CERG and Essex Business School academic Dr Tony Sampson has taken CERG research on communities and environmental policy to Parliament.
His article exploring imagination in place-based policymaking has been published in a Key Cities Innovation Network compendium and Dr Sampson attended the launch event at the House of Commons to present his ideas to MPs and ministers.
The compendium brings together ten contributions from the Key Cities Innovation Network, bringing together 12 universities and 22 UK cities. It explores how place-based innovation can support more inclusive approaches to growth.
Dr Sampson’s contribution – ‘Mezzo-level: imagination as policy infrastructure’, in Innovation Ecosystems’ – draws on the award-winning Imaginarium project at the University of Essex, which explores how universities can work with communities and partners to support nature recovery and develop new approaches to policy.
Dr Sampson said: “Effective environmental policy often fails because there’s a gap between what’s decided at the top level (government, national strategy) and what’s actually happening on the ground in local communities. Our research draws attention to the Imaginarium project in Essex to show that something is needed in between – at the level of local ecosystems. This middle layer – what we call the mezzo-level – can translate big strategies into practical action that actually fits the needs of specific places and the people living in them.”
The House of Commons event brought together politicians, academics and partners to discuss universities and innovation ecosystems. Speakers included Jim Mcmahon MP, Minister for Local Government, Devolution and Local Growth, Defence Minister Luke Pollard MP and Local Government Minister Baroness Sharon Taylor. The event was hosted by Rebecca Long Bailey MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Key Cities.
The Imaginarium’s work is supporting environmental action in Essex. Its Innovation Fund project with Sustainable Uttlesford brings together communities and local partners around nature recovery, including work exploring local rivers.
This work has also inspired Rivers Return, an 18-minute film following community-led river restoration in Uttlesford. The film explores how imagination can help communities envision a better future for their rivers. The film will be screened at an open to all reception in the University of Essex’s Lakeview Room on Monday 14th Sept at 7pm.
Through the Imaginarium, Dr Sampson is demonstrating how research, creativity and community action can connect national policy with places where change needs to happen.