OUTSIDE INFLUENCE

'Outside Influence' is a community-led research initiative, which was established by Good Organisation in 2020.

It works with a diverse range of community groups and academic partners, as it seeks to strengthen participatory democracy by building knowledge around issues that local people care about.

While its core research focus is on the impact of tourism, the project looks beyond a 'business as usual' approach.

Tourism is often conceptualised purely in financial terms, with an emphasis on business growth, inward investment, development, and profit. However, this narrow perspective tends to neglect critical issues such as environmental sustainability, economic resilience and social challenges like housing affordability, transportation, and social mobility, which can compound deepening wealth disparities and fragment community cohesion.

Many of these concerns reflect similar tensions being seen across Europe, where public protests against over-tourism have become commonplace.

Our current research projects…

Y R K

'York Tourism: Impacts and Community-Led Solutions' is an ongoing research initiative developed by Good Organisation in partnership with York St John University and the Institute for Social Justice.

With more than 9 million visitors per annum, contibuting over £1.75 billion to York’s economy, this research project investigates how local residents experience tourism, and explores how the visitor economy can be harnessed more effectively to promote civic wealth creation.

It has highlighted a strong need for increased community participation in shaping York’s tourism strategy, and the project has supported the early stage development of 'York Residents Know...' (YRK), a citizen-led tourism assembly. This group, which has trained 10 peer researchers, is currently working in partnership with The Policy Co-op to undertake localised case studies in Tang Hall and Acomb.

N U U K

We are currently undertaking a small action-research project in Nuuk, Greenland, supported by funding from the Natural Environment Research Council.

This collaborative research has been co-produced by Good Organisation, the University of York (School of Archaeology) and Ilisimatusarfik University (Centre for Arctic Welfare), in partnership with eight individuals experiencing homelessness, who are receiving support from Kofoeds Skole in Nuuk.

The project is exploring the effects of climate change and is investigating the challenges and opportunities presented by an emergent cruise-ship tourism economy. It is also considering how this evolving sector could contribute to addressing social exclusion in Greenland, where nearly 1% of the population has been identified as homeless or at high risk of experiencing homelessness.

You can download our reasearch documents, watch films, access data resources and participate in our reasearch at

www.outsideinfluence.co.uk