Community-Appropriated Research Model (CARM): from Connectivity to Impact through Making and Media

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This project is to identify a viable community-led research process for building and sharing knowledge about capacity building and cohesion as service provision devolves to community level. It draws on the practical experience of two action research Connected Community projects and the methodological discussions of a third. It uses creative practice to inspire, organize and share community-generated research as radio/podcasts. The academic team will monitor three diverse regional groups devising this content and test the effectiveness of knowledge exchange over a wider geographic and social spread. Each case study area will choose and research a topic and make a radio pod/broadcast to share.Of the many AHRC Connected Community projects funded this year, two stand out for their radical methodology, successfully bringing together community groups to conduct research and learn from each other. The project proposed here combines these exemplars, Participants Utd and Stimulating Participation in the Informal Creative Economy (SPICE), with a research network into craft practices, Connecting Craft and Communities (CCC) where the focus was on novel forms of expression through making, to extract the DNA of the processes that culminated in community researching and sharing (Light et al 2011). The CARM project focuses on the methods and methodology that exemplified these three Connected Community research activities to demonstrate how they support communities in creating identity and cohesion. It builds on insights into how using action methods, community media and creative production techniques, such as recording drama and narrative for reflection and sharing, could enable community groups to collect and share know-how and to communicate what makes them special. In constructing a model of 'community-appropriated research', CARM will provide a reproducible means for groups to share their perspectives and identify cohesive and identity-making practices, be that virtuous behaviour cycles, social entrepreneurship, significant events or engagement in local activities, considering issues such as the nature of rigour in analysing and reporting on experiential learning and how to engage diverse communities. In this way, CARM will offer a development of theories of community engagement while equipping communities as both research producers and research users to spread best practice and build capacity in a period of transition from centrally provided to locally provided services. It will also produce an archive of community podcasts for use on community radio and other forms of community, inter-community and inter-generational activity.Light, A, Wakeford, T, Egglestone, P and Rogers, J (2011) Research on an Equal Footing? A UK Collaborative Inquiry into Community and Academic Knowledge, Indigenous Knowledge Technology Conference 2011, Nov 2011.