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UCL, Citizens UK and More in Common are uniting to help us understand how we can successfully live together as a country despite the fault lines of belief and experience that threaten to divide us.
The times in which we live are characterised by ethnic, religious, social and economic divisions, many of which are being whipped up by malign forces politically, here and overseas. At the same time, changes in technology and media are transforming how we connect with and understand those around us.
In the summer of 2024, in the aftermath of the grotesque attack in Southport, towns and cities across England witnessed the explosion of social tensions at an intensity not seen for many years. The months following these riots have had a continual undercurrent of threat and anxiety, with populist politics on the rise both in Britain and overseas.
In the aftermath of the riots, groups across civil society were convened to understand why the riots had happened and what could be done to stop explosions of this kind from happening in the future.
Following these conversations, a consensus emerged that we must work out how to live together again. For too long, a rift has been allowed to grow between people of different communities and, even more notably, between people in their everyday lives and those who seek to rule from Westminster or Whitehall. Ours is an age when people feel increasingly forgotten or disrespected and tension grows in the void left between people and politics.
This Place Matters is about working collectively to look to both the present and the past, listen and work with those who are closest to significant challenges and tensions today, and return to earlier investigations of and lessons learned by the generations that have come before us.
The project is aimed at all the major political parties and is conducted in partnership with the Pears Foundation, This Day and Unbound Philanthropy.
