Projects
BROWSE OUR CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS
Good Business
The financial crisis revealed a series of underlying weaknesses in the economy, from an over-reliance on low-paid, low-skilled jobs to an underinvestment in productive enterprise. Led by Duncan O'Leary, this programme explores how companies can do ‘good business’, aiming for solutions that lead to the decentralisation of power – to employees, consumers and communities.
Welfare and public services
In an age of austerity, budgets are shrinking yet demand for services like education, health and social care is rising. Policymakers must establish what people’s real priorities are – and learn to do more with less. Led by Claudia Wood, this programme investigates those priorities through research on public attitudes to key areas of the welfare state.
The Power of Prepaid
Jo Salter, Claudia Wood, Ally PagetThis research is exploring the potential of prepaid card technology to achieve a personalised, integrated, empowering state.
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The Home Cure
Claudia Wood, Jo SalterThis project looks at the role social housing providers can play in helping people back to independent living following a period in hospital.
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Under One Roof
Claudia Wood, Phillida CheethamDemos is currently looking at how social housing providers can act as co-ordinators and hubs for support and earlier intervention for their clients.
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Advising Ambition
Eugene Grant, Jonathan BirdwellThis project will focus on school-to-work transition: how our education and training systems are preparing young people for employment.
MoreCitizenship and political participation
Britain continues to experience declining public trust and participation in formal politics, in addition to rising loneliness and social isolation. Led by Jonathan Birdwell, this programme explores the ideas and institutions that can help bring together a more fragmented society.
Families, parenting and harmful drinking
Jonathan Birdwell, Emma VandoreThis project examines how a parent's problematic relationship with alcohol can impact on parenting and children’s perceptions of alcohol.
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Ending Forced Marriage
Max Wind-Cowie, Phillida CheethamThis project aims to identify an effective cross-border approach to tackling forced marriage in Britain.
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Truth, lies and the internet
Jamie Bartlett, Carl MillerThis projects asks the extent to which young people can discriminate between the wealth of information found online.
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Open Society Dialogues
Dan LeightonThis project explores the tensions, hidden assumptions and challenges to the ideals and institutions that make open societies.
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Civic Service International
Jonathan Birdwell, Susanna PettigrewThis research will look at the potential benefits of a British international citizen service, investigating how it can be integrated into Big Society initiatives and increase civic engagement.
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The Future of Work
William Davies, John KnellThe project will explore the possibilities for a new politics of work.
MoreIntegration and national identity
Questions of national identity are all around us, on Englishness and the future of the Union, to appropriate responses to historically high levels of immigration into the UK. Led by Max Wind-Cowie, this programme aims to close the gap between the ordinary voter and the political class to develop a sense of how we live together.
The Centre for the Analysis of Social Media (CASM)
A collaboration between Demos and the Text Analytics Group at the University of Sussex, CASM combines computer science with social science to analyse social media. Led by Jamie Bartlett, its work will develop social media analysis as a valid instrument of research that meets the needs of policy and decision-makers.
Demos Finance
Demos Finance is a new financial services research unit, providing industry leaders, policymakers and the public with a reliable source of objective and easily comprehensible analysis of the sector. Led by Andrew Freeman, it will generate new ideas and public policy solutions, will help to explain and ‘translate’ complex arguments to a non-specialist public.
Political Ideas
Alongside and connected with our research programes, Demos has political projects focused on the burning issues in current political thinking.
Next Time it's Personal
Max Wind-CowieThe Progressive Conservatism Project is undertaking new research into how Britain can reform unemployment benefits in order to spread the cost more fairly between individuals, employers and the state.
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Open Left
Richard DarlingtonOpen Left is about rediscovering the Left's idealism, pluralism and appetite for radical ideas. It starts by asking an essential, but contested question: what does it mean to be on the Left today?
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Recapitalising the Poor
Max Wind-Cowie, Jonty Olliff-CooperThis project looks at ways of using conservative theory and ideology to deliver progressive aims in the context of poverty in the UK.
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Reinventing the Firm
William DaviesThis project seeks to raise profound economic and philosophical questions about the nature of ownership, the structure of the firm and policy options for diversifying Britain's business structures.
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Common Currency
John Holden, Samuel Jones, Shelagh WrightOne of the most successful sectors of the British economy is the creative and cultural sector - creativity has become increasingly important in other sectors as well. This series of seminars brings together representatives of successful and creative organisations to identify common challenges and examine what lessons there are in how they have each met them.
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James Nachtwey's TED Wish to Change The World
Charlie Tims, Shelagh Wright, Peter Bradwell, Peter HarringtonJames Nachtwey won the TED Prize in 2007. He used it to take pictures of an under-reported health issue now affecting 50 countries across the world. We are helping him break and spread his images in London.
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