IN BRIEF
ATTITUDES TO THE EU There is little robust, impartial evidence on public opinion towards Britain’s relationship with Europe. Researchers aim to develop a website that brings together existing survey and polling evidence on attitudes to Britain’s relationship with Europe, accompanied by independent commentary. Researchers will also develop briefings for policymakers and the interested public. ESRC grant number ES/N003969/1
CRIMINAL FACTORS A partnership between criminologists, data scientists, and a criminal justice charity will improve understanding of the factors affecting crime, social justice and social harm. Researchers will develop a tool that assembles/collates data on social and economic conditions and relates them to crime and criminal justice statistics. By making data accessible, the project aims to improve decision-making in criminal justice and policy. ESRC grant number ES/M010295/1
BIOMARKER MEASURES Objective health measurements known as biomarkers (such as blood pressure and blood samples) included in the longitudinal Understanding Society study will contribute to new scientific knowledge about the relationship between people’s social, economic, environmental circumstances and their health. Researchers will investigate the value of, and capacity for, collaborative projects using biomarkers together with genetic, social and economic data. ESRC grant number ES/M008592/1
6 SOCIETY NOW SUMMER 2011 SUMMER 2015
New psychology A-level resource
A FREE ONLINE service developed at the University of Glasgow is helping A-level students to better understand cognitive psychology and enabling them to design and run their own psychological experiments. “There are more than 150,000 post-16 psychology students in the UK, as well as their teachers,” says researcher Dr Gijsbert Stoet. “Our online learning system has given schools access to psychology resources that were previously not freely available.” In this project, researchers developed their online-learning tool, PsyToolkit (an open-access software package for creating and running
psychological experiments) to make it more accessible. “We believe that our tool will make cognitive psychology a more exciting and therefore interesting topic for A-level students, which ultimately will benefit the quality of cognitive psychological research in the UK and beyond,” says Dr Stoet. n
i Contact Dr Gijsbert Stoet, University of Glasgow
Email
gijsbert.stoet@
glasgow.ac.uk Web
www.psytoolkit.org Telephone 0141 330 2818 ESRC Grant Number ES/J020796/2
Travel costs increase exclusion
LOW-INCOME URBAN dwellers can be at risk of social exclusion due to unaffordable travel costs, according to a recent University of Leeds study of the relationship between transport poverty and social disadvantage. “One solution to the problem of transport poverty is to ensure that the concessionary travel that is currently offered to transport poor Londoners is made available on the same basis to people outside the capital,” says researcher Dr Karen Lucas. In a two-year study, Dr Lucas explored ways to incorporate the issues of transport-related social exclusion into the transport models used at national and local level. Based on national travel survey data, the study shows that people on low incomes make shorter and fewer trips than average income earners. “At a national level, it was clear that low-income groups were forgoing discretionary trips – for example, visiting their family and friends – which are arguably the trips that are most important for maintaining their social support mechanisms,” says Dr Lucas.
Further exploration of low-income groups in the city of Liverpool and the Wirral highlights the transport disadvantages of even densely populated, but peripheral urban locations. For those living in Liverpool, closely connected to a variety of services, low income did not seem to affect travel adversely. In contrast, those living on the Wirral travelled less often and experienced more constraints in terms of accessing services and social support. “The crucial point is that the Wirral is not a rural area where considerable transport poverty could be expected,” says Dr Lucas. “Rather, it is a dense but peripheral urban area. And it’s clear that for many low-income groups – even those living in dense urban areas – the costs of travel are a source of social disadvantage and exclusion.” n
i Contact Dr Karen Lucas, University of Leeds
Email
k.lucas@
leeds.ac.uk Telephone 0113 343 8086 ESRC Grant Number ES/J00023X/2
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