a crowd of people facing forward
Posted inCurrent Events Uncategorized

Open Call: Contributions wanted for the UK’s first Fearless Cities summit!

Dear friends from community and campaign groups, neighbourhoods, social movements,  We are delighted to announce that the Fearless Cities summit will be coming to the UK for the first time. It will take place in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, from 1-3 November.  There will soon be more information on the website: https://www.fearlesscitiessy.org/ Fearless Cities summits are at the heart of the ‘municipalist’ movement to bring about change at the local level by reclaiming the commons, feminising politics and reimagining democracy. They are places where we can share ideas and practices that build the structures for a better, more caring and democratic... [continues]
2023 in review: and looking forward….
Posted inAudit and Accountability Citizen Auditors Current Democratising Governance Newsletters Projects Uncategorized

2023 in review: and looking forward….

As 2023 draws to a close, we wanted to share with you some highlights of Research for Action’s work. It has not been a great year for democracy - for example in local audit, which is one of the areas we work in, the UK Government has chosen not to deliver promised new legislation. But at the same time we are part of new and growing networks of people determined to do things differently. It has been a year of great collaboration with others who care about local democracy, be it project partners in Sheffield, Glasgow or Europe-wide, or the... [continues]
Open Letter on Audit Reform
Posted inAudit and Accountability Citizen Auditors Current Projects Uncategorized

Open Letter on Audit Reform

21st November 2023This letter was originally published in The Byline Times. We represent a range of organisations and individuals working on audit and accountability, local government and local democracy. We are deeply concerned about the current situation in local government audit. In October, a cross-party group of MPs and Peers wrote to the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, asking him not to drop audit reform. We are also alarmed at the Government has shelving long-promised audit legislation, with no mention of it in the King’s Speech on 7th November. We are concerned that a lack of primary legislation is continuing to... [continues]
REPORT: Local Audit: Why public interest needs to count
Posted inAudit and Accountability Current Projects Publications Uncategorized

REPORT: Local Audit: Why public interest needs to count

Local government in the UK is in a state of deep crisis. Shrinking of the state, centralisation of power and the hollowing out of the local state have decimated the sector. Local audit should be one of the central accountability mechanisms in a well-functioning democracy, but it is not working.  Current audit arrangements in England are failing to provide oversight and scrutiny at a time when it is particularly essential. Private interests overshadow public interests, the capacity for scrutiny and challenge at all levels has been reduced, and there is less openness and transparency in local government and audit since... [continues]
EVENT- Local Audit: Why Public Interest needs to count
Posted inAudit and Accountability Citizen Auditors Current Events Uncategorized

EVENT- Local Audit: Why Public Interest needs to count

Online Event -   Local Audit: Why Public Interest Needs to Count Weds 16th August, 7-8.30 pmPlease sign up for the event here How can we get better local government accountability from the ground up? Launch event and discussion for Research for Action’s new report Local audit in England is in a state of deep crisis. Multiple scandals of accountability have emerged, and ordinary people suffer. The current audit arrangements are failing to provide oversight and scrutiny at a time when it is particularly essential. Private interests overshadow public interests, the capacity for scrutiny and challenge at all levels has been reduced,... [continues]
Summer newsletter: posters, films, podcasts and more
Posted inCurrent Newsletters

Summer newsletter: posters, films, podcasts and more

Research for Action Summer Newsletter 2023Hello!It’s been a while since we’ve been in touch, so this is a bumper Summer edition of our newsletter, with some beautiful posters centred on local community power, films and podcasts about radical municipalism across Europe, and some exciting developments in our work on local audit and accountability. Democratising Governance In March we launched one part of our project on democratising local governance in Sheffield and Glasgow; four posters by artist Reece Thompson centred on the themes of transparency, care, power and opposing austerity. Together with project partners from Solidarity Against Neoliberal Extremism (SANE) and... [continues]
Posted inCurrent Democratising Governance Projects Publications

Democratising Local Governance: No Cuts

Download a colour version of the poster hereDownload a black and white version here Download the poster back (info) hereThis poster represents one of the themes that emerged from a research project on democratising governance in local authorities.  The collaborative project focused on two cities: Glasgow and Sheffield. Our starting point was that we understood the deep democratic deficit of the local state and its governance, and how our local democracy is being captured or undercut by privatisation and commercialisation. Yet we also recognised that local authorities are also important sites of campaigning and community activism. We wanted to identify... [continues]
Posted inCurrent Democratising Governance Projects Publications

Democratising Local Governance: Power

Get a colour version of the poster hereGet a black and white version here Get the poster back (with info) here This poster represents one of the themes that emerged from a research project on democratising governance in local authorities.  The collaborative project focused on two cities: Glasgow and Sheffield. Our starting point was that we understood the deep democratic deficit of the local state and its governance, and how our local democracy is being captured or undercut by privatisation and commercialisation. Yet we also recognised that local authorities are also important sites of campaigning and community activism. We wanted... [continues]
Posted inCurrent Democratising Governance Projects Publications

Democratising Local Governance: Transparency

Get a colour version of this poster hereGet a black and white version here Get the poster back (with info) here This poster represents one of the themes that emerged from a research project on democratising governance in local authorities.  The collaborative project focused on two cities: Glasgow and Sheffield. Our starting point was that we understood the deep democratic deficit of the local state and its governance, and how our local democracy is being captured or undercut by privatisation and commercialisation. Yet we also recognised that local authorities are also important sites of campaigning and community activism. We wanted... [continues]
Posted inCurrent Democratising Governance Projects Publications

Democratising Local Governance : Care

Download a colour version of this poster here  Download a black and white version here Download the back of poster (info) here This poster represents one of the themes that emerged from a research project on democratising governance in local authorities.  The collaborative project focused on two cities: Glasgow and Sheffield. Our starting point was that we understood the deep democratic deficit of the local state and its governance, and how our local democracy is being captured or undercut by privatisation and commercialisation. Yet we also recognised that local authorities are also important sites of campaigning and community activism. We wanted... [continues]