NCSG’s “InPLACE” study in Ireland covered in Local Authority Times

NCSG and Irish research partner the ICLRD are embarking on a new study to assess how COVID-19 has changed commuting patterns and places in Ireland. Read more here.

Understanding the changing relationship between work and home Since early 2020, COVID-19 has been a major disruptor in all our lives. The global pandemic has dramatically changed the activity patterns of individuals and families, transforming everyday geographies, and the scale at which we live. It has created challenges and opportunities for local authorities, and for small and medium sized towns in particular. In the longer-term, the implications for places and communities are potentially profound. One of the areas where this is most clearly seen is the changing relationship between work and home. The enforced switch to home working significantly reduced commuting to work for many and has opened greater possibilities for hybrid or remote models of working in the future. Policies and practices in local and national government have begun to address the changing pattern in how we live and work, for example, with changing approaches to town and village renewal, digitisation and pedestrianisation in towns. Nationally, Our Rural Future and the National Remote Work Strategy strongly identify the need to support telecommuting and flexible working

Over the past fifteen years, the International Centre for Local and Regional Development (ICLRD) has been supporting local authorities and other actors to enhance their capacity to understand and implement strategies focused on place-making. The ICLRD is a north-south-USA partnership that involves Maynooth University, Ulster University and the University of Maryland’s National Center for Smart Growth (NCSG). Its multidisciplinary team combines academic and practitioner expertise in spatial planning, geography, local and regional development and good governance. Together with University College Dublin and Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, the ICLRD isleading a two-year action research programme investigating the impacts of pre- and post-COVID commuting on people and place. The study is titled ‘InPLACE: Investigating Place, Planning and Commuting.’