Untold stories of volunteering: a cultural animation project
Lead Research Organisation:
Keele University
Department Name: Research Institute for Social Sciences
Abstract
This project aims to explore unspoken stories of volunteering by employing a cultural animation approach to ensure that such stories are co-produced from design/scripting through to production and performance with and by the volunteers themselves. Volunteering has been heralded by the Coalition Government as a key ingredient of the Big Society. Vivid in people's memory remains the London Olympics 2012, an event which has highlighted the crucial role played by volunteers. Despite such success stories, critics point to the fact that volunteering remains a minority activity (see Mycock and Tonge, 2011). It has, for example, been calculated that only 39 per cent of adults took part in some form of volunteering in 2011 (The European Volunteering Year), the lowest level since 2001, according to the Government's annual Citizenship Survey (Whitehead, 2011).
Also, it has been argued that governmental and institutional discourses of volunteering do not always account for grass roots experiences of volunteering. Rather they are premised on the assumption that there is an unlimited reservoir of goodwill in communities and people can be encouraged to volunteer more. There is also a sense that volunteering is being promoted as a means to promote a rebalancing of society away from the state and as a way of reducing the cost of welfare service provision and public spending (Seddon, 2007; Rosol, 2012).
Governmental discourses, we argue, fail to do justice to the diverse forms of volunteering and the motives, practices and affective relations involved in volunteering. Furthermore, there appears to be few avenues for alternative discourses of volunteering to emerge, with official discourses of volunteering tending to neglect, marginalise or overlook voices coming from below.
In this project, we capture such voices by engaging with three types of volunteers: voluntary volunteers, instrumental volunteers, and voluntolds (people who are forced to volunteer) from the Stoke-on-Trent area. Stoke-on-Trent is a deprived area which relies heavily on volunteers to support many of its economic, social and cultural activities.
Working closely with volunteers, community organisations and policy makers we will co-develop a methodology by which the untold stories of volunteering will be heard at both local and national level. We do so with the help of cultural animation techniques. Culturally animating a community involves acknowledging and critically approaching existing power and knowledge hierarchies and taking steps to minimise them, as a means to developing more interpretative and less legislative approaches to understanding and working with communities (Phillips, 1998a; 1998b; 2002). This project will be constructed in a trans-disciplinary manner, with academics and their collaborating partners working together across its constituent elements of co-creation, co-design and co-production.
The main outcome of Phase 1 will be the development of a methodology detailing the stages and processes by which the team will co-produce and co-deliver a documentary drama on the untold stories of volunteering in Phase 2. We (volunteers, academics and policy makers) will all be actors in the documentary drama. We aim to co-deliver the documentary drama in at least three different localities across the UK. After each show, there will be a question and answer session to assess the degree to which the performance resonated or not with the audience's own experiences of volunteering. Our community partner, New Vic Borderlines, has over 20 years experience in documentary theatre and is the holder of many national awards.
Also, it has been argued that governmental and institutional discourses of volunteering do not always account for grass roots experiences of volunteering. Rather they are premised on the assumption that there is an unlimited reservoir of goodwill in communities and people can be encouraged to volunteer more. There is also a sense that volunteering is being promoted as a means to promote a rebalancing of society away from the state and as a way of reducing the cost of welfare service provision and public spending (Seddon, 2007; Rosol, 2012).
Governmental discourses, we argue, fail to do justice to the diverse forms of volunteering and the motives, practices and affective relations involved in volunteering. Furthermore, there appears to be few avenues for alternative discourses of volunteering to emerge, with official discourses of volunteering tending to neglect, marginalise or overlook voices coming from below.
In this project, we capture such voices by engaging with three types of volunteers: voluntary volunteers, instrumental volunteers, and voluntolds (people who are forced to volunteer) from the Stoke-on-Trent area. Stoke-on-Trent is a deprived area which relies heavily on volunteers to support many of its economic, social and cultural activities.
Working closely with volunteers, community organisations and policy makers we will co-develop a methodology by which the untold stories of volunteering will be heard at both local and national level. We do so with the help of cultural animation techniques. Culturally animating a community involves acknowledging and critically approaching existing power and knowledge hierarchies and taking steps to minimise them, as a means to developing more interpretative and less legislative approaches to understanding and working with communities (Phillips, 1998a; 1998b; 2002). This project will be constructed in a trans-disciplinary manner, with academics and their collaborating partners working together across its constituent elements of co-creation, co-design and co-production.
The main outcome of Phase 1 will be the development of a methodology detailing the stages and processes by which the team will co-produce and co-deliver a documentary drama on the untold stories of volunteering in Phase 2. We (volunteers, academics and policy makers) will all be actors in the documentary drama. We aim to co-deliver the documentary drama in at least three different localities across the UK. After each show, there will be a question and answer session to assess the degree to which the performance resonated or not with the audience's own experiences of volunteering. Our community partner, New Vic Borderlines, has over 20 years experience in documentary theatre and is the holder of many national awards.
Planned Impact
The project will make an impact by:
1. enhancing understanding and knowledge of volunteering in society to ensure that volunteering is fully valued and recognised;
2. contributing to local debates about cultural regeneration by providing a forum for volunteers to discuss and reflect on their own experiences and contributions to the life of local communities;
3. contributing to public policy debates on volunteering at a local, regional and national level;
4. enthusing community members to embrace voluntary volunteering;
5. promoting a powerful methodology for co-designing and co-producing knowledge with local communities;
6. turning the untold stories of volunteering into public resources available to the general public, academics, policy makers and other relevant stakeholders;
7. helping organisations relying on volunteers to be more effective in their recruitment and retention of volunteers;
8. changing public opinion with regards to 'voluntolds' (people forced to volunteer).
We will contribute to policy debates by identifying and engaging with policy makers, advocacy organisations and umbrella organisations at all stages of the research. We will work closely with NCVO (National Council of Voluntary Organisations) which is in the process of merging with Volunteering England. Other stakeholders include, CSV, Vinspired, Timebank, the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Office for Civil Society and experienced community activists who will help us develop policy guidelines.
Community practitioners will benefit from an improved understanding of co-design, co-creation and co-production methodologies and may find the techniques of cultural animation useful in 'animating' their local communities to increase participation of hard-to-reach groups in community-led initiatives. This will ensure that any state intervention to increase volunteering activity at local, regional and national levels can be achieved more effectively.
Our final beneficiary will be the volunteers and their local communities. We plan to perform the documentary drama in communal venues in at least three localities across the UK, for example, New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme, the Richard Attenborough Centre for Disability and the Arts, University of Leicester and a London venue yet to be identified. Volunteers, academics and policy makers will act in the performance, thus ensuring it is truly co-delivered. After each show there will be a question and answer session to assess the degree to which the performance resonated or not with the audience's own experience of volunteering.
1. enhancing understanding and knowledge of volunteering in society to ensure that volunteering is fully valued and recognised;
2. contributing to local debates about cultural regeneration by providing a forum for volunteers to discuss and reflect on their own experiences and contributions to the life of local communities;
3. contributing to public policy debates on volunteering at a local, regional and national level;
4. enthusing community members to embrace voluntary volunteering;
5. promoting a powerful methodology for co-designing and co-producing knowledge with local communities;
6. turning the untold stories of volunteering into public resources available to the general public, academics, policy makers and other relevant stakeholders;
7. helping organisations relying on volunteers to be more effective in their recruitment and retention of volunteers;
8. changing public opinion with regards to 'voluntolds' (people forced to volunteer).
We will contribute to policy debates by identifying and engaging with policy makers, advocacy organisations and umbrella organisations at all stages of the research. We will work closely with NCVO (National Council of Voluntary Organisations) which is in the process of merging with Volunteering England. Other stakeholders include, CSV, Vinspired, Timebank, the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Office for Civil Society and experienced community activists who will help us develop policy guidelines.
Community practitioners will benefit from an improved understanding of co-design, co-creation and co-production methodologies and may find the techniques of cultural animation useful in 'animating' their local communities to increase participation of hard-to-reach groups in community-led initiatives. This will ensure that any state intervention to increase volunteering activity at local, regional and national levels can be achieved more effectively.
Our final beneficiary will be the volunteers and their local communities. We plan to perform the documentary drama in communal venues in at least three localities across the UK, for example, New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme, the Richard Attenborough Centre for Disability and the Arts, University of Leicester and a London venue yet to be identified. Volunteers, academics and policy makers will act in the performance, thus ensuring it is truly co-delivered. After each show there will be a question and answer session to assess the degree to which the performance resonated or not with the audience's own experience of volunteering.
Organisations
- Keele University (Lead Research Organisation)
- SEiSMiC Project (Collaboration)
- Audencia Business School (Collaboration)
- International Federation of Red Cross and Crescents (Collaboration)
- Arts Council England (Collaboration)
- Ateneo de Manila University (Collaboration)
- New Victoria Theatre (Project Partner)
- National Council for Voluntary Organisations (Project Partner)
Publications
Millward, H
(2019)
Co-Producing community and individual change through theatrical interventions
in Organizational Aesthetics
Vo L C
(2017)
Collaborating across the researcher-practitioner divide: introducing John Dewey's democratic experimentalism
in Journal of Organizational Change Management
Goulding C
(2018)
Community based response to the Japanese tsunami: A bottom-up approach
in European Journal of Operational Research
Kelemen M
(2019)
Creative processes of impact making: advancing an American Pragmatist Methodology
in Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal
Surman, E
(2018)
Food, ethics and community: Using Cultural Animation to develop a food vision for North Staffordshire
in Journal of Consumer Ethics
Surman, E
(2019)
Food, ethics and community: Using Cultural Animation to develop a food vision for North Staffordshire
in Journal of Consumer Ethics
Kelemen M
(2017)
More Than a 'Little Act of Kindness'? Towards a Typology of Volunteering as Unpaid Work
in Sociology
| Title | A Bright Future for Stoke on Trent Exhibition |
| Description | This CASIC installation was part of the 'Back to the drawing board' exhibition and ran from November 23rd until January 16th. The installation contained a projection of Peter Rice's mural, Bridgewater artefacts, ordinary day to day objects, empty frames, voice overs and musical documentaries made by diverse communities which took part in previous CASIC research projects. Using Cultural Animation techniques of community engagement and knowledge co-production pioneered in the UK by Sue Moffat, Founding Director of New Vic Borderlines and developed further via the Connected Communities research, participants were encouraged to create and visualise a bright future for Stoke on Trent by filling empty frames with their own ideas and aspirations, drawing themselves in the projection, imagining conversations that will take place in the future, and writing haikus and cinquans about their aspirations, wishes and ambitions for Stoke on Trent. This living and interactive installation acted as a bridge between past, present and future and as a boundary object that can unite communities around ideas about the future. On November, 23rd, a steady stream of community members, students and staff came to visit the CASIC installation and take part in interactive workshops. Four theatre practitioners from the New Vic Boderlines encouraged participants to paint tea towels in the Pat Albeck's tradition, write haikus about their relationship with Stoke on Trent and put themselves in the projection of a mural by Peter Rice entitled 'A Bright Past for Stoke-on-Trent'. The discussions about Stoke and its impact on one's individual and collective identity have been fascinating. The created artifacts have been added to the installation and captured in picture and video form. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | Change of views regarding the past and present of Stoke on Trent Community members joining the Community Animation and Social Innovation centre |
| URL | https://www.keele.ac.uk/casic/pastevents/ |
| Title | Connecting Business and Society through Arts Based Methodologies: Introducing Cultural Animation |
| Description | Our exhibit will be highly visual in nature and include two interactive activities which will allow participants to experience the methodology first hand and reflect on ways in which they may be able to make use of it in their own field. It will comprise a visually striking poster on Cultural Animation, coupled with a film on 'Cultural Animation in action' containing rolling clips and images from our research projects in the UK, Japan, Kenya and the Philippines. The first of our interactive activities is 'The Tree of Life' installation which was co-designed on a project on post-disaster recovery with Japanese survivors and organisations in the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami (see Picture Japan 5 in https://www.keele.ac.uk/bridgingthedivide/events/japan/). The installation is interactive and conference participants will be invited to add (paper) leaves to the tree reflecting their own stories of struggle, survival and development. Our second interactive activity is a chance for participants to take part in the 'Button game' This is a haptic methodology of stakeholder mapping that has been used as a core feature in many of our projects. After playing the game we will give participants game instructions to take away along with a small bag of buttons which they can use in their own research (button maps from a project on foodbanks in the UK are attached to provide a guide to the nature of this activity). Target audiences We have used CA exercises with management undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers from humanities, social and natural sciences, senior managers from private, public and charity organisations, NGOs, civil servants as well as with children, ex-offenders, people with disabilities, Roma and other categories of marginalised stakeholders. Therefore, our intended audience is wide and varied and includes academics and practitioners. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Impact | Unfortunately the CABS exhibition was cancelled due to COVID |
| Title | Untold Stories of Volunteering documentary drama |
| Description | As part of celebratory activities for Volunteers' Week, you are invited to come along to our interactive documentary drama about Untold Stories of volunteering which will be performed on stage by volunteers rather than actors. Under the sponsorship of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, The New Vic Theatre (Newcastle under Lyme) has teamed up with Keele and Leicester Universities and NCVO (National Council of Voluntary Organisations) to create with members of our communities a moving performance about the role of volunteering in our society. The drama explores the emotions, aspirations and frustrations the volunteer encounters on this journey towards better society. Dates and Venues: June 5th 2014 at 1.30pm New Vic Theatre, Newcastle under Lyme June 6th 2014 at 2.45pm Oxford House, Derbyshire Street, Bethnal Green, London, E2 6HG June 7th 2014 at 7pm Richard Attenborough Centre, Leicester |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Impact | invited national audiences to reflect collectively on existing official discourses of volunteering |
| URL | http://www.keele.ac.uk/volunteeringstories/futureevents/ |
| Title | Voices from below: sustainable artizanal mining in Kenya exhibition |
| Description | Co-curated by Nottingham University Business School and the award-winning New Vic Borderlines, this exhibition brings to life stories, knowledge and artefacts co-created by miners and stakeholders via cultural animation workshops aimed at co-producing sustainable mining futures in Taita Taveta. Displayed on Jubilee campus, Nottingham University from February 24-march 6th, 2020 |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Impact | The exhibition seeks to challenge public understandings of what counts as sustainable mining in the context of economic and social deprivation. |
| Title | cultural animation outputs |
| Description | a series of material artifacts, songs, and small performances about what we do not know about volunteering, and the relationship between the state and the individual volunteer |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Impact | it brought to the fore paradoxes on volunteering allowed an open discussion about voluntolding |
| URL | http://www.keele.ac.uk/volunteeringstories/culturalanimationoutcomes/ |
| Description | The project's aim was to give voice to untold stories of volunteering by employing a cultural animation methodology to ensure that such stories are co-designed and co-produced with and by volunteers and other interested stakeholders. The project had two phases. In the first phase, we worked closely with volunteers from Staffordshire and other stakeholders involved in volunteering, particularly the New Vic Theatre and NCVO (National Council for Voluntary Organisations) to co-design a cultural animation methodology in order to explore volunteering experiences from multiple perspectives and uncover untold stories of volunteering. In a series of cultural animation workshops, participants explored volunteering through the creation of songs, plays, puppets and human tableaux. Drawing on the themes developed in Phase 1, we broadened the stakeholder community in Phase 2 to include a large spectrum of volunteers from around the UK, umbrella groups, support organisations and local government. The project concluded with the performance of an interactive documentary drama entitled Untold Stories of Volunteering which was co-designed, co-produced and co-performed by participants in venues based in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Leicester and London. |
| Exploitation Route | The legacy of 'Untold Stories of Volunteering' is multifaceted. At an individual level, the cultural animation exercises have changed the way participants think about each other's aspirations and agendas providing new skills that are useful in community work and also in teaching. This project refines the on-going work New Vic Borderlines is doing with marginalised categories of people in our society, strengthens Keele University and Leicester University's agenda of community leadership and community sustainability and provides evidence for NCVO to influence government and other umbrella organisations on issues which are central to volunteering. The study accessed stories of volunteering from the 'voluntolds', a marginalised category whose voice is hardly represented or accounted for in the academic literature or the policy making debates, and challenged taken for granted views about existing motivations and rationales for volunteering. The project contributes a methodological legacy to academic studies on volunteering advancing a unique understanding about how volunteering practices condition and are conditioned by the wider social practices and relations in which they are located. |
| Sectors | Chemicals |
| URL | http://www.keele.ac.uk/volunteeringstories/ |
| Description | The findings have been used by academics, community groups, charity and umbrella organisations to clarify roles, policies, structures, training, support and communication with respect to volunteering. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2015 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy |
| Impact Types | Societal |
| Description | Taita Taveta Sustainable Mining Action Plan |
| Geographic Reach | Africa |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Taita Taveta County Sustainable Mining Action Plan document is an outcome of multi-stakeholder dialogue which enabled artisanal miners and mining communities to participate more in mining governance and decision-making processes. The Action Plan adopts the SDGs framework in developing five thematic areas of focus (see Figure 2). We acknowledge that the numerous linkages between the SDGs and ASM are indivisible. • Economic Development o SDGs 1 - No Poverty o SDGs 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth o SDGs 9 - Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure o SDGs 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production • Social Development o SDGs 3 - Good Health and Wellbeing o SDGs 4 - Quality Education o SDGs 5 - Gender Equality o SDGs 10 - Reduced Inequalities • Clean Energy, Infrastructure, and Sustainable Communities o SDGs 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy o SDGs 9 - Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure o SDGs 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities • Environmental Stewardship o SDGs 13 - Climate Action o SDGs 15 - Life on Land • Governance and Partnership o SDGs 16 - Peace and Justice o SDGs 17 - Partnerships |
| Description | Co-Production and Creativity: ethos, typologies and innovation in public engagement practice |
| Amount | £99,787 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/R019908/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2017 |
| End | 09/2019 |
| Description | Connected Communities Cardiff Festival |
| Amount | £16,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2014 |
| End | 03/2015 |
| Description | Connected Communities Festival 2015 |
| Amount | £13,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2015 |
| End | 12/2015 |
| Description | EPSRC Community and Culture Network |
| Amount | £23,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2014 |
| End | 09/2015 |
| Description | I am my dignity: A Moral Capability Assessment Tool (MCAT) for women's rights in fragile contexts |
| Amount | £135,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | United Kingdom Research and Innovation |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2020 |
| End | 07/2021 |
| Description | Scale and growth Award |
| Amount | £7,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | NIHR/HEFCE Higher Education Fund for England |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2015 |
| End | 03/2016 |
| Description | Stories Of public health through Local Art-based Community Engagement (SOLACE) |
| Amount | £172,078 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/R005958/1 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2017 |
| End | 10/2019 |
| Description | University of Nottingham GCRF |
| Amount | £230,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | United Kingdom Research and Innovation |
| Department | Global Challenges Research Fund |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2019 |
| End | 07/2020 |
| Description | early career Leverhulme fellowship |
| Amount | £40,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | The Leverhulme Trust |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2016 |
| End | 08/2019 |
| Title | Cultural Animation |
| Description | • draws on the everyday experiences of people and their creative abilities to make sense of the world • builds up trusting relationships between participants by inviting them to work together in activities which may be new to them but which rely on their life experiences • when people move about and complete tasks together, it facilitates new ways of seeing and thinking • boundary objects (everyday objects) are central to the collaboration and communication between academics, medical practitioners and members of the public • common sense, academic expertise and practical skills are valued in equal measure • knowledge and experiences are articulated in actions, images, installations as well as via the written word • the cultural animateur acts as a facilitator • pioneered in the UK by New Vic Borderlines and the Community Animation and Social Innovation Centre at Keele University |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Cultural animation provides a route to co-produce research agendas, empowers the public to engage actively with health professionals/academics/policy makers and make a positive contribution to their community. |
| URL | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221717310779 |
| Description | Audencia Business School |
| Organisation | Audencia Business School |
| Country | France |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | On April 7th, 2016, CASIC hosted Professor Latchezar Hristov from Audencia Business School, Nantes who gave a talk about responsible innovation to a mixed audience that included both academics and community partners. Professor Hristov outlined the economic and social context of innovation, providing insightful examples of technological and social innovations that have changed the world. He stressed the need for organisations to embrace a more responsible approach to innovation that would ensure social benefits and a sustainability for future generations. The talk was followed by three cultural animation exercises run by theatre practitioners from New Vic Borderlines. Participants debated and enacted the meanings of responsible innovation, creating installations, poems and performances. The event concludes with a collective reflection on the topic and suggestions for future events on social innovation. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Mihaela Kelemen has given a talk on Academia-Community Engagement: Creative Approaches to Knowledge coproduction September, 2016 , Audencia Business School, Nantes Further events will follow in 2017 |
| Impact | one workshop and one academic talk |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | CASIC summer school for creative methods of research and community engagement |
| Organisation | Arts Council England |
| Department | New Vic Theatre |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | https://www.keele.ac.uk/casic/summerschool2017/Speakers will include: · Professor Mihaela Kelemen - CASIC Director · Dr Lindsay Hamilton - Keele Management School, Keele University · Dr Emma Surman - Keele Management School, Keele University · Dr Ceri Morgan - School of Humanities, Keele University · Professor Rajmil Fischman - School of Music, Keele University |
| Collaborator Contribution | · Véronique Jochum - Research Manager, National Council for Voluntary Organisations · Sue Moffat - Director of New Vic Borderlines, New Vic Theatre |
| Impact | Arts-based research · Transformative research frameworks · Mixed-methods research · Knowledge co-production · Research using technology · Writing creatively for research |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Creative Collaboration on human rights and dignity in fragile contexts |
| Organisation | Ateneo de Manila University |
| Country | Philippines |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The collaboration led to securing a University of Nottingham GCRF grant in 2020. My team will be creating an innovative Moral Capability Assessment Tool (MCAT) by digitalising the methodology of Cultural Animation and training local community organisers to how to use it in the ethnic Muslim and indigenous enclaves of Mindanao (Philippines), where deadly and destructive civil strife and massive civilian displacements have been breaking on and off for the last 50 years. Earthquakes, flooding, typhoons and disease outbreaks are worsening the impact of conflict-induced under-development. This dis-proportionally affects women, opening the road to a normalisation process of rights-abuse and to modern forms of slavery. MCAT i) sheds sheds light on how women (beneficiary 1) are engaged as agents of their own rights and development and ii) designs context-sensitive preventative & resilience building measures to be delivered by development actors (beneficiary 2) based on considerations of moral capability and agency. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Our partner will be testing the MCAT tool in Mindanao, and co-produce cultural artifacts with fringe and other relevant stakeholders in Mindenao. |
| Impact | This collaboration is multi-disciplinary: sociology, consumption studies, human rights, visual arts, community studies and theatre studies A website and a training package are currently being developped |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Cultural Animation and Social Innovation Centre, Keele University |
| Organisation | Arts Council England |
| Department | New Vic Theatre |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Community Animation and Social Innovation Centre (CASIC) is rooted in Keele University's tradition of multi and trans-disciplinary research and its commitment to community engagement as reflected in the Strategic Plan. The Centre builds on existing relations with the award-winning New Vic Theatre, with which Keele developed a specific methodology of knowledge co-creation and of community engagement, entitled 'Cultural Animation'. Keele University has funded a two day per week admin support post for CASIC. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Cultural Animation has been used to co-create knowledge on diverse topics such as volunteering (http://www.keele.ac.uk/volunteeringstories/), personal community (http://www.keele.ac.uk/exploringpersonalcommunities/), community asset mapping, energy poverty and energy use/reduction, sustainability, ageing, violence, exclusion, communities in crisis (http://www.keele.ac.uk/bridgingthedivide/), within multiple community settings in the UK, Canada, Japan, Greece and Poland. |
| Impact | https://www.keele.ac.uk/casic/workingpaperseries/ |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | SEISMIC collaboration |
| Organisation | SEiSMiC Project |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | SEiSMiC National Workshop On April 12th 2016, CASIC and the New Vic Theatre co-hosted a SEiSMiC National Workshop on 'Improving the Engagement of Public Authorities with Community Organisations'. The event attracted over 60 participants from the UK and Holland. Academics, public authorities, funders and community partners explored how community organisations, and especially community enterprises, could work more effectively with formal (public) authorities in accessing funding, in public procurement and in conducting research and delivering innovation. The participants were divided into three groups to debate 1) accessing public funding - grants and projects, 2) public procurement and 3) being involved in research and innovation projects. The key issues identified in the morning were then animated via three experiential workshops led by theatre practitioners from the New Vic Borderlines. Participants created poems, installations and performances that were presented to the larger group. The event concluded with a presentation by Professor Kate Pahl from Sheffield University who synthesised the main communicative challenges in collaborating with multiple stakeholders and highlighted the potential of community animation techniques to surpass them, followed by a talk by Mike Coyne (SEiSMiC) who placed the findings of the workshop in a European context. |
| Collaborator Contribution | After an introduction to CASIC by Professor Mihaela Kelemen, there was a panel discussion led by representatives from two community enterprises: Cordwainers Grow and Firesouls, The Heritage Lottery Fund West Midlands, Birmingham City Council and JPI Urban Europe. |
| Impact | the collaboration was multidisciplinary: management, social policy, theatre studies, cultural studies Workshop and best practice paper |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | The International Federation of the Red Crosses and Cresents |
| Organisation | International Federation of Red Cross and Crescents |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Working together towards developing their learning strategy platform |
| Collaborator Contribution | We held a series of Skype meetings and introduced our Cultural Animation methodology to their annual learning conference in Madrid. |
| Impact | This collaboration is at an early stage and it is likely to result in applying for follow on funding. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | CASIC video |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We commissioned a short film to showcase the research done by CASIC members. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.moonbrushed.com/casic |
| Description | CASIC, 2018 The Keele Showcase Global Brochure |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | CASIC Community Animation and Social Innovation Centre CASIC is an international and interdisciplinary research centre founded by Keele University in collaboration with the New Vic Theatre. The centre has developed a unique and highly effective methodology of community/business engagement and knowledge co-production entitled Cultural Animation. At the heart of Cultural Animation is the creation of democratic research environments that challenge existing scientific hierarchies and empower community partners to play a more central role in shaping what counts as knowledge and truth. With academic and community members in the United Kingdom, Japan, Poland, France, Singapore, USA, Malaysia and Finland, the centre aims to build capacity for community-centred solutions to local and global problems and bridge the gap between theoretical rigour and practical relevance, thus making it possible for policy makers and others in positions of power to better understand the real needs and the ambitions of communities. To date, CASIC researchers have tackled a variety of social problems including food poverty, volunteering, disaster management, community assets and community leadership. Since its launch, the centre has attracted more than fifteen grants including from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, and the Leverhulme Trust. Find out more at www.keele.ac.uk/casic or follow @KeeleCASIC on Twitter. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Cultural Animation with Mining Stakeholders in Taita Taveta, Kenya |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The workshops promoted dialogue and cooperation between and among mining stakeholders with the goal of re-imagining a more responsible and inclusive ASM future in Taita Taveta. The participants in the CA workshops drew on both their everyday experiences to make sense of sustainability, and their creative abilities to co-produce strategies to address their local social, economic, environmental and governance challenges. The miners and other mining stakeholders were encouraged to reflect on the potential for change within themselves and their own communities. During the CA workshops, the miners were able to express their concerns in front of a variety of institutional stakeholders and ensure that their ideas were taken seriously and reflected in future policy and practice interventions by other mining stakeholders in Taita Taveta. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Embodied Research through Creative Digital Methodologies Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The workshop attracted over 30 PhD students from Keele, Lancaster, Loughborough, Derby and Sheffield Universities. The event was led by ILAS fellow, Anna Macdonald, from MMU who is an artist and scholar specialising in bringing creative embodied research methods to interdisciplinary research projects. Following a presentation on co-production and digital technology by CASIC members, Prof. Mihaela Kelemen and Prof. Rajmil Fischman, the participants explored connections between bodies, research experiences and concepts as well as the potential for interactive technology to contribute to their own PhD research. Central to the delivery was an artwork made by Anna in collaboration with digital composer Will Brearley (PhD student in Music Technology), 3D developers Karl Reid and Tom Pardoe (School of Pharmacy) and socio-legal scholar Prof. Marie-Andrée Jacob. The participants commented on the innovative, disruptive and cathartic nature of the training and the need for more events of this sort to encourage PhD students to ask different sorts of questions by becoming more mindful of the body in the process of doing or writing up research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.keele.ac.uk/casic/pastevents/ |
| Description | Forum for Rural Research in Health and Well Being |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This initiative is a partnership between the Research Institute for Primary Care and Health Sciences, the Community Animation and Social Innovation Centre (CASIC), South Staffordshire and Shropshire NHS Healthcare Foundation Trust (SSSFT), and the New Vic Borderlines (the outreach department of the award winning New Vic Theatre). The FRRESH Initiative provides an opportunity - that would otherwise be lacking - to explore and respond to rural health inequalities and the apparent research gap. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Interview for Cash and Culture, Nantes Radio |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | http://www.euradionantes.eu/article/cash-culture |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.euradionantes.eu/news/2017/2/6/cash-and-culture-on-the-importance-of-communities-to-cultu... |
| Description | Kelemen, M. Untold Stories of Volunteering, Big Local Spring Events, Birmingham and London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The intended purpose was to share with community members lessons from our previous project on volunteering and to introduce to them Cultural Animation, a methodology of knowledge co-creation and community engagement. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | https://www.keele.ac.uk/legacyofconnectedcommunities/activities/ |
| Description | Presentation at the UK Participatory Research Network |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I gave a talk on the work CASIC have been undertaking recently, entitled: "Co-creating knowledge with communities using cultural animation". |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | SOLACE exhibition |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The exhibition was curated by Professor Mihaela Kelemen and Sue Moffat (New Vic Borderlines) and was attended by over 500 people. The creative outputs displayed demonstrate the power of knowledge co-production, Cultural Animation and ethnographic methodologies to break down cultural barriers and dissolve power structures in order to co-create a collective picture of receiving and providing health care in rural areas that resonates with the needs, dreams and aspirations of marginalised communities in the Philippines. The research underlying the stories and artifacts displayed in the exhibition is funded by AHRC-MRC under the GCRF initiative. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Social Futures, community based research installation showcased at the launch of the Keele Deal Culture, January 23rd, 2019, Spode Creative Village, Stoke on Trent |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | This CASIC installation was showcased at the launch of the Keele Deal Culture, January 23rd, 2019, Spode Creative Village, Stoke on Trent. More than 60 people attended and we had a number of artistic interactive activities for the participants. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Stories of Public Health through local arts-based community engagement - SOLACE blogs |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Stories of Public Health through local arts-based community engagement - SOLACE blogs, 2018 https://solace-research.com/happiness-is-what-you-do/ and https://solace-research.com/1310-2/ |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | The Internal Launch of Community Animation and Social Innovation Centre-CASIC, Keele |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The Community Animation and Social Innovation Centre-CASIC was launched on March 16th in the presence of more than 60 participants from academia and the local community. Professor David Shepherd, the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences welcomed the participants and gave a short overview of CASIC, re-iterating the centrality of community based research and knowledge co-production, to the strategic plan of the University. His welcome address was followed by a talk given by CASIC Director, Professor Mihaela Kelemen (KMS), who emphasised that the main ambitions of CASIC are to dissolve the boundaries between academia and its wider community and to embrace a way of working and researching that recognises that common-sense, experience and day to day creativity are as important as academic expertise in the pursuit of truth and knowledge. Sue Moffat, Director of New Vic Borderlines, invited participants to experience Cultural Animation Methodologies of knowledge co-production and community engagement. Some groups wrote and performed cinquains about community and research, whilst others worked together to create an installation by using ordinary objects, items, small frames and large frames to explore ways "to improve the social conditions of individuals and their communities through the application of knowledge that is co-created". Participants were also invited to contribute haikus that expressed their own personal aspirations regarding CASIC to the 'Tree of life' while other participants experienced the 'Button exercise'. Buttons that represented The University and its Community had to be sorted as finely as possible, categorised and labelled with the view to create a map of the relationships that currently existed and then participants had to redraw an ideal version of the relationships and a CASIC charter. The CASIC launch ended with a collective reflective process and a discussion about plans for future events. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | https://www.keele.ac.uk/casic/casicinternallaunch/ |
| Description | Visit to Audencia Business School |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Professor Mihaela Kelemen (CASIC) visited Audencia Business School in Nantes in June 2017 for a series of meetings, talks and workshops aimed at strengthening the collaboration between the two business schools. The highlight of the trip was a Cultural Animation workshop focusing on food poverty and waste in the UK and France. The event brought together academics, students and industry and was facilitated by Sue Moffat from the New Vic Borderlines. The workshop was part of a series of activities funded by Audencia to research CASIC's social innovation practices and its contribution to enhancing community engagement and research impact. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | field visit for the Alley Theatre Huston, USA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | A team from the Alley Theatre, Huston, USA (https://www.alleytheatre.org/) visited CASIC on April 26-27th. The team composed of the Director of Education and Community Engagement, the Executive Manager of Education and Community Engagement and the Associate General Manager received a travel grant to research best international practices with regards to theatre-university-community partnerships. During their first day, the team visited Keele University's digital MakerSpace (https://www.keele.ac.uk/make/) where Dr. Dimitra Blana run a workshop on how technology could be used creatively for community engagement purposes. Following this, Professor Rajmil Fischman demonstrated the Manual Actions Expressive System - MAES, https://cycling74.com/tools/maes-manual-actions-expressive-system-3/) and PhD student William Brearley (Music) presented ongoing work on music expression through body tracking in the Moser Motion Capture Suite. The team also visited the KAVE in the School of Pharmacy where the visitors immersed themselves virtually in the food and health research carried out by CASIC researchers for the 2015 Connected Communities festival. The second day consisted of a visit to the New Vic Theatre where they were hosted by New Vic Borderlines Director Sue Moffat and to various communities groups in Stoke on Trent. Cathy Bencivenga, Shayna Schlosberg and Mary Sutton said about their visit to CASIC: " Besides the getting to observe the exemplary cultural animation techniques, what made our visit to CASIC special was the idea of measuring "legacy," rather than impact. So often, when trying to animate a group through art-making, the assessment is difficult to capture. It seems so evident now that we think about it, that when dealing with populations living at the margins of society, measuring impact doesn't adequately define the work. The CASIC folks are really onto something! We do this work to deeply effect our community in a way that reverberates beyond that one intervention or project, i.e. to create a lasting "legacy." Our visit with the dedicated professionals at CASIC helped us reframe and refresh our desire to work within our community in Houston." |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.keele.ac.uk/casic/news/alleytheatrehoustonusavisitscasic.php |