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Seed funding grant awarded by the Open University.
Fashion is a fundamental part of how people express themselves and is also used to signal membership of a group. How individuals purchase and consume fashion is deeply embedded in these social processes. Production behaviours associated with the industry are often characterised by cost reduction in global supply chains. With textile and fashion consumption having increased 25% in five years, it is only by changing the behaviour of both customers and producers that environmental impact will be reduced. A significant proportion of the garments which are produced are worn relatively little before being thrown away or passed on, typically because the fit is poor or because they do not adequately meet consumers’ needs. Changing this behaviour pattern requires a deeper understanding of the needs and aspirations which drive this behaviour and of the attitudes which consumers have towards the clothes they buy.
The research will address this problem from two directions. The first will involve taking a quantitative and statistical view of consumer groups and the types of garments that they buy. This work will build on existing research on consumer classification and will be complemented by in-depth studies of clothing habits to understand why individuals buy particular items, how they wear and look after the garments and how they pass them on. By relating this in-depth understanding of individuals to what is learned about the attitudes of different consumer groups, a picture will be developed of how particular groups can be incentivised to consume textiles in a sustainable way.
The second direction will involve developing a design tool for use by clothing designers in order to encourage more sustainable consumption. Many clothing designers would benefit from a more detailed picture of consumers than they have at present. These designers must mediate or ‘trade off’ between consumer and producer behaviours, through evaluating the sustainable and ethical dimensions of these stakeholders. These dimensions include, for example, washing frequencies, energy, resources used (eg water) in manufacture, material toxicity and working conditions. Designers and businesses have to understand which of these factors they can influence directly and which they must work around. Key perspectives to consider include companies’ design processes, global production (particularly in developing countries), marketing of garments and consumer behaviour.
Building on a previous research project (EPSRC/AHRC funded project "Considerate Design for Personalised Fashion", 2007-09), the aim is to construct: (i) an easy to use footprinting tool which designers can use to assess the environmental impacts and ethical issues of a particular design. The tool could be used at any stage, from conception to production, to enable designs to be compared and design decisions justified; (ii) a supply chain mapping tool to assess the resource and cost implications of each process step in terms of resources and costs as well as sustainability and ethical measures.
ISM Staff - Professor Sally Dibb, Dr Fiona Harris and Dr Helen Roby in collaboration with Professor Chris Earl and Dr Claudia Eckert in DDEM
Grant awarded by the RCUK Energy Programme.
The project explores travel practices in a range of places and social contexts, with the understanding that these different contexts influence the ways we travel and how we can reduce barriers to positive change. The project studies at close hand how disruption affects the real choices people make, and what this teaches us about the opportunities to change travel practices at individual level and within families; in organisations that generate travel demand and impact on our own individual travel decision-making; and within government where policy that determines our travel opportunities is made. A range of innovative research methods will be used, including capturing travel behaviour through Facebook and Twitter and carrying out video-recorded mobile interviews. Those taking part in the research will be able to choose how they work with researchers to best capture their travel experiences and how these are influenced by different disruptions, which they identify as being significant. The project then brings together the different social actors, both 'lay' and 'expert' in a number of forums where they have the opportunity to 'deliberate' the different issues that will emerge throughout the research, and challenge each other about what needs to be done to capture the opportunities for change. Lastly the project seeks to establish mechanisms for embedding these changes in everyday life, in organisational practices and in social policy, so that a substantial contribution to reducing carbon emissions from transport is achieved.
ISM Staff: Dr Helen Roby
In collaboration with UWE, Leeds, Brighton, Lancaster, Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities
The Milton Keynes ‘ELVIS’ project is to support the uptake of electric cars and vans and Milton Keynes was one of three locations to receive a grant under the first round of the government’s Plugged in Places programme.
The ELVIS partnership includes the business sector, MK Council, the Homes and Communities Agency and our three local universities - University Centre MK, the Open University and Cranfield University.
However, ELVIS is part of something even bigger: It is part of the city’s overall Low Carbon Living Agenda, which also encompasses buildings, waste management, smart grids and energy production. The overarching goal is to transform Milton Keynes into an international exemplar for low carbon living.
The ELVIS project is also seeking to link the provision of on-street and home EV charging points with new ways to deliver low carbon mobility, including flexible hire schemes and also working with local employers to introduce electric cars and vans into their company fleets.
ELVIS also links into other sustainable transport actions, including public transport, car sharing, travel planning and other ‘Smart’ travel.
ISM Staff: Professor Sally Dibb and Dr Helen Roby in collaboration with Professor Stephen Potter and Miguel Valdez in DDEM.
Milton Keynes Low Carbon Living Resources
top ^Grant awarded by the Alcohol Education and Research Council, 2010.
Alcohol education in schools and colleges is reported to be the most widely used approach to reducing alcohol related harms in Europe. Assessing the evidence base for its effectiveness and identifying gaps in understanding can contribute to the knowledge base on reducing alcohol harms, better practice and therefore ultimately value for money.
The first phase of this project will scope out the breadth and depth of the current international evidence base available on the effectiveness of alcohol education delivered partially or wholly though primary, secondary and tertiary educational settings.
The second stage will involve a comprehensive literature review to provide an in-depth analysis and information on effective approaches, key learning points, and case studies of best practice. The final combined outputs of Stage 1 and 2 therefore, will provide guidance to the broad stakeholder community on evidence-based best and better practice and highlight gaps in the knowledge base which require further research and development.
ISM Staff: Ross Gordon, Georgina Cairns, Martine Stead, Kathryn Angus.
Grant awarded from the National Prevention Research Initiative (NPRI), 2006- ongoing
The last decade has seen a significant increase in alcohol consumption in the UK and a growth in binge drinking amongst young people. These trends have been responsible for raising particular health concerns as there is now clear evidence of a link between regular recreational alcohol use in adolescence and alcohol dependence in early adulthood. This study aims to examine the marketing communication techniques used by the UK alcohol industry to assess its impact on youth drinking and risk taking during the period when most young people start experimenting with alcohol, from ages 13-15.
It will address four deficiencies in the current evidence base. Firstly, whilst the evidence indicates that alcohol promotion has a reinforcing effect on young people's drinking, there is a paucity of research to establish whether or not it is implicated in the onset of drinking and harmful drinking patterns. Secondly, the evidence focuses almost exclusively on traditional 'above-the-line' advertising (television, billboards, magazine advertising etc) and fails to take account of new, largely unregulated interactive media such as, the web, and the mobile phone. Thirdly, no attempt has been made to examine the cumulative impact of marketing communications in establishing evocative alcohol brands. Finally, no one has checked for any differential effect on gender and by affluence and deprivation.
The study will address these gaps and play a proactive role in developing evidence-based policy to respond with countervailing social marketing and smarter regulation.
ISM Staff: Ross Gordon, Professor Gerard Hastings, Douglas Eadie, Anne Marie MacKintosh, Dr Fiona Harris.
Grants awarded from Roswell Park Cancer Institute (NY), Canadian Institute for Health Research and Cancer Research UK, 2002-ongoing
The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is a public health landmark: it sets down for the first time agreed international standards for protecting public health. ITCPS has been established to ensure that it is backed by a rigorous evidence base. It will greatly enhance our understanding of the impact and mechanisms of national level policy interventions such as advertising bans or public places smoking controls. The study uses a prospective cohort design, and a random sample of 8,000 smokers were recruited in four countries (UK, Canada, Australia, USA) and three waves of data have now been collected from them in 45 minute interviews. This has provided vital feed back on such tobacco control policies as: (a) the introduction of graphic tobacco package warning labels; (b) the elimination of "light" or "mild" as descriptors of cigarette brands; (c) the elimination of advertising and promotion of tobacco products.
The project has now been expanded to cover Ireland, which recently introduced comprehensive controls on smoking in public places, and Thailand. Other countries around the world are considering joining the study.
The research team includes internationally recognized experts in tobacco control in each of the four countries that are working together to design and conduct this international tobacco control policy survey. The CTCR and Dr Ann McNeill form the UK arm of the project.
ISM Staff: Professor Gerard Hastings, Anne Marie MacKintosh, Dr Fiona Harris
Commissioned by the European Commission - DG SANCO, 2009 - ongoing
In many cultures alcohol is used to facilitate social interactions and is seen to have many other benefits. However, alcohol consumption is also associated with a broad range of health and social problems with risky drinking patterns becoming progressively more embedded in European cultures. In many member states of the EU such as France , Italy and Spain although alcohol consumption is falling there is increasing evidence of binge drinking and associated harms. In some states such as the UK overall consumption has risen by up to 20% in the last 20 years alongside a change in drinking patterns. In Sweden and the UK drinking at the weekends in binge sessions has become the dominant alcohol consumption trend. These patterns are becoming more common in Spain whereas previously drinking was traditionally spread out over the week and involved smaller quantities per drinking episode.
Combating the damaging effects of alcohol is a public health priority in many Member States and at EU level. Notwithstanding the considerable health consequences of excessive alcohol consumption there are a number of other associated harms including: lost productivity, violence, hooliganism, crime, family problems, social exclusion, problems at work and drink-driving. A review of the total tangible cost of alcohol to EU society conducted in 2003 estimated this to be €125bn (€79bn-€220bn), which is the equivalent to 1.3% GDP. The intangible costs caused by indirect criminal, social and health harms caused by alcohol were estimated to be €270bn in the same review, although other reviews s produced estimates between €150bn and €760bn.
Therefore policy initiatives are required to reduce the damaging effect of alcohol in each of these areas. With its Communication of 24 October 2006 (COM (2006) 625 final), the Commission adopted a European Union strategy to help Member States reduce the damaging effects of alcohol. Consequently there is a need to better understand, report and evaluate the impact of policy and strategy designed to minimising the harm associated with alcohol.
Objectives
This research aims to produce comprehensive literature reviews around reducing alcohol harms and comparative analyses of policy designed to reduce alcohol harms in member states within the EU and their implementation.
Methods
The project will use a predominantly desk based research methodology to conduct literature reviews, comparative analysis and summaries of the activities of EU member states to reduce the damaging effects of alcohol. This will include analysis of action plans and their implementation.
ISM Staff: Ross Gordon, Georgina Cairns, Susan MacAskill and Douglas Eadie
