This ‘Minimum Digital Living Standard‘ project is a collaboration, involving researchers and professionals from the organisations below.
The team members have a range of expertise in the field of researching and tackling digital inequalities, understanding living standards and and the ways in which technology (devices and broadband) can assist families in their everyday lives. Please take the time to read each of their biographies.
We have developed a Minimum Digital Living Standard (MDLS) - the basket of “digital goods, services and skills” that facilitate an individual’s digital capabilities to effectively live a life they value.
Simeon is the Professor of Digital Culture in the Department of Communications and Media at the University of Liverpool and Joint Director of the Digital Media and Society Research Institute. He has undertaken research on the social, political and cultural impacts of digital media for over three decades. A major focus is on projects that address issues of digital inclusion and exclusion. He currently works with both academic and government colleagues to develop policy and interventions to support digital inclusion. This includes working with the UK’s Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the UK’s media regulator Ofcom, and the Welsh Government as well as charity organisations such as the Good Things Foundation, Cwmpas in Wales and SCVO in Scotland.
Dr Gianfranco Polizzi works in the Department of Communication and Media as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Liverpool. He is currently working on the development of a Minimum Digital Living Standard project as well as on a number of related projects.
Emma leads a team of specialist experts at Good Things Foundation. She is skilled in service design, user research, evaluation, data insights, marketing, communications, external affairs and advocacy.
Dr. Elinor Carmi is a Lecturer in Media and Communication at the Sociology Department at City University, London, UK. Dr. Carmi is a digital rights advocate, feminist, researcher and journalist who has been working, writing and teaching on data politics, data literacies, feminist approaches to media and data, sound studies and internet governance.
Paul joined Critical Research in 2017. He has more than 20 years research experience in both quantitative and qualitative techniques having worked across a number of areas including retail, finance and telecoms. Most recently Paul has been specialising in communications/ media research through his work on the Ofcom account.
Jocelle is a driven, innovative and passionate leader, whose career has been focused on improving social inclusion and tackling inequalities across Wales’ most disadvantaged communities. She has both operational experience working with disadvantaged & often socially excluded people and strategic management experience working with senior figures across Welsh Government and the private sector
Dan is Policy and Research Officer at Cwmpas, a development agency working for positive change in Wales. It delivers Digital Communities Wales, the Welsh Government’s flagship digital inclusion programme, and supports the third sector to develop its digital capabilities. Dan works to promote social enterprise, co-operative values and digital inclusion in policy. Before joining Cwmpas, Dan completed his PhD at Swansea University on entrepreneurship policy in Wales.
Alex Singleton is a Professor of Geographic Information Science at the University of Liverpool, where he was appointed as a Lecturer in 2010. Previously he held research positions at University College London, where he was also awarded a PhD in 2007. He completed a BSc in Geography at the University of Manchester, graduating with a First-class honours degree in 2003.
Abigail Davis is Co-Director and Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Social Policy(CRSP) at Loughborough University, where she has conducted research on poverty, social exclusion and living standards since 2000. She leads the team applying and developing CRSP’s innovative Minimum Income Standard (MIS) methodology, and has worked on the programme since its inception in 2006. She also develops and delivers training in MIS methodology through international partnerships and is a UK expert on the EU Reference Budget platform.
Simeon is the Professor of Digital Culture in the Department of Communications and Media at the University of Liverpool and Joint Director of the Digital Media and Society Research Institute. He has undertaken research on the social, political and cultural impacts of digital media for over three decades. A major focus is on projects that address issues of digital inclusion and exclusion. He currently works with both academic and government colleagues to develop policies and interventions to support digital inclusion. This includes working with the UK’s Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the UK’s media regulator Ofcom, and the Welsh Government as well as charity organisations such as the Good Things Foundation, Cwmpas in Wales and SCVO in Scotland.
Dr Chloe Blackwell is a Research Associate at the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University. She first joined the team in 2018 to undertake her PhD where she used the Minimum Income Standard (MIS) methodology to explore the needs of families raising children on the autism spectrum. Chloe has supported the team with many aspects of the MIS research, including in the recent work to adapt the methodology to understand digital living standards.
Tom coordinates the Data Poverty Lab and fellowship scheme at Good Things Foundation, helping to design more affordable solutions for the internet. He supports our advocacy by writing consultation responses and working closely with parliamentarians to fix the digital divide for good. Tom also monitors external statistical releases and designs qualitative research projects.
Rebecca Harris is a Research Associate within the department of Communication and Media Studies at the University of Liverpool. She begun this role in March 2022 and has since worked on a number of projects including: Nuffield and Welsh Government Funded: Developing a Minimum Digital Living Standard; Greater Manchester Combined Authority: Social Housing Digital Inclusion Pilots; AHRC Modern Slavery PEC: Digital experience of survivors. Prior to this, Rebecca completed her Undergraduate degree in the department of Communication and Media Studies at Loughborough University where she also completed her Masters in Information and Knowledge Management. She then continued at Loughborough University as a Doctoral Researcher investigating the impact of social media on the stress levels of students on placement in London.
Katherine is a Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) at Loughborough University. Her work has focussed on qualitative research around low income, social security policy, inequality and disadvantaged groups. She has conducted a series studies extending the main MIS research to establish how needs and costs vary across different households and is now using a similar approach as part of the MDLS team.
Matt Padley is Co-Director and Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) at Loughborough University, where he has pioneered work on retirement living standards in the UK, as well as leading research on living standards in London. He works across the innovative Minimum Income Standards (MIS) programme, leading on data analysis, and the application and development of MIS in the UK and globally. He sits on the Global Living Wage steering group and is on the board of the EU Reference Budget Platform.
Associate Professor (Reader) in Gender and Development at the University of Liverpool Management School where she also teaches in this area. She is the co-director of India in the World Research Centre and coordinate the Development Research Initiative (DRIVE) – a Multidisciplinary Knowledge Platform at the Management School.
Prof. Hamish Laing works at the University of Swansea. Appointed to a personal chair in the School of Management in 2018, Hamish has established a programme focussed on Value-Based Healthcare which led to his appointment in 2021 as Director of the Value-Based Health and Care (VBHC) Academy, part of the Welsh Government Intensive Learning Academy Programme. Hamish is passionate about the importance of Digital Inclusion and ensuring that people are not left behind by the digital revolution particularly in healthcare.
Dr Jeanette D’arcy is a Postdoctoral Research Assistant in the department of Communication and Media at the University of Liverpool. She is working on several projects focused on digital inequalities, including ‘Towards a Minimum Digital Living Standard’ and ‘Evaluating the Provision of Distributed Technology to Adults with Lived Experience of Modern Slavery’, as well as with the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. Her previous post was as a Qualitative Research Associate at the University of East Anglia, where she was part of the ‘Changing Conversations’ project, exploring the experiences of supporting children and young people with vulnerabilities in the area of digital resilience. She is Editor and Workflow Coordinator at The Comics Grid, the open-access online journal of Comics Scholarship, and regularly acts as a peer reviewer for several journals.