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

该项目旨在建立一个社区大学(Comm-Uni-ty)，将知识交流嵌入到学者和社区积极分子之间的横向工作关系中，共同设计和共同提供一门围绕权力和参与的课程。该项目建立在AHRC连接社区资助的“社区权力”范围审查的基础上。《范围审查》结合了对有关社区权力和权力的文献的回顾，以及英格兰北部八个社区的《权力谈话》。学术文献表明，基于“他者”支配的权力观念受到了其他对权力的理解的有效挑战，例如，强调非支配形式的权力。有能力或有能力。“权力对话”揭示，参与变革进程的社区居民(社区积极分子)实践着另一种权力。至少在八个参与者群体中，权力被定义为合作、分享、赋能和倾听。与会者谈到，他们不想要“强者的权力”，如果他们设法赢得权力职位，他们热衷于将权力移交给其他人。然而，在拒绝主导性权力的过程中，许多活动人士发现，他们影响有权势的人并带来有效变革的能力是有限的。这项研究提出了一个研究命题：在不复制主导性权力的情况下，非支配性权力能在多大程度上有效？在对“权力谈话”参与者的范围界定研究的反馈中，我们讨论了如何更深入地探索这一命题。建立一所社区大学(被一位与会者简称为Comm-Uni-ty)的想法出现了。社区大学将与传统的大学外联、伙伴关系和参与背道而驰。它将把大学的理念带入社区，并建立一个空间，在那里学术知识可以与经验知识和实践知识交流，而不会让一个人优先于另一个人。它力求通过这一知识交流过程和通过持续的系统化学习(视觉和/或书面实地日记)将知识生产和社会行动结合在一起，使参与的学生自己能够通过努力实现变革来评估一年来共产主义的影响。因此，影响的途径将被作为知识交流设计的一个组成部分加以跟踪，参与者将通过他们的同行和学术评估的通信大学作业自己提出影响的证据。这项提案本身是通过参与性进程构建的，有24名潜在参与者，他们来自各种不同的社会基层社区活动家，其中许多人与正规教育没有联系，对主流政治深表怀疑。通过这一过程，我们了解到，课程和活动必须为忙碌和复杂的生活的非学术用户精心设计。因此，拟议的活动包括应用社会科学知识的创造性方法，旨在试验教学法和方法论。通过我们的民间社会伙伴(约瑟夫·朗特里基金会)和我们的共同申请者(索尔福德大学)，我们期待着这种方法在其他北方城市的潜在可复制性。我们的最后一次庆祝和影响活动将向国家和法定机构展示，基层社区参与者如何在适当的支持和共同设计下，自己能够负责任和富有成效地实现变革。通过这种方式，该项目将寻求克服国家和社会之间的脱节，并促进地方一级更多的政治参与和变革--有证据表明，大多数人有兴趣采取行动，但这种参与的潜力在实践中大多仍未实现。

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.