University of Warwick Press

Serious Games Cookbook

2023-11-07T17:22:34+00:00

What is the Serious Game Cookbook?

The Serious Game Cookbook is a resource that aims to support the use and design of serious games with detailed guidance. Each section talks through major topics around the use or design of serious games, supported with tasks, questions, and multiple examples.

Everything within the Serious Game Cookbook supports the two central goals of this resource:

Provide a resource for researchers, developers, and practitioners to begin utilising or designing their own serious games.
Expand the conversation for how serious games for climate adaptation and resilience building are designed.

Who is the Cookbook for?

The GameBook acts like designerly glue between domain expertise and development. Do you have expert knowledge of climate adaptation or skills in software development, but are unsure of how to effectively use or design serious games? Then the GameBook is designed for you. By the end, beginners should better understand how to use serious games and design their own games.

What topics does the Cookbook cover?

Using Serious Games – For those who wish to utilise serious games to support their goals, this might include educators, researchers, or moderators.

Goals of Play
Selecting a Game
Game Facilitation

Designing Serious Games – For those who wish to develop a serious game, from widespread digital applications to bespoke physical board games (and everything in between).

Game Content & Themes
Mechanics is the Message
Remember the Player
Strategies for Shifting Attitudes

The Diary of Sharon Turner 1793-1795

2023-10-24T11:10:53+01:00

The Diary of Sharon Turner 1793-5 is a record - part memoir, part history - written by the lawyer and historian Sharon Turner (1768-1847) covering what he clearly came to see as the turning point in his life and in the life of the country and of Europe more widely. It describes his courtship of Mary Watts, the daughter of William Watts, a landscape painter with strong sympathies with the French Revolution, against the background of increasing turmoil in France and throughout Europe, and with growing concern about the measures taken against English reformers by the British government. The result is a distinctive portrait of life in Britain at the time of the French Revolution presented through the account of a courtship that goes dramatically awry.

Edited and introduced by: Mark Philp, Professor of History and Politics, Department of History, University of Warwick and Clare Clarke, History, Warwick, 2014-17.

The transcription and editing of the Diary was supported by the University of Warwick’s Undergraduate Research Studentship Scheme in the summers of 2015 and 2016).

The perceived value of bereavement support and the impact of inequalities on availability and access

2023-04-21T13:27:34+01:00

Significant social and healthcare inequalities exist in the provision and access to bereavement services. An aging population and the deaths related to the Covid-19 pandemic mean that more people are experiencing bereavement. This has accelerated the need to address this crucial area of psychological, social and healthcare support.

We aimed to analyse the experiences of those bereaved in the last five years by drawing on data from the UK Commission on Bereavement (UKCB) to explore how age, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation were perceived to impact on inequalities relating to access, effectiveness, satisfaction, and delivery of services.

We carried out a qualitative thematic secondary analysis of free text data of 1,119 survey responses of adult members of the public who had been bereaved in the last five years, and of 130 survey responses from organisations and professionals working with bereaved people.

Free text responses from the public adult survey were categorised by group (age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation), and the organisational survey responses were categorised by responses relating to these groups. These were then analysed using qualitative methods. The adult survey and organisational survey were studied separately to identify patterns and themes before combining the themes together.

We found that those over 50 years old often reported not wanting to cause a fuss, saw seeking help as a weakness and were reluctant to access digital support. Family pressures, lack of time, and perceptions of less support available for younger people were reported in respondents under 50 years. Participants from ethnic minority groups found the value of support was compromised where there were language barriers and a lack of cultural and religious understanding. LBGTQ+ respondents valued non-judgemental understanding and a feeling of belonging from support where this is lacking on a wider level. Men leaned towards a preference for more informal and practical support.

Age, gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation affected many respondents’ access to formal and informal bereavement support as well as the effectiveness, satisfaction, and delivery of services.

This report contributes recommendations which add to those of the UKCB, which can help to reduce inequalities in effective bereavement support.

Dialogical-Participatory Mapping Application

2022-10-04T15:16:12+01:00

Each place is unique, not merely because of its size, number of houses, streams or waterways, but mainly because of its identity. This identity is formed by the relationships between people, the ways they live and how they express themselves within it. A space
where local culture is expressed becomes a place. My place.

A map can simply be the geographical representation of a space, but when it is created by those who truly know the area, it can also become a way of communicating, of telling a story, of strengthening one's own identity.

Through the project 'Accelerating the impact of citizen-generated data for improving the monitoring and management of
catastrophic flooding’ a methdology of creating maps based on dialogue and with the participation of local residents was
developed. This methodology was later applied in three Brazilian cities in the first half of 2022:

06 de Agosto community in Rio Branco;
Guarani Kaiowá Occupation in Contagem, Minas Gerais;
Cai Cai community in São Paulo.

These were extremely interesting experiences which endorsed that this can be a good way to achieve the goals defined by community members.

The methodology has two main objectives:

The first is to promote participation through meetings between residents, researchers, public authorities and other
stakeholders to generate maps that depict important issues in each area.
The second is to instigate and encourage discussions concentrated around the main themes identified in the produced maps.

Maps can depict the challenges, difficulties, and needs of local residents, the activities they want to carry out and many other issues that would help and guide future improvement plans in the community.

This manual briefly presents the methods and tools employed for mobilising residents and technical resources based on the
mapping experiences in three different communities across Brazil.

All activities undertaken followed the steps described in this manual. However, each community defined its issues in a distinct
and particular way thus building its own tailored pathway for producing and discussing its maps. People have different backgrounds and the ways of applying the methodology need to allow adaptations, changes and new interpretations.

The proposals presented in this manual are aimed at residents of urban neighbourhoods, marginalised communities, favelas, occupations and communities who wish to produce their maps, discuss important issues for their daily lives and collectively seek paths for a sustainable future.

Shall we start?

Uma versão em português está disponível

Dialogical-Participatory Mapping Application

2022-09-30T12:18:30+01:00

Dialogical-participatory mapping is based on the participatory co-production of geographic data by citizens, researchers, public authorities and other interested parties. In this manual, through provoking a critical reflection on the practices this methodology involves, we attempt to introduce a holistic critical and interactive pedagogical approach. Methodologically, we apply several collaborative activities and tools based on local narratives and knowledge and spearheaded by spatial mapping related methods.

Dialogical-participatory mapping, is a mapping methodology designed by researchers from the Waterproofing Data and further explored and consolidated through the ESRC IAA-funded project ‘Accelerating the impact of citizen-generated data for improving the monitoring and management of catastrophic flooding’. The project was led by the University of Warwick (United Kingdom) in partnership with the School of Business Administration of Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV EAESP), the National Centre for Monitoring and Alerting for Natural Disasters (Cemaden) and the NGO TETO Brazil. As an idealised and systematised method, its main objective is to strengthen situational awareness of the reality within the community, with geographic data consolidating as a significant component, with truly social and transformative value. This mapping process consists of several steps, which in many cases may vary according to the needs of the different communities. In other words, there is a dialogic interaction between researchers and the citizens participating in the mapping process, in the pursuit of practices that can be significant for the accurately representing their existent and emerging themes of interest. These so-called ‘generative themes’ are the starting point of the dialogical-participatory mapping process, emerging from popular knowledge, extracted from the everyday life of local citizens, which means that such themes are distinguished and defined by the community members themselves.

Between April and June 2022, researchers and research assistants from the international project consortium carried out a dialogical-participatory mapping exercise in three Brazilian states: Acre (AC), Minas Gerais (MG) and São Paulo (SP). The communities investigated were: 06 de Agosto neighbourhood in Rio Branco (AC), Guarani Kaiowá Occupation in Contagem (MG) and Cai Cai community in São Paulo (SP).

This manual is intended for the academic community, for social innovation institutions and self-managed bodies focused on direct social action through collective production of data with the community members. The approaches, methodologies and tools that were part of the mapping process in the different urban contexts are briefly presented, so as to enable the replication of this method at various instances not only within the Brazilian context but across other communities in Latin America and beyond.

Uma versão em português está disponível.

Mapeando a Comunidade

2022-10-04T15:49:25+01:00

Cada espaço é único, não apenas pelo seu tamanho, número de moradias, córregos ou relevo, mas principalmente pela sua identidade. E esta é formada pelas relações entre pessoas, as formas como vivem ali, como se manifestam. Um espaço onde a cultura se manifesta passa a ser um lugar. O meu lugar.

Um mapa pode ser simplesmente a representação geográfica de um espaço, mas quando é construído por quem mais conhece o território passa a ser também uma forma de se comunicar, de contar uma história, de fortalecer a própria identidade.

O projeto Dados à Prova d’Água desenvolveu uma forma de construir mapas a partir do diálogo e com a participação de
moradores dos lugares e experimentou o métodos em três cidades no primeiro semestre de 2022:

na Ocupação Guarani Kaiowá em Contagem, Minas Gerais;
na Comunidade do Cai Cai em São Paulo;
e no Bairro 06 de Agosto em Rio Branco no estado do Acre.

Foram experiências muito interessantes e que confirmaram que este pode ser um bom caminho para atingir os objetivos definidos pelas comunidades.

O método tem duas principais finalidades:

A primeira é promover encontros participativos entre moradores, pesquisadores, poder público e demais interessados para gerar mapas que mostrem questões importantes de cada local.
A segunda é estimular a realização de discussões sobre as informações organizadas em torno dos principais temas
identificados nos mapas construídos pelos participantes dos trabalhos.

Os mapas podem mostrar as dificuldades, as alegrias, as necessidades dos moradores, as atividades que desejam realizar e muitos outros registros que ajudam na realização de melhorias nas comunidades.

Este manual apresenta, resumidamente, as ferramentas, os modos de mobilização dos moradores e os recursos técnicos que
fizeram parte das experiências de mapeamento nesses três diferentes lugares.

Todos os trabalhos seguiram passos bastante parecidos, conforme descrito neste manual. Porém, cada comunidade definiu
suas questões de modo específico e criou seu próprio jeito de produzir e de discutir seus mapas. Essas pessoas têm histórias
diferentes e as formas de trabalhar precisam permitir adaptações, mudanças e novas interpretações.

As propostas apresentadas neste manual são direcionadas para moradores de bairros, vilas, favelas, ocupações e comunidades que desejam produzir seus mapas, discutir questões importantes para seu dia a dia e buscar juntos/as caminhos para seu futuro.

Vamos?!

An English version is available

Aplicação do Mapeamento Participativo-Dialógico

2022-10-04T14:41:36+01:00

O mapeamento participativo-dialógico consiste na co-produção participativa de dados geográficos por cidadãos, pesquisadores, poder público e demais interessados, ao provocar a reflexão crítica destes dados a partir de temas geradores. Com o intuito de construir uma prática pedagógica crítica e interativa, este método mapeia os espaços a partir de narrativas apresentadas durante a realização de dinâmicas colaborativas e coletivas que tem como finalidade a coleta dos dados gerados.

O mapeamento participativo-dialógico é um método de mapeamento pensado por pesquisadores do projeto Dados à Prova d’Água. O projeto foi idealizado pela Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo da Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV EAESP) em parceria com as universidades de Warwick e Glasglow (Reino Unido), Heidelberg (Alemanha), com o Centro Nacional de Monitoramento e Alertas de Desastres Naturais (Cemaden) e com a ONG TETO Brasil. Como um método idealizado e sistematizado, tem como objetivo maior aflorar na comunidade um processo de conscientização da realidade, em que os dados geográficos tornam-se significativos, com real valor social e de transformação. Este mapeamento consiste em diversas etapas que mudam de acordo com a necessidade da comunidade. Em outras palavras, há uma interação dialógica dos pesquisadores com os cidadãos participantes do processo de mapeamento, na busca de situações que possam ser significativas, da definição de temas de interesse, sua sequência e articulação. Os temas geradores são seu principal ponto de partida, emergindo do saber popular, extraídos da prática de vida dos cidadãos, o que significa que os temas discutidos no mapeamento participativo-dialógico são definidos pela própria comunidade.

Entre abril e junho de 2022, os pesquisadores/as e assistentes de pesquisa do projeto internacional Dados à Prova d’Água realizaram o mapeamento participativo-dialógico em três estados brasileiros: Acre, Minas Gerais e São Paulo. As comunidades trabalhadas foram: bairro 06 de Agosto, em Rio Branco - AC, Ocupação Guarani Kaiowá, em Contagem - MG e comunidade do Cai Cai, em São Paulo - SP.

Este manual é dirigido para a comunidade acadêmica, para instituições de trabalho com cunho social e para órgãos autogestionados voltados para ação social direta, que buscam a construção coletiva de dados com as comunidades atuantes. Apresentam-se resumidamente as abordagens, metodologias e ferramentas que fizeram parte do mapeamento nos diferentes contextos urbanos, de modo a possibilitar a replicação desse método por diversas instâncias que trabalham com o coletivo a partir de uma análise crítica sobre o território.

An English version is available

Impact of Covid-19 pandemic on Hospices (ICoH)

2022-05-30T17:00:22+01:00

This report describes the diversity of experiences of people with life-limiting illnesses who were supported by hospices in the West Midlands during the pandemic. It is one of four cohort reports – the others focus on patients, carers, and frontline hospice staff respectively – that form the evidence base for a Policy Report into the impact of Covid-19 on hospices. In these reports we address the nine key themes that were identified as potentially important in our previous collaborative knowledge synthesis (MacArtney et al., 2021) and seek to address some of the policy gaps we identified in our review of recommendations for hospice practice and policy (van Langen-Datta et al., 2022). Together these outputs are the result of an Economic and Social Research Council funded study (grant number: ES/W001837/1) that is one of the first studies to contribute an in-depth exploration of hospice-based experiences of the pandemic to the growing body of knowledge about the effectiveness and effects of changes to hospice services, at regional and national levels, in response to Covid-19.

As the key decision makers during the Covid-19 pandemic, this part of the ICoH study aimed to explore senior managers’ experiences and to understand how they responded to the challenges imposed on them whilst still delivering a high-quality palliative care service. Coupled with hospice grey evidence in the form of, for example, senior management emails to staff, policy and guideline documents, we can start to understand the pressures and context in which decisions were made, including what worked well and what did not. The aim of this report is therefore to explore experiences of senior managers during the Covid-19 pandemic to identify recommendations for clinical practice and healthcare policy. Drawing on these findings, this report offers recommendations for hospices managers and clinicians who continue to provide care and support for people with life limiting conditions during the ongoing pandemic. These recommendations will also be of interest to local commissioners who will need to work with hospices in their region to ensure people with life-limiting conditions receive the support they need, and national policymakers who will need to ensure the necessary resources and guidance are available.

Impact of Covid-19 pandemic on Hospices (ICoH)

2022-05-30T09:50:18+01:00

This report describes the diversity of experiences informal carers for people with life-limiting illnesses who were supported by hospices in the West Midlands during the pandemic. It is one of four cohort reports – the others focus on patients, frontline hospice staff, and senior managers respectively – that form the evidence base for a Policy Report into the impact of Covid-19 on hospices. In these reports we address the nine key themes that were identified as potentially important in our previous collaborative knowledge synthesis (MacArtney et al., 2021) and seek to address some of the policy gaps we identified in our review of recommendations for hospice practice and policy (van Langen-Datta et al., 2022). Together these outputs are the result of an Economic and Social Research Council funded study (grant number: ES/W001837/1). This is one of the first studies to contribute an in-depth exploration of hospice-based experiences of the pandemic to the growing body of knowledge about the effectiveness and effects of changes to hospice services, at regional and national levels in response to Covid-19.

The aim of this report is therefore to explore experiences of those informal carers of people with life-limiting conditions and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the care and support they experienced, to identify recommendations for clinical practice and healthcare policy. Drawing on these findings, this report offers recommendations for hospices and clinicians who continue to provide care and support for people with life limiting conditions and those that care them during the ongoing pandemic. These recommendations will also be of interest to local commissioners who will need to work with hospices in their region to ensure informal carers receive the support they need, and national policymakers who will need to ensure the necessary resources and guidance are available.

Impact of Covid-19 pandemic on Hospices (ICoH)

2022-05-30T16:57:03+01:00

This report describes the diversity of experiences of hospice staff who worked in operational roles in hospices in the West Midlands during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is one of four cohort reports – the others focus on patients, carers, and senior managers respectively – that form the evidence base for a Policy Report into the impact of Covid-19 on hospices. In these reports we address the nine key themes that were identified as potentially important in our previous collaborative knowledge synthesis (MacArtney et al., 2021) and seek to address some of the policy gaps we identified in our review of recommendations for hospice practice and policy (van Langen-Datta et al., 2022). Together these outputs are the result of an Economic and Social Research Council funded study (grant number: ES/W001837/1). This is one of the first studies to contribute an in-depth exploration of hospice-based experiences of the pandemic to the growing body of knowledge about the effectiveness and effects of changes to hospice services, at regional and national levels in response to Covid-19.

The aim of this report is therefore to explore the effects the Covid-19 pandemic had on the experiences of hospice staff as they sought to provide care and support to people with life-limiting conditions and those that cared for them so that we can identify recommendations for clinical practice and healthcare policy. Drawing on these findings, this report offers recommendations for hospices and clinicians who continue to provide care and support for people with life limiting conditions and those that care them during the ongoing pandemic. These recommendations will also be of interest to local commissioners who will need to work with hospices in their region to ensure informal carers receive the support they need, and national policymakers who will need to ensure the necessary resources and guidance are available.

Impact of Covid-19 pandemic on Hospices (ICoH)

2022-05-27T14:49:04+01:00

This report describes the diversity of experiences of people with life-limiting illnesses who were supported by hospices in the West Midlands during the pandemic. It is one of four cohort reports – the others focus on carers, frontline hospice staff, and senior managers respectively – that form the evidence base for a Policy Report into the impact of Covid-19 on hospices. In these reports we address the nine key themes that were identified as potentially important in our previous collaborative knowledge synthesis (MacArtney et al., 2021) and seek to address some of the policy gaps we identified in our review of recommendations for hospice practice and policy (van Langen-Datta et al., 2022). Together these outputs are the result of an Economic and Social Research Council funded study (grant number: ES/W001837/1) that is one of the first studies to contribute an in-depth exploration of hospice-based experiences of the pandemic to the growing body of knowledge about the effectiveness and effects of changes to hospice services, at regional and national levels in response to Covid-19.

The aim of this report is therefore to explore experiences of those with life-limiting conditions the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the care and support to identify recommendations for clinical practice and healthcare policy. Drawing on these findings, this report offers recommendations for hospices and clinicians who continue to provide care and support for people with life limiting conditions during the ongoing pandemic. These recommendations will also be of interest to local commissioners who will need to work with hospices in their region to ensure people with life-limiting conditions receive the support they need, and national policymakers who will need to ensure the necessary resources and guidance are available.

Economic challenges and success in the post-COVID era

2021-11-17T09:54:11+00:00

In 2008 there was an expectation of major reform to social and economic structures following the financial crisis. The European Union (EU) referendum of 2016, and the UK’s subsequent exit from the EU in 2020, was also signalled as a turning point that would bring about epochal change. Now, in the waning of the coronavirus pandemic, we are experiencing a similar rhetoric. There is widespread agreement that the pandemic will usher in big changes for the economy and society, with the potential for major policy reform. But what will be the long-term impacts of the pandemic on the UK economy? Is the right response a “new settlement” or is some alternative approach likely to be more beneficial?

This report puts forward a new perspective on the pandemic-related changes that could be ahead. The central theme is assessing the viability of epochal reform in policymaking. There seems to be a relentless desire for making big changes; however, there is arguably not enough recognition of how current settings and history can hold back these efforts.

Foreword by: Dame Frances Cairncross, CBE, FRSE.

Building Success in Development and Peacebuilding by Caring for Carers

2021-04-28T10:31:00+01:00

The experiences and marginalisation of international organisation employees with caring responsibilities has a direct negative impact on the type of security and justice being built in conflict-affected environments. This is in large part because international organisations fail to respond to the needs of those with caring responsibilities, which leads to their early departure from the field, and negatively affects their work while in post. In this toolkit we describe this problem, the exacerbating factors, and challenges to overcoming it. We offer a theory of change demonstrating how caring for carers can both improve the working conditions of employees of international organisations as well as the effectiveness, inclusivity and responsiveness of peace and justice interventions. This is important because it raises awareness among employers in the sector of the severity of the problem and its consequences. We also offer a guide for employers for how to take the caring responsibilities of their employees into account when developing human resource policies and practices, designing working conditions and planning interventions.

Finally, we underscore the importance of conducting research on the gendered impacts of the marginalisation of employees with caring responsibilities, not least because of the breadth and depth of resultant individual, organisational and sectoral harms.

In this regard, we also draw attention to the way in which gender stereotypes and gender biases not only inform and undermine peacebuilding efforts, but also permeate research in this field. Our toolkit is aimed at international organisation employees, employers and human resources personnel, as well as students and scholars of peacebuilding and international development. We see these communities of knowledge and action as overlapping, with insights to be brought to bear as well as challenges to be overcome in this area. The content of the toolkit is equally relevant across these knowledge communities as well as between different specialisms and disciplines. Peacebuilding and development draw in experts from economics, politics, anthropology, sociology and law, to name but a few.

The authors of this toolkit have come together from gender studies, political science, and development studies to develop a theory of change informed by interdisciplinary insights. We hope, therefore, that this toolkit will be useful to an inclusive and interdisciplinary set of knowledge communities. Our core argument - that caring for carers benefits the individual, the sectors, and the intended beneficiaries of interventions - is relevant for students, researchers, policy makers and practitioners alike.

Feminist Everyday Observatory Tool

2020-05-17T10:25:16+01:00

Studying labour/time is an important research area, which allows us to make sense of the rhythms of everyday life of people in different contexts and societies. It is also a complex task that address the result of the research question, which inquires how and why people spend their time on social reproduction. Answering this question requires a systematic methodology involving both qualitative and quantitative research methods. In this Toolkit we make the argument for bringing two important methodologies that study the everyday – Time-Use Surveys and Shadowing – to develop an a Feminist Everyday Observatory Tool.

We discuss the strengths of Time-use Survey and Shadowing as methodologies and show where the gaps lie in their design and how to address these. We then introduce a Three Step Method that we have developed through trialling this methodology in four pilot studies – in India, Ukraine, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. We examine the challenges that our Feminist Everyday Observatory Tool method poses for researchers as well as its advantages and suggest that it is an important contribution to the methodological toolkit for researchers of the everyday and of gender structures of time, space, violence and social reproduction.

Toolkit for Integrating a Gender-Sensitive Approach into Research and Checklist for Preparing the Gender Equality Statement for Grant Applications to UKRI GCRF and Newton Fund Calls

2020-05-15T16:51:30+01:00

Gender equality has been highlighted as key to accomplishing the Sustainable Development Goals, but gender analysis is often missing and misunderstood in research. As men and women have distinct roles and responsibilities, their experiences and perspectives on issues can be quite different. It is important to note, however, that men and women are not homogenous categories – differences of class, race, sexuality etc. intersect with gender to produce complex perspectives among groups. Thus, gender needs to be mainstreamed into every component of research in complex ways: identification of a problem; conceptual framework; methodology; implementation; and analysis and interpretation of the result (Callamard, 1999).

The aim of this Toolkit is to help researchers to gain a better understanding of how to mainstream gender into their research from the initial phase of constructing research questions and/or hypotheses to the concluding phase of data compilation, analysis and reporting. It also provides a practical checklist on how to prepare the Gender Equality Statement for inclusion in grant applications.

Stolpersteine

2019-03-01T10:46:36+00:00

This self-study guide for students of German was designed with special attention to students’ needs, providing an accessible and practical way to revise grammar topics that prove to be common mistakes or stumbling blocks when learning German as a speaker of English. This guide is aimed at German learners at all levels, but especially at those with a good basic command of the language seeking to dispose of typical mistakes and to consolidate their knowledge of key grammatical structures. The idea is to spend no more than a few minutes a day on one topic. Although this is primarily a grammar guide, it also provides opportunities to learn about German (as well as Austrian and Swiss) culture and life by embedding grammar in a wider context.

Which Way Now?

2021-11-17T09:14:09+00:00

Most, if not all advanced economies have suffered gravely from the 2008 global financial crisis. Growth, productivity, real income and consumption have plunged and inequality, and in some cases poverty, spiked. Some countries, like Germany and Australia, were better able to cope with the consequences but austerity has taken its toll even on the strongest economies. The UK is no exception and the more recent period of economic recovery might be halted or even reversed by the political, economic, and policy uncertainty created by the Brexit referendum. This uncertainty related risk to growth could be even greater if the UK leaves the economic and legal framework provided by the EU.

This CAGE policy report offers proposals from different perspectives to answer the overarching question: What is the role of a government in a modern economy after the global financial crisis and the Brexit vote? We report on economic and social challenges in the UK and discuss potential policy responses for the government to consider.

Foreword by: Lord O’Donnell of Clapham.

Understanding Happiness

2021-11-16T17:34:52+00:00

Everyone wants to be happy. Over the ages, tracts of the ancient moral philosophers – Plato, Aristotle, Confucius – have probed the question of happiness. The stirring words in the preamble to the Declaration of Independence that established ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’ as ‘unalienable Rights’ served as the inspiration that launched a nation, the United States of America. Yet, more than 240 years later, the relationship between government’s objectives and human happiness is not straightforward, even over the matters of whether it can and should be a government aim.

We approach this question not as philosophers, but as social scientists seeking to understand happiness through data. Our work in these pages is intended to enhance understanding of how the well-being of individuals and societies is affected by myriad forces, among them: income, inflation, governance, genes, inflation, inequality, bereavement, biology, aspirations, unemployment, recession, economic growth, life expectancies, infant mortality, war and conflict, family and social networks, and mental and physical health and health care. Our report suggests the ways in which this information might be brought to bear to rethink traditional aims and definitions of socioeconomic progress, and to create a better – and, yes, happier – world. We explain what the data say to us: our times demand new approaches.

Foreword by Richard Easterlin; Introduced by Diane Coyle.

Unlocking Development

2021-11-16T16:09:45+00:00

The world’s poor are ‘trapped’ in poverty. How can we unlock development so that poor countries can sustain economic growth over long periods of time? Our report considers this problem on three levels, the national economy, the private sector, and citizenship. At the core of each chapter is new research by CAGE members and associates. Chapter 1 addresses the factors underlying sustainable growth of the national economy. Chapter 2 looks for the sources of business capacity and sustainable growth of the private sector. Chapter 3 links citizenship to economic development, showing how political voice can enable women to participate more freely in society and the economy.

In all three chapters we show how economic development relies on the rule of law, including a framework of laws and their enforcement that is applied to all and accessible by all. We show how, without such a framework, the sustainable growth of national economies and their businesses is threatened when laws fail to resolve conflicts. This failure is often accompanied by corruption or violence. So, we discuss what can be done to promote the rule of law; to make economic growth more stable and sustainable; to enhance the capacity of business organisations that are most likely to attract, grow and create jobs; and to enable women to play a full part in economic development as citizens, providers, and entrepreneurs.

Foreword by Frances Cairncross; Introduced by Nicholas Crafts.

Reversals of Fortune?

2021-11-16T15:00:47+00:00

It is conventional wisdom that:

Continued fast growth in the BRICS will result in a rapid catch-up to match and even surpass Western income levels in the next few decades
The crisis in Europe will soon be over and normal growth will then resume as if nothing had happened
The tax competition resulting from globalization means a race to the bottom in which corporate tax rates fall dramatically everywhere
The best way to escape the poverty trap is to give the poor more money
Losers from globalization can be ignored by politicians in western democracies because they do not matter for electoral outcomes
The adjustment problems for developing countries arising from the crisis are quite minor and easy to deal with

Actually, as Reversals of Fortune shows, all of these beliefs are highly questionable. The research findings reported here provide economic analysis and evidence that challenge these claims.

In the report, Nicholas Crafts asks: "What Difference does the Crisis make to Long-term West European Growth?" Vera Troeger considers "The Impact of Globalisation and Global Economic Crises on Social Cohesion and Attitudes towards Welfare State Policies in Developed Western Democracies." Stephen Broadberry looks at "The BRICs: What does Economic History say about their Growth Prospects?" Sharun Mukand takes "The View from the Developing World: Institutions, Global Shocks and Economic Adjustment." Finally, Sayantan Ghosal has a new perspective on "The Design of Pro-poor Policies."