58 Articles
How can industrial innovation support better access to cancer care in Africa?
Cancer and other non-communicable diseases pose a growing problem for health systems in Africa. Together with our colleagues in East Africa, at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Nairobi, Kenya) and the Economic and Social Research Foundation (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania), as well as India and UK-based partners, we have been researching ways to improve access to cancer care in African countries since 2018, through our ESRC-funded project, Innovation for Cancer Care in Africa (ICCA).
Artivism for climate change: children calling adults to account in Northern Scotland
The artwork of over 600 pupils from across the north of Scotland was showcased at the Botanic Gardens in Inverness in March 2025 as part of the Art for Action programme. Young people’s views, concerns and hopes for the future, when it comes to climate change, were highlighted through what we are terming artivism. With over 500 visitors, the exhibition built on one showcased at the Highland Council Headquarters during the two weeks COP29 took place in Azerbaijan in November 2024.
Curating Our Digital Cultural Heritage: What’s Next?
To close our series of blog posts on our OSC ‘Pelagios: linking online resources through the places they mention’, we reflect on some of the challenges we’ve faced in our work to annotate and visualise cultural heritage data. We consider how these might be addressed through future development efforts and further research, before looking forward to the next project on the horizon.
A Digital Recipe for Annotating and Visualising Museum Collections Data
To continue our voyage through the descriptive information found in museum collections records, this post provides a ‘deep dive’ into our process for extracting object stories and visualising place information on a map. In doing so, we share our related journal article, project dataset and explorable map visualisation.
Telling Object Stories Through Digital Technologies
Cultural heritage data holds a wealth of untold stories, but the way in which it is currently structured in collections management systems does not readily allow these ‘object itineraries’ to be surfaced. Our project used free online tools to annotate and visualise data about museum objects, with the aim of uncovering their ‘hidden histories’. In this post, we go back to the beginning and describe the motivations behind our OSC.
Connecting Communities and Heritages Against Climate Change: Art for Action
What have children and young people got to say about climate change and how we should respond to it? Children in primary and secondary schools across the Highlands of Scotland and young people across five countries in Africa (Zimbabwe, Namibia, Sierre Leone, Kenya and the Gambia) have been expressing their views through art for action (or artivism).
Addressing Rural Inequalities in Wales Through Green Skills related Business Support
In this blog we discuss the unique challenges and opportunities facing rural Wales and how the recent Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 (WFGA) is unique in addressing the need to consider green skills and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This act is a solution to illustrate how governments can shape a more sustainable and equitable future for (rural) Wales and tackle rural inequalities. We highlight how other UK areas can learn from Wales with regards to sustainability and green innovation.
Using photovoice to research the experiences of young mothers in the Cape Coast of Ghana
West Africa has some of the highest levels of adolescent childbearing globally, with an estimated adolescent birth rate of 105 births per 1,000 females aged 15-19 years compared to the global average of 42 births per 1,000 young women. Whilst there is an established evidence base that has explored the associations between adolescent childbearing and motherhood and educational and physical health outcomes in the region, there is a deficiency of research that considers the mental wellbeing of young mothers. Addressing this knowledge gap is essential for creating effective interventions that meet the specific needs of young mothers.
The Role of Music Keepsakes in Parasocial Attachment and Grief
Parasocial grief is the grief felt after the death of a beloved public figure. This project uses Irish blues musician, Rory Gallagher, as a case study to explore how fans navigate death and memorialise life through objects received from encounters with their musical icons, and how the meaning of these objects evolves after the musician’s passing.
The UK Government ‘mission’ to prevent violence: What should it involve?
Grounded in their study of contemporary violence prevention policymaking in England and Wales, Luke Billingham and Keir Irwin-Rogers suggest what the government’s cross-departmental ‘mission’ to prevent violence should entail. They argue that the current government’s approach should build upon existing initiatives, whilst pursuing deeper and wider-ranging societal change.