This project is a study of decision-making processes related to livelihood strategies and prosperity in the context of mass displacement and informal labour markets in Lebanon. Informal labour markets are growing around the world, even in contexts where GDP growth is strong. Yet, there is a dearth of up-to-date data on such markets, how they function within broader livelihood strategies, and how their dynamics operate at individual, household, community and regional scales. This study focuses on an innovative interdisciplinary methodological and theoretical framework to improve our understanding of informal labour markets and their connections to livelihoods and sustainable prosperity under conditions of uncertainty and resource constraint. The project aims to develop a series of methods, models and concepts for understanding livelihood decision-making from the perspective of various actors/agents in Lebanon, across a range of factors such as age, gender, educational qualifications and legal status. Employing an innovative and multi-disciplinary range of insights, methods and tools from anthropology, psychology, econometrics, and behavioural economics, we will build a deeper understanding of both the contributions and the opportunity costs associated with informality in the context of real evidence about people’s location, migration, livelihood and employment preferences. Funded by the Leverhulme Trust. Principal Investigator: Dame H. L. Moore (UCL) Total Grant Value:£250,012

In the first half of 2019, the EU recorded an increase of 21% new asylum-seekers compared to 2018, being minors almost a third of them. Coping with the highly complex situation faced by refugee and migrant children adds an additional pressure to educational and mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) systems. REFUGE-ED brings together a consortium of 9 partners (from research institutions, to NGOs) from 7 countries to create the Brokering Knowledge Platform (BKP), which will host innovative high-quality solutions addressed to the dynamic integration of migrant children in schools and society. For so doing, REFUGE-ED will identify, implement, and test effective practices in education and MHPSS that promote the educational success, well-being and sense of belonging of children (0-18 years old- ISCED 0-3) from recent migration cohorts, refugees and asylum seekers, and unaccompanied minors. The ground-breaking nature of the BKP relies on its focus on the integration between the fields of education and MHPSS, and on its dialogic co-creation with children, families, teachers, practitioners, policymakers, among other stakeholders, providing the basis for THEeducation system throughout Europe to become authentic refuge for all children. REFUGE-ED will use the Supportive Process for the Inclusion of Children’s Experience (SPICE) under the communicative methodology, to carry out 3 multisite pilot actions across 6 countries (Sweden, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria), in a total of 46 “Communities of Practice and Learning”: hotspots/reception identification, inclusive schools and non-formal/informal social and learning environments, and institutional care (including unaccompanied minors). Informed by these pilots, the co-created BKP will provide solutions to support the reuse, scalability and sustainability of these practices. Ultimately, REFUGE-ED will provide recommendations to stimulate the dynamic integration of migrant children, targeted at four audiences: (1) children and families, (2) communities, civil society organizations and local service providers, (3) schools and teaching staff (including school counsellors or other focal points working on MHPSS needs in the educational arena) and (4) policymakers. Funded by the European Commission – Horizon 2020 program. Under KMOP – Social Innovation Action Centre Total Grant Value: EUR 2.997.830

For a long time, the goal of economic policy has often been about improving productivity across regions as a pathway towards prosperity and wellbeing. This is problematic both because productivity figures are based on aggregate values of income, wealth, GDP, and GVA and because it is widely recognised that a series of factors including geography, institutions, culture, infrastructure and governance impact directly on productivity differences. The weight and significance of these factors remain poorly understood, and this accounts in large part for the continuing frustration of the UK ‘productivity puzzle’ and structural inequalities. ​ The prosperity of individuals and communities cannot be reduced to aggregate analyses of income, wealth or GDP; it encompasses a series of effects produced in specific times and places through the relationships established by living well together in functioning social, economic, political and ecological systems. Furthermore, the close relationship between political institutions, citizen needs and perceptions, and successful economic transformation in the 21st century has laid down new parameters and created new forms of uncertainty and volatility. ​ In the current context of the Covid-19 crisis, understanding these relationships and identifying what the priorities, infrastructures and mechanisms necessary for developing an economy of belonging, make exploring how to integrate emerging macroeconomic analysis with more local level knowledge a priority. ​ This definitively different from policies formulated through demands to raise GDP, prevent overheating in the economy or determine labour market performance. It requires a new approach directed towards quality of life and long-term prosperity of people and places. This research project explores how macroeconomics can take account of these new uncertainties. By setting up the case and challenges for developing an economy of belonging, this project seeks to rework the relationship between macroeconomics and policy development, on the one hand, and place, livelihoods and infrastructures, on the other hand Funded by the Economics and Social sciences Research Council (ESRC)