Sound, spatial justice and social infrastructures: participatory listening research for public engagement and policy mobilisation
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Brighton
Department Name: Sch of Humanities & Social Sci (SHSS)
Abstract
Wave after wave of crises and polarising inequalities have renewed policy attention onto how local communities themselves can provide vital support, knowledge and leadership in forging solutions. The rise in deep poverty requires radical change and new ways to imagine and shape our transition out of such foundational challenges (Joseph Rowntree Trust, 2023). Brexit and the pandemic have simultaneously demonstrated stark uneven geographies and the potential power of neighbourhood resilience (Unwin, 2023). There is both a consultation need and fatigue around social infrastructures, regeneration, public health and sustainability (Wynn et al., 2022; RTPI, 2023). Creative practices present a source of transformational change that can stimulate new connections, imagine different futures and inspire action (Vervoot et al., 2023). My PhD research pioneers a creative participatory methodology that can make timely contributions to public engagement in these social policy realms, which this Fellowship aims to mobilise.
I have developed a co-methodology, participatory listening research, that can be extended and applied to public engagement. Participatory listening research is a way of listening with others to our environment that generates new knowledge whilst embracing different listening experiences, practices and positionalities. Specifically, the PhD research applied this approach to gentrification, asking: What can listening with residents on the UK south coast tell us about urban seaside gentrification and displacement injustices? Gentrification is popularly contested and deeply rooted in policy-relevant spatial dynamics, offering a window onto broader societal trends (Smith, 2005). Listening creates a different way of connecting to over-rehearsed yet persistent issues of spatial injustice. By combining sound (Oliveros, 2003; Robinson, 2020) and mobile studies (Sheller, 2020) with a participatory ethos (Beebeejaun et al., 2013), listening with residents can expand our understandings of relationships to place and hyperlocal socio-environmental change.
Looking to the other extreme of uneven geographies, the government's Levelling Up agenda is concerned with restoring pride in place and social infrastructures in 'left behind communities' (APPG, 2023). Defined as 'the framework of institutions and the physical spaces that support shared civic life' (ibid:6), social infrastructures can seed social capital (British Academy & Power to Change, 2023). This has refocused public engagement attention onto devolved and neighbourhood-led infrastructures, such as Labour's parallel Take Back Control (Norris, 2023). My gentrification-specific analysis can be expanded to these broader policy concerns, questioning how hyperlocal socio-environmental change resonates through: the re-engagement of underserved communities, de-gentrification, public health and sustainability agendas.
Participatory listening research offers a new method for public engagement that is mutually beneficial, restorative and imaginatively-oriented. The Fellowship activities will extend, apply and deepen this methodology through creative engagement, knowledge exchange and academic dissemination. Firstly, I will add a novel dissemination method to the toolbox by co-creating interactive listening walks, geo-locative mobile soundwalks, a podcast and digital story that share the gentrification findings. These will be co-designed with local arts-based organisation, Brighton & Hove Music for Connection, in consultation with residents advisory and community groups. Secondly, using these creative outputs, a series of knowledge exchange symposia will be hosted with relevant academic, practice and policy networks. Thirdly, I will deepen the academic significance of this approach through journal publications, conference papers and funding proposals. Overall, the Fellowship will enable me to transition from the doctorate into a career as an applied and engaged social policy researcher.
I have developed a co-methodology, participatory listening research, that can be extended and applied to public engagement. Participatory listening research is a way of listening with others to our environment that generates new knowledge whilst embracing different listening experiences, practices and positionalities. Specifically, the PhD research applied this approach to gentrification, asking: What can listening with residents on the UK south coast tell us about urban seaside gentrification and displacement injustices? Gentrification is popularly contested and deeply rooted in policy-relevant spatial dynamics, offering a window onto broader societal trends (Smith, 2005). Listening creates a different way of connecting to over-rehearsed yet persistent issues of spatial injustice. By combining sound (Oliveros, 2003; Robinson, 2020) and mobile studies (Sheller, 2020) with a participatory ethos (Beebeejaun et al., 2013), listening with residents can expand our understandings of relationships to place and hyperlocal socio-environmental change.
Looking to the other extreme of uneven geographies, the government's Levelling Up agenda is concerned with restoring pride in place and social infrastructures in 'left behind communities' (APPG, 2023). Defined as 'the framework of institutions and the physical spaces that support shared civic life' (ibid:6), social infrastructures can seed social capital (British Academy & Power to Change, 2023). This has refocused public engagement attention onto devolved and neighbourhood-led infrastructures, such as Labour's parallel Take Back Control (Norris, 2023). My gentrification-specific analysis can be expanded to these broader policy concerns, questioning how hyperlocal socio-environmental change resonates through: the re-engagement of underserved communities, de-gentrification, public health and sustainability agendas.
Participatory listening research offers a new method for public engagement that is mutually beneficial, restorative and imaginatively-oriented. The Fellowship activities will extend, apply and deepen this methodology through creative engagement, knowledge exchange and academic dissemination. Firstly, I will add a novel dissemination method to the toolbox by co-creating interactive listening walks, geo-locative mobile soundwalks, a podcast and digital story that share the gentrification findings. These will be co-designed with local arts-based organisation, Brighton & Hove Music for Connection, in consultation with residents advisory and community groups. Secondly, using these creative outputs, a series of knowledge exchange symposia will be hosted with relevant academic, practice and policy networks. Thirdly, I will deepen the academic significance of this approach through journal publications, conference papers and funding proposals. Overall, the Fellowship will enable me to transition from the doctorate into a career as an applied and engaged social policy researcher.
