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

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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.