Michael Howcroft

The UK School Meals Service 1944–Present: A Sensory and Emotional Experience This article explores the sensory and emotional dimensions of the UK School Meals Service (SMS) since 1944, arguing that the lived experiences of pupils, teachers, parents, catering staff, and poli...

🍽️ New publication from USSP's @ellenlaurab.bsky.social as co-author when at @wlvuni.bsky.social, exploring the sensory and emotional history of the UK School Meals Service since 1944 👉https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0046760X.2025.2564358 @uofgsps.bsky.social

Just City by the Med Research network exploring social justice and inequality in Mediterranean urban contexts.

Just City by the Med Research Network connects researchers investigating social justice and inequality in cities and exploring pathways towards just urban futures, through the context of the Mediterranean. Check justcitymed.org for details 👇

That’s a win!

» Civic Imaginaries of Frome: Creative Collaboration Call this four-year project brings together communities, policy makers, researchers and artists to ask what being civic means in the United Kingdom right now

We are advertising an £11,000 commission for an artist to work with us in Frome between December 2025 and July 2026! Check out our website for full call details, including a link to an Expression of Interest form. Deadline is midnight Sunday 2nd November! civicimaginaries.gla.ac.uk/civic-imagin...

We're delighted to share the animation created by My Pockets in collaboration with attendees at the The Freedom Centre Hull Family Fun Day last week! | Civic Imaginary Partnerships We're delighted to share the animation created by My Pockets in collaboration with attendees at the The Freedom Centre Hull Family Fun Day last week! We asked attendees to collage a face of someone wh...

Check out the animation from the Freedom Centre Family Fun Day on our LinkedIn page to see the collage faces of people who represent power in the lives of the attendees!
www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

The research team had a brilliant visit to Frome last week filled with discussions on fieldwork planning, getting to know the area, and meeting our research partners in person. | Civic Imaginary Partn... The research team had a brilliant visit to Frome last week filled with discussions on fieldwork planning, getting to know the area, and meeting our research partners in person. We also enjoyed engagin...

Check out our post on LinkedIn about our visit to Frome last week to plan our fieldwork later in the year and join in on Great Big Green Week events 💚♻️🍃 www.linkedin.com/posts/civic-...

Last week we visited the Marfleet community in Hull for The Freedom Centre Hull Family Fun Day! | Civic Imaginary Partnerships Last week we visited the Marfleet community in Hull for The Freedom Centre Hull Family Fun Day! With Peter Snelling and Julia Colley from My Pockets film company and Safiye Özge Subaşı, our fabulous a...

Last week we ran an art and animation activity at the Freedom Centre Family Fun Day in Hull! We invited attendees to collage a face of someone who has power in their lives and made them come to life using stop motion animation. Learn more about the event on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

The image on the right is of the interior of Salaborsa. Once a fortress, botanical garden, basketball and boxing arena, trading centre, restaurant, bank, and a puppet theatre, it's now one of the most important public libraries in Bologna, a hub for community activities and an interface of civic action.

Policy and urban co-production are embedded through all levels of governance in Bologna and the Foundation of Urban Innovation is at the centre of this work, leading on (amongst other things) Collaboration Pacts which support how the 3rd sector and municipality work together.

They represented a pioneering example of engagement in local politics, centring on the idea of a ‘civic consortium’ & a planning policy that engaged peripheral neighbourhoods - starting a series of social & urban experiments in the municipality that continues to this day.

Meet Giuseppe Dossetti, who ran, unsuccessfully, for Mayor of Bologna in 1956. Though he lost the election (to the legendary communist mayor Giuseppe Dozza), aspects of his manifesto (Il libro bianco per Bologna), were taken up by the administration.

The intervention encourages reflection on the loss of place-identity, depopulation & urban decay happening in many Italian cities and cities across the world. As the local press report on the growth of the ‘bamboo’, they are also charting the rising number of abandoned buildings & absent landlords.

During conversations & walks with my fab hosts at the University of Bologna, I learned about different practices & geographies of civic care. E.g. the ‘Freak of Nature’ of Emilia Romagna: an anonymous artist who paints images of bamboo stalks, and numbers the windows of empty and abandoned shops.

The images here are of the city’s famous porticoes and towers, striking features of Bologna’s civic identity and examples of how the built environment can radically shape place through social interaction.

Bologna: A thread.
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For our @civicimaginaries.bsky.social project I have had three fantastic weeks in Bologna, learning about the city’s long history of neighbourhood action, the municipality’s approach to participation and commitment to policy co-production. Look out for a blog series soon.

Civic Imaginary Partnerships this four-year project brings together communities, policy makers, researchers and artists to ask what being civic means in the United Kingdom right now

Hello world! Excited to share our new project's website. Funded by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, the 4-year Civic Imaginary Partnerships Project brings together communities, policymakers, researchers and artists to ask what being civic means in the UK right now civicimaginaries.gla.ac.uk

Applications are open for PhD Scholarship ‘Civic imaginaries of Glasgow’.

Closing date 31 March 2025.

V grateful if folks could share with networks & especially with current Masters students who might be interested.

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