Research Stories
Bridging Community Fund - volunteer survey in Cornwall
Mike and Catherine Leyshon (CGES), the Voluntary Sector Forum, and Volunteer Cornwall were awarded £4,000 from the University’s Bridging Community Fund to conduct a volunteer survey in Cornwall. This project seeks to empower and energise the voluntary sector, especially in the face of the drive towards mobilising the voluntary sector to deliver statutory and non-statutory services in the health and care sector. A survey of the voluntary sector will provide as comprehensive a picture as possible of the current size and shape of the voluntary sector in Cornwall. This will enable the research team, the Voluntary Sector Forum and Volunteer Cornwall to: i) determine future research and strategic priorities; ii) target effort in future projects at under-served communities; and iii) work at a strategic level to co-design appropriate commissioning practices for the voluntary sector; iv) contribute towards fulfilling the CUA. In March 2025, Catherine Leyshon presented some of the ideas underpinning the project to an audience of over 60 voluntary sector organisations and local authorities nationally via a webinar organised by the National Association of Voluntary and Community Action (NAVCA).
Equitable Governance in Conservation Workshop
Rachel Turner, Tom Chaigneau (ESI), and Louisa Evans (Geography Streatham) were joined by colleagues from the Blue Justice Working Group for a workshop in May, funded by a Duke-Exeter Accelerator grant. The workshop brought together leading academics and practitioners from diverse institutions to discuss challenges of equity and justice in relation to marine conservation. Discussions focused on identifying pathways through which equitable governance shapes conservation outcomes, and enablers or barriers to equitable conservation governance. As well as advancing a publication on this work, the group explored exciting opportunities for future collaborative research.
Attendees:
David Gill - Duke University
Rebecca Vidra - Duke University
Natalie Ban - University of Victoria
Shauna Mahajan - WWF-US
Phil Franks - IIED
Graham Epstein - University of Waterloo
Georgina Gurney - James Cook University
Tomas Chaigneau - University of Exeter
Rachel Turner - University of Exeter
Louisa Evans - University of Exeter
Southern African Resilience Academy (SARA) workshop
In April, Maike Hamann attended a working group meeting of the Southern African Resilience Academy (SARA). SARA is supporting eight working groups to synthesise regional knowledge under the theme of 'Transformative Pathways to Resilient and Sustainable Futures'. The working group is focused on deepening understanding of nature connectedness in southern Africa to improve the resilience and experience of urban life (through health, education, and conservation outcomes). This was the first of three annual working group meetings, and it took place in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
The organisational dimensions of social-ecological tipping points
In June, Maike Hamann co-hosted a workshop at the Environment & Sustainability Institute on 'The organisational dimensions of social-ecological tipping points'. This was a collaboration with Steffen Boehm from the Business School, with the aim of fostering dialogue between researchers in sustainability and management/organisation studies. Businesses and other organisations are key actors that contribute to breaching negative tipping points, and they face challenges in adapting to such breaches. They can also be vital allies in realising positive tipping points. Yet we know little about whether or when managers attend to tipping points, or how they might pre-empt or respond to negative tipping points, on the one hand, and purposefully work towards positive tipping points, on the other. Two experts in their respective fields were invited to attend: Tom Powell, senior research impact fellow with the University of Exeter's Global Systems Institute, and Ralph Hamann, Professor and Deputy Director: Faculty and Research at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business. At the hybrid workshop, Tom and Ralph presented their research on tipping points and management and organisational science, respectively, and then participants engaged in plenary discussion as well as small working group sessions. There was a lot of interest in the topic, primarily from the business science community, with conversations on future related work continuing after the workshop.