Overview

The City Region Deal for Stirling and Clackmannanshire (CRD) is a £100m+ investment by the Westminster and Scottish governments. It provides a network of local communities, businesses, community organisations and local authorities, all of whom are working to address the many issues of deprivation that exist across central Scotland. It is both urban and rural, and includes ethnic diversity.

This Connecting Generations project is using established relationships and networks with CRD to work collaboratively with local communities, co-producing research. An Intergenerational Living Innovation Hub is being developed and will include a facility for testing out innovations which support community integration, address inequality and improve intergenerational support.

The case study involves in-depth qualitative, community-based research into four areas of change, all of which have been exacerbated through recent events and which link directly with the research across Connecting Generations. These are:

1. Digital poverty and inclusion: the impact of digital poverty for intergenerational relationships; addressing digital poverty in innovative ways that draw on the resources of the whole community, including statutory, voluntary and business partners.
2. Social care across the lifespan: the impact of changes in social care accessibility, risks around social care, and economic change for life experiences and life choices across the lifespan; social care forms that emerge with local investment and engagement with communities; perceptions of the future of social care.
3. Changing working practices: implications of 'flexible working' for different generations; how these interact with poverty, affluence, educational levels, health, lifestyle and opportunities; how to support transitions into and out of work for different generations.
4. Intergenerational living: new housing developments that can support generations sustainably across the lifespan; implications of environmental change for new living arrangements; generations working together to deliver environmentally, socially and economically sustainable housing.

In each case, we focus on identifying solutions that engage with real-world experience.

In addition to the case study, team members will conduct quantitative analysis of UK and international datasets focusing particularly on health inequalities in relation to contemporary social and economic issues.

This research project is led by Professor Alison Bowes.