LOOKINGTOTHEFUTURE Delivering research thatmakes a real difference to theworld. ISSUE 16 FIFTYFOUR DEGREES Lancaster University Management School | the place to be 14The call for SMEs to be sustainable 30Fumbling the ball of racial equality 34 Comeovertothe darkside
CYBER STRATEGY PROGRAMME Enable your business to get ahead on cyber security and develop a culture of cyber excellence A fully-funded 5-month programme, starting 16th November, designed for Lancashire-based SME senior leaders wanting to protect their business from cyber crime and develop a professional culture of cyber excellence and awareness. Contact us for more information: lancaster.ac.uk/cyber-strategy-programme csp.lu@lancaster.ac.uk | 01524 593712
FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 3 Building barriers, opening doors With economic and political migration high on the agenda acrossmuch of Europe, Dr Emre Tarimexamines the key issue of howmigrants integrate into the labourmarket. 34 In this issue... 30 Fumbling the ball on racial equality Professors Rob Simmons and Dave Berri and Dr Alex Farnell examine a history of racial inequality when it comes to being a leader in America’s Game. Support in a Time of Crisis Dr Ruilin Zhu looks at how official government social media accounts play in role in providing valuable emotional support. 42 The right thing, in the right place, for the right reasons Dr Radka Newton explains how businesses and students can build a greater appreciation of their locality into their actions. The emotional impact of climate change Dr Nadine Andrews finds that Climate Assembly members actually have heightened optimism about the climate crisis. 6 The call for SMEs to be sustainable Claire Benson, Founder andCo-Director of SDGChangemakers and a LUMS Entrepreneur inResidence, offers a compelling business case for SMEs to adopt sustainable businessmodels. 14 Time toplay thegame Dr Hina Khan’s research reveals strategies advertisers can apply to in-game adverts in order to gain the best results, and keep players coming back formore. 26 Working towards a better future Professor KatyMasonhighlights the importanceofworking together toproduce research thatmakesa positive impact. Under newManagement Dr Mykola Babiak investigates whether crypto fundmanagers areworth the money to ensure positive returns. 38 A better workplace for everyone TheWorkFoundation’sHeatherTaylor explainshowdisabledpeoplecanbetter benefit fromchanges topractice that presentmanyopportunities. Developing a circularwater economy Dr Joanne Larty shows how the RECIRCULATE project has brought together scientists from across partners institutions in Africa to put their work to practical use in solving circular water challenges. 18 50 22 Come over to the Dark Side Dr Beatriz Rodriguez Garcia examines dark tourism sites – where tourists visit places linked with death, trauma or disaster. 10 46
FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 5 As I write, we are preparing for the start of the new academic year, with hundreds of new students and staff ready to join our LUMS community. What draws many of them to Lancaster is our high-quality research and worldleading expertise, produced in an environment where we nurture developing talent and help academics at the start of their careers develop the skills and knowledge to be at the cuttingedge of their disciplines. Our excellent results in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 demonstrate our success in creating a culture where all this is possible. Fifty Four Degrees is our showcase for that talent, for those researchers who produce impactful work; who specialise in areas of global importance such as sustainability, social justice and innovation; who work responsibly with businesses and communities to address issues of real societal concern. Business and Management Schools like ourselves have an important role to play in making a real difference to the world – it is something we have a long, proud history of through our work with SMEs, with government, with our local community. We strive to ensure our work continues to play a positive role regionally, nationally and globally. In this edition, our Associate Dean for Research, Katy Mason, explains our responsible research approach, our focus on key areas for now and the future, and how we can be a catalyst for broader change and development. You can also find examples of our work in those aforementioned areas of sustainability, social justice and innovation. In the social justice sphere, Emre Tarim examines how refugees are treated when they try to access and succeed in the labour markets of their new countries. Immigration is a major global issue – you need only to look at the arguments presented during the Brexit debate in this country to see that – and Emre highlights the importance of organisations in helping refugees and other immigrants to make a success of their new lives. There are different labour market issues that affect Black coaches in the National Football League. Rob Simmons and his colleagues look at patterns of employment in one of the world’s biggest sporting competitions, and find racial equity is still a long way from being achieved. From the innovation area, Joanne Larty has been part of the RECIRCULATE project, working with researchers and entrepreneurs in Africa to help them develop solutions to the continent’s clean water supply issues. Just as we involve communities, organisations and individuals in our work here in the UK, so RECIRCULATE has included them at the heart of the project in Africa. In the sustainability perspective, we are able to showcase two individuals who work with us in Lancaster from beyond the world of academia. Nadine Andrews is a Lancaster alumnus, a Visiting Researcher in the Pentland Centre for Sustainability, and a Principal Researcher with the Scottish Government, from where she shares her insights into Climate Assemblies and their effects on those who take part. Claire Benson is one of our pioneering Entrepreneurs in Residence. As Founder and Co-Director of SDG Changemakers, Claire helps to support SMEs and social entrepreneurs to improve the social, environmental and economic sustainability of their organisations, and here she outlines a compelling business case for adopting a sustainable model. Moving into the future, Cyber and Health are sure to be important areas in LUMS and for the wider society. The articles fromMykola Babiak on cryptocurrency funds, Ruilin Zhu on the role of social media in providing mental health support during crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic, and Hina Khan on advertising in gaming apps provide different perspectives on these themes. If our research is to play a role in the wider world, then it can also bring the world around us to the education we deliver to our students. Radka Newton explains the importance of place in education, and how that can be applied here in Lancaster, and beyond. Finally, Beatriz Rodriguez Garcia takes us into dark tourism organisations, who shape how their audiences feel when they visit sites that have witnessed some of history’s greatest traumas. It is a fascinating read, and sitting alongside our other articles demonstrates the wide breadth of our research activity. As always, I hope you enjoy reading Fifty Four Degrees, and look forward to sharing more of our work with you soon. Professor Claire Leitch is the Executive Dean, Lancaster University Management School c.leitch@lancaster.ac.uk Foreword Hello andwelcome oncemore to Fifty Four Degrees. Subscribe online at lancaster.ac.uk/fiftyfour SUBSCRIBE
6 | Working towards abetter future
FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 7 At Lancaster UniversityManagement School, we pride ourselves on producing researchwhichmakes a real difference to business, to the planet, to society. Professor KatyMason, AssociateDean for Research, highlights the importance of working together –with fellow researchers andwith the public, business and policy-makers – to produce research thatmakes a positive impact, and outlineswork taking place in the School with the power to transform lives.
As a Management School, we take pride in our research excellence. When the Research Excellence Framework (REF) results were published this year – assessing the research outputs, impact and environments of all business schools in the UK – it gave us great satisfaction to be rated as the best for both our research power and environment. But the nature of academic research is always evolving. In recent years, it has become much more important that our work should make an impact on the wider world beyond academia, that it should not be restricted in significance only to those few within the walls of universities. We have a long tradition of making an impact on our region and its economy. We are not just a building – or a number of buildings – that happen to be located in Lancaster, cut off from the surrounding area and its people, its businesses. Across the Management School, we strive to create credible and useful research that improves lives and finds solutions to critical future issues. Fromworking with the National Health Service in the UK to improve leadership practices andmental health among frontline staff, to tackling issues of sustainable business practices at local, regional, national and international levels, to addressing gender and racial inequities – our work is at the heart of what matters. We must ensure it continues to be so. If we are to remain relevant, it is not just a matter of what we research, but how we do it. We cannot live and work within an academic bubble. Rather, we must engage with those outside of university – those most likely to be affected by our work if we are to make that real impact. Like everyone else, we read, listen to, and watch the news, so we know what is happening in the world, where the problems and challenges are, and where solutions need to be found. We listen to the policy concerns of governments, we work with those policy-makers, engage with local practitioners, and collaborate with organisations with the ability to influence broader patterns of practice. Whenwe understandwider concerns and are able to frame our expertise in theory around those real-world issues, thenwe are able tomake a real difference. We can generate important theoretical insight, but importantly this insight can drive change in theworld – both for the partners weworkwith and for thewider business world, for consumers, for policy-makers, for communities. THE FUTURE – NOW We ask our researchers to anticipate what the future might bring, and to engage with our responsible management agenda. This is not seeking clairvoyance, nor asking them to work miracles, rather understanding the world as it is now, and identifying areas where change is needed and where we can help. We use the AREA framework to guide Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) to help us: • Anticipating change by understanding opportunities for impact; • Reflecting on the purposes and implications of research; • Engaging with diverse stakeholder communities; • Acting to connect non-academic communities with the research process. This framework will often lead us towards participative research, identifying and engaging with those affected by our work. It means we work together on the process, collaboratively shape our direction, rather than presenting themwith the end results, only for them to question where our work fits in with, or how it helps to resolve, their issues. We employed this framework on the MANY project in North Yorkshire, communicating with and learning from local rural communities as we looked at whether they wanted 5G technologies, and where and how they might work best for them. Not all our research can be participative. Sometimes we might be working on models or conducting important analysis. But what we choose to model, what we analyse, might be framed by these broader considerations and conversations. The real value of theory is in capturing a relationship between what you can do to affect change and what form that change might take. We can use theory to move ideas fromwhat works in one place, to help people in another think through what might work for them. Take the area of green finance, you might be working on models from existing datasets. But in order to get to that stage, you know that green finance is an important issue. You will have read policy documents, engaged with businesses to understand their concerns, and that will frame how you approach and talk about the area you are enquiring into. BUILDINGONOUR STRENGTHS Our research expertise has both breadth and depth. We have particular strengths in the areas of Sustainability, Social Justice, and Innovation in Place. Sustainability: Environmental, economic and social sustainability are essential for the conservation of our planet. Our research allows us to create pathways to an inclusive, fairer society. We work on everything from sustainable accounting to SME engagement, and our enduring work has practical applications in tackling the challenges of achieving net-zero and reducing carbon footprints. 8 |
FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 9 Professor Katy Mason is the Associate Dean for Research in Lancaster University Management School, and a Professor of Markets, Marketing and Management in the Department of Entrepreneurship and Strategy. Discover more about the LUMS research agenda, and explore highlights of the work we are doing across the fields of Sustainability, Social Justice, and Innovation in Place, at https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lums /research/ k.j.mason@lancaster.ac.uk We have researchers in the Plastic Packaging in People’s Lives project who are working with industry and local government across the North West and nationally on consumer attitudes towards plastic packaging. We are working with keystone actors – those international corporations who can influence smaller firms in their supply chains and industry practice as a whole – on sustainable oceans. Social Justice: We work with businesses, government and society to tackle inequality and make a real impact on the wider world, helping to deliver access to economic, political and social rights and opportunities. The Academy for Gender, Work and Leadership tackles issues of gender inequality in the workplace – as well as here within higher education – and our researchers advise government on problem gambling, investigate how industrial pollution disproportionately affects those with low income and education levels, work with regulators and businesses on tackling and reportingmodern slavery, and increase business inclusion among underrepresented groups across Europe. The Centre for Health Futures leads us on addressing health inequalities. Innovation in Place: Through innovation, we can create a fairer society across geographies and groups, and in particular places and spaces. By taking development to targeted regions, and understanding their unique challenges and potential, we can enable socio-economic flourishing. The work mentioned above with 5G in rural communities, compassionate leadership in the NHS, as well as projects on natural disaster response and on the world of cyber, can and does drive positive change. With businesses, we deliver programmes which take our theories and turn them into practicable knowledge. With the CUSP Innovation Catalyst, we work to help companies in Cumbria build for an innovative and sustainable future; through Eco-I North West, we connect business leaders with academics – and each other – to pursue the Net Zero agenda; our Cyber Strategy programme enables companies to get ahead in developing cyber security and excellence. These are the latest in two decades of working across the North West, throughout England, and beyond, to help firms improve their productivity and practices. We truly want those around us to thrive, not just survive. WHAT’S NEXT? You can see the direction of future travel with our expertise in cyber – from cryptocurrencies to social media (both featured in this edition of Fifty Four Degrees) to cyber security and beyond – and health futures. What we must do is ensure the collective power of our research can be harnessed by working together across our departments, and with stakeholders outside the Management School. By collaborating on bigger projects – those with greater funding, creating the opportunity for more impact – we can affect policy and business practice, and bring about more real-world change. We should not – must not – do it alone. You can see the potential for multidisciplinary work in the Pentland Centre’s research on business sustainability practices, in the endeavours of the Centre for Transport and Logistics, and through the MIA – Measures for Improved Availability of medicines and vaccines project, which aims to reduce shortages of medicines and drugs. As I write, we have a new Prime Minister just starting out as leader of the UK Government. It is impossible to say what will happen to the Levelling Up agenda under her leadership, but we will always have a duty to work towards shared prosperity. There are areas where we can and will make a difference. We must ensure we do it in the right, most effective way, and address areas that the wider world has a stake in, not just academia.
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FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 11 Abetter workplace for everyone The last two years have seen a huge shift towards flexible working practice, brought on by theCovid-19 pandemic. TheWork Foundation’s Heather Taylor explains new research showing howdisabled people can better benefit from changes to practice that present many opportunities.
The Covid-19 pandemic fundamentally shifted the way in which people work, with a rise in remote and hybrid working. While many workers, businesses and sectors have benefited from changing practices, disabled people bore the brunt of the pandemic’s economic consequences and experienced higher rates of unemployment and redundancies than non-disabled people. Just 52.7%of disabled people are in employment, compared with 81%of non-disabled people. A key driver of the disability employment gap is workplace inflexibility. Pre-pandemic, many employers were reluctant to allow remote or hybrid working, even as a reasonable adjustment for disabled workers. However, as the pandemic led to compulsory remote working for most desk-based workers, we are seeing employer plans change. All too often, the ambitions and perspectives of disabled people haven’t been a part of conversations about our changing working lives. Our new research aims to address this. Through a survey of 406 disabled people, interviews with 20 disabled workers, and two roundtables with employers and other stakeholders, we have developed new evidence about disabled workers’ experiences of remote and hybrid work. Our survey found that 85%of disabled workers feel they are more productive when working remotely, and 70% said their health would be negatively impacted if they were no longer allowed to work in this way. Gaining more control over working environments was highlighted as one of the main benefits for disabled workers, with many reporting significant improvements to their health, quality of work and overall job satisfaction. For example, autistic workers stressed the benefits of being able to control lighting and noise levels at home. Others explained that working at home allowed them to take steps to manage health conditions in private, such as administering medication, changing a colostomy bag and taking medical appointments over the phone, rather than having to justify or explain what they were doing to colleagues. Our research also draws attention to the challenges some disabled workers have experienced when working remotely, ranging from difficulties securing essential adjustments, to outdated attitudes frommanagers about flexible work, and touches on concerns about how working remotely may impact relationships with colleagues and career progression. Concerningly, many fear that working from home will mean they are overlooked for training or ‘stretch’ opportunities, suggesting that prepandemic perceptions amongst managers could remain. The majority of respondents felt the support at work had not worsened during the pandemic, with respondents in some sectors noticing a marked improvement while working from home. However, of all survey respondents who requested additional support or new adjustments, almost 1 in 5 (19%) had their request refused. Many interviewees had to use their own money to purchase equipment. While more than 65%of respondents want to work remotely for the majority of the time, around 10% don’t want to predominantly work from home – what suits one, won’t suit all. What is abundantly clear, however, is that when disabled workers are able to control their working environment, they manage their conditions more easily, feel healthier and more productive. 12 |
With more than 1.2 million vacancies in the UK labour market, and many employers reporting difficulties in recruiting into roles, a vast pool of talent is being overlooked amongst disabled people currently out of work. Given the right conditions and flexibility to thrive, disabled people could help alleviate shortages we see across the country. But if flexibility and autonomy aren’t adopted into workplace culture, there is a real danger we could reverse progress that has been made. Our report makes some clear recommendations as to how policy-makers and employers can work to provide the needed flexibility and support. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR GOVERNMENT The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) should make flexible working the default position for all employees, with flexible options included in all job adverts While employers already have limited reasons to refuse flexible working requests that are considered reasonable adjustments for disabled workers, barriers still remain for some people who would benefit from increased access to remote, hybrid and other options. An employee must first identify as disabled, and with some employers requiring proof of disability, this can be seen as medicalising and stigmatising. Furthermore, some people would benefit from adjustments but don’t meet the Equality Act definition of disability – a particular issue for people with new or fluctuating conditions. BEIS should require large employers to publish information on their approach to flexible and hybrid working Employers with more than 250 staff should be required to publish their flexible and hybrid working policies externally, monitor take-up of flexible practices within their organisation across different worker groups, including disabled workers, and regularly publish this data along with action plans to drive improvement. Government should increase funding for the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to enforce and protect disabled workers’ rights The Government should increase resourcing for the EHRC and widen its remit to allow it to constructively challenge employers who do not provide adjustments for disabled workers. This would allow the EHRC to increase the volume and visibility of its enforcement work, boosting compliance, serving as a strong deterrent, and making it worthwhile for people to report rights violations. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) should reformAccess toWork, providing better funding and resourcing DWP should focus on streamlining processes, and provide a step-by-step guide which outlines the different stages, the expected timescales, and explain who is responsible for what at each stage of an application. This would increase understanding among applicants and employers, and could reduce stress on the applicant and the likelihood of deadlines being missed. The DWP should refresh the Disability Confident Scheme to reflect our changing working lives Government is reviewing the Disability Confident Scheme. This presents an opportunity to develop a more ambitious approach that is better aligned with current ways of working. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EMPLOYERS Invest in training and supporting line managers Employers should ensure managers are equipped to run hybrid teams so they are productive and inclusive, regardless of where and when they are working. Managers need to be empowered to think flexibly and creatively in responding to flexible working and adjustment requests, and equipped with the tools and confidence to “have the conversation” and ask every employee what they need to be their most productive. Consultation The importance of autonomy is clear, so it is vital decisions about hybrid working practices are not made via a top-down approach. Consultation should be a continuous exercise to better adjust conditions and help workers be more productive. Workplace adjustment passports for all Adjustment passports are a valuable tool to record and communicate needs and preferences about how and where we work. Using these for all workers has been widely welcomed and seen as a way of destigmatising the adjustment request process. Explore wider forms of flexibility Not all jobs can be done remotely, and as our research highlights not everyone wants to work in this way. Employers should embrace the positive changes many experienced during the pandemic and act towards supporting the full spectrum of flexible work, including job-sharing, flexitime and compressed hours. Heather Taylor is a Policy Analyst with TheWork Foundation. The full report The Changing Workplace: Enabling DisabilityInclusive HybridWorking, by Heather Taylor, Rebecca Florisson, Melanie Wilkes and Paula Holland, was commissioned by City Bridge Trust, the City of London Corporation’s charity funder. h.taylor11@lancaster.ac.uk FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 13
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Thecall for SMEstobe sustainable Sustainable practices offer businesses and the planet many benefits. Claire Benson, Founder andCo-Director of SDGChangemakers and a LUMSEntrepreneur in Residence, offers a compelling business case for SMEs to adopt sustainable businessmodels. FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 15
Climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste are three interlinked emergencies driven by human activities, as are inequality, malnutrition and child labour. Globally, national net zero targets in legislation or policy documents have surged— from 10%of total greenhouse gas coverage in December 2020 to 65% in June 2022. Yet the words sustainable and sustainability have been put onto the naughty step. Influencers talk about the need to move on, and embrace regeneration. The core strand of their argument is that sustainability is not enough, that it is just about “doing less harm”. Other commentators say the issue lies in the fact that, for years, companies have been doing basic Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and now Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), all whilst increasing their impact on the planet and people. Some criticism asserts that it’s now a greenwashing ploy that has lost its direction and meaning. However, the same could be said for new terms such as ‘thrivability’ and ‘regeneration’. Without the context and relevant knowledge to support these concepts, and as companies rush to make claims they cannot back up, we risk diluting and devaluing these too. So, where does this leave SMEs, who are facing pressure from inflation, the rising cost of materials and staffing issues, as well as supply chains, consumers and investors, when it comes to being green and proving their credentials? AMOVEMENT AND A JOURNEY Sustainability has been growing as a movement for around three decades, steering us to be more equitable and have a safer future. The 1987 Brundtland, Our Common Future Report was the first comprehensive look at the challenge of sustainable development. It called for a disruption of the current economic model to one that meets the needs of present generations without adversely affecting future generations’ ability to meet their own needs. If sustainability is viewed as the overarching concept that encompasses other terms like ESG policy, naturebased solutions and biomimicry, it should help businesses understand that on one end of the spectrum, harm minimisation and efficiency gains can be made by incorporating sustainable practices. At the other end, there is the circular economy, doughnut economics and regenerative agriculture. Ultimately, each concept is built on the central ideaof rewriting the rules of production and consumption (UN SustainableDevelopmentGoal (SDG) 12). As a movement, sustainability can be seen as the process of shifting social values and reorienting away from exploitation toward a regenerative society. Exploitation can be in the form of rawmaterials, labour, or inequalities in communities and markets such as the food value chain. To shift and reorientate, business leaders must redesign processes, systems, services, products, lifestyles and organisational mindsets. This approach is embedded in sustainable development, of which we now have the UN’s 17 SDGs as a roadmap. One of those goals is Climate Action (SDG13). The SDGs can be described as the global to-do list, created to deliver a future where the planet’s most significant environmental, social and economic challenges have either been eradicated or are being addressed at scale, such as combatting food waste and curbing the overconsumption of natural resources. OUR CURRENT BASELINE According to the 2021 Circular Gap Report, humanity has already breached two severe milestones: • the world is consuming 100 billion tonnes of materials a year • it is 1C warmer While more than one-third of the world’s largest publicly traded companies now have net zero targets, 16 |
up from one-fifth in December 2020, 65%of these targets do not yet meet minimum procedural standards of robustness. At the same time, only 38%of companies claim to cover all Scope 3 (value chain) emissions. The report also states that the world is only 8.6% circular (two years ago, it was 9.1%). Yet, the Business & Sustainable Development Commission believes that achieving Climate Action and the Global Goals will create at least US$12 trillion in opportunities. ADOPTING SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODELS Relying on current unsustainable business practices carries inherent risk. The planet has finite resources, which endless growth and consumption are rapidly depleting, destroying the ecosystems necessary for species to survive and thrive. Current practices negatively impact oceans and forests, reducing biodiversity and preventing them from acting as carbon sinks. Business sustainability is the most effective way to ensure long-term success (Fedeli, MD 2019). There is a difference between a business that prioritises sustainability and one that is sustainable from the core. But all businesses can embrace the journey, taking advantage of the seven key opportunities: • Value creation • Risk management • Efficiency and reduced costs through reduced waste and resource use • Better product differentiation • Newmarkets • Enhanced brand and reputation • Opportunity for radical innovation using sustainable design thinking THE BUSINESS CASE In the post-Covid working environment, with increased sense of place and the economic climate, there are several compelling reasons why it is the right time for SMEs to explore and take steps towards their sustainable future. Innovation: New business opportunities can be realised through redesigning products and services to meet global challenges, environmental standards or social needs offers. Attracting talent: In particular, Gen Z workers are attracted to organisations with values that reflect their own and take a defined and strong position on social and environmental issues. Improving financial performance: Energy and water efficiency initiatives, recycling and waste reduction all offer opportunities to improve resource allocation, streamline operations and improve profitability. These initiatives also provide business opportunities to supply services. Transformations in value chains: Corporations and larger companies are increasingly under pressure to make their value chains more sustainable. Consequently, it makes sense for SMEs to move simultaneously with them, learning and iterating together. Value Creation: In an increasingly environmentally and socially conscious world, sustainable business practices can enhance brand value and ensure organisations are more resilient to shock. Michel Porter and Mark Kramer pioneered the idea of ’creating shared value’, arguing that businesses can generate economic value by identifying and addressing social problems that intersect with their company. Investment: Lenders and investors are looking for and expecting commitment to sustainable business practices. Sustainable business models vary, but there are a recognised set of patterns. For example, the produce-on-demand supply chain pattern modifies how resources are sourced, or target groups are reached. Companies that only produce a product when there is sufficient demand for it can avoid overstocking, prevent material waste, reduce warehouse costs, and cut unnecessary transportation emissions. To be sustainable means regeneration is the end goal. Should a resource be used, like a tree or water, it must be allowed to regenerate. While some circular business models may be sustainable, it is not an inherent quality. Genuine sustainable business models include regeneration and resilience, as well as scaling without increasing risks or diminishing returns. As a movement and a journey, sustainability is not simply measuring reporting, disclosing or complying with regulations— it is a way of doing business. Sustainability is a mindset embedded from the top and bottom of an organisation: it should be part of the business’s culture and, done correctly, drive critical decisions such as policymaking, investment and procurement, and create environmental and societal benefits for stakeholders. FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 17 Claire Benson is Founder and Director of SDGChangemakers, data and tech-led sustainability consultants, who support SMEs and social entrepreneurs to improve the social, environmental and economic sustainability of their organisations and the communities they serve. Claire is also a member of the Entrepreneurs in Residence network in Lancaster University Management School, made up of more than 70 entrepreneurs from around the globe. Their activities include delivering Masterclass talks, breathing life into the theories with student classroom teaching, mentoring students, offering student projects within their businesses and taking part in academic research to further extend our understanding of business and entrepreneurship. Claire@sdgchangemakers.today
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DEVELOPING ACIRCULAR WATER ECONOMY Applying research practically to help society tackle real-worldproblems is an essential part of thework of Lancaster University. Dr JoanneLarty explains howthe RECIRCULATEproject has brought together scientists fromacross partners institutions inAfrica toput theirwork topractical use in solving issues around circularwater challenges. FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 19
As the world struggles with increasing societal and environmental challenges, scientists around the globe are carrying out significant work that can make a positive difference to people and their lives. A key question is howmight we better leverage this work by working with communities, industry and policymakers to co-create circular solutions that deliver social, ecological value for communities, at the same time as being economically viable. This was the key challenge for the team of entrepreneurship and environmental science scholars from Lancaster University, Lancaster University Ghana, Kenyatta University, University of Benin, Igbinedion University, and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) as part of the RECIRCULATE project exploring innovative solutions to circular water challenges in Africa. The RECIRCULATE project explored different ways in which water sustains communities, including sewage disposal, energy generation, and water for food production. Teams of researchers, including environmental scientists, crop scientists, microbiologists, social scientists and engineers, worked alongside local stakeholders and policy-makers to identify key problems and issues, and to co-create solutions cognisant of local needs. The project team, however, did not want to provide one-off solutions to current problems, but rather wanted to translate those solutions into viable business models that scientists, local communities, and businesses could build upon to provide impact that extended beyond the end of the project. The team thus explored how ideas and insights in entrepreneurial learning and entrepreneurship education might help in creating a longer-term legacy. Rather than seeing entrepreneurship as something that becomes important at the end of the project, and that addresses the question ‘how can we nowmake these solutions work economically?’, we took a different perspective and considered how we might develop an entrepreneurial mindset within teams of scientists working on RECIRCULATE so that entrepreneurial thinking was integrated into all aspects of the project from an 20 |
early stage. At the same time, we also wanted to engender a place-based perspective of entrepreneurship to ensure that proposed solutions were cognisant of the local socio-economic environment and would provide clear environmental, social and economic value for local communities. To develop a place-based approach to entrepreneurship, we worked with our partners to co-design and co-develop an approach to building entrepreneurial capacity that would enable teams of scientists at each institution to better understand how different scientific solutions might work within specific community, cultural and social contexts. This would allow scientists to build on the strengths of their local regions, draw on local resources, skills, and expertise, and to think about ways they might engage wider stakeholders to ensure scientific and engineering solutions to circular water challenges were driven by local and regional needs. Working with a project team that included representatives from our partner institutions and across different disciplines, we together designed and developed a place-based toolkit for stimulating sustainable entrepreneurial thinking amongst scientists. The project team also worked closely with our partner universities leadership teams to ensure the initiative had high level support and backing. The toolkit, based around a series of workshops, stimulates entrepreneurial thinking through engaging scientists in exploring what entrepreneurial thinking means for them, their institutions, and their disciplines. Inspiring local examples of entrepreneurial thinking are used to highlight a variety of forms of entrepreneurial thinking and different kinds of impact that can be created by researchers and scientists. It then brings together teams of scientists to think creatively about how they might create longer-term impact from their research projects, how they might engage other stakeholders in those projects, and how they might think more entrepreneurially and work more collaboratively to develop solutions that address key local, regional and global challenges. The team have worked with colleagues from partner institutions to provide training and guidance in using the toolkit, and in exploring ways the toolkit can be further tailored to different contexts and participant groups. So far, the project has delivered more than 20 entrepreneurial capacity workshops to more than 400 delegates. The toolkit is being further rolled out by partner institutions across subSaharan Africa. More recently, through support from the British Council, the work has been extended to co-designing and codeveloping a toolkit for delivering entrepreneurial capacity building to both undergraduate and postgraduate science students. The initial design of the toolkit has been delivered to students in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria and further developments and rollouts are planned. FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 21 Dr Joanne Larty is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Entrepreneurship and Strategy, and was RECIRCULATE work package lead for Entrepreneurship and Innovation between 2018 and 2022. She is the academic lead on a further British Council funded project, Innovation for African Universities, from 2021-2022. The RECIRCULATE project was a £7M project funded by the UK government’s Global Challenges Research Fund, through UK Research and Innovation, working closely with businesses, research organisations and communities in Africa on eco-innovations for the circular water economy. , Innovation for African Universities (IAU) is part of the British Council’s Going Global Partnerships programme, which aims to foster the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship within universities and facilitate the development of skills required to build industries, companies, products and services. The project is designed to support the development of Africa – UK University Partnerships that build institutional capacity for HE engagement in entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems in selected African countries. j.larty@lancaster.ac.uk
The climate crisis affects us all in different ways – not leastmentally and emotionally. But what about those members of the public taskedwith providing goals and targets for governments throughClimate Assemblies? DrNadineAndrews, Visiting Researcher in the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business, finds that Climate Assemblymembers actually have heightened optimismabout the climate crisis froma sense of agency, but that hope is fragilewhen governments respond to their ambitions. Theemotional impactof climatechange 22 |
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The climate crisis is a growing presence in our everyday lives. We cannot avoid the reality of the threats it poses – to our safety; to life plans and expectations for the future; to our sense of worth as it challenges our destructive behaviours. In facing up to the situation, we encounter powerful emotions that can be difficult to bear. But how does our exposure to expert knowledge, our feeling of agency – and ability to make a difference to what happens – affect those emotions and how we handle them? Climate assemblies provide us with a platform to discover just this. In recent years, assemblies have become more common. They bring together individuals to broadly represent the wider population, tasked with deliberating on information provided by experts to produce a set of recommendations to inform government policy and decisionmaking. My research took place with the Scottish Government’s Climate Assembly, made up of 105 members. I wanted to explore the emotional experience of members compared to the overall population. The Assembly met over seven weekends between November 2020 and March 2021, addressing the question ‘How should Scotland change to tackle the climate emergency in an effective and fair way?’. I included climate emotion questions as part of the research because I knew it was likely the participants were going to be experiencing things. There is a duty of care to participants, but I think this is the first Climate Assembly to take that properly into account. A HUB FOR OPTIMISM In the past few years, there has been more research around climate anxiety. These are mostly population surveys, not context specific. This was the first context-specific research for members of a Climate Assembly. We really didn’t know anything about how people’s experiences differ depending on contexts. Do they stay the same? Do they change? For each weekend except the first – which occurred before I was in post – we asked all the participants questions about common climate emotions (hopeful, excited, optimistic, worried, upset, overwhelmed) to gain insight into the impact on their mental health. Members of the Assembly had much higher levels of excitement/hopefulness – 79%on average, compared to 52% among the general population – and their optimism went from being similar to the public after Weekend 2 – 37% and 39% respectively – to being much higher by Weekend 6 (62%). Members’ levels of worry reduced from 48% to 28%over the same period, compared with 68% for the general public. The population survey found 25%of the public agree that their feelings about climate change have a negative impact on their mental health – significantly more than the mean 7% across all weekends for the member surveys. It was interesting to see, because it could have gone in any direction. Assembly members might feel more 24 |
anxious because they were learning more about it, so it was really interesting to see it was the reverse. These differences may be due, in part, to a focused sense of purpose and agency that being an Assembly member brings. They were recruited to come up with recommendations for government, and the importance of their role was emphasised. You could see that they took their roles seriously, and that would give them a sense of purpose. Because they were coming up with the recommendations – albeit within a framework – there was a real sense of agency, which is connected to the degree to which people feel hopeful or hopeless. Another potential reason for the greater optimism is they were exposed to evidence that may have underplayed the severity of the climate crisis. Assembly members watched video presentations from experts and advocates on topics directly related to climate change, mitigation and adaptation. The evidence members were presented with did include some of the facts, but there was a feeling maybe they hadn’t been given the full scenario up-front. Concern or worry was conveyed in just one in 10 of the presentations we analysed; urgency in one in three. There can be a tendency – and it isn’t always a conscious thing – for climate scientists to edit themselves and soften things so they don’t scare people. This could all have contributed to the Assembly members worrying less or being more optimistic. But climate distress – triggering emotions such as anxiety, fear, sadness, anger or guilt – can be seen as a positive sign, showing someone is in touch with the reality of the situation. It’s not about saying to people there is no going back, rather explaining the reality of the situation; telling them what is needed to get to 1.5C or to stay below 2C – and that there are still things we can do to avert the worst in terms of catastrophic impacts. DISAPPOINTMENT IN GOVERNMENT The Assembly report in June 2021 set out 10 statements of ambition, 16 goals and 81 associated policy recommendations, with a Government response published in December of that year. After receiving the Scottish Government response to their recommendations, levels of optimism dropped, worry increased, and members expressed their disappointment with the response. At the final weekend before the recommendations were submitted, 54%of members surveyed agreed that ‘I am confident that the Assembly report will be taken seriously by Parliament and political parties’. After they were presented with the government response, only 22% agreed ‘I am confident that the Scottish Government will fulfil the commitments made in the Scottish Government response’. There were two things going on there. One was to do with the design of the Climate Assembly, and the other being hit with the reality of politics – how government works, the slow speed at which it generally operates. The design of the Assembly was such that the panel worked on recommendations largely in isolation from finding out about existing policies. So, they came up with some recommendations that were broadly already happening or planned. That meant when the Scottish Government gave its response and said ‘this is what we’re already doing’, the members felt a bit deflated. Some of the recommendations they had made were new or transformational, but some were what government was already doing. The other reason for the disappointment that was expressed was it was difficult to see what difference their recommendations had made. Things with government can take a really long time as a result of consultations and other things. The members were bringing a sense of urgency with them, but that wasn’t reflected in the government response. One member told me: “I’m not convinced that the results will be used effectively by (the Scottish Government). I have been left with a feeling of deep disappointment and despair with all the knowledge I have gained and the lack of urgency taken on board by our leaders.” A BETTER INSIGHT It’s important we include these questions when we organise climate assemblies, or any kind of deliberative democratic process to do with climate change. It’s not something people might typically think of, but it’s important to understand how people are coping when we face up to the reality of the climate situation. My study suggests a sense of agency and empowerment – a feeling that individuals can make a difference – and benefits for emotional wellbeing. Whether this optimism is also based on overly-positive evidence, and whether it can survive contact with government bureaucracy, are issues that need to be considered if this hopefulness is not to be lost. FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 25 Dr Nadine Andrews is a Visiting Researcher in the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business. She achieved her PhD at Lancaster University in the HighWire Doctoral Training Centre, and is a Principal Researcher and Work Programme Development Lead in the Scottish Government Centre of Expertise for Transformation. This article is based in part on the article The Emotional Experience of Members of Scotland’s Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Change, by Dr Nadine Andrews, published in Frontiers in Climate, and produced as part of her work for the Scottish Government. n.andrews@lancaster.ac.uk
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FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 27 With economic and political migration high on the agenda acrossmuch of Europe, how migrants integrate into the labourmarket is a key issue. Dr EmreTarim explores how organisations and structures can help them better fit inwithin a newcountry.
Immigration is a hot topic. Climate change, wars and political instability do and will generate movement. Around the world, you have people trying to flee these issues. Right now, there are more than 280 million migrants worldwide, more than 3.5 %of the global population. In Europe, many countries are experiencing considerable flows of both economic and political migrants, many displaced as a result of war and human rights violations. In the UK, voters were part of a political process which chose a solution on migrant workers. Now they are living with the consequences of Brexit. This is not something that is going to go away. Among the challenges facing migrants are poor labour market outcomes. Integrating them successfully and sustainably into the labour market is a pressing issue, because as it stands if you are a migrant worker, you have much less opportunity to be employed or promoted. There is need for migrant labour, caused by the demographic challenges of aging populations and shrinking numbers of younger people entering the labour force. If migrants are to successfully integrate into the workforce, we need to know how to help that process be successful. As part of that, we want to look at what employers and employees do, how their practices generate processes – such as promotion and recruitment, or training – and how this results in certain outcomes, both at individual and organisational levels. Organisational practices – including those designed to broaden diversity – can open doors for meaningful employment and career progression, or close them by way of producing inequalities, because they condition which people can and cannot be hired and progress in their careers. HELPINGOR HINDERING We have focused on scholarly and popular discussions on labour market integration in Europe, where the refugee crisis of 2015 – when Syrian refugees fled to Europe – stoked popular, political and academic debate. We looked not just at refugees, but at all migrant workers who leave their home country on their own initiative. Sometimes they are forced to leave, sometimes they are seeking better opportunities. Populist debate tends to reduce integration to cultural and lifestyle attitudes, values, norms, religion and language, but it ismuchmore than that. Populist arguments would have it that migrants are ‘coming over here, stealing our jobs’. In a negative economic cycle, this populist rhetoric only picks up, consequences we all have to live with – Brexit, or the downfall of Angela Merkel in Germany, which was instigated by the refugee crisis and the rise of the far right. There is an irony in the UK that we don’t have enough workers. Despite this, we still have questions and concerns about migrant workers. Refugees and asylum seekers in particular are often portrayed by populists as strains, burdens and problems for the countries they settle in – despite empirical evidence to the contrary in economies, labour markets and welfare systems. Why is it happening, and how is it generated by and reflected in practices? 28 |
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