Meanwhile use as Performance: Securing social value from vacant space

Meanwhile and Pop-Up spaces and events have become a familiar part of the regeneration scene, turning the many empty buildings, shops and building sites that have been created by the current economic climate into temporary galleries, shops, studio spaces and gardens.

Further, economic, political and environmental changes are creating a situation where short term interventions are needed to supplement or replace permanent support mechanisms which may be no longer viable in a future of austerity. This project explores how to make these briefer interventions successful with the aim of understanding how the concept of 'meanwhile' can be more broadly used by community organisations to release social value from vacant spaces. In so doing, it works to promote a culture of resilience and interdependence.

The research team starts from the premise that short-term interventions are sometimes perceived by third sector and grass-roots bodies as being of less value because they are not sustained over a long period. We argue that significant benefits can be gained from these interventions in terms of building social capital, enhancing self-efficacy and contributing to community cohesion. A series of short-term interventions puts change at the heart of the community rather than focused in the space being used.

Through design research, the project will use these insights and draw on performance theory to generate ideas for and experiment with a model of a 'meanwhile' community intervention as a site-specific, temporary, performance. It will re-focus community ideas to consider space as a resource, not a base, and it will look at how new social media tools can help reach and engage a mobile and flexible population in responsive and robust community organising. The project will learn from existing 'pop-up' projects and facilities, the practices of successful meanwhile entrepreneurs and the needs of a variety of community groups. It will create an exemplar meanwhile activity as part of reporting on its findings. And in this way it uses performance theory to understand meanwhile uses as performative events, examining how to attract clients/users for short-term and ephemeral interventions as a hub for community networking and organising.

This research will develop knowledge within both practice and academia and the impact will reach a broad range of stakeholders including community organisations and policy makers. There will be a direct impact on the participants (community organisations, meanwhile entrepreneurs, local authority officers) either through developing understanding of their own meanwhile practices, or in the case of community organisations that have not yet used meanwhile spaces, of learning about the potential contribution of meanwhile to their practice. Through the dissemination of resulting publications this knowledge can be shared with a broader audience, and we will specifically target community organisations and local authorities as an audience for publications to make sure that the results catalyse change at a grassroots level.

The project is innovative in bringing together design, performance and community organising and this interdisciplinarity broadens the impact of the findings by engaging stakeholders in the different areas. The interdisciplinary nature of the research also strengthens the body of knowledge that brings together creative practices and community organising. It will strengthen the case for making better use of vacant space, enabling stakeholders within a complex multi-agency system to move more effectively towards successful meanwhile spaces.

The Department for Communities and Local Government says it is 'working to help citizens and communities take action to solve their own problems' (www.communities.gov.uk/communities/). This research directly contributes to this agenda by investigating and generating new ideas around practices that enable communities to create their own spaces and solutions to local problems through the use of meanwhile spaces.

The project will provide a model for community organisations to utilise opportunities provided by temporarily vacant spaces within their locality. To this end, it already has the interest of Gateshead Council's Peter Udall in the Property Services Development & Enterprise department, who has been working with the Space Invaders initiative (www.spaceinvadersgateshead.org.uk). And it develops the collaboration that Sheffield Hallam University has with Forgotten Spaces (a RIBA competition that is co-hosted by SHU this year). With the input of Northern Architecture's Carol Botten (see partner letter of support), we have access to an extensive set of contacts all over the north-east and the rest of Britain, through the network of regional centres and all the organisations with which they work.

This research has the potential to contribute to the nation's health, wealth and culture by
Increasing the effectiveness of public policy through better understanding of the meanwhile process
Enhancing quality of life, health and creative output for the individuals involved by developing their own practice
Developing support networks of organisations and professionals around the UK that can share learning and collaborate
Improve the richness and diversity of the nation's cultural resources through the production of engaging meanwhile performances.

Staff on the project will include both academic researchers and community based researchers. Professional skills developed through working on this project will enable staff to develop their practice as participatory community research professionals and to share that learning with other professionals and organisations.

The impact of this project will begin immediately through the involvement of community organisations in the creative projects themselves, and will be ongoing through the networks created, and through the dissemination of the publications. We will promote the project outcomes via appropriate conferences and events, through the blog and social media and through partner organisations and their networks.