{{Short description|British non-profit social policy organisation}} {{Tone|date=August 2024}} {{Use British English|date=January 2021}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}} {{Infobox organization | name = | logo = Institute for Community Studies logo.svg | formation = {{start date and age|1953}} | headquarters = [[East London]], UK | parent_organization = [[The Young Foundation]] | website = {{URL|https://www.youngfoundation.org/institute-for-community-studies}} }} The '''Institute for Community Studies''' at '''The Young Foundation''' is a [[United Kingdom|British]] [[non-profit]] [[research institute]] that works with communities, organisations, and policymakers to effect social change.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=About us |url=https://www.youngfoundation.org/about/ |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=The Young Foundation |language=en-US}}</ref> It was founded in 1953<ref name=":3" /> and is based in Toynbee Hall, [[East London]].<ref name=":0">{{cite journal |author=Lise Butler |year=2015 |title=Michael Young, the Institute of Community Studies, and the Politics of Kinship. |url=https://academic.oup.com/tcbh/article/26/2/203/1675919 |journal=Twentieth Century British History |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=203–224 |doi=10.1093/tcbh/hwu063 |pmid=26411065|url-access=subscription }} </ref> In 2005, it merged with the [[Mutual Aid Centre]] and was renamed [[The Young Foundation]], in honour of its founder, the sociologist, social activist and politician [[Michael Young, Baron Young of Dartington|Michael Young]]. In 2019, The Young Foundation relaunched the Institute under the auspices of chief executive officer Helen Goulden.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Helen Goulden OBE |url=https://www.youngfoundation.org/about-us/who-we-are/people/helen-goulden/ |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=The Young Foundation |language=en-US}}</ref>
The Institute makes use of [[community-based participatory research]]ers to collect evidence.
== Organisational history ==
=== Origins in the work of Michael Young === The original Institute was founded in 1953<ref name=":3" /> by British [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] [[economist]] and [[Sociology|sociologist]] [[Michael Young, Baron Young of Dartington|Michael Young]] as the Institute of Community Studies in response to the [[Bureaucracy|bureaucratic]] obstacles faced by [[Working class|working-class]] residents of new [[Public housing in the United Kingdom|social housing]] [[Housing estate|estates]] in [[East London]].''<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Dean |first=Malcolm |date=2002-01-16 |title=Lord Young of Dartington |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/jan/16/guardianobituaries.books |access-date=2024-08-14 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>''
As an economist for the Labour Party, Young wrote the [[Labour Party manifesto]] "[https://web.archive.org/web/20130315015558/http://www.labour-party.org.uk/manifestos/1945/1945-labour-manifesto.shtml Let Us Face the Future]" for the [[1945 United Kingdom general election|July 1945 general election]] that [[Attlee ministry|swept Labour into power]]. The manifesto was key to the electoral victory and to the subsequent establishment of the [[Post-war Britain (1945–1979)#Welfare state|welfare state of post-war Britain]].<ref name=":1" />
Young left government in 1950 to pursue a PhD in [[Sociology]] at the [[London School of Economics]]. Under the supervision of [[Richard Titmuss]], he completed a thesis in 1955, titled "A study of the extended family in [[East London]]." While conducting his [[research]] on housing conditions in 1952, he lamented that "the [[Parish council (England)|local councillors]] heard the complaints, but did nothing about them because they were [[State capture|captured by the officials]]."<ref name=":1" />
Young cited bureaucratic obstacles and political inaction as motivations for founding the Institute of Community Studies in 1953.<ref name=":1" /> The Institute was to be a [[think tank]] from which many [[Social entrepreneurship|innovative public-interest projects]] were [[Business incubator|launched]].
The early Institute's stated purpose was "to examine the interaction of the family, the community and the [[social services]]," and "to study the way in which ordinary people interacted with the [[Beveridge Report#Implementation|newly expanded social service sector]]" which followed on the heels of the [[History of the welfare state in the United Kingdom#Labour reforms 1945–1950|Labour reforms of 1945-1950]].<ref name=":0" /> Furthermore, it "asked whether the [[Separation of powers|organs]] of" the [[welfare state in the United Kingdom]] "were in cooperation or conflict with established patterns of family support and [[mutual aid]]" in the UK.<ref name=":0" />
The Institute gained attention during its early years for its unconventional structure and its focus on community-level sociological research.<ref name=":1" /> of the sort that prompted Young to create it—although this meant that Young and the Institute were constantly [[Fundraising|seeking funding]] from [[Philanthropy|donors]], [[Foundation (nonprofit)|foundations]], and the [[public sector]]. One of its first publications was [[Family and Kinship in East London|''Family And Kinship In East London'']] (1957), co-authored by Young and [[Peter Willmott (sociologist)|Peter Willmott.]] The study was based on [[Field research|fieldwork]] with residents relocated from inner London communities to [[suburb]]an [[housing estate]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Fox |first=Margalit |date=2002-01-25 |title=Michael Young, 86, Scholar; Coined, Mocked 'Meritocracy' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/25/world/michael-young-86-scholar-coined-mocked-meritocracy.html |access-date=2024-08-16 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The study identified several social consequences of relocation, as highlighted in the Institute's publication.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-09-21 |title=Breaking up communities - Social Policy and Social Work, The University of York |url=https://www.york.ac.uk/spsw/news-and-events/news/2012/breaking-up-communities/ |access-date=2024-08-16 |archive-date=21 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921060457/https://www.york.ac.uk/spsw/news-and-events/news/2012/breaking-up-communities/ |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref><ref name=":2" /> The Institute's findings contributed to ongoing debates on urban redevelopment and its impact on community structures that characterized [[Aftermath of World War II|post-war]] rebuilding in the UK<ref>{{Cite web |title=BBC Inside Out - T. Dan Smith |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/northeast/series2/tdansmith_newcastlepolitics.shtml |access-date=2024-08-16 |website=www.bbc.co.uk}}</ref> and abroad.<ref name=":1" /> The Institute of Community Studies was an [[Business incubator|incubator]] for building nonprofit organisations to meet social needs, including [[NHS Direct]], the [[Open University]], [[The School for Social Entrepreneurs]], and [[Which?]] (officially named the [[Which?|Consumer's Association]].)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Our history |url=https://www.youngfoundation.org/about/history/ |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=The Young Foundation |language=en-US}}</ref>
The Institute created a series of [[educational television]] programs called "Dawn University" that aired on [[ITV Anglia|Anglia Television]]. This program would become the [[prototype]] for the highly innovative [[Open University]], launched in 1964.<ref name=":1" /> The Institute also fostered the [[Distance education|distance-learning]] [[National Extension College]] in 1963, and, in 1972, the [[International Extension College]] for students from the [[Developing country|developing world]].<ref name=":1" /> In 1982, the Institute worked with historian [[Peter Laslett]] to launch the British version of the [[University of the Third Age#France|University of the Third Age of Toulouse]],<ref name=":1" /> a [[France|French]] [[lifelong learning]] program begun in 1973 .
=== Renaming and Relaunch === Young served as the Institute's director until his death in 2002. In 2005, the Institute of Community Studies merged with the Mutual Aid Centre (another Young-founded organisation) and was renamed The [[Young Foundation]]. The Young Foundation then launched a re-conceived Institute ''for'' Community Studies as one of its constituent parts in 2019, with financial support from [[Charitable trusts in English law|charitable trusts]] and [[:Category:Philanthropy in England|private donors]]. The new Institute's stated mission includes "engag[ing] with people across the UK, with a focus on gathering public views and informing policy research."<ref>{{Cite web |title=About us |url=https://www.youngfoundation.org/institute-for-community-studies/about-us/ |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=Institute for Community Studies |language=en-US}}</ref>
The Institute for Community Studies at The Young Center inaugurated its relaunch with a study begun in 2019 and completed and published during the [[COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom]] entitled "Safety in Numbers?"<ref>{{Cite web |title=Safety in numbers? |url=https://www.youngfoundation.org/our-work/publications/safety-in-numbers/ |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=The Young Foundation |language=en-US}}</ref>
== Notable publications by the Institute of Community Studies ==
*''The Family Life of Old People: An inquiry in East London'' ([[Peter Townsend (sociologist)|Peter Townsend]], 1957). * ''Widows and their Families'' (Peter Marris, 1958). * ''Family and Class in a London Suburb'' (Peter Willmott and [[Michael Young, Baron Young of Dartington|Michael Young]], 1960). * ''Family and Social Change in an African City: A study of rehousing in Lagos'' (Peter Marris, 1961). * ''Education and the Working Class'' ([[Brian Jackson (educator)|Brian Jackson]], [[Dennis Marsden]], 1962). * ''Living with Mental Illness: A study in East London'' (Enid Mills, 1962). * ''The Evolution of a Community: A Study of Dagenham after forty years'' ([[Peter Willmott (sociologist)|Peter Willmott]], 1963). * ''Human Relations and Hospital Care'' ([[Ann Cartwright]], 1964). * ''Innovation and Research in Education'' ([[Michael Young, Baron Young of Dartington|Michael Young]], 1965). * ''Adolescent Boys of East London'' ([[Peter Willmott (sociologist)|Peter Willmott]], 1966). * ''Working Class Community'' ([[Brian Jackson (educator)|Brian Jackson]], 1968). * ''The Symmetrical Family: A study of work and leisure in the London Region'' ([[Michael Young, Baron Young of Dartington|Michael Young]] and [[Peter Willmott (sociologist)|Peter Willmott]], 1973).
== Notes == <references />
[[Category:Organisations based in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets]] [[Category:Social science research institutes]] [[Category:Independent research institutes]] [[Category:Research institutes established in 1954]] [[Category:Research institutes in London]]