Comm-UNI -ty: A Community University for Study and Action on Power and Participation

This project aims to develop a Community University (Comm-UNI-ty), where knowledge exchange is embedded in a horizontal working relationship between academics and community activists to co-design and co-deliver a curriculum around power and participation. The project builds on an AHRC Connecting Communities funded Scoping Review on 'Power in Community'. The Scoping Review combined a review of literature on power and power in communities with 'Power Talks' in eight communities across the north of England. The academic literature revealed that the idea of power as based on the domination of the 'other' has been effectively challenged by other understandings of power, which stress, for instance, non dominating forms, eg. power with or power to. The 'Power Talks' revealed that community residents engaged in change processes (community activists) practice that other kind of power. At least amongst the eight participant groups, power was defined as about cooperating, sharing, enabling and listening. Participants spoke of not wanting the 'power of the powerful' and being keen to hand power on if they managed to win positions of power. In rejecting dominating power, many activists found, however, that their capacity to influence the 'powerful' and bring about effective change was limited. A research proposition emerged from the study: to what extent can non dominating power be effective without reproducing dominating power? In our feedback of the Scoping Study to 'power talk' participants, we discussed how this proposition could be explored more deeply. The idea emerged of building a Community University (shortened by one participant to Comm-Uni-ty). The Community University would be a departure from traditional University outreach, partnership and engagement. It would take the idea of 'University' into communities and build a space where academic knowledge could be exchanged with experiential and practical knowledge, without privileging one over the other. It seeks to bring knowledge production and social action together through this knowledge exchange process and through continuous systematised learning (visual and/or written field diaries) which would enable participating students themselves to assess the impact of the Comm-Uni-ty over a year through their efforts to bring about change. Thus, the pathway to impact would be tracked as an integral part of the knowledge exchange design, and participants would produce the evidence of impact themselves through their peer and academic assessed Comm-Uni-ty assignments. This proposal was itself constructed through a participatory process with 24 potential participants from a varied range of socially diverse grass roots community activists, many of whom have had no connection with formal education and who were deeply sceptical towards mainstream politics. We learnt through this process that the curriculum and activities must be taylored carefully for non academic users with busy and complex lives.Thus, the proposed activities included creative approaches to applying social scientific knowledge and aims to experiment with pedagogy and methodology. Through our civil society partner (Joseph Rowntree Foundation) and our co-applicant ( Salford University) we are looking to the potential replicability of this approach in other Northern cities. Our final celebratory and impact event will aim to showcase to state and statutory bodies how with appropriate support and co-design, grassroots community participants can themselves deliver change responsibly and productively. In this way, the project will seek to overcome the disconnect between state and society and foster enhanced participation in politics and change at the local level where evidence suggests most people are interested in acting but this potential for participation remains mostly unrealised in practice.

This project will firstly benefit community groups and individual activists in the inner cities of Bradford and Sheffield. The project aims to enhance the understanding and practice amongst these community participants of power and social change processes. By making social science knowledge accessible, by giving value to existing non academic and experiential knowledges of participants , by involving participants in all aspects of the design and ongoing impact assessment (supported by the Impact Advisor), and by ensuring that the delivery of the programme is fun and creative, we will have laid the groundwork for strong ownership and receptiveness. We envisage that individual participants will gain intellectual tools that they would not otherwise have access to, and which will enable them to build participatory processes in their communities through a better understanding of how dominating forms of power often inhibit such processes. The programme of activities includes one to one support to each participant from an academic to complete assignments which they decide are of value to their everyday community action. In addition, they will be able to articulate their own experiences in the evening sessions and residentials, and the final Celebration and Impact event will capture their 'Stories of Change' through work with Playback Theatre, experienced facilitators in creative drama and storytelling. We also expect that this process will strengthen the community groups that individual participants are part of and encourage them to widen and deepen participation in their neighbourhoods. This will contribute to overcoming the gap between people and politics and demonstrate how local participation (which many value in principle) can be meaningful in practice. The project is also an opportunity for networking across diverse community groups, fostering interactions which are often difficult in the inner city, particularly in Bradford.

The project will strengthen the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's understanding of participation in inner city and deprived communities. They have their own programme in Bradford, but they also have a national profile. Through the JRF's communication and media expertise, the project will be able to access national media and other outlets. A briefing paper will be specially written for the JRF on the outcome of the project which they will disseminate and promote. Other national voluntary sector organisations with an interest in participation and who already have connections with the ICPS/PPC will be invited to the final Celebration and Impact event, and we hope in this way to impact on their own understanding of participation and change. This includes organisations which are close to the government's communities agenda, such as the Centre for Social Justice and Locality. We hope in this way to impact on this agenda (eg Big Society).

We aim to influence local Bradford and Sheffield Council officers and members of local statutory bodies, taking on board criticisms of the Hansard Society (2012) that these need to become open to new ways of engaging communities. They will be invited to our final event, and have access to the JRF briefing paper.

Academically, this project will generate an academic article on Participation and Power in the Inner City for an academic journal, such as Urban Studies. This will analyse issues around local politics and engagement which arise in the course of a year's knowledge exchange with inner city activists. Secondly, we will aim to demonstrate a new way of developing University-Community Engagement. We will share this through the social networking space for Brighton University's Community University Partnership Programme (CUPP). Through our ongoing relationship with Salford University, we will be exploring whether the idea of a Community University could be replicated bringing innovation in University Community Engagement in deindustrialised northern towns.