We live in a democratic, diverse society facing increasing challenges from population and productivity growth and climate change. Citizens, voluntary sector organisations and social enterprises can help the UK address these challenges. The aim under this priority is to deepen the evidence base that can inform policy and practice in the UK and internationally, around social cohesion, civil and civic engagement and democratic renewal.

The three questions are:

• What are inclusive communities and how best can we achieve them?
  • We will maximise value from work we have already commissioned on the implications of public service reconfiguration and the role of civil society
  • We will make selective new investments in studies of how resources, power, place and identity interact. (The ESRC contribution to the new cross-research council work on Connected Communities is important here, along with the exploitation of data from ongoing and new longitudinal studies.)
• How do individuals and communities most effectively make their voices heard?
  • We will promote new research and focus existing studies on new technologies, with an eye on what other countries in different economic circumstances are doing
  • We will steer the Centres and Large Grants Competition to help answer this question
• How mobile is our society?
  • The question has greater relevance in the age of austerity when the state retrenches and public services change
  • We will also make better use of our datasets and existing work on migration.