Re-thinking, and re-connecting, communities with, and through, water issues. Situated (place-time), and therapeutic narratives.

This project will conduct a review of a range of work which has taken place in recent years in arts and humanities and related subjects into how communities in the UK, and beyond, are affected by, and cope with, issues such as flooding and related questions of water security. The research seeks to explore how "community" has been envisaged in that work, and what insights thinking about communities and flooding and related water issues can bring to other approaches to communities, and how other theories and approaches to community can feed back into work on water and other environmental issues. Communities are seen as complex and contested formations, which do not simply or easily correspond to notions of place and settlement. But the research aims to explore how physical location, and environmental processes and hazards such as floods can have impacts on populations who share locations and neighbourhoods. What lessons can be leanrt from this?

There have been a series of very significant floods in the UK (e.g. Boscastle 2004; Carlisle 2005; Gloucestershire and Hull 2007; Cumbria 2009 ) which have clearly had dramatic and long lasting impacts on affected communities which include economic impacts, health and well being impacts, and also how the community sees itself and how it is embedded in the landscape and in wider society. The government response to the challenge of planning for flood risk management, as in the Pitt Review (2008), focuses very much on community preparedness, and developing community resilience as part of a wider range of measures in developing flood risk response. Climate change scenarios, which include possible sea level rise and more extreme rainfall events, coupled with pressure to build new homes, means that questions of how communities live with the risk of flooding (and other water issues) will remain high on the political and academic agenda. Alongside flooding there are also other important concerns about water security issues at the community level which include drought (as in Eastern England 2011) and how water catchment areas are effectively managed for assets such as biodiversity and ecosystem services.

All these approaches to communities and water issues raise a host of questions about what communities are, how they 'work' (or don't work), the extent to which a locational issue such as flooding creates community in a local population who, in other senses, might not function as a cohesive community. Thinking about community through water issues asks questions about how they are connected internally and externally (e.g. to other communities which share a river catchment area).

The research will develop ideas of "situated narratives": how communities develop stories of their collective environmental past, present and future in landscape. These changes can be about community relations with environmental issues such as water security and also about changes in how the community itself works and how it is connected to other communities. This kind of work can be supported by local agencies and institutions (e.g. local museums) and also through social media networks.

The research will also develop ideas of "therapeutic narratives": - how arts and humanities based research and practice (e.g. creative writing, photography, oral history) can help communities come to terms not only with challenging water issues and experiences, such as flooding, but also begin to develop new insights and empathies into relationships within their community and with neighbouring communities.

The focus on crosscutting understandings of communities in general and how various disciplines and initiatives have considered communities and water issues (and other environmental issues) will have impact for the following stakeholders:

Those seeking to develop community well being and the effectiveness of public services and policy, and enhancing quality of life, health and creative output in relation to communities.

Private sector beneficiaries will include stakeholder organisations with interest in economic aspects of resilience particularly insurance companies and their representative bodies.

public sector beneficiaries, policy-makers, government and government agencies will include a range of governmental and ngo agencies with interests in community well-being and resilience and also in various aspects of sustainable environmental management, including those charged with climate change scenario planning

third sector agencies will include museums and other organisations which might have a role in developing and disseminating community narratives

the emphasis on therapeutic narratives will be of interest to a range of actors who might seek to work with communities, including artists, and third sector agencies involved in 'big society' type infinitives

communities themselves, and community organisations and representative bodies