Repository
A curated and searchable collection of community-related research reports, case studies and publications
Bright Ideas, Trade Up, and Community Business Fund: Year 2 Evaluation Report
Published: 2021
This report outlines evaluation findings from Renaisi’s evaluation of Power to Change’s Bright Ideas and Trade Up programmes, and its Community Business Fund. Each of these is different from the others and specifically targets different stages and support needs in the community business life cycle. However, they were all designed to supp…
Discomfort, Dissatisfaction & Disconnect: Exploring local economic perceptions through peer research
Published: 2021
This report by the Institute for Community Studies explores local economies from the perspectives of local communities through over fifty in-depth interviews undertaken using peer research, giving a platform to these all-too-often forgotten voices. The authors explore the priorities for transition and transformation in local economies thro…
Helping ensure survival: Digitally enhanced advanced services in community businesses
Published: 2021
This research explores how community businesses rapidly adapted to deliver important community services through digitalised means in light of the pandemic.
The research was funded by Power to Change and Digitally Enhanced Advanced Services (DEAS) and carried out by researchers from the University of the West of England. The researchers use dig…
Rapid research COVID-19 Briefing #12: Community responses to COVID-19 – Potential and limits of community power in a pandemic
Published: 2021
New concepts of community power have risen up the policy agenda during COVID-19. Communities have widely been seen as integral to meeting local needs and as having the capacity to respond rapidly to the pandemic. The idea of community power is often assumed, in policy terms, to be a universally beneficial force. However, this fails to address i…
Evaluation of Bright Ideas, Trade Up and the Community Business Fund: Impact on people and place learning paper
Published: 2021
This report builds on Renaisi’s interim evaluation report of Power to Change’s Bright Ideas and Trade Up programmes, and its Community Business Fund, as well as contributing additional evidence to existing research around the impact of community businesses on people and place.
Amongst other things, it finds that:
Communi…
Power in Big Local partnerships
Published: 2021
This report is about the practice of decision making in a resident-led, place-based programme. It explores the operation of power within decision making, how decisions are made, by and with whom and in what contexts.
It considers how particular ideas gather appeal, how some voices are heard more than others, and how beliefs in ‘the right way…
Rapid research COVID-19 Briefing #11: Community responses to COVID 19 – Power and communities
Published: 2021
Community spirit has flourished and community power has been realised during the pandemic. But as thinking turns to recovery and ‘building back better’, it is timely to think critically about how power operates within and between communities, and to consider what this might mean for its potential for transformation. In this briefing we look…
Community business: The power on your doorstep – Executive Summary – Power to Change 2020 Impact Report
Published: 2021
This is the executive summary of Power to Change’s second impact report.
Community business: The power on your doorstep – Power to Change 2020 Impact Report
Published: 2021
This is Power to Change’s second impact report. It draws together existing and new evidence from the Trust’s first six years to provide an updated picture of both Power to Change’s impact on its grantees and the wider marketplace, and the impact that grantees are having on people and places. It is intended for use by Power to Change, our …
Does State-Driven Social Economy Work? The Case of Community Business in South Korea
Published: 2021
What is the role of the government in enhancing social economy? South Korea has implemented projects and programs to enhance social economy. This paper discusses the positive role of government intervention by looking at the case of community business in South Korea. In addition, some limitations are discussed. Qualitative data based on in-dept…
Rapid research COVID-19 Briefing #10: Community responses to COVID-19 – Striking a balance between communities and local authorities
Published: 2021
This briefing draws on research with five local authorities in England to examine how relationships between communities and local government have played out during the COVID-19 pandemic. It draws attention to a complex and interlinked response to the crisis from communities and local councils, founded upon a consistent and collaborative approac…
Supporting analysis of the Community Business Market Report 2020
Published: 2021
This Supporting Analysis document supports Power to Change’s 2020 report on the community business market. It provides more information on the technical details of estimating market size for individual sub-sectors, and for the market overall. There are two appendices and a bibliography in this document. – Appendix A covers the survey and qu…