City life: Professor Ade Kearns

Issued: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 12:56:00 BST

Ade Kearns, Professor of Urban Studies, is leading a large research programme called Go Well: Community Health and Wellbeing Impacts of Neighbourhood Regeneration and Housing Investment in Glasgow.

‘We’re looking at the health and wellbeing impacts upon residents, of both where they live and of public policy interventions to try to improve their neighbourhoods,’ says Professor Kearns. ‘We’re interested to know whether public policy actions impact on people’s daily lives, their quality of life, and their health and wellbeing, including physical, mental and psychosocial health.’

The study is looking at 15 deprived communities in Glasgow. Based around community surveys, samples of residents are being interviewed every two years to build up a picture of how their communities are changing. By also studying the whole city, the aim is to assess whether the gap between the study communities and the rest of Glasgow is narrowing over time.

Some of the communities are going through radical restructuring, with demolition followed by new housing developments. The study, which began in 2005, will follow the communities throughout this process, and has recently been extended to look at the effects of regeneration associated with the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow’s East End.

The multi-million pound programme is an ongoing ten-year partnership between the University, the MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit and the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, and is funded by NHS Health Scotland, Scottish Government, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde and the Glasgow Housing Association.

‘Our findings are fed back to the communities, to practitioners and to policy makers, so that they can learn from them and use them in their own discussions about what to do next. There’s a feedback loop between what we study and what’s happening on the ground, which is very rewarding,’ says Professor Kearns.