Planning, Policy and Governance (PPG)

Prof. Sue Brownill is leading a major Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) project investigating Hidden Histories of Community Planning in the UK. Partners are the Universities of Sheffield, Queens Belfast, Cardiff and Middlesex, plus the Digital Humanities Unit also at Sheffield and the Town and Country Planning Association. Prof Glen O'Hara from Brookes' History department is Co-Investigator. The budget is c.£600,000 and the work involves 8 case studies plus the building of an online archive. Two full-time Research Assistants are employed - one at Sheffield and one at Oxford Brookes.

Tim Jones is Principal Investigator on this three-year project focusing on transforming urban public spaces to be more walkable and appealing, with cases in Trondheim (NO), Gdansk (PL), Valencia (ES), and Oxford (UK). The project is funded by the European Union (EU) Driving Urban Transitions (DUT) Partnership, via UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Tim Jones is part of a consortium led by University of Bristol that submitted a Stage 2 Application to the NIHR Public Health Research (PHR) 23/125 Public Health Research Programme (researcher-led) for a study titled, 'HEaLth iMpact of E-bikes and e-scooTers (HELMET)'. If successful the research will be the first comprehensive study in England to measure and understand the health impact of e-bike and e-scooter public hire pilot programmes currently being trialled by UK government. It will help inform Department of Transport & Department of Health of net benefits and Government policy on how and whether to expand schemes across more UK towns and cities.

Richmond Ehwi is leading a global review of all the literature published on gated communities from 1997 to 2023. This pioneering project brings together 10 academics from five universities around the world: England (Oxford Brookes, Oxford University, Hull University), Canada (University of Western Ontario), China (Beijing Forestry University), Saudi Arabia (King Abdulaziz University), and Ghana (KNUST and Kumasi Technical University) to undertake this ambitious project. The goals of this project include developing a framework to guide the identification and development of future empirical research, establishing a network of global scholars working on gated communities to commission a special issue, authoring an edited book based on emerging research questions, fostering international comparative studies, applying for research grants, and developing tools to improve teaching in this research field. Insights from the project will also impact the practices and interactions between real estate developers, planners, architects, policymakers, community stakeholders, and others.

Richmond Ehwi is also developing a project focusing on how the cost of securing permanent residence in Britain impacts migrants’ homeownership aspirations. Migrants often allocate a significant portion of their savings toward securing various visa routes until they attain permanent residency in the UK. Studies indicate that migrants are more likely to be renters than homeowners, with many residing in housing considered substandard in the UK. However, the extent to which the cost of obtaining permanent residency in the UK affects migrants' ability to consistently save for a home deposit remains unexplored. This study will focus on various African migrant groups in England, including Ghanaians, Nigerians, Ivorians, and Kenyans. The insights gained will inform policies by government ministries (Home Office and DLUHC), services by local authorities, and support provided by third-sector organizations and charities working in the fields of immigration and housing.

Study to understand cycling among the older population and how this affected independence, health and wellbeing. Theultimate aim was to advise policy makers and practitioners how our environment and technologies could be designed to help people to continue to cycle in older age or to reconnect with cycling.

Study to understand the impact of everyday (im)mobility on health and wellbeing with a variety of social groups living in different neighbourhoods in Brazil and the UK, and also to explore the potential for participatory mobilities planning with local communities to support and develop solutions for healthy urban mobility.

A 4-year EU-funded project that brings together different actors, such as researchers, policymakers, residents and artists, to ‘co-create’ understanding about different urban neighbourhoods and to address disadvantage. The project is led by Oxford Brookes, in collaboration with 6 partner organisations: 3 NGOs in the EU: European Alternatives (Paris), City Mine(d) (Brussels), and Tesserae (Berlin); and three Universities: University of Bath (Bath), University of PUC-Rio (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM, Mexico City).

Juliet Carpenter received a Global Fellowship (£220,000) from the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme for the project “Social Sustainability and Urban Regeneration Governance: An International Perspective (SURGE)”.