House of Commons,

3 November 20098 James Manyika et al., How to Compete and Grow: A Sector Guide to Policy, McKinsey Global Institute, March 2010,

p.28. Available at: http://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/publications/competitiveness/index.asp9 ‘Doctoral degrees beyond 2010: Training talented researchers for society’, League of European Research Universities,

Leuven, March 2010, summary. Available at: http://www.leru.org/?bmlkPTQ2

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and social sciences, and how thesedisciplines constitute an enormous reservoirof public value. It has been written andcollated by staff of the Academy, drawing ona variety of published sources and newinformation, and also contains ten speciallycommissioned case studies, prepared byCecile Perles of the University of Essex, towhom the Academy is most grateful.Necessarily, however, this booklet illustratesonly a tiny fraction of the countlesscontributions made by thousands of oftenunder-celebrated researchers and scholars– extraordinary achievements byoutstanding, creative minds that help us allto build a better society.

Professor Sir Adam Roberts KCMGPresident, British Academy, June 2010

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Dominic Grieve MP leading a British Academy Forum on human rights legislation, March 2010

8

QUOTE,UNQUOTE

“Responsible citizenship requires...theability to assess historical evidence, to useand think critically about economicprinciples, to compare differing views ofsocial justice, to speak a foreign language,to appreciate the complexities of themajor world religions. A catalogue of factswithout the ability to assess them, or tounderstand how a narrative is assembledfrom evidence, is almost as bad asignorance.”

Professor Martha C. Nussbaum FBA,University of Chicago, article in the TimesLiterary Supplement, 30 April 2010 (anedited extract from her forthcoming book,Not For Profit: Why democracy needs thehumanities)

“Science does no more than set the stage,providing and clarifying the choices. Ourvalues and feelings about the society wewish to build, in this wiser world oftomorrow, will then write the play. Butwhence the values? What shapes them?What guides the subsequent choices?These are hugely difficult, yet utterlyfundamental questions. Ultimately the

answers, insofar as there are answers, willillustrate better than anything else justhow indivisible is the continuum from thearts, humanities and social sciencesthrough to the biological and physicalsciences”

Lord May, former President of the RoyalSociety, speaking at the centenary dinnerof the British Academy, 4 July 2002(published in Two Bodies, One Culture,British Academy, 2002)

“The scientist versus artist debate is still,damagingly I think, with us... A largenumber of people, like me, want to findsome way to enter into the world ofknowledge you know and own. And in thiscountry there is a very large minority whotake it for granted that the multiverse, thedissolution of the monasteries, the history ofthe brain, zero, Avicenna and JosephConrad belong to the same spectrum.”

Lord Melvyn Bragg, keynote speech tothe British Association ScienceCommunication Conference, Institution ofEngineering and Technology, London,19 May 2008

“

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“Only the English language uses ‘science’to mean exclusively the natural sciences,or has adopted the 19th-century coinage‘scientist’, and can speak of ‘thescientific community’. Monbiot is right indeploring the consequent damage toeducation, not to mention the disastrousand unnatural schism between variousfields of knowledge and scholarship allthis opens up.”

Professor Robin Milner-Gulland FBA,University of Sussex, letter to TheGuardian, 8 April 2010 (responding to anarticle by George Monbiot)

“There are many more than two cultures...What is remarkable is that we all daily livein multiple cultures of knowledge withoutremarking on it... Trades, professions,occupations have each their particularstore of expertise: plumbers,microbiologists, mothers, anthropologists,chefs, and astronomers have eachparticular vocabularies for their jobs butshare also a wider set of culturalvocabularies: they are (probably) lovers,(perhaps) parents, certainly shoppers, andworkers, and unavoidably citizen subjects ”

whose communal futures are under thestress of national and world events.”

Dame Gillian Beer FBA, University ofCambridge, ‘The Challengesof Interdisciplinarity’, Durham University,27 April 2006

“Research in cultures, languages, arts,social sciences and humanities subjectsshould have parity of esteem with thatundertaken by teams in STEM subjects. Ifwe are serious about identifying nationalpriorities and making new investments insolving global problems we will need toretain a comprehensive research capacityand make greater effort in trans-disciplinary initiatives. We will struggle todo this if we continue with anenvironment where there are markedasymmetries in resource allocation”

Professor Paul Wellings, Vice-Chancellor ofLancaster University and President of the1994 Group, launching a call for a nationaldebate over research investment priorities,House of Commons, 13 March 2009

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In 2004 the British Academy report ThatFull Complement of Riches, produced by anexpert committee chaired by Professor PaulLangford FBA, set out the contributions ofthe arts, humanities and social sciences tothe nation’s wealth.10 This booklet draws onthat much longer work and provides morerecent examples of that wide-ranging value,including ten new case studies.

It is widely acknowledged that the bestpolicy making needs to be informed by highquality, evidence-based research, robustlyevaluated and subjected to independentscrutiny. Some of the government’s mostsuccessful recent initiatives – such as theSure Start initiative, which aims to helpdevelop young children from all areas andbackgrounds – were inspired by just suchresearch in the social sciences.

Case Study One (page 14) looks at theimpact that academic research carried outon social exclusion by teams from theLondon School of Economics had on theSure Start initiative, which now accounts formore than £1.6bn of governmentexpenditure annually.

There are numerous powerful examples ofhow major humanities and social sciencestudies in the past few years can have directimpact on aspects of public policy. Forexample, in public health policy, ProfessorSir Michael Marmot FBA, Chair of the World

David Willetts MP taking part in a British Academy Forum on alternative models for university tuition fees, February 2010

STRENGTHENINGPOLICYMAKING

11

Health Organisation’s Commission on SocialDeterminants of Health, chaired a study intothe links between obesity and cancer,published in 2009, which warned thatcancer deaths could double over the next40 years without significant changes toWestern diet and lifestyle. A year later, inFebruary 2010, his major review of HealthInequalities in England set out an evidence-based strategy for government departmentsto tackle the widening gap between themost and least healthy sectors of thepopulation.11

In education, the ‘value added’ classificationsfor assessing the performance of schools,introduced in 2002 and (further modified) in2005, were developed in response toresearch led by Professor Harvey GoldsteinFBA showing the shortcomings of raw testscores. In moral philosophy, Baroness MaryWarnock and Professor Jonathan Gloverhave been highly influential in setting policyon reproductive technology. And theorganising strategies being put in place tomanage Olympic risk were examined in aspecial workshop at the LSE in June 2009,convened by Dr Will Jennings with thesupport of the ESRC. Participants fromdifferent Government departments andagencies engaged in discussion of thediverse multiple risks associated with thestaging of the 2012 London Olympics – fromterrorism to extreme weather events, andfrom a global pandemic to the effects of the

global recession on public finances, ticketsales and sponsorship.12

The 2002 Reith Lectures, A Question ofTrust, given by the philosopher (and laterBritish Academy President) Onora O'Neill,sparked a wide debate on accountabilityand trust; her criticisms of public sectortarget setting, performance indicators andcertain forms of “transparency” powerfullysuggested that the supposed crisis of trustfollowed logically from the introduction ofmany of these supposed remedies. Thischimed with numerous audiences whorecognised it as relevant to their concernsand since then Baroness O'Neill haspromoted discussion of more effective formsof accountability, influencing a wide range ofprofessional public sector organisations.

Similarly, the New Deal programme of activelabour market policies, introduced by theBlair Government in 1998, wasunderpinned by the work of three prominenteconomists, Professors Richard LayardFBA, Stephen Nickell FBA and RichardJackman, on the causes and cures ofunemployment. Their research alsoinfluenced the employment policies of othercountries, including Holland and Denmark.They challenged the conventional idea ofthe 1980s that high unemployment wasinevitable by developing models thatdemonstrated two vital points: that a biggerlabour force does not of itself increase

10 That Full Complement of Riches, op cit. The title “is a phrase coined by Adam Smith in his Wealth of Nations of 1776to describe the success of certain nations in achieving their full economic and social potential”

11 ‘Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective’, February 2009,see: http://www.dietandcancerreport.org/. ‘Fair Society, Healthy Lives’, February 2010,see: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/gheg/marmotreview

12 Will Jennings (2009), ‘London 2010: A Risk Based Olympics?’ Risk and Regulation 18 (Winter): 14-16.http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/CARR/pdf/RiskRegulation18Winter2009.pdf

12

The Sure Start initiative. By mid-2009 more than 3,000 Sure Start centres had been established across the UK

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priorities and universities being moreprepared to recognise policy work in theirpromotion criteria. There has since beenencouraging progress, especially on the firsttwo objectives.13

Partially in response to the report, theBritish Academy established a new PolicyCentre in September 2009 with financialsupport from the Economic and SocialResearch Council (ESRC), which willexpand in April 2010 with further supportfrom the Arts and Humanities ResearchCouncil (AHRC). The Centre is organising arange of policy seminars and public eventsdesigned to bring together those with realacademic expertise in particular areas ofpublic policy with those in Parliament,Whitehall and the devolved administrationswho can bring about policy changes. It isalso coordinating the production of expertreviews on a range of important publictopics.

The first, Social Science and FamilyPolicies, produced by a working partychaired by Professor Sir Michael RutterFBA, was published in February 2010; asecond, Choosing an Electoral System,produced by Professors Ron Johnston FBA,Iain McLean FBA and Simon Hix, appearedin March 2010.14 Both had relevance tohotly debated issues emerging in the 2010General Election campaign and itsaftermath.

13 Punching our Weight: The Humanities and Social Sciences in Public Policy Making, op cit14 These reports can be accessed via: http://www.britac.ac.uk/policy/policy-family.cfm and

https://www.britac.ac.uk/policy/choosing-electoral-system.cfm

unemployment (so that unemploymentcannot be blamed, for example, onimmigration); and that higher productivitydoes not increase unemployment (so newtechnology, for example, is not the mainproblem). Their findings showed the UK wasfailing to mobilise the unemployed to fill thejobs which were available, and that highinflation resulted from unfilled vacancies.This “mobilisation failure” was in turn tracedback to changes in the way unemployedpeople were treated at benefit offices andjob centres.

However, there is good reason to assumethat not all government policy automaticallydraws on high quality research findings. TheBritish Academy report, Punching ourWeight, chaired by Sir Alan Wilson FBA andlaunched by then Minister for Science andInnovation Ian Pearson, sought to identifythe barriers preventing public policy makersbeing better informed about the researchexpertise available from world leading areasof the humanities and social sciencesacross British universities. The reporthighlighted enthusiasm on both sides forcloser dialogue but also the ways thatcurrent practices and structures hindercollaboration. It made a number of practicalsuggestions about ways of bridging this gap,including work exchanges, strengtheningdialogue through the creation of new policyworkshops and joint forums, governmentdepartments publishing their research

14

Case StudyOne:

UNDERSTANDINGSOCIALEXCLUSION

15 Department for Children, Schools and Families, Sure Start Children’s Centres,http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/earlyyears/surestart/whatsurestartdoes/

16 Department for Children, Schools and Families (2009), Departmental report 2009 (London,The Stationery Office),p.88, http://publications.dcsf.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/DCSF-Annual%20Report%202009-BKMK.PDF

17 This case study builds on an earlier study commissioned by the Economic and Social Research Council published in:Research Councils UK: Study on the economic impact of the Research Councils, Part II: Case Studies, (2007),pp.167-183, http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/cmsweb/downloads/rcuk/economicimpact/ei2.pdf. The original case study can befound at http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/case/

18 Ibid, p.172

Context• A thorough understanding of the

complex pathways towards and awayfrom social exclusion is crucial to thedevelopment and implementation ofsound public policy in this area.

• One example of good practiceinvolving cooperation across differentsectors is the Sure Start programme,which aims to “deliver the best start inlife for every child by bringing togetherearly education, childcare, health andfamily support”.15 The Department forChildren, Schools and Families states inits latest Departmental report that theprovision of: “high quality integratedservices through Sure Start Children'sCentres is key to improving outcomesfor young children, reducing inequalitiesin outcomes between the mostdisadvantaged and the rest, and helpingto bring an end to child poverty”.16

Multidisciplinary Approach• The Centre for the Analysis of Social

Exclusion (CASE) is a multi-disciplinary

centre for research, established in 1997at the London School of Economics,with the aim of exploring the variousdimensions of social disadvantage andassessing how public policy impacts onthis area.17

• In 2002 the Centre embarked on afive year programme of researchcomprising eight inter-related themes,among which Generational and LifeCourse Dynamics played a key role inshaping Sure Start policy.

Findings• This research programme established

strong causal links between adultoutcomes on the one hand, such asmental health issues, welfare status andsocio-economic status, and on theother, childhood experience of poverty,family disruption and contact with thepolice. In short, social exclusion hasdevastating consequences, not only onpresent day cohorts, but also on thefuture life opportunities of those borninto such backgrounds.18

15

19 Ibid, p.17120 Ibid, p.17921 Ibid, p.18022 Department for Children, Schools and Families (2009), op cit, p.89

Impacts• Findings such as these have played

a key role in improving theunderstanding of factors underlying thedynamic processes responsible forsocial exclusion. This has beenachieved by the systematic codificationand dissemination of knowledge gainedthrough the research programme.19

• In particular, the Social ExclusionUnit (now the Social Exclusion TaskForce), operating out of the CabinetOffice, has directly benefited from thesefindings. Interviewees perceived theresearch as “very influential” and ashaving “convinced ministers” of theimportance of such issues. The SureStart programme was widely seen ashaving embraced the Centre’sfindings.20

• Sure Start receives substantial CentralGovernment funding which has risenfrom approximately £180 million in1998/99 to over £1.6 billion in2008/09.21 By mid-2009, a total of3,018 Sure Start Children’s Centres

were offering services to almost 2.4million children and their families, witha target of 3,500 Centres by 2010.22

• Another indication of the policy’ssuccess can be found in it being givenstatutory legal basis in theApprenticeships, Skills, Childrenand Learning Act in 2009.

• When considering the ways inwhich specific research impacts onpolicy making, it is important to keepsight of the many diverse andinterlinked factors which can influencepolicy decisions. For instance,significant improvements have beenmade to the living standards and thequality of life for families with children,as a result of increases in governmentexpenditure, including Sure Start, familytax credits and the creation of morenursery places. It is within this broadercontext that one should view the impactof the work of the CASE Centre.

How... theGovernment’s Sure Start initiativewasrooted in extensive social science research ondifferent kinds of social disadvantage

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Nick Clegg MP, one of the main speakers in a British Academy Forum on constitutional reform, October 2009

The UK faces enormous challenges inmaintaining sound public finances,supporting the effective delivery of publicservices and ensuring sustainable levels ofeconomic well-being in the wake of theglobal recession. At the same time thecountry needs to continue to promoteBritish economic prospects in globalmarkets, to play a leading part in worldwideefforts to respond to climate change, and toaddress and help alleviate world poverty.

In helping the country rise to thesechallenges, experts in a wide range of socialscience and humanities disciplines areplaying a crucial role. Alongside economists,these include business and managementresearchers, social policy analysts,philosophers and ethics scholars, andpolitical and international relationsspecialists. For example, at the forefront ofmanaging and advising on the currentfinancial crisis are leading economists suchas Mervyn King FBA (Governor of the Bankof England), Professor Tim Besley FBA(Monetary Policy Committee, 2006-09), andhis fellow LSE Professors Willem Buiter FBAand Charles Goodhart FBA, who both gaveexpert evidence to a parliamentary hearingin January 2009 on the banking crisis.

Professor Besley also convened meetings ofleading economists under the auspices ofthe British Academy Forum which led to twohigh-profile letters being sent to Her Majesty

GENERATINGECONOMICIMPACT

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The Queen in July 2009 and February2010. The first addressed the question sheraised when opening a new building at theLSE, namely “why didn’t anyone notice?”the credit crunch coming; the secondproposed that she ask her Government toprovide her with regular horizon scanningreports on the movements of financialmarkets and credit levels, to try to reducethe risk of a similar crisis recurring.23

Treasury thinking on how labour marketswork in relation to global competition hasbeen importantly influenced by the work oftwo leading UK economists, ProfessorStephen Machin FBA, and Professor JohnVan Reenan (LSE), whose research showedthat this competition is not a significantdriver of lower wages for the unskilled, butrather that labour moves towards higherskills, both within and between industries.24

With the development of the globalknowledge economy, humanities and socialscience research provides essentialinformation and analysis for developingpublic and educational policies that canenable UK citizens to meet their fullpotential – identifying key skills shortagesand areas where the economy needs peopleto learn new ones, and helping to guide thecontinuous re-skilling of the workforcethrough the work of sociologists likeProfessor Duncan Gallie FBA.

On behalf of the British Academy, theLSE Public Policy Group interviewedrepresentatives from private sectoremployers to ask what they thoughthumanities and social science research hadto offer. The encouragingly positive responseincluded the following answers:• analysing the performance and

productivity of business• providing ideas and inspiration that can

lead to new products, processes andmethods of working

• enhancing the ability of business toanticipate emerging trends and betterunderstand potential risks

• gaining a competitive edge throughbetter understanding of the ways inwhich political and social reactionsimpact on business projects

• improving the effectiveness of businessnetworks, links to relevant stakeholdersand communities; and building andmaintaining good relationships withcustomers

• providing key skills for employers andemployees.25

As this list demonstrates, whereas thedominant global industries of the pastfocused on manufacturing industry,corporations today are increasingly active inthe fields of communications, information,entertainment, leisure, science andtechnology. The White Paper produced byTony Blair’s incoming government, Our

23 Copies of both letters can be found on the British Academy’s website at:http://www.britac.ac.uk/medialibrary/financial_horizon-scanning.cfm

24 S Machin and J Van Reenan, Changes in Wage Inequality, Centre for Economic Performance, 2007. Available at:http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/special/cepsp18.pdf

25 The full report, Maximizing the social, policy and economic impacts of research in the humanities and social sciences,is available at: www.britac.ac.uk/policy/wilson/lse-report/index.cfm

18

Northern Rock collapse, September 2007. Customers wait in line to remove their savings (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

19

26 Our Competitive Future, building the knowledge driven economy, Department for Trade and Industry, 1998 (emphasisin bold in the original)

27 Professor Ken Peattie, Director of ESRC Research Centre for Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability andSociety (BRASS) at Cardiff University. Quoted in That Full Complement of Riches, p.14

28 Hughes, A and Kitson, M (2010) Connecting with the Ivory Tower: Business Perspectives on Knowledge Exchange inthe UK, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge (forthcoming)

Competitive Future, defined the knowledgedriven economy as:

“one in which the generation and exploitation of

knowledge has come to play the predominant

part in the creation of wealth. It is not simply

about pushing back the frontiers of knowledge:

it is also about the more effective use and

exploitation of all types of knowledge in all

manner of economic activity.”26

As Professor Ken Peattie has said:“Sustainable competitive advantage is very rarely

generated from technological excellence alone.

Today, in markets which many people might

assume to be dominated by technological issues,

including cars, home computers and mobile

phones, it is actually ‘soft and subjective’ factors

like design, branding or customer service that

are ultimately crucial in delivering and sustaining

competitive advantage. These factors are very

strongly rooted in the arts, humanities and social

sciences. 27

A new survey of business interactions withdifferent academic sector disciplinesconducted by Professor Alan Hughessupports this thesis. Interactions with artsand humanities disciplines featured in12.5% of all responses – higher than areassuch as biology, chemistry, veterinarysciences, architecture, building, planningand urban design and health sciences.28

Case Study Two (page 20) explores the waysin which a knowledge transfer initiative atUniversity College London is linkingbusinesses with humanities research ininnovative new ways.

The generation of intellectual property,notably but not exclusively copyright, is amajor contribution of the humanities andsocial sciences. It is fundamental to manyactivities at the heart of British economiclife, such as education, media, tourism,leisure, and the manufacturing, productionand service industries which support them.The value of intellectual property in thesesectors depends upon their ability togenerate new ideas rather than tomanufacture commodities – and these arethe fastest growing sectors of the global andthe UK economy.

Managing and understanding the evergrowing complexity of intellectual propertyissues is at the heart of Case Study Three(page 22), which summarises the impact ofEdinburgh University’s Centre for Researchin Intellectual Property and Technology Law(SCRIPT).

20

29 Case study prepared with the help of Dr Berry Chevasco, coordinator of the programme. See also: UCL, Learning fromOvid: Humanities for Business lecture, 6/05/09 at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0905/09050604 andHumanities for Business: Pioneering in a ‘Brave New World’ at: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/intercultural-interaction/case-studies-library/HfB

Case StudyTwo:

HUMANITIESFORBUSINESS:ABRAVENEWWORLD?

Context• Businesses, financial organisations

and the public sector constantly have toadapt to short term economicfluctuations. However, theunprecedented pressures brought aboutby the recent financial crisis haveintensified the widespread demandamong the business community andbeyond for advice on rapid and efficientmeans of response.

Multidisciplinary Approach• The Humanities for Business

programme aims to provide a freshapproach to knowledge transfer in orderto meet the growing appetite for newways to address commercial andorganisational challenges.

• The programme is coordinated by DrBerry Chevasco and was established in2009 within the Arts and HumanitiesFaculty of University College London(UCL).29

• It has fostered interaction betweenpublic and private sector business and

an extensive range of UCL academics,including participants representing suchdisciplines as philosophy, language andliterature, history and fine arts. Althoughstill in its infancy, the programme hasalready engendered interest amonglarge organisations such as Unileverand the London NHS.

• Through a series of seminars andlectures tailored to meet the particularneeds of participating organisations,Humanities for Business offers modulessuch as ’Hard Times for these Times:cultural views of industrialisation fromDickens to Zola’, ‘Machiavelli here andnow: an exploration of political andentrepreneurial success’, ’The wisdomof crowds: Rousseau's impact onmodern marketing’, and ‘Inspirationalleadership: ethics and deception inShakespeare's Henry V’.

Impacts• The organisational flexibility required of

businesses in today’s ever-changingenvironment often necessitates a

21

30 Quotes from business and public sector users supplied by Dr Chevasco

departure from conventional outlooks.Where traditional corporate changemanuals can be rather rigid, humanitiescan provide an innovative overview ofbusiness challenges, together with wide-ranging approaches towardsproblem-solving.

• Distinguished senior business figureshave shown their support for this uniqueinnovation. For instance, GeorgeGreener, former CEO of MarsConfectionery Inc and current Chairmanof the London NHS, writes: “I have ledprivately owned and quoted companiesand public sector organisations for morethan half of my working life. Rarely havetechnical problems been the rate-limiting step to progress. Invariably ithas been about the nature of people:how well they have learned tounderstand and appreciate each otherand being prepared to cooperate for thegreater good, exacerbated by theremorseless advance of globalisation.Faculties of Arts, Humanities and SocialSciences are a rich and largely

untapped resource for helping the worldof business to address this andtherefore make the kind of progress wewould all like to see.”30

• These benefits are also increasinglybeing recognized in other disciplines,including medicine. As neuroscientistProfessor Mike Spyer explains: “There iscompelling evidence that humanitiescan advance the care of patientsproviding insight into the nature of theenvironment and communication thatadvance the healing process. Specificexamples are in the organisation ofwards that deal with adolescent cancerpatients. Here the structure is toempower the patients to control theirown environment – enrichment is not apassive process but an activeengagement in design andmanagement.”30

How... humanities scholarship atUCL is providingfresh newapproaches tomeeting business challengesfaced byboth commercial and public sectororganisations

22

31 Case Study prepared with the help of Professor Graeme Laurie, Director of the Centre for Research in IntellectualProperty and Technology Law. This case study builds on an earlier study by the Arts and Humanities Research Council(hereafter referred to as AHRC case study) available at:http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundedResearch/CaseStudies/Pages/ipt.aspx

Case StudyThree:

INTELLECTUALPROPERTYANDTECHNOLOGYLAW 31

Context• Changes being brought about by new

and emerging technologies are creatinga range of major new challenges forinnovation, regulation, privacy and trust.For instance, the rapid increase inpersonal data collection and usage hasbeen facilitated by technologicaladvances, but has raised complexethical and legal issues. How should lawand society respond?

Multidisciplinary Approach• The Centre for Research in Intellectual

Property and Technology Law at theUniversity of Edinburgh (SCRIPT) wasestablished in 2002 with a £2.5msponsorship, over 10 years, from theArts and Humanities Research Council.

• Research at the Centre covers the wideand complex inter-relationship betweenlaw, technologies, commerce andsociety. Through direct collaborationsacross different disciplines, it reacheswidely beyond academia to policymakers, the private sector and range ofpublic bodies – working with

organisations such as the British Library,the Creative Commons movement, NHSScotland and the Scottish Government.

Current Research• As propagated by the Centre itself,

the overarching question is “how bestcan law be deployed in rising to newscientific, cultural and technologicalchallenges?”

• 11 research projects – grouped into twocore themes of Regulation and Trustand Openness and Secrecy – arecurrently being undertaken.

• The Foresight Fora (academic thinktanks) consist of “subject-specificexpert clusters, dedicated to horizon-scanning in their field and seekingnatural collaborations and funding torespond to new challenges for law andpolicy as they emerge”. These Foracover Intellectual Property, InformationTechnology and Health Law and Policy.

Impacts• Through its wide-ranging and

interdisciplinary activities, SCRIPT hasproven to be a crucial vehicle forinfluencing laws and regulation in areasas disparate as e-commerce,biotechnology and medical ethics.

• Its work centres on engagement inreal-world problems, which is thendisseminated, contributing to theevidence-base necessary for public

23

32 AHRC case study, op cit33 Ibid34 Ibid35 Ethics and Governance Council (2007), UK Biobank Ethics and Governance Framework, Version 3.0, p.9,

http://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/docs/EGFlatestJan20082.pdf

policy formulation. The Centre alsogenerates a significant social impact athome and abroad through itsinvolvement in debates surroundingfundamental issues related to corerights and values affected bytechnological advances.

• SCRIPT also frequently works withnational and international governmentbodies. Examples include itscontributions to the UK IntellectualProperty Office’s consultation on TakingForward the Gowers Review ofIntellectual Property, and proposedchanges to Copyright Exceptions;participating in amending the EuropeanCommission’s Green Paper on Copyrightin the Knowledge Economy; and aproject with the Argentinian Governmentexploring the regulation of biotechnologies,especially stem cells, in developingcountries.32

• The net economic impact generatedby SCRIPT’s consultancy and researchfrom 2002 to 2005 was estimated at£300,000 by PricewaterhouseCoopers(PwC) as part of a case study evaluation

by AHRC. PwC further predicted theeconomic impact of the Centre between2002 and 2031 at £8.6-£11.3m.33

• UK Biobank is a £64 million projectseeking to collect blood samples andhealth information from 500,000people.34 Its work raises a number ofethical and legal questions, which areexplored and guided by its Ethics andGovernance Council, chaired by theDirector of SCRIPT, Professor GraemeLaurie. The Council’s extensiveguidance has provided an invaluablesource of advice for Biobank, whohave consistently acted on itsrecommendations. For instance, theoriginal Ethics and GovernanceFramework (EGF) provided participantswith a “no further use” withdrawaloption, which guaranteed destruction ofsamples. However, it came to light thatdue to complex IT back-up and auditsystems it was not possible to destroy alldata. Following the Council’srecommendations the EGF was revisedto include clear statements to this effect. 35

How... legal experts are tackling the dilemmaswhich new technologies are creating in crucial areasof regulation, trust andprivacy

24

Professor David Nutt, one of the panellists in a British Academy/Medical Research Council public discussion of addiction,and the issues it raises across UK society, January 2010

TACKLINGSOCIAL ISSUES

Many social science and humanitiesdisciplines contribute to addressing issuesof justice, crime and citizenship, togetherwith allied research into areas such asterrorism, drug use and the impact ofmigration. These disciplines includereligious studies, sociology, criminology,economics, psychology, philosophy andcommunications studies. The Home Officeand Justice Ministry, draw significantly onsuch areas of expertise in order to informthe development of policies to improvepolicing and public safety, to understand thedivide between public perceptions of risingcrime and actual falling crime statistics, toidentify the factors that lead to violentextremism and radicalization, and to assessthe impact of different sentencing strategies.

An instance of the way research of this kindcan often give policy makers the long-termbackground and context to a policyproblem, and enable them to learn fromhistorical precedents over time, is providedby Case Study Four (page 28), whichillustrates the impact of the work ofhistorian Professor David Cesarani of RoyalHolloway, University of London, a specialistin the legacy of the Holocaust, who helpedthe War Crimes Bill reach the statute book.

Examples of how rigorous, evidence-basedresearch projects can inform social policy(all recently funded by the British Academy)include an evaluation of children with

25

36 See for example ‘Are date rape spiked drinks an urban myth?’, Daily Mail, 6 November 200937 ‘Paying the price again: prostitution policy in historical perspective’, Julia Laite, 2006. Available as a History and

Policy case study at: http://www.historyandpolicy.org/papers/policy-paper-46.html38 House of Commons, Health Committee, ‘Social Care’, Third report of Session 2009-10, 12/03/2010, Vol.I, HC 22-1,

p.100, para.356, and Vol.2, HC22-II, pp.EV172-EV178,http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmhealth/22/2202.htm

39 ‘In Praise of Panel Surveys’, edited by Richard Berthoud and Jonathan Burton, September 2008, pp.12-13 and p.23,http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/files/in-praise-of-panel-surveys.pdf

40 ‘An Anatomy of Economic Inequality in the UK’, February 2010, available via the Government Equalities Office websiteat: http://www.equalities.gov.uk/national_equality_panel/publications.aspx

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; astudy of links between childhood bullyingand mental health problems; research intodrink-spiking and drug-facilitated sexualassault among female students, which foundthat the involvement of drugs such asrohypnol in “date rape” was largely unproven(a story extensively covered in the Daily Mailand other papers)36; and an influential studyof the failed history of prostitution controlstrategies, and how they have relied onoutdated concepts, carried out by ProfessorJulia Laite.37

Datasets of longitudinal research alsoprovide a vital element of much socialscience research. They offer sufficient depthand density of data to enable evidence to bedrawn, and properly informed judgementsmade, on the impact of educational, healthor welfare or other social changes, based onpeople’s observed and documentedbehaviour over substantial periods of time.Examples include the British HouseholdPanel Survey (BHPS), conducted by theInstitute for Social and Economic Researchat the University of Essex, and the EnglishLongitudinal Study of Ageing, developed byresearchers based at University CollegeLondon. These datasets made possibleimportant new research into social care,which was cited by the House of CommonsHealth Committee in a recent report on thesubject.38 In a different context, the BHPShas helped to broaden and redefine the

objectives of the policy agenda on well-being into a “credible object of policyconcern”.39

In September 2008 the setting up of a newindependent National Equality Panel ofindependent academics was announced byHarriet Harman, then Minister for Womenand Equality, to be chaired by ProfessorJohn Hills FBA. Its brief was to investigatehow people’s life chances are affected bygender, race, disability, age and otherimportant aspects of inequality such asgeography, income and class, and how allthese elements inter-relate. The Ministersaid at that time:

“To advance equality through our public policy,

we need clarity of evidence and focus on gaps in

society and how they have changed over the

past ten years. The robust evidence base that

the panel will produce will help us properly target

measures to address persisting equality gaps.”

The Panel, which also included AcademyFellows Professor Ruth Lister and ProfessorStephen Machin, produced their majorreport in February 2010. It concluded that,in several key areas, inequalities had in factgrown and were wider now than they hadbeen 40 years ealier.40 Professor Lister’sresearch and discussions with Governmenthave also influenced both the lastConservative and Labour administrations toseek ways of ensuring that tax credits arepaid directly to the main caring parent –most typically the mother – rather than

26

41 Case study included in Making The Case For The Social Sciences, op cit, p.1642 Report available at:

http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/all_about_us/how_we_do_it/the_good_childhood_inquiry/1818.html43 Social Science and Family Policies, op cit, p.344 The University of Warwick economist Professor Andrew Oswald gave a presentation to this seminar.

See www.andrewoswald.com45 David Cameron, interviewed for the BBC Two series The Happiness Formula, broadcast in May 2006

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/happiness_formula/4809828.stm46 The full report can be downloaded from: http://www.stiglitz-sen-fitoussi.fr/en/index.htm

through the pay packet of the family’s mainwage earner.41

Another important contribution to researchon social inequality, by Professor JohnGoldthorpe FBA and colleagues, has shownthat, contrary to common assumptions,there is no evidence of a trend to higherlevels of social mobility and greateropenness of opportunities in British society.

Elsewhere, Professor Anthony Heath FBA,who has led major research on the unequalopportunities ethnic minority males face inlabour markets, is now part of the researchteam (with David Sanders and StephenFisher) awarded £1.2m for a major newESRC-funded study of voting patternsamongst Britain’s ethnic minorities. Thisforms part of the British Election Studyseries, which was originated in 1963 byDavid Butler and Donald Stokes, and nowconstitutes the longest academic series ofnationally representative probability samplesurveys in the country. Its broad aim is toexplore the changing determinants ofelectoral behaviour throughoutcontemporary Britain, with the surveystaking place immediately after every generalelection since 1964.

Case Study Five (page 30) examines theissues faced by newly arrived immigrantsand refugees in South Yorkshire and theimpact of Leeds University researchers in

helping Barnsley Borough Council andvoluntary agencies tackle the practicalchallenges involved.

A three-year enquiry into factors affectingthe well-being of children and young peoplein the UK, chaired by Professor LordRichard Layard FBA for the Children’sSociety and published in February 2009,concluded that millions are damaged byadults’ and parents’ aggressive pursuit ofpersonal success. The report, A GoodChildhood, blamed many of their problemson a belief “that the prime duty of theindividual is to make the most of their ownlife, rather than contribute to the good ofothers” and found that this “excessiveindividualism” was the cause of high ratesof family break-up, unhealthy competition inschools and acceptance of incomeinequality that left millions of children livingin poverty. 42

A year later, a group of leading socialscientists chaired by Sir Michael RutterFBA, produced the first major report fromthe new British Academy Policy Centre, onfamily policies. It provides an authoritativeaccount of social science research oncrucial changes in family form andstructure, in the UK and internationally, andanalyses their policy implications, in order“to shed light rather than heat on an alreadyhot topic.”43

27

Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, taking part in the British Academy Forum on human rights legislation, March 2010

A different aspect of childhood – concernsover their premature exposure toinappropriate sexual materials, eitherthrough mainstream advertising or readyaccess to pornography – is the subject ofCase Study Six (page 32). Following initialBritish Academy-funded research by DrKatherine Sarikakis, a major report on TheSexualisation of Young People wascommissioned by the Home Office, whichreceived widespread press coverage on itspublication in February 2010.

As social and economic research involvingeconomics, psychology, political science,geography, criminology and public andmental health studies has increasinglydemonstrated, greater wealth does notnecessarily translate into greater happiness.As a result, politicians and policy makershave focused their energies on ways ofimproving quality of life. In 2002 the PrimeMinister’s Strategy Unit convened a “lifesatisfaction” seminar in Whitehall to discussthe implications of a “happiness policy”.44

Since then the Treasury has made specificreference to quality of life in its stated aims,alongside growth and economic prosperity.It is an issue which is clearly rising up thepolitical agenda, in Britain and othercountries; in 2006, David Cameron MP toldthe BBC:

“When politicians are looking at issues they

should be saying to themselves ‘how are we

going to try and make sure that we don’t just

make people better off but we make people

happier, we make communities more stable, we

make society more cohesive’.”45

And in France, in 2008, President NicolasSarkozy, commissioned leading economists,including Lord Stern FBA, Professor JosephStiglitz FBA and Professor Amartya SenFBA, to develop alternative measures ofprogress to GDP that would better reflectpeople’s well-being and France’s famed“quality of life”.46 Such examples clearlyhighlight the role that high quality, evidence-based UK social science research can playin helping define governmental strategies foraddressing fundamental social challenges.

28

47 Case Study prepared with the help of Professor David Cesarani48 David Cesarani (1992), Justice Delayed: How Britain Became a refuge to Nazi War Criminals

(London, William Heinemann Ltd.)

Case Study Four:

WARCRIMESANDTHEHOLOCAUST 47

Context• Remembering and raising awareness

among present and future generationsabout the crimes against humanitycommitted during World War II is achallenge to policy makers and societyas a whole. But it raises numerous,complex and sensitive issues; in thewords of Professor David Cesarani,“How to define genocide?”, “How tostress the universal implications ofgenocide while respecting theparticularities of each separateatrocity?”, or “How to involve and besensitive to survivors of genocide?”

Approach• Professor Cesarani, from Royal

Holloway, University of London, hasbeen involved in public policysurrounding such questions since 1986.

• He was first approached by GrevilleJanner MP, to investigate whether warcriminals or Nazi collaborators couldhave entered the UK in the aftermath ofWWII. His initial report to the All PartyParliamentary War Crime Group

confirmed that suspects had indeedtransited or entered the UK. He wasthen invited to assemble and lead aresearch team which produced a report(1988) that in turn prompted an officialgovernment inquiry. This aspect of hisresearch culminated in his first book,Justice Delayed.48

• His continuing research into theHolocaust, notably his 2004 biographyof Adolf Eichmann, has since led tofurther frequent interaction with policymakers in the UK and overseas.

Impacts• Professor Cesarani’s academic research

has proven key to shaping andimplementing public policy in this field.

• The Government’s War Crimes Inquiryultimately led to the introduction of theWar Crimes Bill, enabling the prosecutionof alleged war criminals. It proved verycontroversial, and met fierce oppositionin the Lords before eventually reachingthe statute book in 1991. During thesedebates, Professor Cesarani willinglyadopted an advocacy role, frequently

29

49 Suzanne Bardgett (1998), ‘The Genesis and Development of the Imperial War Museum Holocaust Exhibition Project’,Journal of Holocaust Education, vol. 7(3), 28-37

50 Imperial War Museum London, The Holocaust Exhibition, http://london.iwm.org.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.145451 Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, http://www.hmd.org.uk/52 Ibid53 All Party Parliamentary group Against Anti-Semitism (2006), Report of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry intoAnti-Semitism in the UK (London, The Stationery Office)

speaking in the media in support of theBill and thereby playing an importantpart in securing its passage.

• In 1995 he was invited to join theadvisory board of the Imperial WarMuseum’s Holocaust exhibition,designed to show “man’s inhumanity toman”.49 The exhibition opened in 2000,displaying a wide range of photographs,documents, newspapers, artefacts,posters and films telling “the story of theNazis’ persecution of the Jews andother groups”.50 It has receivedhundreds of thousands of visitors.

• At the invitation of the Foreign andCommonwealth Office ProfessorCesarani attended a series ofinternational conferences on post-Holocaust era issues, including theInternational Task Force forIntergovernmental Cooperation onHolocaust Education, Remembranceand Research in Stockholm in 2000,attended by representatives from 44governments, which concluded with aunanimously signed declaration for theestablishment of an annual Holocaust

Memorial Day (HMD) on 27 January.The Home Office then convened anadvisory group – joined by ProfessorCesarani – to address the complexquestions relating to its establishment inthe UK.

• Since 2005, the HMD Trust, of whichProfessor Cesarani is a member, hasbeen responsible for “commemoratingand remembering the victims of theHolocaust”, promoting “a publicsentiment in favour of the exercise andprotection of those fundamental humanrights which constitute freedom fromgenocide” and “racial and religiousharmony”.51 The Trust “urges everyonein the UK to pause and reflect on whatcan happen when racism, prejudiceand exclusionary behaviour are leftunchecked”.52

• In 2006, Professor Cesarani gavewritten and verbal evidence to theParliamentary Committee against Anti-Semitism at its opening session. Hisdetailed knowledge provided valuableinsight for the Committee and the finalreport cites his views extensively.53

How... a leading historian specialising in theHolocaust has consistently influenced governmentpolicy onwar crimes issues

30

54 Case study prepared with the help of Dr Chris Forde and Dr Robert MacKenzie. See also University of Leeds’Impact Review (Summer 2008), Issue 3, pp.34-35

55 Ibid, p.3456 HM Treasury (2008), ‘Investing in a Multi-Cultural Barnsley project, Invest to Save Budget - 428/7’, Project EvaluationReport, p.22

57 Ibid, p.658 Audit Commission (2007), Good Practice and Case Studies, ‘Barnsley Borough Council: Investing in a Multi-cultural

Barnsley’, http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/localgov/goodpractice/sustainablecommunities/pages/barnsleynationaldataemployersurveys.aspx

Case Study Five:

THEMULTI-CULTURALBARNSLEYPROJECT 54

Context• Successive recent EU enlargements

from Central and Eastern Europeancountries, coupled with longer termglobal migration patterns, continue tohave a considerable impact on UKlabour markets, public services andcommunities in which the newpopulations settle.

Approach• The interdisciplinary Centre for

Employment Relations, Innovation andChange (CERIC) at Leeds UniversityBusiness School has been engaged in aknowledge transfer project with theAsylum Team from Barnsley BoroughCouncil on the social and economicexperiences of migrants, asylumseekers and refugees (together termed“new arrivals”).55

• ‘Investing in a Multi-Cultural Barnsley’(IMCB) was funded by HM Treasury andthe Cabinet Office between 2005 and2008.

• As part of the project, CERICresearchers Chris Forde and Robert

MacKenzie conducted semi-structuredinterviews and focus groups with newarrivals, community support groups,local employers and other stakeholders,designed to develop an understandingof new arrivals’ experiences in Barnsley,in terms of housing, health, educationand training, and (where applicable)work. In addition, the researchersdeveloped an original questionnaire togenerate data on the population of newarrivals in Barnsley.

Impacts• The IMCB project evaluation report

concludes that it: “has aided refugees,asylum seekers and migrant workers inBarnsley in their quest to become fulland equal citizens within thecommunity”. This innovative partnershipwas deemed “extremely successful”and “has met all milestones set,delivered on time and on budget andexceeded initial expectations”.56

Feedback has also indicated that theproject has “played a useful role intackling isolation, ghettoisation,exploitation, misunderstandings andconflict”.57

• The Audit Commission identified theCouncil and University’s partnership asan example of best practice, in terms ofthe methods used to access newarrivals, and the information gatheredon their experiences in Barnsley.58

31

59 HM Treasury (2008), op cit, p.1260 Ibid, p.1361 Chris Forde and Robert MacKenzie (2007), The Social and Economic Experiences of Asylum Seekers, MigrantWorkers, Refugees and Overstayers (Leeds University Business School: Centre for Employment Relations, Innovationand Change) available at:http://lubswww2.leeds.ac.uk/CERIC/fileadmin/user_upload/Documents/ceric_Migrant_workers_report.pdf

62 HM Treasury (2008), op cit, p.16

• The research data fed into the IMCBproject at various phases, helping withthe achievement of each of the threeproject objectives.

• A New Arrivals Handbook was createdin the first year of the project and 6000copies printed in a number of languageswere distributed free of charge. Thehandbook provides a wide range ofinformation and advice about localservices in Barnsley, and it incorporatessome of the interview and focus groupfindings about the needs of new arrivals.An impact questionnaire has found that95% of users found the handbookuseful, as have many different voluntaryand statutory agencies.59

• A multilingual website was also createdwith similar aims and currently averages400 hits per week, with 82% of siteusers reporting that they had found “allof what they needed” there.60 As well asproviding information for new arrivals,the website contains a comprehensiveguide on services relating toemployment, education, housing andbenefits, and a copy of the findings from

the University’s research. The websitehas also had considerable impact onmany public officials, with its translatedlinks considered especially valuable.

• The Report produced by Dr MacKenzieand Dr Forde, The Social and EconomicExperiences of Asylum Seekers, MigrantWorkers, Refugees and Overstayers,61

has provided a detailed evidence baseto inform the development of anIntegration Strategy, the third objectiveof the IMCB project. For example, theresearch highlighted a mismatchbetween the skills of migrant workersand their current employment –reflecting widespread underutilisation ofmigrant workers’ skills. It alsohighlighted the difficulties migrantsworking long hours experienced inaccessing public services, a problemnot shared to the same extent by asylumseekers. Such findings have contributedto Barnsley’s wider CommunityCohesion Strategy, which aims to takeinto account all equality and diversitystrands.62

How... LeedsUniversity researchers successfullycontributed to local government strategies tostrengthen support for newmigrants and refugees

32

63 Case study prepared with the help of Dr Katharine Sarikakis64 Linda Papadopoulos (2010), Sexualisation of Young People Review, p.765 Institute of Communication Studies, Leeds University, Porn Cultures: Regulation, Political Economy and Technology

Conference 15-16/06/0966 http://sgsei.wordpress.com/pcpn-aims-and-principles/

Case Study Six:

THESOCIALISATIONOFSEXUALLYEXPLICITIMAGERY 63

Context• Media and popular culture are

commonly assumed to be becomingincreasingly sexualised, while the pornand sex industries are becoming moremainstream. As a recent report states“with proliferation comes normalisation”.64

Technologies are “challenging ourassumptions about ‘choice’, ‘privacy’ and‘freedom”,65 particularly among youngpeople, whose development andsocialisation takes place within thiscontext.

• Until recently the research and policyimplications of this new phenomenonhad not been systematically evaluatedby the academic community, eithernationally or internationally.

Approach• The project Socialisation of the Global

Sexually Explicit Imagery: Challenges toRegulation and Research, funded bythe British Academy, brought togetheracademics and policy makers fromAustralia, Austria, Canada, Egypt,Greece, India, Jordan, Romania, Serbia,

Sweden, the UK and USA.• This led to the organisation of two

international conferences in Greece andthe UK. The former was funded by theHellenic Audio-visual Institute at theNational Kapodistrian University ofAthens; the latter was supported by theInstitute of Communications Studiesand the Centre for Canadian Studies atthe University of Leeds, and IntellectPublishers.

• These conferences served as aplatform for the formulation of researchagendas relating to existing andemerging regulatory frameworks andchallenges worldwide.

• They recognised that policyintervention in this area is highlycomplex, and that national governments“face extreme difficulties in applyingappropriate measures for the safe-guarding of those concerned in theglobal porn industrial complex, not leastbased on the difficulty to maintain abalance between and among humanrights, managing technological,economic and other challenges andreconsidering the conditions underwhich liberty, choice and agency can bemaintained and exercised by vulnerablepublics.”66

Impacts• Both conferences benefited from

international media coverage including

33

67 Kathimerini, 28/09/0868 Dr Linda Papadopoulos, Sexualisation of Young People Review, 26/02/10,

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/Sexualisation-of-young-people2835.pdf?view=Binary69 Ibid, p.1470 Home Office Press Release, 26/02/10

interviews and reports in AgenceFrance-Presse, Hellenic Radio, GreekTelevision 1, Vatican Radio and theBBC. It was noteworthy that the presspositively engaged and promotedinterest in the complex debatessurrounding these sensitive issues.For example, Kathimerini, a prestigiousGreek national newspaper, quoted DrKatharine Sarikakis, the PrincipalInvestigator of the project: “newtechnologies intensify the processes ofproduction and consumption, changingthe porn industry. […] Our moralboundaries are pushed either towardsfundamentalism or absolute relativism.In both cases, what escapes us, is thehuman being.”67

• Policy makers and civil society alsoparticipated in these events, such asthe British Board for Film Classification,European Women’s Lobby, AustralianWomen’s Forum, Streetwise ProjectNewcastle, and Backlash.

• PCPN has drawn the attention of policymakers, media, the public andemerging scholars to these issues.

• An independent review into theSexualisation of Young People 68 wascommissioned by the Home Office aspart of its strategy Together We Can EndViolence Against Women and Girls(VAWG), which has been allocated over£13m of funding to help support victimsof sexual and domestic violence. DrSarikakis gave evidence to this review,which was published in February 2010to widespread media attention, andSteven McDermott, assistant to thenetwork, was employed as a researchassistant to the review team. The reporthighlighted how sexualisation ofchildren and young people“prematurely places them at risk of avariety of harms”.69 The then HomeSecretary Alan Johnson welcomed thereview and stated the Government were“committed to a number ofrecommendations in this report”.70

Endorsement of such findings by anational government constitutes a majorstep forward in the light of thedifficulties relating to policy interventionrecognised by PCPN.

How... the creation of an international network ofresearchers is raising the importance of policymeasures to address the impact of sexual imageryon youngpeople

34

Liverpool – European Capital of Culture, 2008. The city’s economy received a £753m boost during the year, according tonew research

Britain’s creative and cultural industries areone of its most dynamic and successfulsectors, contributing billions of poundsdirectly into the economy and acting as acrucial magnet in drawing millions of peoplefrom all over the world to visit, study or livein this country. These industries are now theUK’s fastest growing sector and Unescoestimates show the UK to be the world’sbiggest single exporter of “cultural goods”.The UK’s £3bn publishing industry is themost developed in the world, with over100,000 new book titles published eachyear – almost half of them (academic andnon-academic) within the arts, humanitiesand social sciences. Exports alone accountfor over £1.1bn in 2008 – up 24% byvolume and 26% by value since 2004 – andlearned journal publishers in the UKestimate that 90% of their turnover isderived from export sales.71 And it was not acelebrity, a politician or a scientist who wasnamed “Briton of the Year” by The Timeslast year but Neil MacGregor FBA, Directorof the British Museum, Britain’s singlebiggest tourist attraction.

Research and teaching in the humanitiesand arts contribute hugely and variously tothis full spectrum of cultural and creativeactivities, including art exhibitions, concerts,theatrical performances, festivals andliterary productions, and across thebroadcasting, film, advertising andpublishing sectors.

RECOGNISINGCULTURALVALUE

35

Television and radio broadcasting, especiallyon the BBC, would be massivelyimpoverished without the huge contributionmade by the UK’s leading humanitiesscholars, with their unrivalled cultural,historical and literary expertise andunderstanding – from major series such asRadio 4’s remarkable History of the World in100 Objects (curated by Neil MacGregor) orProfessor Diarmaid MacCulloch FBA’sHistory of Christianity (2009) to week-in,week-out involvement in series such as StartThe Week, In Our Time, Nightwaves andAnalysis.

Similarly, broadcast coverage of the recentelection and subsequent protractednegotiations drew heavily on contributionsfrom modern historians and constitutionalexperts such as Professors Peter HennessyFBA and Vernon Bogdanor FBA. Inaddition, electoral systems specialists,Professors Ron Johnston FBA, Iain McLeanFBA and Simon Hix all featured heavily inpress and broadcast media coverage of theoptions available to the UK if changes wereto be made to the UK Parliament’straditional ‘first past the post’ system. In thesame vein, humanities and social sciencespecialists are vital to the whole culture ofreviewing, in the press, periodicals andother media, including the Times LiterarySupplement, London Review of Books andthe New York Review of Books – the world’smost respected literary periodicals.

The full economic value of the arts andhumanities – and its rising importancewithin the overall economy – has only begunto be properly recognised in recent years.The latest survey by the Department forCulture, Media and Sport, in 2009, reportsthe following data for the creative industries– defined as those industries “which havetheir origin in individual creativity, skill andtalent and which have a potential for wealthand job creation through the generation andexploitation of intellectual property”:• They accounted for 6.4 per cent of

Gross Added Value (GVA) in 2006• They grew by an average of 4% per

annum between 1997 and 2006. Thiscompares to an average of 3% for thewhole economy over this period

• They exported services totalling £16billion in 2006. This equates to 4.3% ofall goods and services exported

• They accounted, in the summer quarterof 2007, for almost 2 million jobs (upfrom 1.6m in 1997). This comprisedover 1.1 million jobs in the creativeindustries themselves and over 800,000further creative jobs within businessesoutside these industries.72

Culture is therefore increasingly recognisedas a major engine of economic development– witness how the reputation of North EastEngland has been transformed byinvestment in major new cultural facilitiessuch as The Baltic and The Sage and public

71 Figures from Publishers Association, Office for National Statistics and UK Trade and Investment.See: www.ukpublishing.org.uk and https://www.uktradeinvest.gov.uk/ukti/fileDownload/UKTI_UK_Publishing_Creative_Industries_export_guide.pdf?cid=442537

72 Figures taken from the DCMS Creative Industries Economic Estimates Statistical Bulletin, January 2009. See:http://www.culture.gov.uk/images/research/Creative_Industries_Economic_Estimates_Jan_09.pdf

36

73 ‘Creating an Impact: Liverpool's experience as European Capital of Culture’ University of Liverpool, 2010. Available at:http://www.liv.ac.uk/impacts08/

74 Visitors to Museums and Galleries in the UK, MORI for RESOURCE, 200175 Power of Place, English Heritage, 200076 Quoted in BBC press release, November 2005, see:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2005/11_november/21/voices.shtml

art like Antony Gormley’s iconic Angel of theNorth. As the European Capital of Culture in2008, Liverpool saw almost 10 millionpeople visit the city, accordingly to newlypublished research led by Dr Beatriz Garciaof the University of Liverpool – a rise of 34%over the previous year – and generated a£753 million boost to the region's economyin the course of the year.73 The report alsohelped update the general opinion ofLiverpool, as a place with a rich and vibrantcultural life reaching far beyond the datedstereotypical associations with Sixties popmusic and football.

The UK’s heritage industry employs a highproportion of humanities graduates insubjects such as art history, archaeology,geography, history, and planning, generatingimportant economic and social benefitsincluding vital links with education – seenas central to the mission of today’smuseums and galleries. School pupils arethe section of the population (37%) mostlikely to attend a museum or gallery, and29% of them believe that a museum is “thebest place to learn out of school”.74 TheBritish Academy’s support to the Council forBritish Archaeology enables it to organisethe annual UK-wide Festival of BritishArchaeology – a unique, high-profile eventlaunched each year by the Culture Minister.In 2009 it incorporated 650 events whichwere attended by over 160,000 people.Public interest in archaeology remains very

high (as shown in the crowds queuing up toview the Staffordshire Hoard in Birmingham,for example) and the CBA brings togetherand showcases the work of all parts of thesector to emphasise their public benefits.

Case Study Seven (page 38) illustrates theway in which high quality humanitiesresearch has impacted on curatorialpractice and the design of exhibitions inmuseums and galleries, and how centralthis work can be to creating innovative newexhibitions.

All of these areas of our shared culture notonly enrich the lives of our society, at allages and levels, but also generate a host ofimportant, economically significantconsumer products. A MORI survey in 2000found that 76% of people thought their liveswere richer for having the opportunity to visitor view the historic environment, and 88%believed that it was important in creatingjobs and boosting the economy.75 A NationalTrust study into the impact of its work in theSouth West region alone concluded that 21million visitors spent £4.6 billion a year andcreated 225,000 jobs in the regionaleconomy. History and archaeology have aparticular role in helping to spread theeconomic spending potential of tourism,and diluting its potentially detrimentalimpacts, by attracting tourists from the citiesto the countryside.

37

The Staffordshire Hoard on display in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, November 2009 (Birmingham Post)

The languages and dialects of the UK arevital part of identifying “who we are”. Majorcontributions to studying the literary andcultural expression of ethnic or nationalidentity have been developed in centres ofexcellence such as the Centre for ScottishLiterature in Aberdeen, the Centre for WelshWriting in English in Swansea, or theSeamus Heaney Centre for Poetry in Belfast.

Case Study Eight (page 40) details apartnership between the University ofLeeds, the BBC and the British Librarywhich has created the largest recordedarchive of different dialects and speechpatterns ever assembled, providing a wealthof raw material for researchers both nowand for future generations. Professor DavidCrystal FBA has described the Voicesarchive of recordings as “the mostsignificant popular survey of regionalEnglish ever undertaken in Britain.”76

In the field of literature, the MA in CreativeWriting at the University of East Anglia is aclassic example of academic enterprisegenerating economic products. Establishedin order to enable aspiring writers to learnand develop their craft, it rapidly led the wayfor other institutions to develop similarcourses. Early students included IanMcEwan and Kazuo Ishiguro, each of whomsubsequently won both the Whitbread Prizefor Fiction and the Booker Prize.

Over the last decade, the pivotal economicimportance of the creative, cultural andmedia industries – and the role that arts,humanities and social research plays infuelling and sustaining them – has beenrecognised by the European Commission,the World Bank, and national and localgovernments. Their importance is likely toincrease as changing social trends result inheightened demand for leisure activities.

38

77 Case Study prepared with the help of Professor Evelyn Welch and Dr Marta Ajmar-Wollheim and Peta Motture.It builds on a previous case study by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (hereafter referred toas AHRC case study): http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/Documents/AHRC_Renaissance_Italy.pdf It also draws on a pilot impactcase study prepared for HEFCE by Queen Mary, University of London

78 Victoria and Albert Museum: http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1487_renaissance/introduction.html79 AHRC case study, p.480 Materials drawn on included Evelyn Welch, Shopping in the Renaissance: Consumer Cultures in Italy 1400-1600

(New Haven, Yale University Press, 2005) and Lisa Jardine, Worldly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance(London, W.W Norton & Company, Ltd., 1998)

81 “The Listening Gallery: Integrating Music with Exhibitions and Gallery Displays, Medieval to Baroque”, an AHRCKnowledge Transfer Fellowship led by Dr Aaron Williamon,http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundedResearch/Pages/ResearchDetail.aspx?id=137697

Case Study Seven:

RECREATINGRENAISSANCEINTERIORSATTHEV&A 77

Context• The Renaissance forms an important

part of our cultural and intellectualEuropean heritage. A major three-month exhibition, hosted at the Victoriaand Albert Museum (V&A) in 2006/07,sought to recreate for the first time “thedomestic interior’s central role in theflourishing of Italian art and culture”.78

By placing paintings, furnishings andfamily possessions from the urbanpalazzi and houses of Veneto andTuscany within their original contexts,At Home in Renaissance Italy (AHIRI)challenged the traditional separationbetween the ‘fine’ and ‘decorative’ artsand revealed the key role played bydomestic culture during the Renaissance.This exhibition fed into several of thedisplays of the permanent Medieval andRenaissance Galleries at the V&A,which opened at the end of 2009.

Multidisciplinary Approach• AHIRI established a new model of

research-led exhibition, driven by aninternational group of university and

museum-based scholars ranging frommedieval archaeology and Islamicstudies to the histories of food, music,furniture and science. The researchprocess brought together over 180academics through a collaborationbetween the V&A, the Royal College ofArt and Royal Holloway, supported bythe Getty Foundation and the AHRCCentre for Study of the DomesticInterior.79 Dr Marta Ajmar-Wollheim,lead scholar on the project, wasresponsible for the original researchproposal, and co-curating the exhibitionwith Dr Flora Dennis.

• Similarly, extensive consultation with arange of international academics,curators and educators was carried outduring the seven-year development ofthe permanent Medieval & RenaissanceGalleries, which cover European art andculture from 300-1600. The academicsincluded Professor Lisa Jardine andProfessor Evelyn Welch (Queen Mary)and Dr Donald Cooper (Warwick).80

• A further innovation in the newGalleries, led by Dr Aaron Williamonfrom the Royal College of Music, aims to“reconnect the V&A’s collections withperformances of music that share theirrich and distinctive pasts”.81

Impacts• An impact assessment conducted by

Annabel Jackson Associates showed

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82 Annabel Jackson Associates, At Home in Renaissance Italy Exhibition Impact Case Study: Final Report to the AHRC, 2007, p.1483 Victoria and Albert Museum: http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1487_renaissance/introduction.html84 Marta Ajmar-Wollheim & Flora Dennis eds., At Home in Renaissance Italy (V&A Publications, 2006)85 Peta Motture and Michelle O’Malley eds., ‘Re-thinking Renaissance Objects: Design, Function and Meaning’,Renaissance Studies, Feb. 2010, Vol.24(1)

86 Andrew Graham-Dixon, “The V&A’s new Medieval and Renaissance Galleries”, The Sunday Telegraph Reviews2004-2009, 29/11/09, http://www.andrewgrahamdixon.com/archive/readArticle/617. 17

87 AHRC case study, p.388 Ibid

that At Home in Renaissance Italy fedinto the new £32m Medieval &Renaissance Galleries in threerespects: the content, the layout andthe elements of interpretation.82 Forinstance, the innovative displays of theItalian Renaissance home, which“presented rooms as object-filledspaces... bringing the period to life”,83

influenced aspects of the Renaissanceinterior displays in the Galleries, such asthe placement of objects appropriate totheir original context.

• The publication associated with theexhibition 84 proved popular with bothscholars and the general public, andwas shortlisted for both the ArtNewspaper/AXA Art Exhibition CatalogueAward and the Art Book Award.

• An extensive publication programmehas also been produced for the Galleries,including seven new books and aspecial issue of Renaissance Studies. 85

• Both the exhibition and new Galleriesattracted considerable press coverage.AHIRI was described by Anna SomersCocks as ‘The most important exhibition

on the Renaissance since before theSecond World War’, and the opening ofthe new Galleries was described by theleading art critic, Andrew Graham-Dixon, as “an event of tremendoussignificance, not just for Britain but forthe world”.86

• A sample of the 70,970 visitors to AHIRI,interviewed to gauge how they benefitedfrom their visit, revealed that theexhibition had made a direct contributionto their “life-long learning”, “deepenedsocial identity”, “strengthened socialcohesion” and “stimulated creativity”.87

• Evaluation of the visitor perspective ofthe Medieval & Renaissance Galleriesis currently under way. Informal responsesto the content and presentation havebeen overwhelmingly positive.

• The economic benefits of AHIRI wereestimated at £2.85 million on theLondon economy and £1.33 million onthe UK economy.88 Whilst it is still tooearly to ascertain the economic impactof the new Galleries, they have had anestimated 359,900 visits in the periodDecember 2009 - March 2010.

How... newmodels have beendeveloped for creatinghighly successful research-led exhibitions at theVictoria andAlbertMuseum

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89 Case study prepared with the help of Professor Clive Upton, University of Leeds. See also University of Leeds’ ImpactReview (Winter 2007), Issue 2, pp.33-35

Case Study Eight:

THE “VOICES”PARTNERSHIP 89

Context• Words, accents and dialects reveal

much about our national andcommunity identities. Not surprisingly,most of us have strong opinions on suchtopics, and relish the opportunity tochallenge lazy stereotypes and generallyaccepted views. This fascination withthe relationship between language and“who we are” is what the Voicespartnership between the BBC and ateam at the University of Leeds havesought to harness.

Multidisciplinary Approach• In 2004 the BBC approached

Professor Clive Upton, a leadingdialectologist, and pronunciationconsultant for the Oxford EnglishDictionary, with a view to conducting aproject on language across differentregions of the UK. This initiativefollowed more than half a century ofEnglish dialect study at his departmentat the University of Leeds on the onehand, and highly popular BBC series

such as Word of Mouth, The Story ofEnglish and The Routes of English onthe other.

• A specific interviewing method, basedupon word association and developedby Upton’s former PhD student CarmenLlamas, was adapted and tailored to theBBC’s requirements. This resulted inthe development of a ‘spidergram’detailing the different words andphrases targeted.

• Professor Upton subsequentlyundertook the training of local BBCjournalists from across the UK toadminister the newly developedinterview techniques.

• Fifty-one journalists and researcherswere dispatched throughout the UK tointerview people regarding specific wordusage in context across differentregions. A website was also designed toenable the public to input materialdirectly, producing over 8,500 on-linecontributions of data. In total, 84,000users provided data to the project,including 1,201 recorded speakers in302 interviews – a total of 700 hoursof recording.

Impacts• The BBC Voices Project was supported

by a total of 10 hours of TV and 200hours of radio broadcast including aseries of seven Radio 4 programmes

41

90 University of Leeds (2007), op cit, p.3491 Ibid

called Word4Word, being broadcast atpeak listening times.

• In September 2005, the BBC ran VoicesWeek during which it broadcast a seriesof local programmes based on therecordings across the entirety of its localand regional radio and TV networks.These programmes “captured thepublic’s imagination, far exceedingexpectations”.90

• A further 111 newspaper articlesreached a 43.7 million readership.

• The distinguishing feature of this projectis the ongoing feedback processbetween the BBC, Leeds University, andthe British Library, where all recordingshave been deposited in the BritishLibrary Sound Archive. As ProfessorUpton explains, “it was always theBBC’s aim that the Voices project wouldprovide a starting point for further studyof language in the UK”.91

• In 2007, the AHRC awarded aUniversity of Leeds team £367,000 inorder to analyse and interpret the on-line data collected by the BBC. This

project is being conducted byresearchers from the School of Englishand the Department of Linguistic andPhonetics. Despite the magnitude ofthis undertaking, the project is expectedto be completed by December 2010,when the research outcomes will be fedback to the BBC.

• One of the aims of this project is tocreate a lexicon of modern regionalvocabulary, which is expected to sustainand stimulate further public interest inusage, accents and dialects across theUK. Another is to investigate the ways inwhich language variation is regardedand discussed within and betweencommunities.

• In a cross-institutional endeavour,Professor Upton has also beeninstrumental, with staff of the BritishLibrary, in obtaining a grant of £225,000from the Leverhulme Trust for a furtherproject to analyse the sound recordingsderiving from Voices. This project isbeing carried out at the British Library,where it will run until early 2012.

How... theBBC, LeedsUniversity and theBritishLibrary joined forces to create a vast newarchiveof regional accents anddialects

42

The most critical challenges facing societytoday, both in the UK and worldwide, requirea multi-faceted approach, drawing on arange of inputs from experts in all disciplines.As the Council for Science and Technology’sreport, Imagination and Understanding: areport on the arts and humanities in relationto science and technology, said:

“Science and technology policy, like all other

public policy, is about the future of society. The

greatest challenges for UK society —

globalization, inclusion (or the development of a

society in which all individuals are or can be

included in the process of reflecting on,

participating in, and evaluating change), and the

impact of science on society — are all ones in

which the arts and humanities and science and

technology need each other, and are needed in

public discussion.”92

Climate change is, arguably, the singlebiggest global challenge the world faces,demanding an understanding of the scientificevidence, the socio-economic effects andtheir interaction. Climate change requireschanges to our domestic ways of life yet italso requires action at the global level. Itposes a series of challenges about how todevelop appropriate and workable responsesat every level from the household tointernational institutions – in other words,how to address the issue politically.

Leading UK social scientists have played amajor role both in analysing this knowledge

Dried up riverbed near Zhengzhou, Henan province, 2009. The area, which produces more than 80% of China’s winterwheat, experienced its worst drought in 50 years (Reuters/China Daily)

ADDRESSINGGLOBALCHALLENGES

43

92 Council for Science and Technology, 2001. See http://www.cst.gov.uk/reports/#Imagination93 Nicholas Stern (2006), Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change (Cambridge, CUP)94 Ruth Rajavejjabhisal, Climate Change and Energy Group, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, ‘Regional Economics

of Climate Change Studies’95 Figures drawn from Long-Term Opportunities and Challenges for the UK: Analysis for the 2007 CSR, HM

Treasury, 2006

and broadening public debate about thechallenges it presents, the world with, as ithas become increasingly apparent thatenvironmental sustainability cannot beachieved without addressing deep-rootedsocio-economic patterns. The seminal SternReview on the Economics of ClimateChange,93 chaired by the economist LordNicholas Stern FBA, has had a worldwideimpact in increasing the awareness ofgovernments, business corporations and thepublic of the scale of the economic andsocial threats posed by climate change, andthe measures required to mitigate them. Ashis report argued, the way we live in the nextthirty years – how we invest, use energy,organize transport and treat forests – willdetermine whether or not the huge risksclimate change poses to the natural world,the economy and our everyday lives becomea reality.

Case Study Nine (page 46) summarisessome of the widespread impacts ininfluencing national and internationalattitudes that Lord Stern’s report has hadsince its publication in 2006.

From an international perspective, the SternReview has created an appetite for regionalanalysis of the socio-economic impacts ofclimate change. In response to this growinginterest, the Foreign and CommonwealthOffice has launched a Prosperity Campaign,engaging diplomats in most G20 countries in

the dissemination of the Regional Economicsof Climate Change Studies and enhancingengagement between developed anddeveloping countries, and betweengovernments and civil society. They havealso provided crucial information tointernational policy makers and negotiators.94

Major structural changes have occurred inthe global economy in the past twenty years.Looking beyond the current banking crises atareas such as shifting trading patterns, therise of new sources of economic growth,advances in technology and new power flowsto China, India and other emergingeconomies has been a key focus foreconomists and other social scientists. Theaccelerated pace of activity and thecomplexity of interactions brings with it newrisks. For example, by 2020 around 80% offuels used in the UK are likely to come fromoverseas. In this regard, new actors such asoil investors, Asian central banks, hedgefunds and private equity firms – responsiblefor $8.4 trillion in assets at the end of 2006(predicted to reach $20.7 trillion by 2012) –present a complex mixture of benefits(increased liquidity, diversificationopportunities) and untested risks (asset pricebubbles, lax lending). These issues also linkdirectly to the challenge of finding new andgreener sources of energy supply.95

Some experts such as Sir Crispin Tickell havepowerfully argued the urgent case for an

44

understanding of desertification processes –illustrating how climate change and/orhuman actions affected a desertenvironment, and when and why it did ordid not recover.97

A related AHRC-funded multi-disciplinaryproject in Borneo, begun in 2007 andaddressing similar long-term interactionsbetween foragers and farmers in rainforest,is proving of particular interest to policymakers and local communities alike,because demonstrating provable links withpast populations and “traditional nativerights” to land is the main reason forprotecting communities and their lands fromlogging.98 The longer term impacts of thiswork, which is also supported by theAssociation of South East Asian Studies UK,include the development of UK capacity indevising strategies for public engagementthat may be carried forward in work in otherfields associated with the human dimensionsof environmental security.

Geographical, archaeological andanthropological research makes a vitalcontribution to addressing these kinds ofglobal challenges. For example, researchersfrom the British Association for South AsianStudies (BASAS) have been examiningissues related to water management andsustainable development in West Bengal.The Bengal delta is the world’s biggest andmost active. The rivers shift their courses

inter-Governmental approach to energyissues, most recently in a lecture seriessponsored by the British Academy, theScience Museum and the Mile End Group ofQueen Mary, University of London. In it heargued that it was impossible to overestimatethe scale of the challenge:

“To make sense of the scale and character of the

whole impact we are making at the moment, on

the surface of the Earth and on all living creatures,

we have to reckon not only with climate change,

but with such issues as: the multiplication of our

own species; the degradation of soils; the

consumption of resources; the accumulation of

waste that people don’t know how to deal with;

the pollution of water, both fresh water and salt

water; how we generate energy and how we use it;

[and] the destruction of bio-diversity, which is

perhaps the least understood of these various

problems.”96

With the Royal Society, the British Academyalso supported a major conference on Waterand Society (in 2009) and a furtherconference examining the crucial concept ofGlobal Tipping Points, led by Professor TimO’Riordan FBA, will take place in 2010/11.

A third of the world’s population lives in aridlands. The archaeologists Professor GraemeBarker FBA, Professor David Mattingly FBAand Professor David Gilbertson fromWestern Washington University haverecently completed a major archaeologicaland landscape survey in Southern Jordanwhich has significantly added to our

96 Lecture text reproduced in The British Academy Review, issue 13, available at:http://www.britac.ac.uk/medialibrary/tickell_green_politics.cfm

97 Barker, Gilbertson and Mattingly (ed.), Archaeology and Desertification: The Wadi Faynan Landscape Survey, SouthernJordan,Wadi Faynan Series vol. 2, Levant Supplementary Series 6, Council for British Research in the Levant inAssociation with Oxbow Books, 2008

98 Details of this research (also led by Professor Graeme Barker) can be found at:http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundedResearch/Pages/ResearchDetail.aspx?id=127976

99 Details of this research can be found on the BASAS website; for instance, see:http://www.basas.org.uk/conference02/basasc02.html

100 See for example, M. Lahr, R. Foley, D. J. Mattingly and C. Le Quesne (RPS), Block 131, Jarma, Fazzan: ArchaeologicalMitigation of seismic acquisition 2006-08, report submitted to OXY Libya LLC, July 2009

45

A collapsing road in the Bengal Delta (photo: Professor Graham Chapman)

frequently, and the area is prone to majorflooding, most recently and catastrophicallyin 2000. It is one of the most densely settledareas on earth, still mostly rural andextremely poor and the greatest single areaof absolute poverty on earth, with more poorpeople than in the whole of Africa. Theconstruction of roads, railways and urbanembankments has exacerbated these floodproblems by blocking lines of drainage, andby spasmodic collapse at unpredictableplaces. Researchers from BASAS havetherefore been exploring alternative policiesthat would enable the Bengal people to live

with, and respond better to the fluctuatingwater levels. Such work could provepriceless.99

Long term research relationships andcollaborations with overseas partners canalso bring economic benefits. For example,British research in archaeology andenvironmental impact supported by theSociety for Libyan Studies has recentlyfacilitated the contacts and goodwillnecessary to generate more than £1 millionof commercial contract work in Libya for UKcompanies.100

46

101 Office of Climate Change, ‘Stern Team’, 27/11/07, http://www.occ.gov.uk/activities/stern.htm102 HM Treasury, ‘Background to Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change’,

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/independent_reviews/stern_review_economics_climate_change/sternreview_backgroundtoreview.cfm

103 Graeme Wilson, ‘Doomsday vision of global warming: droughts, floods and economic chaos’, Daily Telegraph, 31/10/06104 Nicholas Stern (2006), Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change (Cambridge, CUP)105 Adair Turner, Former Director of UK Confederation of British Industry and Economic Advisor to the Sustainable

Development Commission, Editorial Review106 Office of Climate Change, ‘The Stern Team’, http://www.occ.gov.uk/activities/stern.htm

Context• The dangers of climate change were

first brought to the attention of policymakers and the public by scientists, butit is an economist who produced themost comprehensive review on thefuture impacts of this phenomenon.101

The message is clear: transitions fromhigh-carbon to low-carbon economiesare urgent.

Approach• Professor Nicholas Stern’s initial work

focused on the problems of worldpoverty as Chief Economist and SeniorVice-President of the World Bank,before he became Head of theGovernment Economic Service.

• In 2005, he was appointed by the thenChancellor of the Exchequer, GordonBrown, to lead a major review into theeconomics of climate change.102

• In 2007, he was appointed to the Houseof Lords from where, as a cross-benchpeer, Lord Stern of Brentford, hisinfluence has continued to grow.

Impacts• The Stern Review, which demonstrates

the benefits to be gained from closecollaboration at home and overseasbetween economists, scientists, policymakers, businesses and NGOs, waspublished in October 2006, attractingglobal media attention. As well asproviding a serious warning by spellingout “a bleak vision of a future grippedby violent storms, rising sea-levels,crippling droughts and economic chaosunless urgent action is taken”,103 thereview offered a comprehensivecost/benefit analysis of the existingrange of options available togovernments around the world, andstressed the urgent need for furtherinternational cooperation.104 Thislandmark review, supported by theESRC, was praised for making plain“that we can cut emissions radically ata cost to the economy far less than theeconomic and human welfare costswhich climate change could impose”.105

• Since the publication of the review, theStern Team has taken part in manyinternational conferences to raiseawareness of the scale of the challenge.For example, the Team organised theUS Symposium held in Washington DCin March 2009, which was the firstevent “of this magnitude held on CapitolHill and with bi-partisan support”.106

Lord Stern chaired several sessions

Case StudyNine:

TACKLINGCLIMATECHANGE

47

107 Investor Network on Climate Risk, ‘Largest Group Ever of World Investors Calls for Strong Global Climate ChangeTreaty’, 16/09/09, http://www.ceres.org/Page.aspx?pid=1127

108 Nicholas Stern (2009), A Blueprint for a Safer Planet: How to Manage Climate Change and Create a New Era ofProgress and Prosperity, (The Bodley Head Ltd)

109 A summary of the presentations at the symposium is available at:http://www2.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/events/pastevents2009.aspx

110 Available at: http://www2.lse.ac.uk/publicEvents/events/2009/20090824t1229z001.aspx111 LSE, Media Releases, ‘Statement from Nicholas Stern on Copenhagen’, 16/12/09112 The Asahi Glass Foundation, Blue Planet Prize, http://www.af-info.or.jp/en/blueplanet/list.html

along with other distinguished speakersincluding Tony Blair, Connie Hedegaard,Danish minister for climate and energy,and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.

• Now Chair of the LSE’s GranthamResearch Institute on Climate Changeand the Environment, Lord Sternkeynoted an International InvestorForum on Climate Change in September2009. The Forum culminated with theissuing of “a major policy statementcalling for a strong and bindinginternational treaty that will reducepollution and catalyze massive globalinvestment in low-carbon technologies”.107

The statement was signed by 181investors, collectively managing morethan $13 trillion in assets.

• In the run-up to the United NationsCopenhagen Conference, in December2009, Lord Stern’s latest book, ABlueprint for a Safer Planet,108

heightened public and media interest inthe impacts of climate change. InOctober, he organised a symposium inassociation with the All-PartyParliamentary Climate Change Group,109

and later issued a policy brief, DecidingOur Future in Copenhagen: will theworld rise to the challenge of climatechange? 110 Commenting on theoutcome of the conference, Lord Sternexpressed disappointment at the failureto “succeed in producing a politicalagreement that has been signed by allcountries”, but stressed that theprogresses made “on the road toCopenhagen and the summit itself […]represent an important breakthrough”.Looking ahead, he reaffirmed the needfor further internationally coordinatedefforts “to find a path forward fromCopenhagen towards a treaty on climatechange.111

• In 2009, Lord Stern was awarded theBlue Planet Prize for his “outstandingachievements” that have helped to“solve global environmental problems”.He was praised for offering governmentsaround the world “his clear-cut equity-based philosophy on global warming,making a significant impact on theircommitments”.112

How... the SternReview led governments andpolicymakers to recognise themultiple social, economicandhuman costs of failing to tackle climate changeeffectively

ADVANCINGINTERNATIONALUNDERSTANDING

48

Dr Dalia Mogahed delivering a public lecture “Who Speaks For Islam?” as part of a British Academy /HEFCE conference onIslamic Studies across Europe, March 2010. An advisor to President Obama, she spoke about a Gallup surveycomprehensively analysing the views of one million Muslims across the world

The humanities and social sciences havealways had a strikingly internationaldimension. It was the English philosopher,economist and jurist Jeremy Bentham(1748–1832) who invented the very word‘international’. British scholars havecontributed powerfully to an understandingof foreign societies. They have alsoadvanced key initiatives in foreign andsecurity policy, and played key roles innational and international bodies – as theseexamples, involving Fellows of the BritishAcademy illustrate:

• The academic historian CharlesWebster played a central role in thenegotiations leading to the adoption ofthe United Nations Charter in 1945.

• The distinguished InternationalRelations specialist Hedley Bull helpedto develop the whole concept of armscontrol, including in the area of nuclearweapons proliferation, with his book onThe Control of the Arms Race (1961).

• The eminent international lawyer,Dame Rosalyn Higgins, was a Judge ofthe International Court of Justice from1995–2009, and President, 2006–09.

• The specialist on matters relating to warand international security, Sir LawrenceFreedman, author of many worksincluding the official history of the 1982Falklands War, is a member of the IraqInquiry established in 2009.

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113 Margaret Thatcher (1993), The Downing Street Years, London, HarperCollins, pp.451-3114 Oxford University Press, 2009

Changes of direction in UK foreign policieshave at times been very directly shaped andinfluenced by the specialist knowledge andunderstanding of expert academics inpolitics and international relations. Forinstance, during the 1980s the Russianspecialist Professor Archie Brown FBA wasamong those who played an important partin helping the Thatcher governmentreappraise its policy towards the SovietUnion and Eastern Europe. The late SirAnthony Parsons said that the Chequersseminar held in 1983, at which academicsadvocated engagement at all levels with theSoviet and East European Communist states– from dissidents to general secretaries –“changed British foreign policy”. Thatcherfirst heard of Gorbachev, as the mostreform-minded member of the Politburo,from Professor Brown at that time andsubsequently invited him to the UK, beforehe became Soviet leader. The Thatcher-Gorbachev relationship proved importantbecause the British Prime Minister wasuniquely placed to persuade PresidentReagan that this was a different kind ofCommunist leader, one with whom (as shesaid) you could “do business”.113

The work of academics in contributing tointernational understanding is in moredemand than ever in the inter-connectedworld of the twenty-first century. Researchin political science, international relations,anthropology, history, religious studies,

economics, psychology, philosophy,languages and law are all able to contributeto the two vital goals of promoting betterinsight into other societies and cultures, andfostering policies based on evidence. Manyacademics within these disciplines haveexpertise and perspectives of real interestand value to politicians, ministers and seniorcivil servants – not just within the UK butalso internationally.

Terrorism is one issue confrontinginternational society on which there hasbeen significant academic input. It involvesintellectually complex and politically fraughtquestions of how to describe and define thechallenge that is faced, and how best torespond to it. Perhaps the most notableacademic contribution to debates onterrorism has been to emphasise theimportance of understanding the subjecthistorically: identifying the characteristicunderlying belief systems of terroristmovements, exploring the extent to whichlegal frameworks can be reconciled withcounter-terrorist action, and, above all,developing a sophisticated understandingof how terrorist campaigns actually end.Fellows of the British Academy have madesignificant contributions on these matters.One excellent work embodying some of thebest research in the field is by the historianof the IRA, Professor Richard English FBA,in his new book Terrorism: How toRespond.114

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Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev during their famous walk in Red Square which symbolised a new Soviet-USrelationship, May 1988

We have already noted some of the ways inwhich the humanities and social scienceshave contributed to the understanding ofglobal challenges, but there are many othercontemporary issues where significantcontributions have been made, including:• The role of religions in public life in the

UK and internationally. The BritishAcademy hosted a notably successfulinternational conference in March 2010on one key aspect of this matter: Islamicstudies in Europe. It addressedparticularly the importance of avoidingstereotypes, both of Islam as a faith andof the opinions of Muslims in differentcountries.

• Advice to DFID and the FCO, forexample in relation to developmentpolicies, election practices and culturalidentity issues in various Africancountries, facilitated by the BritishAcademy-sponsored British Institute inEastern Africa.

• The reconstruction of war-torn andpost-dictatorial societies. This is aboveall an area in which decisions aboutwhether and how to get involved need tobe based on understanding of acountry’s language, culture and history– and where Britain’s universities have arange of expertise that has often (but byno means always) been called upon bygovernment.

• The special character of the EuropeanUnion as more than an association of

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115 Enriching the Arguments, lecture given to University College London and the Council for Refugee Academics (CARA),12 May 2010

116 Language Matters, British Academy policy report, June 2009, see: http://www.britac.ac.uk/policy/language-matters/index.cfm

states and less than a super-state. Anunderstanding of this is essential to awide range of decision-makers ingovernment, business and law. Thework of Professor Helen Wallace FBAhas been particularly influential on this.

Inter-cultural understanding has perhapsnever been more important than amidst themultiple international tensions evident intoday’s world. The Archbishop of Canterbury,Dr Rowan Williams FBA, gave a lecture atUniversity College London in May 2010,exploring the impact that refugee andémigré intellectuals and academics havehad on Britain. He emphasised the importantrole played by humanities and socialscience scholars in enriching and sustaining“argumentative democracy”; and the needfor “a robust intellectual life, supported by auniversity culture which is not simplyharnessed to productivity and problem-solving.” He conveyed a powerful sense ofthe positive value of different culturalinfluences: “the presence of the ‘stranger’ isa gift rather than a threat... because thestranger helps us see who we are – hopefully,not as an ‘us’ over against a ‘them’, but asan ‘us’ always in the process of formation.” 115

British Academy research projects into otherinternational issues currently being fundedinclude studies of NATO transformation andnew networks of European military expertise,the fate of resettled Jewish children in

Britain and elsewhere after the SecondWorld War, and population transfer andmigration patterns in 20th-century Europe.

Another, a research study of theconnections between the widespreadcultural practice of ‘bride-price’ in Ugandaand other African countries, and issuessuch as poverty and domestic violenceforms Case Study Ten (page 52).

Underlying much international research,not just in these spheres, but across thehumanities, the social sciences and otherscience disciplines, is the ability to uselanguages other than English, to engagewith research and scholarship in otherlanguages and also to know the languagesand understand the cultural traditions ofcommunities in different parts of the world.Language skills are also a vital driver oftrade, of diplomacy and other areas of ‘softpower’ and influence. The steep declineacross the UK in modern language learning– in schools, by undergraduates and acrossthe research community – is therefore a realand growing concern. The British Academy’s2009 report, Language Matters, drewattention to this crisis and to the threat itposes to the continued viability of someuniversity language departments. It has beeninfluential in raising the level of debate,including whether the Government’s decisionto drop compulsory modern language studyat GCSE is a significant factor in this decline.116

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117 Case study prepared with help of Dr Ravi Thiara and Professor Gill Hague

Case StudyTen:

BRIDE-PRICE,POVERTYANDDOMESTICVIOLENCE 117

Context• ‘Bride-price’ is a long-established

cultural practice in many Africancountries where material items ormonies are paid by the groom inexchange for the bride. Prior to thisproject in Uganda, no research hadbeen undertaken on the possible inter-relations between this practice andpoverty, domestic violence and HIVinfection.

Multidisciplinary Approach• These questions are inherently

multidisciplinary in nature, requiringparticipation and collaboration with localpeople. The research and fieldwork wastherefore conducted by means of aninternational collaboration between non-academic and academic partners, usingcommunity-based researchers andinvolving MIFUMI, a Ugandan non-governmental women’s rights agency,together with two UK research teams,the Violence Against Women ResearchGroup (University of Bristol) and the

Centre for the Study of Safety andWell-being (University of Warwick).

• This project, led by Dr Ravi Thiara andProfessor Gill Hague, was conductedwith the support of the British Academy.

Findings• Because bride-price is so deeply

engrained in Ugandan culture,researchers need to produce clearevidence of any negative consequencesbefore any reform measures couldbegin to be espoused. Three trends oroutcomes were, however, clearlyidentified in the research.

• Domestic violence, although recognisedto be part of a much broader socialproblem, was found to be exacerbatedby bride-price practice, due to the way itreinforces women being perceived ascommodities.

• Similarly, links with HIV infection werealso established, due to the inability ofwomen and their families to refund thebride-price and to separate, in the eventof husbands becoming infected.

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• The impoverishment of young couplesresulting from a substantial bride-pricebeing paid to older communitymembers (brides’ parents) was a furthertrend evidenced by the research.

Impacts• These findings provided a catalyst to

engage in an integrated process ofgradual reform:

• At the national level, a ConstitutionalPetition on Bride-Price, seeking toamend parts of the UgandanConstitution, is currently before theCourt, with concurrent media coveragecontributing to raising public awareness.

• At the local level, two round-table eventsheld in Tororo and Kampala haveenabled the formation of partnershipsbetween key representatives of the localcouncil, the police, cultural leaders,religious leaders, and other stake-holders.The aim is to oversee the implementationof the new Tororo District Bridal GiftOrdinance, new legislation makingbride-price non-refundable.

• Other strategies for action identifiedby the research team have given rise toa training programme for conductinggrassroots community sensitisationwork. MIFUMI has also devised anational strategy with this aim, includingradio broadcasts, village meetings andthe production and distribution ofleaflets.

• While acknowledging this to be along-term process, the researchteam are hoping their findings andrecommendations will continue to actas a catalyst for reform, not onlyacross Uganda, but also in otherparts of Africa.

How... academic fieldwork inUganda, run inpartnershipwith local agencies, has helped to startaddressing possible reforms to the practice of‘bride-price’

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Sir Nicholas Stern FBA (now Lord Stern), launching his seminal review of The Economics of Climate Change withChancellor Gordon Brown, October 2006

THEBRITISHACADEMY

inter- and multi-disciplinary work withother areas of research and scholarship.

• As a funding body, in receipt ofGovernment grant, it delivers some£22m p.a. of vital support for humanitiesand social science research at morethan 100 UK universities, enables UKresearchers to work with scholars andresources in other countries, sustains aBritish research presence in variousparts of the world and helps attractoverseas scholars to the UK.

• As a national forum for the humanitiesand social sciences, it supports a rangeof publications, public lectures, paneldiscussions and British AcademyForums which aim to stimulate curiosity,to inspire and develop futuregenerations of scholars, and encourageappreciation among the public andpolicy makers of the social, economicand cultural value of these disciplines.

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The UK has a world-class research basesustained through Government support foruniversities and other institutions, togetherwith private funding, grants from industryand other sources. The British Academy hasa significant role in sustaining thatexcellence – supporting and rewardingoutstanding research, providing grants andfellowships at different career stages andelecting outstanding practitioners across 18disciplines to its prestigious Fellowship.

The Academy published a StrategicFramework in 2008 to guide its work overthe five year period to 2013. It identifies keychallenges and goals, and defines specificpriorities. It endorses the necessity ofchange at a time when no organisation canstand still, while seeking to maintain all ofthe traditional strengths that have served theAcademy so well for more than a century.

The Framework identifies four fundamentalpurposes for the Academy:• As a Fellowship composed of over 800

distinguished scholars, it takes a lead inrepresenting the humanities and socialsciences, facilitating internationalcollaboration, providing an independentand authoritative source of advice, andcontributing to public policy and debate.

• As a learned society, it fosters andpromotes the full range of work thatmakes up the humanities and socialsciences, including a growing range of

Lord Howe, one of the speakers at the launch of the British Academy policy report Choosing an Electoral System,March 2010

For further information about the British Academy, please visit our website at www.britac.ac.uk

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THE BR IT I SH ACADEMY

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