I’ve talked about my MSc dissertation research before on this blog. In fact I originally set up this blog to explore some topics related to my research. Having had a bit of a break after completing my dissertation in August 2010, I have decided to publish it here, spurred on by the kind words of a fellow academic researcher Catherine Howe. My research question was: How do the attitudes and perceptions of citizens, Council officers, Councillors [...]

This Thursday 13th January between 1-4 pm I will be in the hotseat, quite literally! I’m hosting a online question and answer session in the Local by Social Online Conference about the social media project I have been involved with in Fenland, Cambridgeshire. The project aimed to improve engagement with customer groups who were hard to access in Wisbech. The project has been delivered with funding from the Local Government Delivery Council’s Customer Led Transformation programme. [...]

I’ve been sifting through a few papers on localism including the Communities and Local Government (CLG) guide to Decentralisation and the Localism Bill, the LG Group briefing and some internal papers which interpret the much awaited Localism Bill. Broadly speaking, Localism proposes a shift in power from central government, to local communities through the ‘de-centralisation’ of services. By way of some background, it is helpful to read the Conservatives green paper on Localism. I’m currently working on [...]

Following the Spending Review, significant spending cuts are becoming a reality for many public services. The issue of how to engage citizens in budget consultations to define local priorities is becoming all the more important. Redbridge have re-launched their YouChoose application for 2010, which allows residents to balance a complex budget using an interactive tool. The tool reveals consequences of your budget choices as you change the sliders to reduce the budget in different areas. There [...]