By Karen Rowlingson, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of York
A new Social Change Catalyst at York
The University of York was founded in the 1960s with a strong social purpose, drawing on a rich tradition of social justice and a mission to combat inequality in a way that is distinctive to the City of York.
From the outset our research across the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences was intended not just to open up new knowledge through reason, experiment and debate, but also to apply that knowledge for the ‘amelioration of human life and conditions.’
Aligned with this broad mission, our students were not just to be technically proficient in their fields but also to be able to apply their learning for social benefit, both in the UK and as ‘citizens of the world’.
The University’s strategy for 2030 drew on these foundational aspirations and presented a vision of York as a ‘University for Public Good’. Following on from this, the Faculty of Social Sciences’ mission is to understand the most urgent, deep and complex societal challenges and then draw on that understanding to achieve social change for public good. This blog sets out how we hope the new Social Change Catalyst will help us deliver on our mission.
A personal mission
But before going any further I wanted to say a little about why this new initiative matters so much to me. Like many social scientists, I have a deep personal commitment to social justice. In my case, this stems from my childhood in the 1970s, growing up in a loving, happy home but one based in an economically disadvantaged part of London. I was born in a house that was condemned as ‘unfit for human habitation’ along with other houses in the street when I was 7. The houses were demolished by the local council a couple of years later, scattering a close and long-standing community of neighbours to different parts of the borough – and beyond.
My family moved to a decent home on a council estate but I spent the 1980s there witnessing unemployment and redundancy first hand through my dad’s own experience. I also became increasingly aware of, and angry about, the growing levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality throughout the country more generally.
Through a series of fortunate events, I got to university. I chose to study history and then sociology, partly to try to understand better the links between the ‘structural forces/determinants’ of change and the power of different agents for change including small elite groups and larger collective social movements. I left my studies with more questions than answers and continue to be fascinated by the drivers of social change – something that I hope the Catalyst will help stimulate further discussion and understanding of.
On leaving higher education, I eventually became a social policy researcher/academic, seeking to find policy solutions to the most urgent societal challenges of the 1990s. My work focused initially, and perhaps not surprisingly given my background, on poverty, exclusion and the social security system. But I soon found myself questioning the more fundamental, structural causes of poverty, and the links between poverty, wealth and inequality.
Education for Social Change
Education transformed my life, as it has the power to do for so many. But the opportunity to benefit from education is not shared equally and this is why we are working, at York, to eliminate gaps in opportunity and outcome for our students as part of our commitment to social change.
Our education also provides opportunities to support people and communities to tackle problems, for example through our law clinic and our sustainability clinic. And we also help thousands of students each year to volunteer to support important causes.
Education also provides learners with an opportunity to develop a range of critical skills that are fundamental to achieving social change for public good wherever they go next. And many of our students go on to become change makers in various fields as we can see from our amazing alumni.
Research for Social Change
Alongside our commitment to education for social change, our researchers here at York are also working to understand and tackle key societal challenges. For example, our ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre is reshaping how the police and other organisations work together in order to reduce harm among vulnerable people in society.
Our Centre for Applied Human Rights (CAHR) places people, notably human rights defenders, at the core of our work drawing on socio-legal, interdisciplinary, and participatory methodologies to protect human rights and activism.
Our Administrative Fairness Lab’s mission is to build evidence-based understanding of how law and process shape the performance of frontline public services, and explore new avenues for achieving improvements in how services are delivered.
And in the private sector, our Enterprise Works team is supporting companies that are seeking to make a difference beyond just profitability, choosing meaningful practices that benefit society, the environment, and future generations.
Finally, York has huge strength in research on health and social care, based on highly rigorous approaches to research applied locally, nationally and globally in ways that help to improve: social care; health policy and practice; and the allocation of government spending on health.
And these are just a very few examples.
Partnership for Social Change
As you can see, social scientists at York are already highly active in seeking to understand societal challenges and achieve social change for public good through education and research. But there is clearly much more to do so the Catalyst aims to focus particularly on further building and working as part of an inter-disciplinary community of practice of researchers, policy-makers, community leaders, members of the public, practitioners, students, employers, entrepreneurs and changemakers to share ideas and knowledge, experiment, and learn from each other.
In particular, we are building a new Partnerships for Social Change, beginning first with a focus on local and regional challenges before expanding to national and international issues.
And, finally, a key part of the mission of the Social Change Catalyst is to stimulate public debate about social change not least around the core questions of what are the most urgent and fundamental challenges facing us? What does ‘social change for public good’ actually look like? And how do we achieve it?
We won’t all agree on the answers to these questions but we will at least engage in discussion to explore these vital issues through a variety of channels including blogs, podcasts and events. We very much hope that you will come on this journey with us so please keep in touch with us and sign up for news and further information.
