Features

The global climate change movement has been mapped for the first time in a ground-breaking Said Business School report, which calls for greater coordination of eco-action.

If enthusiasm is not to be squandered and ambitious Net Zero targets achieved, urgent action is needed to bring together agents of change from business, civil society and government

The Decisive Decade: Organising Climate Action - Saïd Business School

The success of the Paris Agreement owes much to this widening engagement and commitment. But, if such enthusiasm is not to be squandered and ambitious Net Zero targets achieved, the report insists urgent action is needed to bring together agents of change from business, civil society and government.The report was commissioned by the global non-profit Mission 2020 which was established to encourage speedy implementation of the Paris Agreement.

Focusing on the distinct roles of business, philanthropic, civil society and public sector organisations, the report calls for ‘catalytic collaboration’ to achieve results.

Christiana Figueres,  convenor of Mission 2020, insists greater coordination is needed across these diverse organisations in order to seize the opportunity unleashed in the wake of the Paris Agreement. Ms Figueres, also Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) during the Paris discussion, says business, civil society and government need to work together to stand a chance of achieving targets such as Net Zero.

Former United Nations climate change executive, Christiana Figueres insists greater coordination is needed across these diverse organisations in order to seize the opportunity unleashed in the wake of the Paris Agreement

The report uncovers key barriers to realising this potential and finds that involvement in climate action remains fragmented across sectors and suffers from limited participation of organisations in key regions of the world. Meanwhile, the various groups and organisations often frame the problem and its possible solutions differently. All of these factors, the report argues, impede coordinated, collective effort and require new strategies.

'[The extraordinary challenges we face] will not be overcome with the efforts of just one sector or community. This report … provides critical guidance for how we can be more impactful and effective together,'  says Ms Figueres.

[The extraordinary challenges we face] will not be overcome with the efforts of just one sector or community. This report … provides critical guidance for how we can be more impactful and effective together

Christina Figueres

The report’s Saïd-based authors offer concrete advice on how organisations with a stake in the climate crisis can harmonise their actions, without giving up their distinct positions and approaches.

The report makes the case for ‘catalytic collaboration’ – bringing together organisations from different sectors that adopt distinct yet complementary approaches to addressing the climate crisis, grounded in nature, health, finance, sustainable development and economic justice.

  Three key strategies for fostering catalytic collaboration are identified:

• Develop a shared narrative that captures the imagination of everyday citizens and powerfully conveys how social and economic systems can be transformed for the better.
• Build trust and create opportunities for joint action across sectors, regions and communities with different stakes and interests in the climate crisis.
•  Strengthen accountability by creating clear pathways for corporations to meet net zero commitments and ensuring those most responsible for environmental damage are responsive to those most affected by it.

'More and more people are recognising that they, and their organisations, need to be involved in addressing climate change. This report helps them to understand how they can best contribute – what roles they can play and how to amplify their collective impact,' says Professor Besharov.

True Planet: Oxford research for a changing world

The world is in a climate crisis, and Oxford researchers are at the forefront of trying to find solutions in adaptation and resilience, nature, energy transition, clean road transport and green finance.

Our researchers are working with partners in industry, government, the third sector and at other universities to address these challenges and to propose innovative approaches and solutions. Find out more about our True Planet campaign http://bit.ly/trueplanet

When Oxford academic Dr Kira Allmann began volunteering at a library, she did not imagine it would result in a report calling for urgent government support for libraries to address deep digital inequalities.

The digital transformation of government services and private services – as with banking – has left many of the most marginalised people in our communities behind

Dr Kira Allmann

Libraries on the Front Lines of the Digital Divide summarises findings from a project in  Oxfordshire libraries, written by Dr Allmann with fellow university internet experts Dr Grant Blank and Annique Wong. But it has resonance far beyond the county boundary.

Dr Allmann explains, ‘The digital transformation of government services and private services – as with banking – has left many of the most marginalised people in our communities behind. People have not been able to access their basic rights, because of lack of digital skills and access.’

The media anthropologist was one of around 80 volunteers providing free one-to-one digital assistance to library visitors, as part of a scheme to address the rising need for digital access and skills support.

Requests for digital help have varied widely, as the report reveals. Dr Allmann helped with everything from printing payslips to finding housing. She found herself showing people, with limited experience of the digital world, how to type a CV in Word or set up an email account.

‘I would painstakingly talk them through each keypress, translating slowly and carefully the visual vernacular of the digital world. (‘See that little square with a line sticking through it? That means 'compose a message'. Click on that...’)’

It was clear, libraries were providing an important service, and Dr Allmann felt she had a window into the day-to-day lived experience of digital exclusion.

Dr Allmann found herself showing people, with limited experience of the digital world, how to type a CV in Word or set up an email account

‘It seemed like an important field site,’ she said. ‘I’m always thinking like an anthropologist; I can’t turn it off. And I thought there were things happening there that weren’t appearing in the literature on digital disadvantage.’

Dr Allmann spoke with library staff members and teamed up with Dr Blank, who leads the Oxford Internet Survey, to develop a Knowledge Exchange Seed Fund project to study the digital provision of the libraries. The goal was to help the libraries learn more about customers with digital needs and understand what digital need looks like.

The project collected more than 1,000 surveys of library computer users and 19 interviews with staff and volunteers. It reviewed digital help booking records and session logs, and Dr Allmann and master’s student Annique Wong also observed and participated in digital help sessions.

Although there is an expectation everyone has access to the digital world, and everything from claiming benefits to booking vaccine appointments are done online, the team found many people are being excluded. Their key findings include:

• Nearly a third of library computer users (31.3%) don’t have a smartphone.
• Three in ten library computer users (30%) had no computer at home.
• Nearly a fifth of users (19%) had no internet connection at home.
• Over half of library computer users (58%) have incomes of £20,000 or less.

 Based on the findings, the summary report makes several policy recommendations:

• Library staff’s digital skills should be enhanced, so staff are prepared for the high volume and complexity of digital help requests.
• Funding should be increased and more volunteers recruited.
• There should be a shift of focus for digital inclusion from skills to wellbeing, recognising that digital is just one aspect of a person’s social context
• Community awareness should be increased, and outreach is needed, to make libraries more welcoming for people excluded from services.

COVID-19 has altered libraries as public spaces, and most of the research took place before the first lockdown. But the team maintains libraries are a vital intervention space when it comes to digital inclusion.

Dr Blank says, ‘Looking ahead we believe libraries can become the digital inclusion hubs of the future across the UK, bringing together social support and technological access under one roof.’

Looking ahead we believe libraries can become the digital inclusion hubs of the future across the UK, bringing together social support and technological access under one roof

Dr Grant Blank

 

Their report argues that libraries can help to identify digital need and connect people with device donation schemes or skills learning. Libraries can be spaces for digital literacy development. But joined up thinking is needed, alongside integration with other local services - as well as more staff and volunteer time.

While the pandemic has suspended some of the library service’s digital services, including digital helper volunteer support, the library service has still been playing a key role during by offering vital access to online services. This included access to free Wi-Fi and computer terminals.

The report focuses on digital access in Oxfordshire libraries, but there are lessons for libraries across the country.

‘Going online is not optional anymore,’ says Dr Allmann. ‘We hope this report will boost the profile of libraries in the digital inclusion conversation and convince local and national governments to invest further.’

 Read the full report here.

The law on marriage and civil partnerships, for both opposite and same sex couples, has been made equal – but not completely symmetrical; that is, concerning the option of converting one form of legal union into another, according to research by John Haskey, Associate Fellow at Oxford’s Department of Social Policy and Intervention published in Family Law.

Both same sex and opposite sex couples can become civil partners or they can marry. Consequently there are four possible ‘conversions’ of one form of legal union into another, only one of which is currently permissible - same sex civil partnerships can be converted to same sex marriages.  The other three ‘conversions’ are not legally possible at present: same sex and opposite sex couples cannot convert from a marriage to a civil partnership, and opposite sex couples cannot convert from a civil partnership to a marriage.

One benefit of allowing all four conversions would be that couples could periodically reassess the form of their legal union and convert it to the alternative kind if they judged it appropriate. Such a review and reassessment might well be beneficial to the health of the relationship

John Haskey

An argument against two of these unavailable conversions is that the couples concerned did have the choice between the two legal unions: for example, opposite sex couples who formed a civil partnership did have the opportunity of marrying; similarly same sex couples who had married, could have opted instead for a same sex civil partnership, as the latter were introduced before the former.

In contrast, however, opposite sex couples who married earlier did not have the opportunity to have a civil partnership and there is the possibility that such conversions might be legislated. Other considerations and arguments might be deployed in favour of legislating the remaining two conversions.

According to John Haskey, ‘One benefit of allowing all four conversions would be that couples could periodically reassess the form of their legal union and convert it to the alternative kind if they judged it appropriate. Such a review and reassessment might well be beneficial to the health of the relationship.

'Undoubtedly perceptions about the characteristics of civil partnerships and marriages differ, and these differences may well vary for different age groups, so that conversions may be thought to allow some flexibility - a potential benefit - in the form of legal union with its associated expectations.’

He adds, ‘Another benefit of allowable conversions is that if a partner or spouse has a gender change, they can still remain married or as a civil partner with no disruption to their civil partnership or marriage - the union just changes for example, from an opposite sex one to a same sex one.’

The article reveals, the vast majority of same sex couples have not opted to convert their civil partnerships to marriages. John Haskey writes that, after December 2005, when same sex civil partnerships were introduced, 13,000 couples formed civil partnerships in the following nine months of 2006. After the initial rush, the monthly numbers fell to less than 1,000 a month and a seasonal pattern quickly emerged. Up to the end of 2017, he estimates, some 63,000 same sex partnerships had been formed.

Same sex marriage was introduced in March 2014, and the option to convert a same sex civil partnership to a same sex marriage in December 2014. The article estimates that up to the end of 2017, 23% (14,000) of civil partners had opted for conversion to marriage.

An important element in the argument for having, and retaining, civil partnerships has been that they avoid what many see as the paternalistic aspects of marriage, the couple preferring, it is claimed, to be equal partners, rather than husband and wife with their traditional roles

John Haskey

According to John Haskey, ‘The fact that a large proportion of civil partners have not converted their partnership may well reflect their contentment with the new status. Alternatively, they may have been unaware of the facility to convert, or even (erroneously) considered themselves either married or ‘as if married’.’

He adds, ‘An important element in the argument for having, and retaining, civil partnerships has been that they avoid what many see as the paternalistic aspects of marriage, the couple preferring, it is claimed, to be equal partners, rather than husband and wife with their traditional roles. (Inevitably, though, one wonders whether, had same sex marriage been legislated early and first, there would have been any civil partnerships on the statute book at all.)’

John Haskey concludes, ‘Overall, there has been extraordinary progress over the last two decades, and much of the advance can be attributed to the adherence to the principles of equality and non-discrimination, which, no doubt, will also play an important part in future reform. Three new legally recognised relationships in the space of less than two decades contrasts with centuries of having only marriage is remarkable, and may signify a new spirit of progressivism.’

The full article can be read here: Perspectives on civil partnerships and marriages in England and Wales: aspects, attitudes and assessments (familylaw.co.uk)

International concern over issues around representation has thrown a light on the classical music world and inspired ‘Diversity and the British String Quartet’, a wide-ranging collaborative project as part of Oxford’s TORCH Humanities Cultural Programme.  Although focusing on the string quartet, it explores larger debates around inclusivity, access and identity within the classical music scene.

While the string quartet has associations of high art and intellectualism, it has been a medium for diverse and different British composers

While the string quartet has associations of high art and intellectualism, it has been a medium for diverse and different British composers. It also continues to inspire students, composers, and performers.

The project aimed to work with the widest possible range of those interested in the string quartet and music education, and to combine research with practical work and performance.

Diversity and the British String Quartet has been a collaboration between British music and music education specialists at the Oxford Faculty Of Music, the Villiers Quartet, contemporary composers, and schools.

Young people aged 14-18 at schools around the country have been involved, composing their own string quartets and working virtually over the last six months with professional performers, academics, and composers.  On top of this work, the project has simultaneously evaluated the impact of the project on young people in terms of changing their perceptions of and relationship with classical music.

And the Villiers Quartet has commissioned five contemporary British composers to write ‘From Home’ quartets, exploring the experience of writing music in Britain in the current historical moment.

If classical music education is narrowed and defunded to the point of becoming an experience for those who can afford it, is inclusivity narrowed still further? Whose music is this, and what are the views of all those who have a stake in it?

Dr Joanna Bullivant

Dr Joanna Bullivant leads the project, which is supported by the TORCH programme. She believes the questions posed by the collaboration reach into the roots of our society. She says, ‘Increasing focus on STEM subjects in schools and universities, the global pandemic, and the Black Lives Matter protests have all raised important questions about the value of classical music performance and education in Britain.

‘If classical music education is narrowed and defunded to the point of becoming an experience for those who can afford it, is inclusivity narrowed still further? Whose music is this, and what are the views of all those who have a stake in it?’

Second year undergraduate and student mentor Chloe Green says, ‘The project facilitated important conversations and collaborations between diverse musicians in their processes of challenging preconceived notions about, and defining their own relationships to, the British string quartet tradition. It was a privilege to mentor the students as they developed their understandings of this tradition’s history and articulated their inspiring visions for its future.’

Graduate researcher and workshop participant Aaliyah Booker says, ‘I have learned a lot about composition and what it takes to write music for this type of ensemble. It has been fun doing research on the project and equally rewarding to be given an opportunity to play for the Villiers Quartet.’

For the Villiers Quartet, who guided the workshops with young people and commissioned the new quartets, this was a positive amongst the devastating and disruptive pause in performance caused by the pandemic.

Carmen Flores, violist, says, ‘We looked at string quartet composition from all angles - working with students, commissioning new works from our commissioned composers, and exploring repertoire of historical composers who were largely excluded from the mainstream story of British music.’

The live-streamed symposium (Monday 14 – Wednesday 16 June) is the culmination and public presentation of these activities through a series of talks, workshops, and performances.

Classical music has the potential to transform and enrich everyone’s lives, and we are committed to ensuring that those benefits are available to all. It promises to be a thrilling creative project

Professor Daniel Grimley

The symposium’s daily concerts will feature an array of rarely-heard British quartets, plus the world premiere performances of works by composers Florence Anna Maunders, Philip Herbert, Rob Fokkens, Alex Ho, and Jasmin Kent Rodgman. The student quartets, created during the project, will also be performed. Finally, expert speakers from the music industry and academia will address a range of issues in the history of the British string quartet and contemporary practice.

Dr Bullivant says, ‘This ambitious project has been a distinct learning curve for all of us, but hugely rewarding as we have been able to hear from so many different participants and voices on a subject that they are passionate about.’

And Dr Bullivant’s words are echoed by Professor Daniel Grimley, Deputy Head of Humanities, ‘Classical music has the potential to transform and enrich everyone’s lives, and we are committed to ensuring that those benefits are available to all. It promises to be a thrilling creative project.’

 Diversity and the British String Quartet | TORCH | The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities

Schools involved are: St Gregory the Great Catholic School, Oxford;  St Marylebone School, London; Graveney School, London; Framingham Earl High School, Norfolk and Trinity Catholic School, Nottingham

It is easy to believe Melinda Mills was a very disruptive child. She is clearly a disruptive adult...and that has proven to be a very good thing indeed. Over the last year, it has been a valuable and evident quality as the Oxford professor of sociology and demography has provided sometimes controversial, often difficult to hear, but always research-based advice to government, business and the public on everything from face coverings and social bubbles to vaccine passports. This has not always won her friends, but it has helped inform and influence policy.

Putting social and behavioural sciences firmly at the table, Professor Mills knew her team (at the newly-established Oxford’s Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science and from her European Research Council Advanced Grant) had a real role to play in fighting the pandemic.

It is important when looking at the impact of the pandemic not to forget ‘behaviours, social environment and population composition’; the sort of bread and butter work of social scientists...what will or will not work...what has been tried before, what people will think and how they will react

She explains it is important when looking at the impact of the pandemic not to forget ‘behaviours, social environment and population composition’; the sort of bread and butter work of social scientists, looking at who is in the population, what will or will not work with each group, what has been tried before and what people will think and how they will react.

‘It became quite clear we could make a contribution and we wanted to help,’ she says. ‘By being systematic, using different data and thinking and drawing from multiple scientific disciplines.’

As early as last March, the team set aside ‘regular’ work and turned attention to the pandemic. ‘With its interdisciplinary team, the Leverhulme Centre was ‘uniquely positioned’, she says, to provide the demographic data and research-based advice on the real world decisions and impacts of the pandemic and the policies being introduced to contain it.

As the world looked in fear at events in Italy, before the pandemic even reached the UK, the demographers had seen it coming, realising Italy’s ageing population would suffer greatly in the face of the coronavirus. The team were one of the first to clarify the value of demographic science in understanding the pandemic, in April 2020, with a widely cited article.  

Before the pandemic even reached the UK, the demographers had seen it coming, realising Italy’s ageing population would suffer greatly in the face of the coronavirus

The next action they took was to set up an online ‘dashboard’, looking at the likely impact of the pandemic and potential hospital shortages in the UK. Using demographic data, such as age and ethnicity profile, Professor Mills’ team was able to predict which NHS trusts would be overwhelmed. One answer came back quickly: Harrow, in North West London. With its mixture of older residents and other social traits including density and ethnicity, it looked vulnerable – and so it proved.

‘We were able to predict [based on the data] where hospital beds would be under pressure. Our research was very granular. And that was just with basic demographic information. It had quite a bit of impact.’

After that, Professor Mills has not ducked difficult issues – however controversial and potentially uncomfortable.

‘I could have stayed on safe topics and I might have had a nice relaxing year,’ she says. ‘But I have never done that, [with my ERC research], and I thought we had a responsibility. I could see some opinions being voiced without evidence. We needed to provide balance and rigorous evidence-based research.’

Setting aside her plan for a once-in-a-career sabbatical, the expert in sociogenomics led her team to undertake unusually rapid research. Instead of taking months before data is published and more months trying to persuade policymakers of its value, they were sometimes asked to provide results in the space of 76 hours. And, based on this, policy changed in days. 

Professor Mills has drafted major reports on face coverings [the evidence was quite clear and enacted by government in days], social bubbles [fed into policy internationally], misinformation [potentially dangerous], vaccine hesitancy and deployment [not to be dismissed] and vaccine passports [ethical and technical minefield]

Working on the Royal Society’s COVID-19 science in emergencies group, Professor Mills has drafted major research-based reports on face coverings [the evidence was quite clear and enacted by government in days], social bubbles [fed into policy internationally], misinformation [potentially dangerous], vaccine hesitancy and deployment [not to be dismissed] and vaccine passports [ethical and technical minefield].

She also served on several sub-groups of the UK government’s SAGE (Science Advisory Groups for Emergencies), focussing on behavioural insights, ethnicity and vaccines.

She says, ‘We have worked in tandem with policymakers, which has been very productive...the value of our work has been heard. We have made a difference.’

But putting her head above the parapet, has not been without risks and rewards. The director of the Leverhulme Centre has become a well-known social scientist. Her input has been sought by government, at home and overseas, by businesses and organisations. But, over the last year, she has researched the murky worlds of data trade, conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers, and bogus medics, speaking the truth to loud and sometimes powerful interest groups. And there are some who really have not liked what the research has found.

Professor Mills may be one of the few professors of demography globally to have received death threats because of her research. Some of it has been really nasty or what one journalist noted after seeing some material as ‘astonishingly abusive’.

Professor Mills may be one of the few professors of demography globally to have received death threats because of her research

But she was quick to note that the majority of the population acted incredibly responsibly. She says, ‘There was a fear that people would not adhere to some of the pandemic measures such as lockdown or wearing face masks or resist vaccinations, but the majority were actually highly compliant.’

Here she also argues that clear communications, tailored to different groups or local communities remains vital, but also dialogue to respect and hear concerns rather than only one-way passive and information-laden communications.

Melinda Mills, not looking very disruptive in the Canadian mountains.

Professor Mills’ capacity for disruption began early. As a farm girl growing up ‘in the middle of nowhere’ in Canada, she laughs as she recalls spending a lot of time in the hallway at school, [for being disruptive, attention seeking and talking].

This was no Archers’ storyline of farming misery and countryside complaints, though, but a tale of a frighteningly over-achieving family - perhaps going some way to explain Professor Mills’ nothing-daunted approach. Her farmer and teacher father went on to become a Canadian MP, her brother is a professor at a top US university and her sister is a leading designer. 

‘It’s a kind of unusual family, but in a good way,’ she admits.  And, despite her apparently inauspicious, academic beginning in the hallway, the young Melinda went on to study demography and sociology at the University of Alberta and then to take a PhD in Demography in the Netherlands, from where she came to Oxford in 2014 as a Statutory Professor at Nuffield College and the Department of Sociology.

 She is baffled by some negative personal attacks, though. One journalist accused her of being like ‘Spock’.

‘I’m a Trekky,’ she laughs, pointing out that James T Kirk [William Shatner] is a fellow Canadian. But she says, ‘I always loved Spock and the Vulcan character. I like being very rational, systematic and non-emotional when I look at the evidence. I don’t see that is bad.’

I’m a Trekky...I always loved Spock and the Vulcan character. I like being very rational, systematic and non-emotional when I look at the evidence. I don’t see that is bad

The evidence provided by social sciences has proved its worth in the pandemic, as has the benefits of working across the disciplines at Oxford.

‘There was thinking that evidence was only valid if it came from a randomised control trial (RCT),’ she says. But it is different in social sciences, sometimes an RCT would not be an ethical or useful approach, says Professor Mills.

But, she points out, the data and research we draw from is peer-reviewed, systematic and accurate – and often based on very large representative samples, so thinking about what counts as valid evidence also needs to change.  

There is still some way to go, she says, despite the relative success of the vaccine programme in the UK, there is concern over the rise of new variants. As a social scientist she recognises, ‘People are fatigued now on multiple levels. We are also experiencing an ‘infodemic’ and it’s difficult to process all the information.’

Demography is emerging from the pandemic as a powerful discipline and the Leverhulme Centre as the go-to place for research. Rather taken by surprise, Professor Mills admits, ‘I didn’t realise our approach was going to be so valuable....But national and international governments, organisations and businesses contact us now. And our work has energised and attracted a lot of young researchers. We hear from people around the world....A year and a half ago, there were eight people at the Leverhulme Centre, now there are around 30.’

With wide-ranging academic interests, she is most enthusiastic talking about the cross-disciplinary potential, adding, ’We have had support from organisations, including the Royal Society [which has published some of Professor Mills’ reports] and the British Academy and it is exciting to be in meetings with immunologists, engineers, computer specialists, it’s important for understanding social behaviour and serious problem solving.’

Later this month, Professor Mills will be taking part in the Brussels Economic Forum as one of eight advisors.

Not one for a ‘quiet life’, later this month, Professor Mills will be taking part in the Brussels Economic Forum in her role as one of eight advisors in a High-Level Group convened by European Economic Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, the former Prime Minister of Italy.  She will be speaking amongst President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President of the European Bank Christine Lagarde, and the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Arden.

A lesson exposed by the pandemic has been the deep inequalities, accelerated shifts to the digital economy, offering us a chance to reboot our thinking and planning

Professor Mills

Full of concern about the future of employment in a post-Covid world, which is at the heart of her European Research Council Advanced Grant, she says, ‘A lesson exposed by the pandemic has been the deep inequalities, accelerated shifts to the digital economy, offering us a chance to reboot our thinking and planning.’

Professor Mills speaks with considerable warmth about the flexibility and strength of her team at the Leverhulme and on her ERC project, ‘They’ve worked really hard and we have gotten to know each other very well – even though mostly remotely. That’s what you do when you bond.

‘It’s a diverse group, but it wasn’t hired to be diverse. They were the best people for the job.’

With every intention of boldly going further, Professor Mills concludes, ‘I’m very excited by the opportunities and talent at Oxford. There’s so much to offer.’

Two years ago, the Leverhulme Centre was launched with a £10 million grant.