Universities are increasingly being asked to take an active role as research collaborators with citizens, public bodies, and community organisations, which, it is claimed, makes them more accountable, creates better research outcomes, and enhances the knowledge base. Yet many of these research collaborators, as well as their funders and institutions, have not yet developed the methods to ‘account for’ collaborative research, or to help collaborators in challenging their assumptions about the quality of this work.
This book, part of the Connected Communities series, highlights the benefits of universities collaborating with outside bodies on research and addresses the key challenge of articulating the value of collaborative research in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Edited by two well respected academics, it includes voices and perspectives from researchers and practitioners in a wide range of disciplines.
Together, they explore tensions in the evaluation and assessment of research in general, and the debates generated by collaborative research between universities and communities to enable greater understanding of collaborative research, and to provide a much-needed account of key theorists in the field of interdisciplinary collaborative research.
The liberal arts approach to higher education is a growing trend globally. We are told that the mental dexterity and independent, questioning spirit cultivated by such interdisciplinary degrees are the best preparation for the as-yet unknown executive jobs of tomorrow.
This book explores the significant recent growth of these degrees in England, in order to address an enduring problem for higher education: the relationship between meritocracy and elitism.
Against the view that the former is a myth providing rhetorical cover for the latter, it argues that these are two entangled, but discrete, value systems. Sociology must now pay attention to how students and academics attempt to disentangle them.
Israel is considered a developed country yet both security issues and its frequently changing demographic makeup set Israel apart and imply that Israeli policy analysts must operate in a unique environment and grapple with exceptional challenges. This volume, part of the successful International Library of Policy Analysis series, brings together for the first time a comprehensive study of policy analysis in Israel. Following an introductory chapter that discusses the paradoxical history of policy analysis in Israel by Yehezkel Dror, leading figures from both the Israeli public and academic spheres discuss different aspects of policy analysis in Israel.
While Israeli policy analysis is in some respects unique, Israel also represents a broad category of states that could be considered as policy analysis “late developers". Hence, while Israeli policy analysis is fascinating in and of itself, its study also holds important lessons for other countries.
This book provides an in-depth study of how community development can contribute to tackling social exclusion. Drawing on the outcomes of a project funded by the Social Inclusion Programme of the European Union and managed by a European network of community development organisations - the Combined European Bureau for Social Development - Including the excluded analyses the experiences of local communities; identifies and explains the key principles that need to underpin programmes and projects that use a community-based approach to tackling social exclusion and provides a summary of key action points that need to be considered by organisations and agencies.
Examples from policy and practice in the UK, Spain, Belgium, Sweden and Norway are discussed, with additional information from Denmark, Ireland and Hungary. The principles and methods discussed give a valuable insight into how the voices of local people and practitioners can be heard in policy and decision making forums.
After Urban Regeneration is a comprehensive study of contemporary trends in urban policy and planning. Leading scholars come together to create a key contribution to the literature on gentrification, with a focus on the history and theory of community in urban policy. Engaging with debates as to how urban policy has changed, and continues to change, following the financial crash of 2008, the book provides an essential antidote to those who claim that culture and society can replicate the role of the state. Based on research from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Connected Communities programme and with a unique set of case studies drawing on artistic and cultural community work, the book will appeal to scholars and students in geography, urban studies, planning, sociology, law and art as well as policy makers and community workers.
There is an urgent need to rethink relationships between systems of government and those who are ‘governed’. This book explores ways of rethinking those relationships by bringing communities normally excluded from decision-making to centre stage to experiment with new methods of regulating for engagement.
Using original, co-produced research, it innovatively shows how we can better use a ‘bottom-up’ approach to design regulatory regimes that recognise the capabilities of communities at the margins and powerfully support the knowledge, passions and creativity of citizens. The authors provide essential guidance for all those working on co-produced research to make impactful change.
Understanding how creative interventions can help develop social connectivity and resilience for older people is vital in developing a holistic cross-sector approach towards ageing well.
Academics with a wide range of expertise critically reflect on how the built environment, community living, cultural participation, lifelong learning, and artist-led interventions encourage older people to thrive and overcome both challenging life events and the everyday changes associated with ageing.
The book uses a range of approaches, including participatory research methods, to bring the voices of older people themselves to the foreground. It looks at how taking part in creative interventions develops different types of social relationships and fosters resilience.
Policy analysis in Canada brings together original contributions from many of the field’s leading scholars. Contributors chronicle the evolution of policy analysis in Canada over the past 50 years and reflect on its application in both governmental and non-governmental settings.
As part of the International Library of Policy Analysis series, the book enables cross-national comparison of public policy analysis concepts and practice within national and sub-national governments, media, NGOs and other institutional settings.
Informed by the latest scholarship on policy analysis, the volume is a valuable resource for academics and students of policy studies, public management, political science and comparative policy studies.
This book articulates what it is to do collaborative interdisciplinary research drawing on projects from the UK based Arts and Humanities Research Council funded Connected Communities programme. This book tells stories of the value of collaborative research between universities and communities. It offers a set of resources for people who are interested in doing interdisciplinary research across universities and communities. It provides a lexicon of key ideas that researchers might find useful when approaching this kind of work. The book aims to enhance ways of doing collaborative research in order to improve the ways in which that kind of research is practiced and understood. Nine chapters, based on particular projects, articulate this value in different ways drawing on different research paradigms. Chapters include discussions of tangible and intangible value, an articulation of performing and animation as forms of knowing, explorations of such initiatives as community evaluation, a project on the role of artists in collaborative projects and ways in which tools such as community evaluation, mapping and co-inquiry can aid communities and universities to work together. Chapters also focus on the translation of such research across borders and the legacy of such research within universities and communities. The book ends by mapping the future directions of such research.
This book articulates what it is to do collaborative interdisciplinary research drawing on projects from the UK based Arts and Humanities Research Council funded Connected Communities programme. This book tells stories of the value of collaborative research between universities and communities. It offers a set of resources for people who are interested in doing interdisciplinary research across universities and communities. It provides a lexicon of key ideas that researchers might find useful when approaching this kind of work. The book aims to enhance ways of doing collaborative research in order to improve the ways in which that kind of research is practiced and understood. Nine chapters, based on particular projects, articulate this value in different ways drawing on different research paradigms. Chapters include discussions of tangible and intangible value, an articulation of performing and animation as forms of knowing, explorations of such initiatives as community evaluation, a project on the role of artists in collaborative projects and ways in which tools such as community evaluation, mapping and co-inquiry can aid communities and universities to work together. Chapters also focus on the translation of such research across borders and the legacy of such research within universities and communities. The book ends by mapping the future directions of such research.
