Sustainable Lifestyles and Communities

Traditional research has tended to focus on consumers as individuals and on individual consumption decisions. Research has shown that in practice our behaviour as consumers is strongly influenced by the families and communities that we are part of and by the ‘lifestyles’ that we have adopted or that have evolved. BRASS research has a particular emphasis on rural (generally agricultural) communities and their evolution and on the emergence of social enterprises as a new business model that can play an important part in developing more sustainable communities in the long-term.

Sustainable Practices Fellowship

BRASS has commenced a funded six month part-time fellowship as part of the ESRC/ Defra/ Scottish Government funded Sustainable Practices Research Group (SPRG). SPRG involves a consortium of eight universities and a wide range of stakeholders and is led by Manchester University. It is organised around eight packages of work that provide a multi-level analysis of environmentally-sensitive practices, including eating, water-use and sheltering. BRASS's contribution to SPRG through the fellowship consists of a programme of work exploring "Sustainable communities, social enterprise and the mainstreaming of local food". The research focuses on a pioneering new community food hub (Stroudco) located in Stroud, Gloucestershire, England. Its founding principles include: providing affordable, locally-produced food to people in the more socially deprived communities of Stroud; building supportive and understanding links between producers and consumers; and, developing a more sustainable local food culture and resilient community.  This research is being led by Julie Newton and Alex Franklin and builds on BRASS's previous work on skills and knowledge for sustainable communities.