Emily Last
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Research
This research is part of the ESRC/Department for Communities and Local Government Governance and Quality of Life Postgraduate Research Programme.
My research evaluates aspects of New Labour’s policy and legislative reforms concerning public participation and democratic renewal. It does so in relation to the involvement of disabled people in local government concerning access. By access, I mean access to the built environment, to good local services, to transport, and access to the means to participate in monitoring and improving these through community involvement. Central policy reforms of the last ten years boast of a re-democratisation of local government, implicating the citizen as a knowledgeable and capable subject with the resources to contribute to improving their local community. Coinciding with these reforms, the UK has seen some considerable advances in equalities legislation and rights for disabled people, relating particularly to the impact on them of local policies and practices previously decided without their consultation or involvement. These developments have resulted in a renewed push by local authorities to involve local disabled people in new and often innovative ways in the decisions which affect them.
Using interview and ethnographic data from work with local access groups and forums of disabled people in two case-study areas: northeast London and the East Midlands, I evaluate the success of community involvement initiatives for the improvement of access for disabled people. I consider how far the range of tools and techniques used by local authorities to acquire the knowledge and experience of disabled people have led to substantive positive changes to the policies and practices which affect them. I examine the material outcomes of involvement on the accessibility of the built environment, and the relationships between different actors involved in these processes, including the impact on them of an increasingly professionalized culture of access. Finally I consider how far the provision for the participation of disabled people in local government processes is indicative of what type of democratising agenda.
My research evaluates aspects of New Labour’s policy and legislative reforms concerning public participation and democratic renewal. It does so in relation to the involvement of disabled people in local government concerning access. By access, I mean access to the built environment, to good local services, to transport, and access to the means to participate in monitoring and improving these through community involvement. Central policy reforms of the last ten years boast of a re-democratisation of local government, implicating the citizen as a knowledgeable and capable subject with the resources to contribute to improving their local community. Coinciding with these reforms, the UK has seen some considerable advances in equalities legislation and rights for disabled people, relating particularly to the impact on them of local policies and practices previously decided without their consultation or involvement. These developments have resulted in a renewed push by local authorities to involve local disabled people in new and often innovative ways in the decisions which affect them.
Using interview and ethnographic data from work with local access groups and forums of disabled people in two case-study areas: northeast London and the East Midlands, I evaluate the success of community involvement initiatives for the improvement of access for disabled people. I consider how far the range of tools and techniques used by local authorities to acquire the knowledge and experience of disabled people have led to substantive positive changes to the policies and practices which affect them. I examine the material outcomes of involvement on the accessibility of the built environment, and the relationships between different actors involved in these processes, including the impact on them of an increasingly professionalized culture of access. Finally I consider how far the provision for the participation of disabled people in local government processes is indicative of what type of democratising agenda.
Biography
After completing a BSc in Geography at the University of Bristol in 2003, I returned home to begin a Masters degree in Cultural Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London. Here I completed a dissertation about local politics and white identities. After graduating with an MA (Res) in 2004, I remained at RHUL and took up a full-time PhD studentship sponsored by the ESRC and the DCLG. I transferred to KCL with my supervisor, Professor Rob Imrie, in 2005.
Publications
Last, E. (2005) ESRC/ODPM Postgraduate Research Programme Working Paper 19: Disability and Liveable Environments: disabled users in sub-national governance. ISBN: 1-903825-28-8.
Available from: http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/corporate/pdf/143576
Available from: http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/corporate/pdf/143576
