Representing communities: developing the creative power of people to improve health and well-being

该项目的主要目标是探讨如何将通过创造性艺术实践(如讲故事、表演、视觉艺术)产生的社区表现形式用作证据形式，为与健康有关的政策和服务发展提供信息。改善健康的政策往往侧重于贫困和剥夺的影响--但很少考虑历史和文化背景或在这些环境中生活的经历--或者侧重于“不健康行为”的盛行，很少尝试将这些行为与有意义的生活方式联系起来。然而，研究证据表明，需要进行研究，探索生活在被剥夺和孤立中的人的经历，并找到改善社区本身与卫生政策制定者之间对话的方法。这项研究将开发利用创造性艺术形式作为沟通和知识交流方式的方法。通过分析文学、电影等中现有的弱势和受耻辱社区的代表性，以及在以艺术为基础的工作坊中制作新的社区自我表征，它将探索社区健康和福祉的“官方”表征(例如，在统计数据中)与社区如何理解和展示其自身的健康和福祉之间的关系。该项目将侧重于积累的资产和资源，使个人和社区能够应对和驾驭实际和感知的结构性障碍，以及应对剧变、抵制声誉损害的可能性，以及这些可能刺激的替代表现。该项目将在威尔士、苏格兰和英格兰的五个不同的案例研究社区进行，并将这些社区与每个国家的相关政策制定者、研究人员和艺术从业者联系起来。我们对社区的理解是基于对地点的“关系”观点，它将社区概念化为一个过程，而不是一个实体。虽然我们用共享的空间来定义社区，但我们充分认识到，这些空间的意义不一定是共享的。该项目将考虑社区的感知和体验如何随时间和不断变化的环境而变化，以及社区和生活在社区中的人如何根据性别、阶级、种族和年龄方面的关键差异和分歧来表现。在对每个社区现有的艺术(例如文学)和“正式”(例如贫困指数)表现形式进行清点和分析后，每个案例研究将使用创造性的参与方法(包括生活地图、戏剧、讲故事和摄影)，与当地艺术和卫生组织合作，产生新的社区自我表现。参与过程将以允许所有参与者通过日记、博客或数字肥皂盒反思参与过程和动态的方式记录下来。在所有案例研究中，最终的创造性陈述本身将由社区参与者共同撰写，他们将对如何展示自己的账户拥有最终决定权。这些新的“数据”将通过展览、表演和数字媒体呈现给相关的地方或国家政策制定者和服务发展官员。研究人员将评估这一过程，反映艺术参与和社区赋权之间的关系，并将研究社区价值观、参与、自力更生和韧性是如何形成、经历和阐明的，并最终能够嵌入政策。通过其严谨的分析，其以艺术为基础的研究方法的发展，以及其对文学和艺术在政策讨论中形成有效的“证据”形式的信念，这项研究将为“社区健康和福祉”的研究和发展提供创新思维，并将作出独特的贡献。

The overarching aim of this project is to explore how community representations produced through creative arts practices (e.g. storytelling, performance, visual art) can be used as forms of evidence to inform health-related policy and service developments. Policies for health improvement tend to focus either on the impact of poverty and deprivation - but with little thought given to historical and cultural context or the experiences of living in these circumstances - or on the prevalence of 'unhealthy behaviours', with limited attempts to connect these with meaningful ways of life. However, research evidence indicates the need for studies that explore the experiences of people living in deprivation and isolation and find ways to improve dialogue between communities themselves and health policy makers. This study will develop methods for using creative art forms as a mode of communication and knowledge exchange. Through analysis of existing representations of disadvantaged and stigmatised communities in literature, film, etc, and the production of new community self-representations in arts-based workshops, it will explore the relationship between 'official' representations of community health and well-being (e.g. in statistical data) and how communities understand and present their own health and well-being. There will be a focus on the accumulated assets and resources that allow individuals and communities to cope with and navigate real and perceived structural barriers, and on the possibilities of resilience to upheaval, resistance to reputational damage, and the alternative representations that these can stimulate.The project will take place across five distinct case-study communities in Wales, Scotland and England and connect these to relevant policy makers, researchers and arts practitioners in each country. Our understanding of community is informed by a 'relational' view of place which conceptualises community as more of a process than an entity. Although we define communities in terms of spaces that are shared, we fully recognise that the meaning of those spaces will not necessarily be shared. The project will consider how perceptions and experiences of community vary across time and changing circumstances, and how communities and the people living in them are represented in relation to key differences and divisions relating to gender, class, ethnicity and age.Following an inventory and analysis of existing representations of each community, both artistic (e.g. in literature) and 'formal' (e.g. in deprivation indices), each case study will use creative engagement methods (including life mapping, drama, storytelling, and photography) to generate new community self-representations, working in partnership with local arts and health organisations. The engagement process will be documented in ways that allow all participants, though diaries, blogs, or digital soap boxes, to reflect on the process and the dynamics of engagement. In all case studies the final creative representations themselves will be co-authored by the community participants and they will have the final decision on how their own accounts are presented. These new 'data' will be presented to relevant local or national policy makers and service development officials through exhibitions, performances, and digital media. The researchers will evaluate this process, reflecting on the relationship between arts participation and community empowerment, and will examine how community values, participation, self-reliance and resilience are shaped, experienced and articulated, and can ultimately become embedded into policy. Through its rigorous analysis, its development of arts-based research methods, and its conviction that literature and the arts form a valid form of 'evidence' in policy discussions, the research will offer innovative thinking about, and will make a distinctive contribution to, the study and development of 'community health and well-being'.