Clemmie Hill O'Connor

This week @clemmiehilloconnor.bsky.social & are presenting at the Scottish Government's Public Participation Learning Network our paper on lived experience as evidence. Info on the paper available here in this SKAPE @uoe-sps.bsky.social blog: www.skape.ed.ac.uk/skape-lived-...

I got directions to someone's office that was reminiscent of a quest from Ye Olde Times...I had to find a compass!

New paper with @lisagarnham.bsky.social @profellenstu.bsky.social & @clemmiehilloconnor.bsky.social finds housing 3Cs (context, cost, condition) are recognised by researchers, policymakers & publics but only lived experience accounts centre a 4th C—control: journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jc...

And thanks to @oliverescobar.bsky.social for giving really helpful feedback on an early draft and to everyone who attended our symposium at the @socialpolicyuk.bsky.social last year

Your can find the paper here doi.org/10.1332/0305...

We hope that by outlining a governance-driven perspective we offer both terminology and specificity to improve understanding and assist researchers and practitioners to navigate diverse developments in this area.

We argue that this illustrates the ways that policy ‘elites’ are required to design processes that serve specific policy needs and that these needs are often related to organisational norms about producing and using specific forms of evidence.

We explore this in the context of Scottish anti-poverty policy making and show that, while the language of participation and deliberation feature in the rationale, these ideas are squeezed out as institutional needs and norms take precedent.

We find that, although lived experience is often considered as a democracy-driven and campaigning movement that challenges traditional forms of expertise and power, it is also driven by state-led processes of participation and thus could be considered an example of governance-driven democratisation.

We wanted to use some of our previous research to offer some conceptual clarity, critical reflection, and perhaps ‘something useful’ to say about the use of Lived Experience in anti-poverty making (in Scotland).

Hayley and I have been discussing and reflecting on the increased use of the term ‘lived experience’ and the different ways it was being used. We know that there are many people working in and around this space and lots of aspects to be discussed and examined.

Thanks to everyone who has already read and engaged with mine and @haylesben.bsky.social new paper ‘Lived experience as evidence in anti-poverty policy making: a governance-driven perspective’ Thought I'd give a summary of the paper here, I've found it useful when others have done this, so here goes

This is great- particularly ‘just basically not being a dick’ - we could do with a bit more of that all round!

Help please: we're trying to recruit some more parent research participants in Scotland for our #FamilyFinances project. Specifically: parents who are receiving #UniversalCredit and #ScottishChildPayment and who have at least one baby (0-12months) in the household. Can you help spread the word?

It's publication day! Very excited to share this article co-authored with @haylesben.bsky.social Lived experience as evidence in anti-poverty policy making: a governance-driven perspective. bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journal...

I'm delighted that this paper has been accepted. @haylesben.bsky.social and I started discussing the ideas in the paper many, many moons ago. Two babies, three reviewers, two rounds of revisions and lots of coffee (me) and tea (Hayley) later I'm excited to be to share this asap!

Delighted to be joining the Exec Committee of the Social Policy Association @socialpolicyuk.bsky.social I've been lucky enough to benefit from involvement in the SPA over the years and excited to get into the work of supporting our great Social Policy community.

Last morning of @easp-spa-2025.bsky.social conference and what a few days it’s been! Returning to Glasgow feeling grateful for fantastic colleagues and the important work they are doing #york2025

Delighted to be at @easp-spa-2025.bsky.social - a packed programme with lots of fantastic looking options. Been a struggle to choose which sessions to attend #york2025

Guest blog: Where does lived experience sit in the work of the Parliament? This guest blog gives introduces and shares interim findings from a SPICe fellowship by Dr Clementine Hill O’Conner (University of Glasgow) on the role of lived experience within scrutiny at …

More from me on my work exploring the role of lived experience in the Scottish Parliament. Some early findings I recently presented to parliament staff spice-spotlight.scot/2025/06/25/g...

“It’s Like Getting Someone Who’s Been Hit by a Car to Run a Speed Awareness Course”: How Young Activists in the UK Make Sense of Personal, Collective and Institutional Agency - Silvia Behrens, 2025 Current research into youth activism places emphasis on agency, but few empirical studies have looked into how the perception of agency impacts young people’s e...

New #openaccess publication in Youth & Society: Based on focus group research, this paper explores how young people politically active for #ClimateChange, the #BlackLivesMatter movement and #queerfeminism think about personal, collective and institutional agency.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Great to see this fab piece of work being publish! Congratulations :-)

Better Buses for Strathclyde logo. Please support SPT's bus franchising plans.

🚌 Deadline 5pm tomorrow!
We all need freedom to travel - but too often our buses are too dear for people on low incomes and don't take them where they need to go. We support public control and ownership of our bus services - you can too!
www.getglasgowmoving.org/campaign/srbs/

Really pleased to be able to share this intro to my research as part of an Academic Fellowship with Scottish Parliament. I'm in the midst of data generation and analysis at the moment so was good to return to my initial ideas and motivation. Watch this space for more outputs over the coming months

Check out our newest blog reflecting on our most recent piece of research on social care.

The findings of the research highlight urgent challenges in pay, retention & recognition of care as vital, skilled work. A message that's worth repeating this week.

www.swbg.org.uk/news/blog/vo...

Against segregation - protest the EHRC. 2nd May, 12pm, 140 West George Street Glasgow

Just announced by a coalition of Glasgow groups - lunchtime protest outside the local office of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, opposing their call for trans segregation. Friday 2nd May, 12pm-2pm.

Advertising new @unistrathclyde.bsky.social PhD studentship (covers fees + stipend), as part of new ESRC Centre @equalise.bsky.social. We've kept the application as broad as possible as we're keen to support someone to undertake research that they have designed: www.strath.ac.uk/studywithus/... 1/2

Community development in the second Trump era

[OPEN-ACCESS] Our Co-Editors Ruth Pearce & Kirsty Lohman write in the Editorial for our latest issue, on challenges to global community development practice in the Second Trump Era, on bottom-up organising and information-sharing, and the excellent content available in this issue #CDJ #Editorial

Sounds like there might be some overlapping interests it would be good to explore! I’ll check out the project and let you know once I have anything from the fellowship that I can share

Fantastic funded PhD opportunity @uofgussp.bsky.social with two incredibly supportive supervisors @profellenstu.bsky.social and Prof Sotiria Grek