Single Parent Action Network: a participatory history

该项目将巴顿山定居点(BHS)、布里斯托尔大学和南方女权主义档案馆联合起来，研究单亲行动网络(SPAN)的历史。SPAN是一个志愿组织，总部设在布里斯托尔市中心，从1990年到2016年，它被合并为BHS。在鼎盛时期，SPAN管理着一个由1000多个集团组成的网络，以及一个重要的国家和欧洲资金组合。然而，它保留了一种独特的草根和多种族精神。斯潘的活动包括教育、研究、提供当地服务、社区组织和政治游说。这段多方面的历史是妇女、黑人和工人阶级激进主义的一个重要例子，以及志愿和社区部门在20世纪90年代和21世纪的演变。在经历了几年的动荡之后，SPAN最近与巴顿山定居点合并，结束了作为一个独立组织的生命。该项目旨在保存SPAN的档案，目前处于危险之中，并通过参与性研究过程书写该组织的历史。该项目将以创新的参与式方法汇集遗产、志愿和大学部门的专业知识。BHS是布里斯托尔市中心社区发展的关键力量，该中心每年与40,000多人合作，并在当地、全国和国际上建立广泛的网络。公众参与是金融服务局工作的一部分。PI和CI都是RCUK资助的历史联合制作项目的经验丰富的调查人员。该项目的中心焦点是一个历史小组，该小组将在布里斯托尔市中心的定居点所在地每周开会，为期12个月。该小组将包括来自BHS和SPAN的学术研究人员和社区成员、活动家和服务用户。在项目团队的协助下，参与者将设计和执行一个研究项目，并将他们的发现传达给公众。由于产品将是共同设计的，目前还不可能说出它们将采取什么形式，但可能的产品包括电影、展览、徒步旅行、应用程序或网站等数字产品，以及与视觉或表演艺术家的合作等等。该项目的参与者来自很少有机会与大学接触的群体：单亲父母、将英语作为额外语言的人，以及福利申领人。参与该项目的经验将使他们能够获得信心和专业知识，并建立社交和专业网络。但是，如果说有什么不同的话，那就是对学术界的好处更大。这些团体处于理想的位置，可以批评专业历史学家认为理所当然的历史研究方法，并将不同的视角和生活经历带到档案材料上。历史组的成员将在学术论坛上陈述他们的发现，例如会议报告。通过这种方式，该项目旨在克服公共、社区和联合制作的历史的学者和实践者之间目前存在的鸿沟。学术小组还将撰写五篇学术文章，讨论SPAN历史的历史意义和该项目的方法论贡献。该项目以该小组在学术界、遗产和志愿部门从事教学和研究方面的专门知识为基础。但它超越了艺术和人文学科目前的做法，发展了一种以联合制作为核心的参与式研究方法。通过这种方式，它的目标是创造出严谨、包容和引人入胜的历史，并将这些新的方法论传达给远远超出学科范围的学术研究人员。

This project brings together Barton Hill Settlement (BHS), the University of Bristol and the Feminist Archive South to research the history of Single Parent Action Network (SPAN), a voluntary organisation based in inner-city Bristol from 1990 until 2016, when it was amalgamated into BHS. At its height, SPAN oversaw a network of 1000+ groups, and a significant portfolio of national and European funding. Yet it retained a distinctively grassroots and multi-racial ethos. SPAN's activities included education, research, local service provision, community organising and political lobbying. This multi-faceted history is an important example of women's, black, and working-class activism, and the evolution of the voluntary and community sector in the 1990s and 2000s.After a turbulent few years, and the loss of its premises, SPAN recently amalgamated with Barton Hill Settlement, bringing its life as an independent organisation to a close. This project aims to preserve SPAN's archive, currently at risk, and write the history of this organisation through a participatory research process. This project will bring together expertise from the heritage, voluntary and university sectors in an innovative participatory methodology. BHS is a key force for community development in inner-city Bristol, which works with over 40,000 people per annum and is extensively networked locally, nationally and internationally. Public engagement is embedded in the work of the FAS. Both PI and CI are experienced investigators on RCUK-funded historical co-production projects. The central focus of the project is a History Group, which will meet weekly at the Settlement's premises in inner-city Bristol for a period of 12 months. This group will include both academic researchers and community members, activists and service users from both BHS and SPAN. Facilitated by the project team, participants will design and execute a research project, and communicate their findings to members of the public. As outputs will be co-designed, it is not possible at this stage to say what form they will take, but possible outputs include film, an exhibition, walking tours, digital products like an app or a website, collaboration with visual or performance artists and so on. The participants in this project come from groups that rarely have the chance to engage with the university: single parents, speakers of English as an additional language, and benefits claimants. The experience of participating in the project will allow them to gain confidence and expertise, and to build social and professional networks. But the benefits for academia are, if anything, greater. These groups are ideally placed to critique ways of doing history that professional historians take for granted, and to bring different perspectives and life experiences to bear on the archival material. Members of History Group will present their findings in academic fora, such as conference presentations. In this way, the project aims to overcome the currently existing gulf between academics and practitioners of public, community and co-produced history. The academic team will also lead on five scholarly articles, addressing both the historical significance of the history of SPAN, and the methodological contribution of the project. This project builds on the team's expertise in engaged teaching and research, both in academia and in the heritage and voluntary sectors. But it goes beyond current practice in the arts and humanities to develop a participatory research methodology in which co-production is central. In this way, it aims to produce history which is rigorous, inclusive and engaging, and to communicate these new methodologies to academic researchers well beyond the discipline.