Cultivating ‘communities of practice’ to tackle civic policy challenges
Insights from local government-academic collaboration in Leeds
Collaboration between universities and local governments is vital when developing local policy, but it isn’t always simple.
A new paper authored by Nicola Carroll and Professor Adam Crawford investigates research-policy engagement and reveals the factors that enable and constrain this process.
Their research was based on their 2020 Review of Collaboration, which considers the longstanding collaboration between researchers at the University of Leeds (Leeds Social Sciences Institute) and Leeds City Council officers.
The paper considers the potential benefits of a "community of practice" (CoPs) approach to the exchange of civic knowledge, and the authors believe that:
‘Systematic cultivation of CoPs between universities and local authorities offers potential to form a propitious nexus for extensive networks of research–policy collaborations involving citizens and stakeholders from across the public, private and community sectors.’
The paper has several key highlights:
- Austerity and the current devolution agenda stimulate an important need for a robust evidence-informed policies to address local challenges
- The mapping exercise conducted as part of the review of collaboration between the University of Leeds and Leeds City Council revealed over 118 collaborations between the period of January 2015 and March 2020 working in diverse themes such as city development, housing and communities and environment
- Co-producing research plays an important role in building an impactful research-policy collaboration
- Availability of resources, time, bureaucratic hurdles and data sharing protocols are considered to be some of the barriers facing academics and council officers that hinders collaboration
- Trust, positive personal relations and shared commitment are important pillars for enabling scholarly research to inform policy
LSSI’s work on fostering strong links between academic researchers and local policy-making stakeholders both contributes to and reflects the University’s commitment to impactful research.
To find out more about the Review of Collaboration with Leeds City Council, please visit our webpage here.
Carroll, N., & Crawford, A. (2024). Cultivating ‘communities of practice’ to tackle civic policy challenges: insights from local government-academic collaboration in Leeds. Evidence & Policy (published online ahead of print 2024). Retrieved Apr 3, 2024, from https://doi.org/10.1332/17442648Y2024D000000022