introducing the connected communities programme professor keri facer arts & humanities research...
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Introducing the Connected Communities Programme
Professor Keri FacerArts & Humanities Research Council Leadership Fellow for Connected Communities
Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol
Practical Stuff• CC is a Cross-Council Research Theme (i.e. funded by many research councils, including
EPSRC, ESRC, MRC…) but led by Arts and Humanities Research Council
• Started in 2010, will be ongoing at least another 5 years.
• There are other AHRC ‘Themes’ – Translating Cultures, Care for the Future, Science as Culture, Digital Transformations
• All themes have specific calls and highlight notices.
• Bulk of research funding still with Responsive Mode.
• All themes have ‘leadership fellows’. Academics who research in the area of the call, and with a remit to help AHRC develop the programme, support the participants in the programme, build connections and intellectual agendas.
CC Aim
Researching ‘Community’ with, by and for communities
• Understanding the changing nature of communities in their contexts, and the role of communities in sustaining and enhancing our quality of life
Through…
• Interdisciplinary research with a strong arts & humanities element • Collaborative research with communities at all stages of the research process
Why is Connected Communities interesting?
IT’S A SITE IN WHICH DIFFERENT IDEAS OF THE UNIVERSITY ARE BEING PLAYED OUT
It is happening in a context of changing institutions
• Financialisation of teaching and learning, decline of adult ed and continuing education
• Massively open online courses – turning traditional institutions inside-out• Certification Universities, online only (e.g. Phoenix – cf Turkey/Middle East)• Commercial Providers – e.g. Pearson, entering the scene• Massive growth of university provision in Asia/ Middle East• University of the Arts (Grayling etc) – traditional form, new financing model• Collectivist approaches: Peer to Peer Universities – self-organised, not
accredited; Co-operative Universities – Really Free Universities/ Guilds/ Collectives
It is happening in a context of changing research practices
• Ideas of the ‘triple helix’ - open Innovation – close collaboration between industry and researchers – e.g. MOD/Maths & Social Policy; HP/Computing;
• Patient Syndication in Medicine – sharing IP, commissioning research, e.g. Alzheimers
• Social Innovation & Co-production• Action Research, Participatory Action Research – Education, Development• Co-design – arts, design, computing• Oral histories and community archeologies – action heritage
Different ideas of the university are playing out in CC…
What ‘is’ Connected Communities?
From the perspective of the programme ….• A £30m+ funding programme, provided at a time of competition for limited
resources• 300+ projects on topics that include: health and medical care, environmental
disruption, social innovation, culture and heritage• 1000s of academic and community researchers• A network of events, festivals, communication mechanisms (mailing list,
website) • Partnerships with Heritage Lottery Fund, DCLG, RSA, Design Council
According to its participants it is… • A network of people – friendships, relationships, events, human encounters,
late night drinks and conversations, arguments
• A flow of resources – materials, money, time, attention – that enable certain things to happen
• A set of institutional arrangements being reconfigured – universities, charities, funding bodies, financial structures, Home office and border control
• An emerging interdisciplinary field working with a diverse but related set of methods, ideas, value judgments, aspirations
CC is a continuation of multiple traditions and practices
• Co-design (user-centred computing, engineering, workplace studies) • Participatory and Community Arts• Co-production (economics, services) • Patient Voice & Communities of Practice (medicine, public services)• Community development • Practice as Research • Action research (education, health. management)• Participatory Action Research (agriculture, environment, education)• History/Sociology/Literature from below (Williams/ Hoggart etc…) • Public philosophy & arts in public • As well as desk based, archival and empirical social sciences, arts and
humanities research
Working with partners• Collaborators from Communities need to be involved at all stages of the
programme• CC pioneered ‘community co-investigators’ to ensure that partners have a say
in the design and direction of programme from the outset• Two stage funding process – develop collaborations with partners, then submit
full bid • Not ‘hit and run’ research – collaborative and dialogic research, addressing
either joint outcomes, or ensuring that all parties benefit from the research • Changing research outputs – what does the ‘legacy’ of these projects look
like? Can be changed policies and practices in organisations, journal papers, performance and art pieces, capacity building on all sides
• Not perfect – still learning
How does it work?
Open Calls to date• Digital Creative Economy (with EPSRC)• Community Mobilisation and Engagement (with ESRC) – social innovation• Community Culture, Health and Wellbeing• Community Culture, Environment and Sustainability• Divided, Disconnected Communities• Emoticon - Emotion and Trust in Online Community Environments (with EPSRC/ ESRC) • Digital Transformations/Capital Call • FWW Heritage Hubs• ECR Development workshop• Open Summits • Highlight notice - Design
• NB – Follow-on calls arise from participation in workshops.
Typical ProcessTHEMES• Open call for a theme – to participate in a 3 day workshop• 350 applications for 50 places in 2014• 3 day intense process – develop ideas with others while there. Wide range of participants• Develop proposals with participants for development funding – either £40k to develop large
grant proposals; or £100k for ‘innovation awards’. • Large grant development grants submit full proposal – then panel interview – up to £1.5m • Funded projects invited to participate in future summits to develop follow-on proposals
FESTIVALS/WORKSHOPS• Open call for workshop• Participants meet and plan proposals• Submit proposals via dedicated call for participants• Follow-on funding available, often via a second event
Indicative Projects • ECR projects include:
• Festivals as temporary communities; People’s ‘piers’; the role of public toilets as a site for different communities;
• Digital Transformations• Communities in Care Homes; the World Ornithology Archive; crowd-fuelled archiving;
ACCORD – community led visualisation of ancient monuments, e.g. Climbers on Dunbarton Rock
• Large Grants• Understanding everyday participation – cultures and politics of everyday creativity in
communities• Productive Margins – deep co-production of research, looking at regulation of community• Creative Practice as mutual recovery – arts practice as a resource for engaging carers in
sharing knowledge and insights
What does CC mean to participants?
What difference does CC make to academics?
• Relationships: New academic relationships, cross disciplinary, can be fragile, learning with and from others. New relationships with community organisations (HLF and All our Stories)
• Support and recognition: builds confidence, grant size and activities recognised by institutions (may already have been going on), supported to confront change in institutions
• ECRs: Manageable funding, keeping hold of and bringing in new talent, strong relationships (with some issues), different identities (freelancer, disciplinarian, worker bee, entrepreneur)
• Personal development and capacity building: New skills working with community, new research knowledge – where is this taking people?
• Costs: Publication issues, takes longer, risks
• Disrupting practices and processes: Ownership and management of publications
• + funding, resources, ability to do research that wouldn’t be funded elsewhere
What difference does CC make to community organisations?
• New relationships: With academics and with other community organisations
• Credibility for community organisations: Implications for other funding
• Greater recognition for existing work: Credibility of knowledge amongst other audiences
• Ownership and control of research projects: Community Co-Is, real partnerships
• Access to networks: Events and relationships
• Opportunities for personal development: Skills, resources, training
• Opportunities for reflection: time to ask big questions, uncover new ways of doing things
• Creating new communities• Ongoing difficulties in relationships with HEIs• • + funding, resources, ability to do research that wouldn’t be funded elsewhere
But this research isn’t an easy ride…• Disrupt systems – budgets, finance, procurement, funding processes• Require reflection about what knowledge counts• Demand new metrics and new ways of valuing research• Challenge academics and collaborating organisations to develop and share
new skills• Disrupt traditional academic identities – disrupt traditional claims to knowledge • Create new forms of inclusion and exclusion in research practices – new
people are being ‘allowed in’, others are feeling ‘left out’• It’s exciting – but also emotional, heated, and tense
Upcoming Opportunities
Current funding opportunities
• CC Festival • Up to £10k for events and activities that engage communities in the
research process. NB – not just CC projects
• ‘Community and Work’ • Open call for a research development workshop• Usually 2 sides of A4, why to participate in the workshop and what you will
bring
• All calls promoted on AHRC website, via AHRC mailing lists to research offices, via CC Fellows website, via @ahrcconnect twitter
But the principle is • The research councils are very open to collaborative research processes, and
peer reviewers are becoming more open • Responsive mode – always open, flag CC involvement, use CC approaches in
the proposal. • Consider Network proposals to build relationships, then larger grant
submissions afterwards
What are reviewers looking for…? • Engaged research is not just ‘anything goes’ - recognise the histories,
traditions and expertise in engaged and collaborative research that already exists.
• Involving the Arts and Humanities doesn’t just mean using them to ‘disseminate’ or ‘engage’ – they bring theoretical and conceptual resources as well
• Recognise what has gone before and learn from it • CC Fellows Website – www.connected-communities.org - has all current CC projects listed.
Open search for topics, names or places.
• Locate the work in the field• CC book series with Policy Press. Pulling together engaged and collaborative research,
theory and practice. Open to proposals from non CC projects as well
Contacts• Twitter: @ahrcconnect @kerileef
• AHRC – all technical issues - Roshni Abedin [email protected] Sue Hanshaw – [email protected]
• Keri Facer – [email protected]• George McKay – [email protected]
• www.connected-communities.org