The social, historical, cultural and democratic context of civic engagement: imagining different communities and making them happen.

我们的研究研究了社区是如何将人们联系在一起的，无论是现在还是过去。这些联系有多种形式，但通常包括人们聚集在一起寻求改变和追求不同的未来。我们感兴趣的是想象力在如何构思和追求这样的未来方面所起的作用。在英国和其他地方，人们参与社区倡议的历史既包括成功的创新，也包括挫折和失望。我们的项目将从这两种情况中吸取教训。我们将研究不同类型的社区(一些是现在的，一些是过去的)的社区联系。利用我们的新知识，我们将一起想象社区可能是如何不同的，并试验不同形式的社区建设。社区是由一些共享某些东西，但也有不同之处的人组成的。有鉴于此，我们想问四个主要问题：1)什么是概念化、研究和促进互联社区的最佳方式，以便它们有潜力适应社会、文化和经济差异以及不同的观点和做法并从中受益？2)公民参与的历史告诉我们，社会、历史、文化和民主背景如何以及为什么对社区建设重要？3)想象更美好的未来在捕捉和维持变革的热情和动力方面可以发挥什么作用？4)研究方法的发展正在改变社区研究，尤其是创造性和协作性方法的发展？我们解决这些问题的方法挑战了社区的想法，这些想法侧重于缺乏什么，相反，我们强调了利用想象力在塑造社区未来方面所起的作用。它汇集了社会科学、艺术和人文学科中对社区关系感兴趣的一系列学科的研究人员，以及致力于在一系列地点进行社区发展的合作组织。国际同事将进一步加强该联盟的活动，在活动中担任主旨演讲人，并担任咨询委员会成员。这些项目将采用一系列研究方法，但以合作和参与性方法(社区合作伙伴和大学合作)为核心。有几个项目涉及回到以前的研究地点，探索可以学到的与今天关于社区的辩论相关的东西。20世纪60年代末/70年代初的社区发展项目将包括对背景统计、文献记录、访谈、口述历史、社区艺术和其他以社区为基础的活动的分析，追溯历史及其遗产直到现在。我们将重新审议文化艺术项目和帮助弱势群体的项目，所有这些项目都旨在提高社区的复原力。对这些经验教训的反思将纳入“弱势”社区成员的有计划的干预措施，激发对未来的想象力，并有助于建立复原力和变革动力。另一个项目将调查是什么促使志愿者跨越社会和地理边界，使用地图技术、调查和焦点小组来捕捉这些联系。这项提议的背景是，在全球范围内，人们正在寻找新的方式，参与影响他们生活的问题的决策，并参与涉及他们的研究--所谓的“社会研究民主化”。在人们如何设想合作以及这些想法如何在不同的社区付诸实践方面，该团队的共同利益将不同的研究线索联系在一起。回答这些问题需要通力合作，研究一系列不同的案例，包括过去和现在的情况，并得出适当的结论，为当前的辩论和对未来的展望提供信息。

Our research studies how communities connect people, both today and in the past. These connections take many forms, but often include people coming together to seek change and pursue a different future. We are interested in the role imagination plays in how such futures are conceived and pursued. The history of people's involvement in community initiatives includes both successful innovation and frustration and disappointment, in the UK and elsewhere. Our project will learn from both scenarios. We will study community connections in different types of community (some present, some past). Using our new knowledge, together we will imagine how communities might be different and experiment with different forms of community building.Communities are made up of people who share some things in common, but also have differences. In the light of this we want to ask four main questions: 1) What are the best ways of conceptualising, researching and promoting connected communities so that they have the potential to accommodate and benefit from social, cultural and economic differences and diverse opinions and practices? 2) What does the history of civic engagement tell us about how and why the social, historical, cultural and democratic context matters to community-building? 3) What role can imagining better futures play in capturing and sustaining enthusiasm and momentum for change? 4) Is community research being transformed by developments in research methodologies, particularly the development of creative and collaborative methods?Our approach to these questions challenges ideas of community that focus on what is lacking, highlighting instead the role that harnessing imagination plays in shaping community futures. It brings together researchers from a range of disciplines across the social sciences and arts and humanities interested in community relationships together with partner organisations dedicated to community development in a range of locations. International colleagues will add further dimensions to the consortium's activities, acting as keynote speakers at events, and as advisory committee members.The projects will employ a range of approaches to research, but with collaborative and participatory methods (community partners and universities working together) being central. Several projects involve going back to sites of previous research to explore what can be learned that is of relevance to to-day's debates about community. The return to sites of the Community Development Project of the late 1960s/early 1970s will include analysis of background statistics, documentary records, interviews, oral history, community arts and other community-based activities, tracing that history and its legacies down to the present. We will revisit culture and arts projects, and projects working with disadvantaged groups, all of which have sought to promote community resilience. Reflections on the lessons of these experiences will feed into planned interventions with members of 'disadvantaged' communities to fire imagination about the future and help to build resilience and a momentum for change. Another project will investigate what motivates volunteers to cross social and geographical boundaries, using mapping techniques, surveys and focus groups to capture these connections. The context of this proposal is a strong impetus globally towards people looking for new ways to participate in decision-making about issues that affect their lives, and to participate in research that involves them - the so-called 'democratisation of social research'. The various strands of research are held together by the team's shared interests in how people envisage co-operating and how these ideas get put into practice in diverse communities. Answering these questions requires working collaboratively to look at a range of different cases, both past and present, and to draw appropriate conclusions to inform current debates and visions of the future.