The Research Centre for Micro-Social Change (MiSoC): Understanding individual and family behaviours in a new era of uncertainty and change

我们社会的变化是由长期的社会和经济趋势以及经济衰退和财政紧缩的影响所驱动的。微观社会变革研究中心的新研究方案由五个社会趋势推动：1)就业市场的新特点正在改变不同群体的命运；Ii)改变家庭结构和关系；（三）改革和削减住房、教育、保健和福利的提供；社会和政治信仰的瓦解，民族和宗教多样性的增加；V)改变我们的价值观，更能接受个人自由，更能容忍不平等。当然，现代社会总是在变化，但未来十年将面临新的挑战。对许多人来说，经济衰退、财政紧缩和不稳定的复苏意味着前景黯淡。家庭、朋友和邻居之间的联系，随着英国变得更加富裕和个人流动性的增加而减弱，在困难时期受到了进一步的压力。我们的新研究项目旨在指出社会可以继续融合不同背景、偏好和能力的人的方法。这项研究将由埃塞克斯大学社会与经济研究所（ISER）的一个专家小组领导，与英国和其他国家的合作者合作，并将由经济学教授迈克·布鲁尔和人口研究教授大卫·沃斯共同指导。我们的工作涵盖三个主要领域：第一个领域审查个人和家庭如何受到其生活环境变化的影响并作出反应，包括对其健康、残疾、收入和生活安排的冲击。我们的研究人员将特别关注新的福利制度，如福利的变化，如何保护家庭。我们将通过提出衡量贫困的新方法，并提供有关贫困动态的新证据，为有关贫困的重要辩论作出重大贡献。第二部分调查社会的新成员——儿童、年轻人和新移民——如何发展并融入社会。我们将分析父母、学校、同伴和社会如何相互作用，影响儿童心理、社会和身体技能的发展，以及童年不利的长期后果。我们也会看看为什么有些人从获得大学学位中获得的比其他人更多。我们将提供关于少数民族融合的新证据，以及这种融合在个体之间的差异。我们将研究新移民的经历，以及移民家庭的特征和行为是如何在几代人之间传递的。第三个研究领域调查价值观、态度、期望、品味或偏好和身份是如何形成的，以及它们如何与我们的教育、就业和家庭结构联系在一起。更好地理解这一点将有助于决策者制定最佳政策，帮助更多的人过上成功、幸福的生活。我们如何研究当今社会面临的重要问题与研究本身同样重要，因此我们的方法论工作综合计划将帮助研究人员更好地检查具体政策的影响，并就处理他们在研究中使用的来自调查数据的有时不完整的信息的新方法提出建议。我们希望这一研究计划能够使英国和其他国家在一系列领域参与政策辩论、政策设计和实践的广泛组织受益，并为关键的政策选择提供证据，例如干预儿童生活的晚期或早期之间的平衡、家庭和更广泛的社会在个人发展中的作用、普遍或有针对性的支持或弱势群体安全网之间的选择。价值观，期望和偏好与结构的相对作用决定了我们的行为。

Changes to our society are being driven by both long-term social and economic trends, and the impacts of recession and austerity. Five social trends drive the new research programme of the Research Centre on Micro-Social Change (MiSoC): i) new features of the job market that are changing the fortunes of different groups of people; ii) changing family set-up and relationships; iii) reform of and cut-backs in the provision of housing, education, health, and benefits; iv) breaking down of social and political beliefs, and increasing ethnic and religious diversity; v) changes in our values to be more accepting of personal freedom and more tolerant of inequality. Of course, modern societies are always changing, but the next decade poses new challenges. Recession, austerity and the patchy nature of the recovery mean things looks bleak for many. Ties between family, friends and neighbours, weakening as the UK grew richer and as individuals became more mobile, have been put under further stress by hard times. Our new research programme aims to point to ways in which society can continue to integrate people with diverse backgrounds, preferences and abilities. The research will be led by a team of experts at the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex, with collaborators across the UK and in other countries, and will be directed jointly by Mike Brewer, Professor of Economics and David Voas, Professor of Population Studies. Our work covers three main areas: The first area examines how individuals and families are affected by and react to changes in their life circumstances, including shocks to their health, disability, income and living arrangements. Our researchers will pay special attention to the way that new welfare systems, such as changes to benefits, protect households. We will be making a major contribution to important debates on poverty by advancing new ways of measuring poverty, and with new evidence on the dynamics of poverty. The second investigates how new members of society - children, young people and new migrants -develop and are integrated into it. We will analyse how parents, school, peers and society interact to influence the development of children's mental, social and physical skills, and the long-term consequences of childhood disadvantage. We will also look at how some people get more out of gaining a university degree than others. We will provide new evidence on the integration of ethnic minorities, and how this varies across individuals. We will look at the experience of new migrants, and how characteristics and behaviours are passed between generations in migrant families. The third area of research investigates how values, attitudes, expectations, tastes or preferences and identity are formed, and how they are linked to our education, employment and family set-up. A better understanding of this will help policy-makers come up with the best policies to help more people live successful, happy lives.How we research the important issues facing society today is just as important as the research itself, so our integrated programme of methodological work will help researchers to better examine the impact of specific policies, and to advise on new ways to handle the sometimes incomplete information which comes from survey data they are using in their research.We expect this programme of research to benefit a wide range of organisations involved in policy debates, policy design and practice, in a range of domains, located in the UK and other countries, and provide evidence informing key policy choices, such as the balance between intervening late or early in children's lives, the role of family and wider society in an individual's development, the choice between universal or targeted support or safety nets for the vulnerable, and the relative roles of values, expectations and preferences versus structure in determining how we act.