Research Rooms are informal online spaces for discussion with members of the research team from academia, practice and communities.
About this session
This session explores how neighbourhood environments shape access to everyday services and, in turn, influence health and inequality. Grounded in the University of Glasgow’s OPTIMA (Orienting Policy Towards Inequality Minimising Action) project, it introduces a population-scale approach to understanding “local living” across the UK.
Using the 20-minute neighbourhood as a guiding framework, the project maps access to key amenities—such as healthcare, food, and green space—across Great Britain and examines how these patterns vary across levels of deprivation. The session invites participants to reflect on how place-based planning can better support equitable, healthy communities.
Areas of Exploration
Themes we will explore in this session include:
- Local living – What does it mean for a neighbourhood to support daily life within 20 minutes, and how does this vary across contexts?
- Service and amenity access – How access to essential resources is distributed spatially, and where gaps or clustering occur.
- Health inequalities – How differences in local environments may reinforce or mitigate existing social and health inequalities.
- Co-produced in research – including community systems mapping workshops, a Public and Patient Involvement and Engagement group, and public engagement projects at the Glasgow Science Festival to inform, shape, and disseminate the research
You might like to have a look at the OPTIMA StoryMap before you join the session. However, this is entirely optional. Do also feel free to just turn up and find out more.
[Tickets for this event are free. Please register in advance.]