Research
Research Excellence
Our research is recognised as world-leading, as is illustrated by our outstanding results in the Research Assessment Exercise 2008. We have also been highly ranked in all major global rankings, featuring in top ten UK social science universities in the Shanghai Jiao Tong, QS World Rankings and THE World Rankings.
Many of our researchers are recognised leaders in their discipline and/or policy area, exemplified by the recent and current research projects listed below. Bristol researchers are also addressing areas identified by the UK Economic and Social Research Council in their 2009-14 plan as major strategic challenges for social science research, including Advanced Quantitative Social Science; Global Economic Performance, Policy and Management; Security, Conflict and Justice; Environment, Energy and Resilience; and Health and Wellbeing.
We are also playing a leading role in university-wide interdisciplinary initiatives such as the newly established Cabot Institute.
The need to support researchers and provide a structured approach to ethical considerations lies at the heart of the Faculty’s policy on research ethics.
Faculty of Social Sciences and Law: RAE 2008 outcomes
The Faculty performed very strongly in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. Those departments who did exceptionally well include Geography (the School of Geographical Sciences is a joint member of both FSSL and the Faculty of Science) which was equal first with Cambridge in the Times Higher ranking, Sports-related Studies (3rd in the Times Higher), Accounting and Finance (4th in the Times Higher), Education (5th in the Times Higher), Economics (6th in the Times Higher) and Social Work and Social Policy (14th in the Times Higher). 56% of all research submitted by the Faculty was assessed as being of 4* (world-leading) or 3*, ‘internationally excellent’ quality, and 87.5% was considered to be of international standard. Submission rates were notably high with 90% of eligible staff included in the exercise. The Faculty’s Research Director, Professor Wendy Larner, said ‘This is an outstanding outcome for the Faculty and a tribute to all the hard work undertaken by our academics, department research directors and research administrators’.
Profiled Research Projects
The Faculty has a strong record of producing excellent, high impact, policy salient research.
Below are some examples of recent and current projects in the Faculty:
- Education Quality in Low Income Countries: Directed by Professor Leon Tikly (Graduate School of Education), funded by DfID. The £2.5m programme includes partners based in the UK, Africa, South Asia and Latin America and seeks to raise the quality of education for the world’s poorest children and assist in the fight against poverty.
- Improving Educational Evaluation and Quality in China: Directed by Dr Sally Thomas and Dr Wen Jung Pen (Graduate School of Education and Centre for East Asian Studies), joint-funded by the ESRC and DfID. The project provides quality in-depth data to enhance understanding of the complex nature of school effectiveness in China and how local context may play a key role in determining definitions of educational effectiveness and quality.
- The Bristol-Mekong Project: Directed by Dr Martin Gainsborough (School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies), funded American Insurance Group, British Petroleum, Control Risks Group, Department for International Development (DfID), Economist Intelligence Unit, International Finance Corporation, Oxfam, Oxford Analytica, United Nations Development Programme, and Transparency International. The project provides a focal point for cutting-edge research on contemporary Vietnam and its neighbours, focusing on (i) the changing nature of the state in Vietnam in the face of changes in the domestic and global environment (ii) State-business relations, focusing on Vietnam’s general corporations (iii) the politics of corruption, and (iv) cross-border relations.
- Aquatest: Directed by Dr Patricia Lucas (The School for Policy Studies), in partnership with the World Health Organisation, the Aquaya Institute and researchers from the University of California Berkeley, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The $13.1m project aims to develop a clean-water test for use in developing countries, examining the impact on health, behaviour and water management activity in communities in India and Southern Africa, and developing an action plan to support and promote uptake.
- Impact of Family Socio-economic Status on Outcomes in Childhood and Adolescence: Directed by Prof Paul Gregg (Centre for Market and Public Organisations), ESRC funded. The project aims to understand the importance of family socio-economic status/position for adolescents in today's Britain, focusing on the behaviours and outcomes of individuals in late childhood and adolescence, including physical and mental health, risky behaviours, school performance and the acquisition of soft cognitive skills.
- The Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey: Directed by Prof David Gordon (Director of the Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research) and Prof Ruth Levitas (Dept of Sociology), funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Economic and Social Research Council.
- Migration and Citizenship: Directed By Prof Tariq Modood (Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship) with University College London, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. The project aims to explore the diversity of movements of people today, Settlement issues of previous generation(s) of migrants and descendants and the impact of migration on and interaction with the 'receiving' societies.
- Bride Price, Marriage Rights and Domestic Violence in Uganda: Directed by Prof Gill Hague (Violence Against Women Research Group), with Centre for the Study of Safety and Well-being, University of Warwick and Mifumi, Uganda, funded by the British Academy. The project investigates the practice of bride-price and its inter-relations with gender inequality and domestic violence in Uganda.
- The Role of Soft Law in International Human Rights Law: Directed by Prof Rachel Murray (School of Law) Debbie Long (Amnesty International) and Malcolm Evans (School of Law), funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The £600k project look at the implementation of soft law standards in international human rights law, tracking this through looking at the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights' Robben Island Guidelines on the prevention of torture.
- The Economic Impact of the Third Sector. Under the leadership of Professor Sarah Smith (Centre for Market and Public Organisation), the ESRC, Office for Civil Society and Barrow Cadbury Trust have recently funded a major capacity building cluster in third sector research. The aim of this project is to help third sector organisations to assess the impact and value of what they do and to use data and analysis to improve service delivery.
- Competition under fixed prices. Directed by Prof Carol Propper (Centre for Market and Public Organisations), funded by the Department of Health. This project examines whether and how competition, introduced through PbR, is affecting patient care and to draw out the implications for the economic regulation of the health care market.
- Security Sector Reform in Transforming Societies. Directed by Dr Tim Edmunds (Politics), funded by the British Academy. This project focused on structural, attitudinal and political reform in the military, police, and intelligence services in Croatia and Serbia-Montenegro. It compared the two countries’ security sector reform processes through an analysis of three key themes: democratic control of the security sector; professionalisation; and western assistance and conditionality.