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Banner showing symbols of human resilience through creative and research practice including hand printed green heart and purple bird, lantern modelling and banner-making
Centre of Resilience for Social Justice
  • What we do
  • Join us for study, work and visit
  • Who we are
  • What is Resilience Research?

Centre of Resilience for Social Justice

Working directly through our social enterprise and network, which is known as 'Boingboing', the Centre of Resilience for Social Justice tackles disadvantage and brings genuine change to people's lives around the world.

Research and enterprise feed off each other through our committed co-production model. This ensures genuine impact and an academic rigour that can offer real-world solutions to a range of different communities and their individual challenges.

The set of extended networks we have fostered work across disciplinary and linguistic boundaries, bringing us closer to all kinds of practitioners, community groups and individual partners.

  • For latest activities, events and opportunities, visit our Centre of Resilience for Social Justice blog site
  • We welcome new members and associates and everyone who can benefit from our support and development of resilience in young and vulnerable people. Please visit our 'Join us for study, work or visit' pages. 

 

PhD applicants - find out more on studying with the centre and potential funding

Contact the centre to join us in our work, or keep in touch with the centre through our Boingboing newsletter. 

resilience@brighton.ac.uk

Slightly abstract drawing of young people

What we do

Children's hands with a heart painted across them all.

Join us for study, work and visit

A group of people gathered for a photograph outside university buildings - the Centre of Resilience and Social Justice Team

Who we are

Discover our latest research activity
Visit our blog site for work-in-progress, events and opportunities.

Discover our research in detail
Explore our centre through the university's database of research and knowledge exchange.

Professor Angie Hart, Director of Boingboing and the University of Brighton Centre of Resilience for Social Justice

An introduction to the Centre of Resilience for Social Justice from the Director, Professor Angie Hart

Imagine if we could work across whole communities to bring new opportunity and potential to people most disadvantaged by the way we run society. Imagine how children and adults facing really tough times might be equipped to change the odds that are against them. Imagine how people living in unfair circumstances might be empowered to reengage with and strengthen a supportive community.

The Centre of Resilience for Social Justice at the University of Brighton works towards these aims and more. It brings academic research directly into the places it can do the most good, working through communities of practice to embed resilient therapy and resilience patterns into daily lives. 

We are a diverse community ourselves. We are academics, social workers, teachers, experts through experience and service users. We have colleagues joining us from across academia, community organisations, healthcare and the public sector. We are researchers who cross the fields of healthcare, sociology, media studies and arts practices.  Some of us have multiple identities, of course, and together we have built an international reputation for work that addresses physical and mental health, social and ecological inequalities across the UK, Europe and Africa.

What do we mean by resilience and resilience research?

In the sphere of human health and society, resilience refers to the means through which we make a positive reaction to adversity. By conducting research into resilience, we discover new ways in which people can understand their own and their community's resilience, build emotional resilience and use this to make changes towards social justice.

Definitions of resilience include the sense of rebounding, of bouncing back from problems, but also confronting and changing those problems. That's why we named our social partner initiative in resilience research and impact 'Boingboing'. As we said in a publication some years ago, "By conducting resilience research we are working with whole communities in developing robust theories that bring about meaningful change. Overcoming adversity, whilst also potentially changing, or even dramatically transforming, (aspects of) that adversity." (Uniting resilience research and practice with an inequalities approach, Hart et al., 2016, p.3). Or, put even more simply, "Beating the odds, whilst also changing the odds".

We use the term ‘inequalities imagination’ to describe what is required for a practitioner to take proper account of how social, economic and health inequalities in their environment impact on child and family difficulties. Developing an inequalities imagination will support a practical understanding of how wider social forces affect the capacities of individuals to change their own lives. Through this, the communities we work with develop a mental resilience and emotional resilience which not only helps them survive but allows them to thrive by effectively transforming the adversity they face.

Follow the Centre of Resilience for Social Justice and join in with our work

We can't steer this major research towards the impact it deserves without you. We welcome groups and individuals to join us, to understand what they can do for their own communities – and then do it.  On our 'Join us for study, work or visit,' you'll find ways you can join us as a member or associate, how you can take advantage of our regular news and events updates and how you can get in touch to make resilience for social justice part of your own community outlook.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Professor Angie Hart

 

News features on the Centre of Resilience for Social Justice

The Centre of Resilience for Social Justice on the University of Brighton news pages

Funded PhD opportunities in the UK 2023 at the University of Brighton

Funded PhD opportunities in the UK 2023 at the University of Brighton

Funded PhDs across sciences, arts, humanities and social sciences. Study for your postgraduate research degree.

Brighton joins major new nationwide programme to boost mental health

Brighton joins major new nationwide programme to boost mental health

The University of Brighton is contributing to a project to boost the UK's national mental health support infrastructure, while promoting greater social justice.

Revolution in resilience - the key to meeting challenges from mental health and adversity

Revolution in resilience - the key to meeting challenges from mental health and adversity

When individuals have challenges that seem insurmountable, the answer may lie in communities' building of an often ignored factor called 'resilience'.

Can fighting for what you believe in through community projects improve mental health?

Can fighting for what you believe in through community projects improve mental health?

Encouraging young people who face challenges to take part in community projects may be as successful in improving their mental health than traditional services.

National youth award for teenage researcher

National youth award for teenage researcher

A British Citizen Youth Award has been awarded to a 15-year-old Brighton researcher for her work helping provide resilience to vulnerable young people.

The Resilience Revolution

The Resilience Revolution

University of Brighton research has helped ignite a “Resilience Revolution” that is helping to better equip young people to overcome adversity.

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Our researchers write for

Logo for news service The Conversation

  • Brussels terror attack victims show how humans help each other in times of crisis. Chris Cocking.

  • Hillsborough’s lesson – don’t fear the crowd. Chris Cocking.

News and events from our blog site 

Remote Campaigning, Working and Living: The Impact on our Ability to Influence Social Change – Thursday 24 Feb 2022

Remote Campaigning, Working and Living: The Impact on our Ability to Influence Social Change – Thursday 24 Feb 2022

Topic Remote Campaigning, Working and Living: The Impact on Our Ability to Influence Social Change – Simone Aspis Date Thursday 24 February 2022 Time 16:00 – 17:30 GMT Location Online (please arrive in the online platform 5 minutes prior) Price  Free Tickets  Book a.

Register for your FREE place at our International Resilience Revolution Conference – 30 & 31 March 2022

Register for your FREE place at our International Resilience Revolution Conference – 30 & 31 March 2022

Day 1: Wednesday 30 March (Blackpool and online) Day 2: Thursday 31 March 2022 (online only) Following postponement due to the pandemic, we invite you to take part in our International Resilience Revolution Conference, which is now taking place on.

The relationship between hope and resilience – Wednesday 29 September 2021

The relationship between hope and resilience – Wednesday 29 September 2021

Topic  The relationship between hope and resilience – Elaine Foster-Gandey, Alex Gurr, Evelyn Palmer and Abigail Horn Date  Wednesday 29 September 2021 Time  4:00-5:30 pm Location  Online (please arrive in the online platform 5 minutes prior) Price  Free Tickets  Book.

Mind The Gap: How we can support our young people in the wait for CAMHS – Friday 27 August 2021

Mind The Gap: How we can support our young people in the wait for CAMHS – Friday 27 August 2021

Topic  Mind The Gap: How we can support our young people in the wait for CAMHS – Abigail Turley and Charlotte Cockman Date  Friday 27 August 2021 Time  4:00-5:30 pm Location  Online (please arrive in the online platform 5 minutes.

Read more from our blog

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