Elham Kashefi

Grounded citizens’ juries:a tool for health activism?

Involving the public in decision‐making has become a bureaucratic pre‐occupation for every health agency in the UK. In this paper we offer an innovative approach for local participation in health decision‐making through the development of a ‘grounded’ citizens’ jury. We describe the process of one such jury commissioned by a Primary Care Group in the north‐west of England, which was located in an area suffering intractable health inequalities. Twelve local people aged between 17 and 70 were recruited to come together for a week to hear evidence, ask questions and debate what they felt would improve the health and well‐being of people living in the area. The jury process acted effectively as a grass‐roots health needs assessment and amongst other outcomes, resulted in the setting up of a community health centre run by a board consisting of members of the community (including two jurors) together with local agencies. The methodology described here contrasts with that practiced by what we term ‘the consultation industry’, which is primarily interested in the use of fixed models to generate the public view as a standardized output, a product, developed to serve the needs of an established policy process, with little interest in effecting change. We outline four principles underpinning our approach: deliberation, integration, sustainability and accountability. We argue that citizens’ juries and other consultation initiatives need to be reclaimed from that which merely serves the policy process and become ‘grounded’, a tool for activism, in which local people are agents in the development of policies affecting their lives.

Social learning and sustainable communities: An interim assessment of research into sustainable communities projects in the UK

The delivery of many of the most pressing environmental issues will rely on changes in environmental attitudes and behaviour at community level. At a UN Special Session in 1997, the British Government highlighted its initiatives on Local Agenda 21 (LA21) and Going for Green (GFG) as significant advances. This paper adds a new perspective, drawing on the range of experiences of some of the research teams that have been working with local authorities on pilot Sustainable Community Projects (SCPs) in England and Scotland. It sheds light on three substantive themes: the tensions inherent in the implementation of internationally and nationally agreed goals through local action; the ambiguity of local agencies acting as facilitators of community ownership of processes, and the requirements for successful partnership between local authorities and higher education.

Domestic violence applications: An empirical study of one court

Abstract Over the last four years the authors have been engaged in a research project which seeks to identify the nature and characteristics of cases involving allegations of domestic violence. The authors were granted access to case files and to the hearings of a typical Midlands county court. This article is intended to communicate the first findings of this research study. The research identifies the number and type of applications, the nature of the violence, the circumstances of both applicants and respondents, and the remedies obtained. As such this article is a preliminary overview of a six-month study within the court.