BROWSE OUR CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS

Family and Society

Focusing on how public policy can be better designed to give people and families more power over their lives, this programme brings together research into parenting, ageing and the impact of social change on young people. Led by Louise Bazalgette and Matt Grist, our projects are based on expert analysis of trends, innovative research methods and a progressive vision of social change.

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Openlandscapeproject

Open Landscape

Matt Grist

This project will investigate how open approaches to higher education can spur growth and innovation.

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Fundingfutureproject

Funding the Future

Matt Grist

This project will investigate how to put the financing of higher education in England on a sustainable footing.

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For Starters

Louise Bazalgette

This project draws together existing and new evidence and present practical policy recommendations for improving nutrition for children aged 0-3.

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Ageing Across the EU

Louise Bazalgette

Demos is investigating the different experiences of older people across EU countries.

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Ageing Sociably

Louise Bazalgette, Claudia Wood, Phillida Cheetham

This project will identify ways that private companies can make use of their local presence and existing operating structures to generate new social opportunities for older people.

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Masculinity

The Modernisation of Masculinity

Jen Lexmond, Julia Margo, Aaron Peters

This project explores how society and public policy could better support men’s changing roles in their relationships, in their workplaces and in their homes.

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Citizens

Decades of policymaking framed around consumer choice and economic growth have left those formulating policy unsure on how best to balance public and private interests. Led by Jonathan Birdwell, our work in this area seeks to understand the public interest and determine what implications it has for relationships between the state, citizens, business and civil society.

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Charity300

Sweet charity

Jonathan Birdwell, Ally Paget

This project aims to quantify and measure the actual economic and social value of Britain's 5,500 charity shops within communities.

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Scoutknot300

Be prepared: Scouts and employability

Jonathan Birdwell

This research will seek to explore the extent to which the Scouting movement helps impart employability skills such as team work, confidence, interpersonal skills and leadership

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Families, parenting and harmful drinking

Jonathan Birdwell, Emma Vandore

This project examines how a parent's problematic relationship with alcohol can impact on parenting and children’s perceptions of alcohol.

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Faith and society

Jonathan Birdwell

This project explores the role of faith groups in 21st century British society – in particular, their role in progressive politics.

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Eurovisions

Jonathan Birdwell

This project will investigate young people's attitudes towards the EU across Europe.

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Backsliders: measuring democracy in the EU

Jonathan Birdwell, Sebastien Feve

This project will explore how the European Union can prevent 'backsliding' on democratic commitments among member states.

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Violence and Extremism

The last decade has seen a rapid growth in extremist and violent behaviours. There are growing incidences of gang membership, gun and knife crime, religious and political radicalism, and violence motivated by intolerance of others. Led by Jamie Bartlett, our work on violence and extremism seeks to understand what drives such behaviour.

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Populism in Europe

Jamie Bartlett, Jonathan Birdwell

Building on The New Face of Digital Populism, Demos is publishing a series of country-specific reports on the growth of populism in Europe.

 

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Truth, lies and the internet

Jamie Bartlett, Carl Miller

This projects asks the extent to which young people can discriminate between the wealth of information found online.

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Inside the EDL

Jamie Bartlett

The project looks at how the English Defence League work and who its supporters are.

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Populism in Europe

Jamie Bartlett, Jonathan Birdwell

This project from the Violence and Extremism team looks at the growth of populism across Europe.

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Under the Influence

Jamie Bartlett, Matt Grist

This project will investigate youth 'binge drinking', focusing in particular on the impact of parenting and peer influences on drinking behaviour.

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Legal Highs

Jonathan Birdwell, Jake Chapman

Demos is looking at how government can approach new harmful chemical substances, or 'legal highs', in an effective way.

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Political Ideas

Alongside and connected with our research programes, Demos has political projects focused on the burning issues in current political thinking.

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The Nanodialogues

Jack Stilgoe, James Wilsdon, Matthew Kearnes, Phil Macnaghten

Nanotechnology - the science of small things - promises to be one of the defining technologies of the 21st Century. But what will it mean for society and the environment? And how can public engagement in deciding the direction of research be moved 'upstream'?

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Glasgow 2020

Glasgow 2020 is the non-institutional story of Glasgow’s future - a project to collect-together the imagination of the city through workshops, competitions, events and creative-projects.

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The Journey to the Interface project

Joe Heapy

Drawing on all of our public services work of the last three years, as well as over fifty interviews with service innovators in the public, commercial and voluntary sectors, this project explores the emerging discipline of service design, and what it has to offer to ways of approaching the transformation of public services.

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The Business of Resilience

The project highlights a number of practices – some current, others aspirational – which constitute a manifesto for twenty-first-century corporate security.

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The Other Glass Ceiling

Hannah Green, Sophia Parker

This project outlines a new agenda for debate about family life and argues that it is in the public interest to strengthen the relationships between families, state and civil society.

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Public Services

The Coalition Government is facing the most significant fiscal challenges of postwar Britain. Led by Claudia Wood, our work on public finance will interrogate how the radical action needed to rebalance the budget can be undertaken without abandoning progressive goals.

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Time and place

Claudia Wood, Ally Paget, Jo Salter

This research aims to identify precisely what values people associate with dying in a home environment and establish why so many more people say they want to die at home.

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Generation strains

Duncan O'Leary, Jo Salter

This project will analyse the generational shift in attitudes towards the welfare state and its far-reaching implications.

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Sueryder300

Transitions at the end of life

Claudia Wood, Ally Paget, Jo Salter

Demos is exploring the possibility of personalised end of life care that reflects personal values and also involves maximum choice and control for care users and their families.

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A wider lens

Duncan O'Leary, Jo Salter

Through this project, Demos hopes to paint a detailed and evidence-based picture of the lives of families who are struggling with the cumulative effect of multiple disadvantage in Scotland today.

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Cardsproject

The Power of Prepaid

Jo Salter, Claudia Wood, Ally Paget

This research is exploring the potential of prepaid card technology to achieve a personalised, integrated, empowering state.

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The Home Cure

Claudia Wood, Jo Salter

This project looks at the role social housing providers can play in helping people back to independent living following a period in hospital.

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Centre for London

A new think tank exploring the great economic, social and environmental challenges facing London. The capital is the most productive economic region in the UK, but it also faces great challenges such as a severe housing shortage, child poverty, unemployment and demographic change. Centre for London, led by Ben Rogers, acts as a critical friend to London government, to develop rigorous and radical solutions to London's problems.

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Olympics Scorecard

Jess Tyrrell, Rob Whitehead

The London Olympics are on track to regenerate a vast swathe of East London, turning a poisonsed industrial site into the biggest new park since Hyde Park, but how will Londoners really benefit and have the goals been met?

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Smart London

Ben Rogers, Jess Tyrrell

Smart city technologies promise to make cities more efficient, liveable and productive. There are real implementation challenges on introducing new technologies at scale in an established city. What are the costs and benefits for London?

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Getting London Working

Rob Whitehead

Despite being one of the most prosperous cities in the world, London has among the UK’s highest rates of worklessness: one in three working age Londoners is out-of-work. What will be the impact of welfare reforms on London and how London can get the best from this new system? How can models of localism and devolution boost employment in the capital?

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London's Calling

Rob Whitehead, Stephen Evans

This project focusses on access to higher education in London's schools and boroughs and looks at high skills as a key economic driver. 

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The Thames: Making More of the Heart of London

Ben Rogers

The Thames is one of London's greatest assets but also presents one of its more pressing challenges. How can improvements to the quality of the architecture and public spaces, and more use of the banks and the river itself be financed, managed and delivered?

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East London Tech City

Rob Whitehead, Max Nathan, Emma Vandore, Jess Tyrrell

The plans for East London Tech City have generated a good deal of excitement. But the way ahead is far from clear. This project looks at how these plans can be best achieved, by comparing East London to other international tech based regenerations and by talking directly to entreprenuers.

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