Inclusive Growth Analysis Unit blog

Catch up on the most recent posts from our Growth and Inclusion blog located on the Policy@Manchester website.

• Critical social infrastructure for older people

  1 May 2019

  Sophie Yarker is a Research Fellow at the Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing (MICRA), working on the Greater Manchester-based Ambition for Ageing programme. In this blog, she discusses her research into the importance of social infrastructure for older people and the need to think about it in new ways. Face-to-face interactions are the […]

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• Improving the census question on ‘language’ could help repair community relations and Britain’s international image post-Brexit

  1 April 2019

  Yaron Matras, Professor of Linguistics, discusses the importance of changing the census question “What is your main language?” and the impact this change could have. The census question on language lacks a clear definition of what it means by ‘main language’ and forces multilingual households to select just one language. The Brexit debate includes conversations […]

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• Fuel poverty and low-carbon investment: a role for area-based policy?

  25 March 2019

  The GMCA plans to launch a five year plan for carbon neutrality in Greater Manchester by 2038 at the Green Summit today. Stefan Bouzarovski, Professor of Human Geography, will be hosting a discussion table at the public sector space within the Green Summit. Here, he blogs about the importance of area-based fuel poverty and energy […]

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• Can Greater Manchester blaze the trail with an inclusive local industrial strategy?

  4 March 2019

  Greater Manchester (GM) is one of a handful of ‘trailblazer’ areas selected to work with government on a local industrial strategy (LIS), due to be signed off in a few weeks’ time. As deliberations enter their final stages, Ruth Lupton, Head of the Inclusive Growth Analysis Unit (IGAU), looks at how the strategy might shape […]

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• Lesbian and gay foster care and adoption: what’s changed over the last 20 years?

  4 March 2019

  For LGBT+ Adoption and Fostering Week 2019, Dr Stephen Hicks, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, discusses the changes in policy over the last 20 years and the impact they have had on LGBTQ+ adopters and foster carers. Only 18 years ago, same-sex couples were not legally able jointly to adopt, and Section 28 of the […]

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• Why is government progress on fuel poverty stalling in England?

  15 February 2019

  In a recent report, the Committee on Fuel Poverty highlighted that progress on fuel poverty in England is stalling. On Fuel Poverty Awareness Day, Caitlin Robinson, Lecturer in Geography, reflects on reasons for this lack of progress and envisions a more ambitious approach to tackling fuel poverty. There is no typical profile of a fuel […]

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• Is it time to address accent as part of the Teachers’ Standards?

  29 January 2019

  Dr Alex Baratta, Lecturer in Language, Linguistics and Communications at the Manchester Institute of Education, discusses the ambiguity of ‘articulacy’ in the Teachers’ Standards and its effects on teachers and their accents. The Teachers’ Standards state that teachers in England and Wales must use standard English and demonstrate ‘articulacy’. There is no mention of accent […]

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• A lonely new year: how can we prevent loneliness in older age?

  16 January 2019

  The post-Christmas lull is deemed to be a particularly lonely time for many individuals. As ‘Blue Monday’ fast approaches, Natalie Cotterell, PhD student in Social Statistics, discusses the challenges to successfully tackling loneliness. Approximately 14% of the UK population has reported that they often feel lonely, and this number has been found to rise to […]

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• The return of industrial democracy: preparing the ground for dealing with wayward capitalism?

  2 January 2019

  Miguel Martínez Lucio, Professor in the Work and Equalities Institute and the Alliance Manchester Business School at The University of Manchester, and an expert of worker participation, trade union questions and the role of the state, discusses the renewed interest in industrial democracy and the need for a strategic plan. There is a growing interest […]

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• Empire and the World War One Centenary: Remembrance as racialisation?

  17 December 2018

  Dr Meghan Tinsley, a Presidential Fellow in Ethnicity and Inequalities, reflects on the four years of the First World War centenary, asking to what extent collective memory of the war remains white and Eurocentric. She argues that in pursuit of a more global narrative of past and present, history curricula should emphasise three themes: the […]

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