Politics Research Engagement and Impact

Derek Bell with Sociology’s Janice McLaughlin have built on research carried out by Politics students in the Community-based Research in Politics module with Carers Northumberland in 2015. One of the key findings from a series of focus groups conducted with informal carers, was that a lack of appropriate accessible toilets in Northumberland limited the places they visited and their participation in social activities. Bell and McLaughlin produced a toolkit on improving accessible toilet provision, which has been used by Northumberland County Council and Newcastle City Council in improving facilities.  

Matt Davies co-produced an audio play with a theatre company Cap-a-Pie, and Simon Philpott worked with Newcastle-based charity West End Refugee Service (WERS) to produce a series of short films about the journeys of several refugees from statelessness to making their homes in Newcastle. 

Our research has informed 22 parliamentary enquiries (Clark, Clough, Elstub, Feklyunina, Langan, Long, Rainsford, Wright). During the Covid-19 pandemic, Dimitris Skleparis’s research contributed to the Women and Equalities Committee's inquiry ‘Unequal impact? Coronavirus and BAME people’. Emily Clough and Graham Long collaborated with the network ‘UK Stakeholders for Sustainable Development’ to develop a Sustainable Development Goals framework for London commissioned by the Greater London Authority and the London Sustainable Development Commission. Alistair Clark and Stephen Elstub have both held House of Commons fellowships.  

In 2017, Elstub, with Ian O’Flynn and Maarja Luhiste were commissioned by Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission to pilot a deliberative forum on ‘Delivering Local Community Services for Older People’ for the Northern Health and Social CareTrust service users and carers, and to evaluate its results. The Trust subsequently produced a report that recommended establishing ‘a network of locally based engagement forums’ across NI and providing information on ‘how the feedback received [from forum participants] has influenced decision-making’  

Katharine Rietig’s research has shaped positions of international negotiating teams at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2016-18.  Mark Langan has given evidence on private sector development (PSD) in developing countries to the European Parliament Development Committee. Katharine Wright has worked with NATO on gender mainstreaming and co-produced guidance with the Quaker Council for European Affairs on Addressing Gender Inclusivity across Peace and Security Institutions. Valentina Feklyunina has collaborated extensively with the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats. Jocelyn Mawdsley co-authored a study commissioned by the European Parliament’s Directorate-General for External Policies. 

In 2015, the member states of the United Nations adopted the “Sustainable Development Goals” as a global roadmap for “people, planet and prosperity”. From 2013-15 Dr Graham Long worked within the negotiations at the UN, in partnership with the ‘Beyond 2015’ NGO coalition and other civil society groups, to try to achieve a robust and ambitious agreement. Reflecting Graham’s research agenda in global justice, he focused on the guiding principles of the SDGs - that the goals are universal, interdependent, participatory and must “leave no one behind”.  Through a series of working groups, events, and co-written policy briefs and statements, Graham helped ensure that these principles were incorporated into review and follow-up arrangements for the Goals.      

Since 2015 Graham has contributed to efforts to implement and review progress on the goals at global, national, and local scales. The SDGs rely upon implementation through partnership. With other Politics staff, including Emily Clough and Katharine Rietig, he has worked with the United Nations to understand and assess the contributions of non-governmental stakeholders and multi-stakeholder partnerships – and most recently, the impact of COVID-19 on this cooperation.   

130 states have now undertaken Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) reporting on their progress across the SDGs. The UK reported in 2019, and Graham worked for the Scottish Government and as a special advisor to the International Development Committee of the House of Commons to maximise the quality – and highlight the shortcomings – of the UK’s review.   

Electoral integrity affects everyone registered to vote. It ensures that voters are registered properly, that they can cast their ballot and expect to have that counted without undue impediment. Recently, there has been considerable debate about these issues across the world. Alistair Clark is one of the UK’s leading scholars researching the integrity of these vital electoral processes, thereby contributing to greater knowledge about electoral process. 

Findings from Alistair Clark’s research have included: 

• Evidence from polling stations suggesting that improperly registered voters are a greater problem in polling stations than extremely rare suspicions of electoral fraud. 
• Findings from counting officers in the 2016 EU Referendum indicating that 43% felt they did not have sufficient resources to maintain the electoral register 
• Evidence of variation in electoral administrative performance across mainland Britain. 

• Measured in different ways, increased spending and resources on election administration led to improved performance in running elections.  
• Other administrative issues also impact upon election quality - Running multiple constituencies led to higher performance; running different levels of elections concurrently led to lower performance. 

The main beneficiaries of Clark’s research have been the UK Electoral Commission, parliamentary committees, and parliamentarians reviewing and arguing for improved electoral administration and processes. Clark’s work has been cited in, and fed into recommendations of, reports by Committees from the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the Scottish and Welsh parliaments. Clark regularly engages with policymakers on these issues and is a member of the International Advisory Board of the Electoral Integrity Project.  

Newcastle University’s research on deliberative innovations has had an impact on the quality of democracy in several UK parliaments by improving public engagement and legislative debate. 

Dr Stephen Elstub, Reader in British Politics, has undertaken two Academic Parliamentary Fellowships at the UK and Scottish Parliaments. He worked with their Citizen Engagement Units to develop a strategy for the use of mini-publics by parliamentary committees. The UK Parliament has held a Citizens' Assembly on Adult Social Care Funding and on Climate Change. The Scottish Parliament have held a Citizens' Jury on Land Management and the Natural Environment and Citizens' Panels on Primary Care. These cases have enabled the public to engage in scrutiny of government. 

Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government was suspended from 2017 to 2020. Dr Ian O’Flynn, Senior Lecturer in Political Theory, demonstrated to the Northern Ireland Assembly how veto procedures could be reformed to be more inclusive and transparent in order reduce such stalemates in the parliament and to improve the quality of legislative debate. O’Flynn’s research directly influenced the ‘New Decade, New Approach’ deal negotiated by the UK and Irish Governments and the five main NI political parties.