Social Research Unit

A detail from "The Madonna of Senigallia" painted in the early 1470s by Piero della Francesca. From the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino.

December 02 2009

The relevance of religious symbolism to the social sciences – and to everyday life in a "postmodern" world – is a focus for debate at the latest meeting of the Centre for Social Policy, which takes place at Dartington Hall, today and tomorrow.

Canon Melvyn Matthews, Chancellor Emeritus of Wells Cathedral, will argue that human beings live symbolically by innate impulse. "It's not that we need symbols but that we live by symbols in any case. We never do without them even when we think, as modern rational creatures, that we can. "Considering in particular the value to Christian society of the Cross and the figure of Mary, he will say: "their presence has enabled us to live with suffering in a constructive manner. They have allowed us to see the importance of self giving in community life, and allowed us to affirm the feminine and give value to desire. "In theological terms we have been able to see that suffering and the feminine are sacramental of the divine"

Other perspectives on the importance of symbols and structures in relation to family law and justice, social welfare and mental health are being presented by Fellows Mervyn Murch, Bill Jordan and Douglas Hooper.

Centre For Social Policy

The Centre for Social Policy was established in 1995 as a context for retired academics, policy makers and practitioners to continue their work. The centre runs regular seminars and manages the projects of the 50 elected fellows.

Why we collaborate:

The Centre supports the work of the Unit in several ways. It provides an ethics committee and a vehicle for subjecting projects to critical appraisal. Individual fellows advise members of staff, particularly doctoral students, on the progress of their work.

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Center For Research On Children And Families

The Social Research Unit is exploring links with the Centre for Research on Children and Families at the University of Otago in New Zealand.

Why we collaborate:

Professor Gordon Harold at Otago is helping graduates of our post-doctoral programme to acquire specialist research skills. We hope this informal association will lead to collaborative studies of the mediating effects of neighbourhood and family on risks to children’s health and development.

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Prevention Research Center

The Prevention Research Center at Penn State University is an acknowledged leader in the application of prevention science to policy and practice.

Why we collaborate:

We are indebted to colleagues at Penn State for teaching us much of what we know about the successful implementation of evidence-based programmes. Joint meetings and exchanges of staff are intended to be the forerunner of joint studies of the successful translation of evidence to practice.

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Peninsula Medical School

The Peninsula Medical School was established as a partnership between the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth and the National Health Service in Devon and Cornwall in 2000. PMS is one of the first entirely new medical schools to be developed in the UK for more than 30 years.

Why we collaborate:

Staff at the Peninsula Medical School share our interest in translating evidence into practice and in measuring children’s health and development. We are exploring potential research collaborations and sharing resources for the Masters and Doctoral programmes in Applied Prevention Science.

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University of Bath

The Department of Social Policy at the University of Bath has a strong track record in developing some of the concepts that underpin our work. The University has applied these concepts to studies of children in the Global South.

Why we collaborate:

Four students on the Social Research Unit’s doctoral programme have been registered at the University of Bath. Michael Little and Nick Axford hold visiting appointments at the University, and Bath staff have helped to edit the Journal of Children’s Services.

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The Social Research Unit has a rich history of collaboration, with central and local government agencies, centres of academic excellence and international philanthropy.

At the independent scientific review of the Unit’s work in 2007, it was recommended that academic partnerships are strengthened with a view to building expertise to study the impact of context on children’s development and the conditions that lead to the effective implementation of evidence based policies and programmes. It was also proposed that the Unit find a partnership to build on its doctoral training programme, and to better support post-docs. A series of new collaborations are being explored in response to the findings of the review.

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Debating the crux of the 'Baby P' case

Predicting risk and the role of serious case reviews – key aspects of the anxieties generated in the UK by the 'Baby P' tragedy – are being discussed at this week's Centre for Soclal Policy seminars at Dartington.

Contributors include Gillian Downham and Richard Lingham who will be describing their research into mental health serious case reviews, Wendy Rose from the Open University on how to improve safeguarding practice and the Social Research Unit’s Nick Axford on how to define and measure ‘service’.
The Centre for Social Policy was set up in 1995 to complement the work of The Social Research Unit. The aim was to establish an organisation for researchers, managers and professionals to maintain their interests and facilitate their work during or immediately before their retirement from their principal career.

Greenberg at SRCD Conference

Mark Greenberg, Director of the Prevention Research Center at Penn State University was given a senior award at the Society for Research in Child Development at its bi-ennial conference in Denver.

Greenberg was awarded alongside Nobel Laureate Jim Heckman for making a distinguished contribution to public policy for children. The 2009 SRCD conference was covered in a special edition of Prevention Action.

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Two societies building peace