Research Programme for Story: Exploring the value of story in life, learning and work.
Lead Research Organisation:
Bath Spa University
Department Name: Research Support Office
Abstract
Bambo Soyinka is Professor of Story at Bath Spa University with significant expertise in multi-platform storytelling and strategic leadership. As a Programme Director for AHRC, Soyinka will help to shape the future of narrative research in the UK with a vision of story as an essential skill for life, learning and work. Soyinka will bring to this role expertise in the application of story across a range of professional contexts, stemming from her 25-year career in creative co-production in the public and private sectors.
The overarching purpose of this programme is to specify a transferable 'story skill set' and to establish a model for embedding this into a range of professional settings so that the value of story is more widely recognised and activated. To achieve this, it is proposed that Soyinka will develop a co-production framework that will place 'Story Associates' into a wide variety of organisations (e.g., care settings, local community interest companies, technological companies, creative enterprises and businesses more generally). Each placement holder will define their own research and impact objectives, resulting in subject-specific findings with localised benefits for each host organisation and for their service users (such as young people in care, businesses, customers and audiences). As the Programme Director, Soyinka's role will be to help AHRC to provide thought leadership on this theme, advocating the importance of story as a key skill in life, learning and work.
The overarching purpose of this programme is to specify a transferable 'story skill set' and to establish a model for embedding this into a range of professional settings so that the value of story is more widely recognised and activated. To achieve this, it is proposed that Soyinka will develop a co-production framework that will place 'Story Associates' into a wide variety of organisations (e.g., care settings, local community interest companies, technological companies, creative enterprises and businesses more generally). Each placement holder will define their own research and impact objectives, resulting in subject-specific findings with localised benefits for each host organisation and for their service users (such as young people in care, businesses, customers and audiences). As the Programme Director, Soyinka's role will be to help AHRC to provide thought leadership on this theme, advocating the importance of story as a key skill in life, learning and work.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Bambo Luci Soyinka (Principal Investigator) |
| Description | Cultural Rights and Democracy Workshop: Workshop on 'Story and Public Engagement in Museum Work' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This event took was convened by the National Museum of Wales as an opportunity to share and address some of the most urgent and relevant issues our societies face. It looked at how museums can help address these issues through working with the communities they serve. Professor Soyinka led a discussion alongside Catrin Taylor from the National Museum of Wales. Their value explored the value of understanding Story, Needs, Events and Perspectives when engaging with Museum audiences. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://museum.wales/CRCD2022/ |
| Description | English Shared Futures Conference: Paper on 'The role of Story in the Public Humanities', followed by panel discussion. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was hosted by Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Manchester, and the University of Salford. Professor Soyinka presented a short paper, and took part in the Public Humanities panel. Professor Soyinka's paper posed three challenges to help audience members think about the role of Story and storytelling expertise in today's world. Firstly, she proposed that storytellers within research settings could rethink the notion of 'expertise' in the face of an increasing culture of citizen research. For example, where research is concerned with improving people's lives: Who is the expert: the academic or the citizen? Who is the storyteller? And, who is the reader, or consumer? Secondly, Soyinka spoke about the importance of articulating the values of Story within research. Here she asked: Might these values arise from the potential of Story as a general competence (or Skill Set) that aides the exploration and opening up new ways of seeing within times of crisis? Finally, Soyinka noted that we live in a world where AI has become an adept storyteller. Within this context, Soyinka proposed that the role of Arts and Humanities scholars might be to deconstruct and make visible the underlying and increasingly pervasive codes of AI stories. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | http://englishsharedfutures.co.uk |
| Description | National Centre for Academic and Cultural Exchange (NCACE) Ideas Pool: Workshop on 'Story and Climate Change'. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | "This event was an opportunity for arts and culture sector organisations and artists to meet potential collaborators from the higher education sector. It involved workshops around the four NCACE key themes: Place-Making and Levelling Up, Environment and Climate Emergency, Health and Wellbeing, and Technology for Social Good. Professor Bambo Soyinka, Dr Ana-Maria Cretu, Dr Ella Harris and Dr. Simon Strange led a workshop on Story and Climate Change. The workshop used Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to explore climate change scenarios from different perspectives. Using Professor Soyinka's theory of Story as a means of expressing and translating needs, the session explored how Story might help us meet some of the challenges with which the climate crisis presents us. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://ncace.ac.uk/activities |
| Description | Story and Place |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Professor Soyinka contributed to a workshop on 'Story and Place', led by Professor Rebecca Madgin (AHRC Programme Director for Place-Based Research Programme). Soyinka opened the workshop with a presentation exploring the question 'What do you mean by 'Story Skills'?' Soyinka answered this by drawing attention to deep structures of Story. At structural level she observed that every Story has an 'Arc' - i.e. it responds to a need (to survive, to be safe, to belong, to be respected, or to grow) and produces an event (a significant change). Complex stories contain extended patterns of changes occurring in response to needs. Soyinka proposed that people with 'Story Skills' are adept at translating needs and the process of meeting them into engaging patterns of events that hold meaning for their participants and audiences. She argued that whilst Story Skills can entertain they also have a more serious social value. For example, they might help individuals, organisations and societies to understand conflicts and make changes in the world. In bringing together multiple characters, a story might inspire or illuminate different viewpoints. Soyinka's underlying premise for StoryArcs is, thus, that a Story Skill Set can be defined and used to benefit organisations, communities and wider society in envisaging and co-creating futures. Within this context, Soyinka explored the relationship between story skills and research skills, which also involve dissecting narratives, doing justice to multiple perspectives, and communicating findings through reflective, conscious authorship. Following this brief introduction to the concept of Story Skills, the session explored the role of 'place stories' as a methodology for revealing the ways in which arts and humanities approaches can surface the intimate and intricate dimensions of place that can sometimes be neglected. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.ukri.org/blog/place-matters-the-arts-and-humanities-and-the-place-agenda/ |
| Description | UK-German Arts and Humanities Research Conference: Paper and Panel 'On Narrating' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Professor Bambo Soyinka presented a paper and participated in a focus group at a conference hosted by AHRC and the German Research Foundation (DFG). The event both fostered existing partnerships and laid the ground for future collaborations. Professor Soyinka's presentation focused on the research landscape around 'Narrating', and on opportunities for further development of this. Her talk was followed by a roundtable discussion about how Narrative Approaches to research can offer the potential for the humanities to engage with processes, past and future, complexity and contingency. Some panellists expressed concern that Story is often seen merely as a communication tool rather than valuable in its own right. Others stressed that Story's elemental nature and ability to underlie other research should be seen as a strength. Panellists also explored Story's ability to provide opportunities for Early Career Researchers to work across disciplines. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |