: Connecting Communities through research - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

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Connecting Communities through research

Democratisation

in theory

and (one example of) practiceGraham Crow, University of Edinburgh Jaimie Ellis, University of Southampton

6

th

ESRC Research Methods Festival

St Catherine’s College, Oxford 10

th

July 2014

Democratisation of Research MethodsSlide2

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Connecting Communities through research

Democratisation in theory and practice

Part

of ‘Imagining different communities and making them happen’, a 5-year ESRC-funded Connected Communities consortium on civic engagement, involving various universities and community partners. Context of: the growth of inclusive research/ collaborative research/community-university partnerships/co-production; the Research Excellence Framework

impact

agenda;

debates

about methodological

consequences of democratisation.Slide3

Research Question

How can Connected Communities be

conceptualised, researched and promoted, so that

they have the potential to accommodate and benefit from social, cultural and economic differences and diverse opinions and practices?Exploring reactions to research outputs to reveal what the democratisation of knowledge about communities means in practice :Connecting Communities through research

Democratisation in theory and practiceSlide4

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Connecting Communities through research

Democratisation in theory and practice

‘Democracy means different things to different people, and just what distinguishes democracies from non-democratic regimes is not as clear as it might seem’

(Christian Haerpfer et al. 2009: 5).Michael Coppedge (2012: 13) identifies six overlapping models of democracy: Socioeconomic; People’s; Participatory; Representative; Liberal; Deliberative.

‘Democratization…

means net movement toward broader, more equal, more protected, and more mutually binding

consultation…

a dynamic process that always remains incomplete and perpetually runs the risk of reversal’

(Charles Tilly 2007: 59, xi).Slide5

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Connecting Communities through research

Democratisation in theory and practice

Growing literature on democratisation of research methods, as part of the consideration of the future of research relationships

(Oakley 2000: 21; Crow and Pope 2008)Common argument about methods giving ‘voice’: ‘Engaging in community based research is difficult when we are committed to representing the true voices that we hear’ (Andy Williamson 2007: 5).Methods of ‘democratic dialogue’ (Julie

K

ent 2000).

Radical prospect of people being researched becoming ‘agents of their own inquiry

’(Phil

Mizen

2010: 255)

.

Policy relevance

(David Gough 2007)

Driven in part by technological change: e.g. web surveys; ‘Twitter as Democratizing?’

(

Dhiraj

Murthy 2013: 30).Slide6

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Connecting Communities through research

Democratisation in theory and practice

Type

of ResearchIndividuals Perceived as... On

Research

Objects

For

Research

Subjects

With

Research

Participants

By

(co) Researchers

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Connecting Communities through research

Call for Participants Slide8

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Connecting Communities through research

To evaluate the research outputs generated from

c

ommunity research in terms of how interesting (or not) and how useful (or not) they are from a community partner’s perspective.

Four community organizations in England recruited, and focus groups/ group or individual interviews conducted late 2013.

Local History Group - (South East)

Community Theatre Group -

(North East)

Local History Group - (Midlands)

Youth

Group - (London)

The task for community partner organizations

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Connecting Communities through research

Research

OutputsAuthority, knowledge and performance in participatory practice The age of we AHRC/RSA citizen power in Peterborough collaborative research project: understanding the impacts of citizen participation in Peterborough Bridging the Gap between Academic Rigour and Community Relevance: Fresh Insights from American Pragmatism

Building resilience through collaborative community arts practice: a scoping study with disabled young people and those facing mental health complexity

Careau

and Ely rediscovering heritage project

Community gardening, creativity and everyday culture

1.Community web2.0: creative control through hacking /

2.Community Hacking

Community music: history and current practice, its constructions of ‘community’, digital turns and future soundings

Connected lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans communities? A scoping study to explore understandings and experiences of ‘community’ among LGBT people

Conceptualisations and meanings of “community”: the theory and

operationalisation

of a contested concept

Connecting communities via culture-led regeneration – exploring incentive and momentum with UK city of culture 2013 shortlisted candidates

Connection, Participation and Empowerment in Community-based Research: the case of the Transition movement.

Connecting communities through food: the development of community supported agriculture in the UK

Connectivity and Conflict in periods of Austerity: What do we know about the middle class political activism and its effects on public services?

Creative communities, 1750-1830

Creative practice as mutual recovery: connecting communities for mental health and well-being

Cymunedau

cysylltiedig

2: researching the industrial and post-industrial heritage of the Swansea valley

Digital building heritage

Enfield exchange

Georgian Glasgow

Gypsies, Roma and Irish travellers: histories, perceptions and representations. A review

Imagining the place of home

In harmony Liverpool research network: exploring the cultural value of the orchestra as a community intervention

The involvement of children and young people in research within the criminal justice area

Know your place

Language as talisman

Legacies of war 1914-18/2014-18

Linking communities to historic environments

Maintaining a faith community: the role of the law

Measuring big society

Memories of ‘Mr

Seel’s

garden’: engaging with historic and future food systems in Liverpool

New

connectivities

: civil society, the ‘third sector’ and dilemmas for socially and economically sustainable healthcare delivery

The Orkney and Shetland dialect corpus project scoping study

Performing impact

Philosophy of religion and religious communities: defining beliefs and symbols

Places for all? A multimedia investigation of citizenship, work and belonging in a fast changing provincial city

Reframing state-citizen relationships in a time of austerity

Rural connective

Tackling ethical issues and dilemmas in community-based participatory research: a practical resource

Tailored trades: clothes, labour and professional communities (1880-1939)

Taverns, locals and street corners: cross-chronological studies in community drinking, regulation and public space

Temporal belongings

Time of the clock and time of the encounter

Understanding everyday participation – articulating cultural values

Understanding the role of ICT use in connectivity of minority communities in Wales

The university of the village: universities connecting with rural communities

Valuing community-led design

Writing Our History: Digging Our Past

Year of Shakespeare

Activity Buddies: Promoting quality of life for older people together

Bouncing Back Projects

Black, Minority and Ethnic Group

Community Writers Project

Count Me In Too: Promoting health and well-being with LGBT communities

Drug and Alcohol Abuse Project

Gypsy / Traveller Support Group

Home Start Sittingbourne and Sheppey Project

LifeMusic

Living and Working on Sheppey Project: Past, present and future

Our Space: Exploring spaces to bring deaf and hard of hearing people together

Queenborough

and

Rushenden

Action Together (QARAT) Group

Southampton Personalisation Project

Supporting Social Enterprise

Swale Mediation

Sustainable Community Assets

Singing for Mental Health Project

Swale Carers Project

Swale Community Leisure Project

Swale Domestic Violence Forum

Swale Seniors Forum Project

Swale Young Carers Project

Young Fathers Project

Creating cultural citizenship? Understanding the impact of participatory arts on community health and wellbeing

Creative communities in art & design since the 1960s: lessons for socio-economic regeneration in a globalized world

Evaluating the outcomes of cultural services: a mixed methods investigation

In conversation with…:co-designing with more-than-human communities

The meaning and role of community cinema in rural Norfolk

Performing LGBT pride in Plymouth, 1950-2000

Productive margins

Writing Our History and Digging Our Past: Phase 2

Older People as Researchers

Remember Blue Town Heritage Project

Summer Interns Partnership 2009

Summer Interns Partnership 2010 Slide10

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Connecting Communities through research

Examples of Outputs: CC

Linking communities to historic environments

Dr Alex Hale (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland)Slide11

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Connecting Communities through research

Examples of Outputs: CC

Memories of ‘Mr

Seel’s garden’: engaging with historic and future food systems in LiverpoolDr Michelle Bastian, (University of Manchester)Slide12

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Connecting Communities through research

Examples of Outputs: SECC

Living and Working

on Sheppey Project:Past, present and

Future.

Dawn Lyon, Peter Hatton and Tim Strangleman

(University of Kent)

Graham Crow,

(University of Edinburgh)Slide13

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Connecting Communities through research

Examples of Outputs: SECC

Our Space: Exploring spaces to bring deaf and hard of hearing people together

John Walker, (University of Sussex) Slide14

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Connecting Communities through research

Activity: Useful/ Interesting?

Useful

Not UsefulInteresting

Usefu

l AND interesting

Interesting but not useful

Not-Interesting

Useful

but not interesting

NEITHER

interesting or usefulSlide15

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Connecting Communities through research

Difference was prominent, confirming that

:

‘There is an enormous amount of diversity in civil society organizations’ (Elaina Mack 2011: 283).Issue 1: Representativeness – who gets to have voice? ‘one of the things that came out about the participatory element was the types of people who are more likely to participate in these types of study and consultations’ (interviewee from a youth group referring to a study of middle-class activism)Democratisation in theory and practiceSlide16

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Connecting Communities through research

Issue 2: Accessibility of research outputs

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‘The really interesting ones had a lot of clarity… being concise and also clear helps to keep interest… The majority of other people in this organization would find it even more difficult to read and assimilate information out of these reports’ (interviewee working with young people in an inner-city context, critical of outputs that were ‘just really, really long’) ‘The written word can be a bit of a struggle for some people… Without dumbing it down, it’s a tricky balance’ (interviewee working in community theatre) ‘It’s quite punchy, easy to read, accessible’ (interviewee, local history group)Democratisation in theory and practiceSlide17

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Connecting Communities through research

Issue 3: Purpose

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‘A lot of other people [in the organization] have more practical operationally based roles and in particular some of the longer documents they would just give up’ (youth group interviewee) ‘It’s interesting because I go, “Oh, that’s something I can use”’ (community theatre interviewee). ‘as much as they’re interesting you’re not going to pull out a Judith Butler quote to get your next [local authority] grant’ (youth group interviewee)Democratisation in theory and practiceSlide18

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Connecting Communities through research

Issue 3:

Purpose [cont’d]:

Concentration on the issue of ‘usefulness’ rather than ‘interestingness’, stressing the importance of ‘practical outputs’ that ‘benefit the community’, that ‘all assist people to live a more fulfilled life’. And an interviewee highlighted the value of methods ‘toolkits’.GC: ‘What is your understanding of “useful”?’ I: ‘Something that would either inform project planning or a funding bid or running a session’ (community theatre interviewee)Democratisation in theory and practiceSlide19

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Connecting Communities through research

Issue 3:

Purpose [cont’d]

:There was more emphasis on the transfer of skills than the transfer of knowledge. ‘The community based participatory research one was useful because it gave you a really clear step by step guide of how to go about putting together your own research’ (youth group interviewee).Usefulness could be more immediately apparent when a point of connection was evident: ‘We chose things that we felt we knew a bit about’ (heritage centre focus group member)‘There were quite a few I read and I said “no” and the why every time is because of ignorance on my part’ (local history group interviewee).Democratisation in theory and practiceSlide20

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Connecting Communities through research

Issue 4: Problematic previous relationships leading to issues with trust.

‘From my perspective it should be an equal partnership, not the university researcher coming and taking things’ ‘there have been a lot of cases where people have taken advantage’ (heritage centre focus group participants)

I: ‘I’ve seen the results but it’s for the university. JE: So you haven’t got anything from them? I: No’ (local history group interviewee).Findings echoed discussions in the literature about research needing to be informed by ‘democratic values’ (Clark 2012: 18; Macdonald 2009: 22) Democratisation in theory and practiceSlide21

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Connecting Communities through research

Summary:

the exercise highlighted four things:

1st: The issue of who speaks for ‘the community’ is never far away2nd: The accessibility of outputs: a) inaccessible language or presentation, and b) literal accessibility. ‘I would never have accessed any of these documents: I wouldn’t know where to go’ (community theatre interviewee)3rd: Usefulness had more weight attached to it, but usefulness and interestingness could go together.4th: Community-university relationships require trust, that takes time to build up. Democratisation in theory and practiceSlide22

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Connecting Communities through research

Clark, A. (2012) ‘Visual ethics in a contemporary landscape’, in S. Pink (ed.)

Advances in Visual Methodology

. London: Sage.Coppedge, M. (2012) Democratization and Research Methods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Crow, G. and Pope, C. (2008) ‘The Future of the Research Relationship’, Sociology 42(5), 813-9. Gough, D. (2007) ‘Giving voice: evidence in informed policy and practice as a democratizing process’ in M. Reiss et al. (eds) Marginality and Difference in Education and Beyond. London: Trentham Books.Haerpfer, C. et al. (2009) Democratization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.ReferencesSlide23

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Kent, J. (2000) ‘Group inquiry: a democratic dialogue?’ in C. Truman et al. (

eds

) Research and Inequality. London: UCL Press. Macdonald, S. (2009) Difficult Heritage. Abingdon: Routledge.Mack, E. (2011) ‘Aiding policy? Civil society engagement in Tanzania’s PRSP’, in A. Cornwall (ed.) The Participation Reader. London: Zed Books.Mizen, P. and Ofosu-Kusi, Y. (2010) ‘Unofficial truths and everyday insights’, Visual Studies 25(3) 255-67.Murthy, D. (2013) Twitter. Cambridge: Polity.Oakley, A. (2000) Experiments in Knowing. Cambridge: Polity.

References [cont’d]Slide24

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Connecting Communities through research

Tilly

, C. (2007)

Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Williamson, A. (2007) ‘Introduction’ in A. Williamson and R. DeSouza (eds) Researching with communities. Aukland: Muddycreekpress.Contact:Graham Crow: gcrow@exseed.ed.ac.uk Jaimie Ellis:

J.Ellis@soton.ac.uk

Twitter:@

imagine_connect

References [cont’d]/Contact

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