Social Science Impact Accelerator studentship

The project will address the thesis that participatory inquiry – where the expertise of people with lived experience of poverty is afforded value alongside academic knowledge – is better able than traditional forms of research to understand poverty and motivate anti-poverty action. For example, recent participatory research on poverty (JRF, 2022; ATD Fourth World, 2019) has highlighted the lived experience of poverty related shame and stigma, influencing policymakers, such as the Welsh Centre for Public Policy (2023), to innovate new programmes on reducing poverty stigma in public services. Specifically, the project will examine and develop the foundational theories and methodologies underpinning the ‘turn to lived experience’ in social research and the allied call within the UK anti-poverty sector for greater co-production of knowledge and policy with a view to radically changing the status quo.