Centre of Resilience for Social Justice

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.

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

What we do

The Centre of Resilience for Social Justice, together with its social network organisation, Boingboing, is committed to developing research, entrepreneurial practice and impacts which improve the world by addressing health, social and ecological inequalities and challenges.

Our resilience research community includes international academics and community partners from many countries including Australia, Canada, Greece, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, Sweden and Wales. The work of our area connects strongly with the work of the Community University Partnership Programme (CUPP).

Our work brings research-based resources and initiatives to communities seeking to beat and change the odds that are against them.

Join us for study, work or visit

The Centre of Resilience for Social Justice brings research directly to the benefit of communities nationally and internationally.

We welcome new members and associate members. We also welcome the opportunity to work with health and social care organisations and professionals, schools and local government authorities. We have close ties with academics and their institutions globally, working on research towards the understanding and practical applications of resilience methods.

Find out below more about

• studying for your PhD in resilience, including funding opportunities, research career development and our current postgraduate researchers.
• benefitting from our work in academic resilience and resilience for young and vulnerable people
• joining us as a member or associate member
• keeping in touch with the Centre of Resilience for Social Justice through our newsletter and social media

We also look forward to hearing from University of Brighton staff researching in this area who are not yet members of the centre. Visit our blogsite for more information on membership types and details of application.

Study for your PhD in healthcare and resilience with the Centre of Resilience for Social Justice

The Centre of Resilience for Social Justice fosters a rich and rewarding postgraduate research student culture, with membership of the centre and participation in projects and events throughout the programme.

For those joining us as student researchers, ambitious and talented postgraduate research students are at the heart of the research and enterprise activities within the Centre of Resilience for Social Justice.

Our doctoral students past and present work on resilience related to practitioners, schools, work, mental health, parents and disability. Some of them are active practitioners in these fields themselves. They are all active members of the resilience forum and work closely with Boingboing too.

Recent and current PhD students have been successful in obtaining studentships covering both fees and living costs through the University of Brighton’s involvement in the ESRC South Coast Doctoral Training Programme.

See current PhD students and supervisors in our 'Who we are' pages and find out more through the university's programme page for PhD in health and wellbeing | PhD in resilience.

As well as this, our staff members inform the teaching in many areas of the university, bringing resilience to prominence in the thinking of a wide variety of people. We have training programmes through Boingboing which are accredited through the university's Recognising the Educational Quality (REQ®) scheme, currently awarded to ‘Supporting Academic Resilience Approach (SARA)’ and ‘Facilitating Resilient Therapy (FRT)'.

Become a member or join our work through Boingboing and the Centre of Resilience for Social Justice

The Centre of Resilience for Social Justice is highly co-productive with a strong emphasis on collaboration and outreach.

Our approach focuses on the University of Brighton’s extended networks, both across its own disciplinary boundaries, and with practitioners, community groups and individual partners within the UK and overseas.

We are keen to establish contact with all organisations who might benefit from insight into resilience and to invite anyone interested in resilience to our regular events and activities.

Membership and associate membership

The Centre of Resilience for Social Justice is made up of network of researchers brought together through a shared commitment to research centred on building resilience and tackling disadvantage. We welcome new members.

Membership of the Centre of Resilience for Social Justice is not limited to staff and students at the University of Brighton; people outside the University of Brighton can be Associate Members of the Centre of Resilience for Social Justice.

This includes academics, professionals, practitioners, young people and parents. The CRSJ draws its members from diverse fields including healthcare, education, social sciences, business, sports sciences, humanities, media studies and arts practices and includes international academics and community partners from many countries including Australia, Canada, Greece, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Turkey, and Wales.

Who we are

We are a team of university academics, health and social workers, young people, service users, students, teachers, trainers and parents.

Our University of Brighton academics work co-productively with communities through our Boingboing organisation, developed by service users, parents, young people and practitioners for resilience development and implementation.

It is essential to the Centre of Resilience for Social Justice that our membership extends beyond the university and we think it is important that diverse groups of people be involved in the CRSJ. Our small budget is split so that a third of it is spent on community member participation. Since our inception, we have included students and community members on our management board. Community members working alongside academics are associate members and we really value them.

Our close collaborations, nationally and internationally are with partners in health organisations, academic departments, local councils and not-for-profit organisations.

Our management group is: Professor Angie Hart (Director), Dr Suna Eryigit-Madzwamuse (Deputy-director), Dr Josh Cameron (lead on adult resilience), Professor Phil Haynes (lead on systems resilience), Shahnaz Biggs and Mirika Flegg (postgraduate student representatives), Patricia Castanheira, (lead on role resilience) Lisa Buttery (co-production and service user involvement), Dr Becky Heaver, Anne Rathbone (lead impact).

Your PhD at the University of Brighton will develop your professional skills as a researcher in your chosen discipline, and enable you to make your original contribution to knowledge, working alongside dedicated academics in a vibrant, supportive community.

The University of Brighton has a rich scholarly history, particularly in applied research. We pride ourselves on academic work that has a major public impact, on our innovative approaches to the generation and dissemination of knowledge, and our part in the progress of new and under-represented disciplines.

We have an enviable record of preparing students for their place in the wider world. Our PhD students benefit from an approach that recognises the value of rigorous research study and the transferable, high-level skillsets that are developed in the work towards a PhD thesis. We also offer our students the benefit of our strong connections to regional, national and international research networks, industry, public services and professional associations.

Our supportive environment will place you with an expert supervisory team, typically of two supervisors, and will embed your work within the research of specialist departments. Most students are introduced as members of several research communities; you will be based within a specialist disciplinary school and within focused research groups and/or Centres of Research and Enterprise Excellence (COREs). You'll also have opportunities to join students across the university through our Doctoral College and its training programmes.

We recognise doctoral research as the lifeblood of all universities; we welcome our PhD students as the next generation of researchers and scholars, who will continue the mission to generate new knowledge and address the global challenges that face us all.