Writing Our History, Digging Our Past Phase 2

This programme aims to sustain longer-standing collaborations between UoN researchers with non-academic historians and archaeologists, build on recently-launched projects, and foster the emergence of new community groups researching their own heritage.

The All Our Stories projects that we will be working with focus on oral histories, archive-based research and understanding the built, buried and natural environment. In response, we have put together a project team that can support the needs of the groups with a mix of historians, archaeologists and cultural geographers. With a combination of expertise in political, social and economic history as well as a thorough knowledge of the history and geography of the East Midlands, the research team bring a diverse range of intellectual perspectives which will enhance the capacity of the community partners to understand, interpret and assess their projects in a range of related contexts. In support of the project team, a larger academic body can be called upon to respond to community group needs, with dedicated research time and access to specialist facilities enabled through a Challenge Fund targeted to cover any core costs incurred which cannot be met by the community groups' AOS funding.

Our programme of engagement will include three milestone events (launch, mid-term showcase and final showcase) and a programme of enabling workshops focused on the key requirements of the groups as articulated through a consultation process which enabled the Phase 1 project team to identify the key training and skills development needs. This programme will deliver networking and knowledge exchange opportunities between the community groups and between the community groups and non-academic partners and the academic team.

Key to the success of the project are the three Early Career Researchers (Johnson, Mills and Veale) - they will act as direct support for the core projects and the point-of-contact (through a dedicated hotline) for general enquiries from other groups. Working with the NCCPE and other sections of the University (Centre for Advanced Studies, Community Partnerships and Information Services) they will facilitate access to relevant, specialist academic support and University facilities for All Our Stories community groups.

The programme will benefit from strong institutional support from the UoN including the Centre for Advanced Studies, Community Partnerships, Information Services and the University Museum. It will also draw on the UoN's non-HEI partners including Nottingham City Museums and Galleries, Derbyshire County Record Office and Trent & Peak Archaeology (part of York Archaeological Trust).

Our programme will be taking place between February and December 2013 to time with the life-cycle of the All Our Stories projects.

The benefits of the programme will be the enhancement of existing community-based research, the fostering of new community groups and the co-design of research bids for HLF funding. In the longer term, the programme will build new capacity for academic engagement with volunteer researchers.

As a community-focused project, the proposed programme is inherently geared towards knowledge exchange and impact. Since it aims to enable community groups who are actively involved in research to have greater engagement with academics, its starting-point for planning and evaluating impact is very different from that of the more usual type of research project carried out by academics which seeks to build wider public impact into the project plan. Nevertheless, a number of specific ways can be identified in which the proposed programme will have wider benefits.

Firstly, the research process can be envisaged as having a direct and immediate impact on the non-academic researchers involved in terms of the research and professional skills they have the opportunity to acquire. Academic engagement with community groups and their volunteer researchers should enable volunteers to:

a) ask broader research questions and develop themes with the potential to enhance more far-reaching analysis, for instance linking together case studies into a larger framework;

b) acquire hands-on archaeology techniques including intrusive and non-intrusive survey and sampling techniques, management and analysis of finds;

c) develop historical research skills: extracting data from newspapers; map research; using local record offices; accessing documents in The National Archives e.g. poor law records, judicial records, census returns (many now online);

d) learn new digital technologies (with input from Information Services and the Digital Humanities Centre);

e) record data appropriately, present findings and create research resources: e.g. collecting/recording data 'collectively' to allow searches across the work of a group or several groups; using video and audio equipment to capture testimonies effectively; drafting texts and managing visual images; making the most of a website to communicate research results.

Secondly, more indirect benefits can be envisaged arising from the research process. Among those indirectly benefiting from the research would be other staff such as room stewards in museums or heritage sites who will gain from the knowledge disseminated by volunteer researchers. Another group of more indirect beneficiaries are respondents drawn into community research projects whose testimonies are solicited as part of oral history data gathered by the researcher group: respondents, often a generation older than those interviewing them, are generally glad to have their knowledge, opinions and memories taken seriously and captured as part of a research process.

Thirdly, the project offers an opportunity to have a positive impact on non-academic bodies such as museums, libraries and archives, and other heritage bodies such as the National Trust, through the development of new links to communities (and potentially new audiences and users), new knowledge and understanding of the holdings and sites cared for by these organisations and an increased capacity in mobilising community groups and academics to participate in future collaborative research projects.

Finally, longer-term benefits can arise from the research findings, their dissemination to different audiences, and their potential applicability to current social and economic challenges. Community archaeology and local history typically chart the origins, rise, evolution and decline of particular communities over time: such research can offer clues into what makes communities flourish and how communities adapt, or fail to adapt, to a changing environment. In particular, it is clear that there are contemporary lessons that may be drawn from projects looking at community resilience and adaptation to change with factors such as the demise of a major industry which can lead to social deprivation but also, under certain circumstances to forms of economic regeneration.