Community Organizing in an Era of Precarity: Forging Creative Solidarities

想象一下，社区艺术组织在废弃的居民区放映户外“弹出式”电影；社区中心为木工和烹饪工作室提供场地；居民区中心提供社区广播节目课程，以及关于自己创业的研讨会：这些都是寻求创建替代和可持续形式的社会和经济组织的“艺术社会企业倡议”的例子。在不稳定和零星的公共、私人和慈善资金的支持下，艺术社会企业组织是各种社区经济(例如社区企业、合作社)目前与一系列人合作促进创业精神和职业培训的例子。尽管这些组织计划在英国各地的社区开展不同的活动，但批评人士称，这些战略对解决主流经济发展和城市复兴计划中更深层次的结构性不平等问题几乎没有起到什么作用。另一方面，据说许多草根艺术社会企业团体在被边缘化的社区中为抵制紧缩提供了立足点。此外，对它们的分析可能会阐明让代表不足的社区/人参与当地重建和经济发展规划的新战略。这一研究方案建立在社区经济研究的基础上，这是一个探索替代经济发展模式的分析领域。这项研究计划让英国三个不同地区的社会企业团体参与进来--英格兰西南部、苏格兰城市和偏远的苏格兰高地和群岛--这项研究项目考察了艺术社会企业团体如何应对工作中相互矛盾的压力并产生变化。它评估和跟踪以艺术为基础的社区发展组织如何分享促进社会和经济发展以及促进艺术生产的战略。该项目绘制并审查了寻求挑战不平等模式的创造性战略的影响范围和目的。它将发展对艺术社会企业在鼓励社会和经济可持续性方面的潜力的更微妙的理解。这项研究将使广泛的受众受益：研究社会企业和社区经济的学者；社会企业从业者；社会政策和文化政策研究人员；从事社区工作的艺术家；城市更新规划者。为了最大限度地发挥项目的影响，计划开展以下活动：为期刊和会议撰写学术论文，并出版一本关于艺术社会企业的书，从业者和研究人员都可以接触到；创建了一个在线“艺术社会企业中心”，让艺术家和社会企业从业者上传和讨论创新的社区经济发展模式、艺术实践范例和制定替代商业战略的战略；一个“知识交流和战略论坛”，将把社会企业团体聚集在一起，分享良好做法，并就他们的战略如何跨越社区进行批判性辩论；与一系列艺术社会企业从业人员一起制作关于艺术社会企业活动的简报文件和最佳做法小册子；与社区经济专家合作对澳大利亚进行研究访问，并促进与社区经济研究网络悉尼分会的公共讨论；制作创新的数字故事，以分享我将在网上中心张贴的关于以艺术为基础的社区参与和发展的教育；在高地和群岛大学和布里斯托尔大学与艺术家、学者和社区利益攸关方举办关于创新艺术社会企业战略的公开讲习班。这个未来研究领袖奖将建立新的国内和国际合作，并促进跨学科学术研究。

Imagine community arts organisations screening outdoor 'pop up' movie screenings in abandoned neighbourhood spaces; community centres providing space for wood working and cooking workshops; neighbourhood hubs offering courses on community radio programming alongside workshops about starting your own business: these are all examples of 'artistic social enterprise initiatives' that seek to create alternative and sustainable forms of social and economic organisation. Supported by precarious and piece-meal public, private and philanthropic funding, artistic social enterprise organisations are examples of diverse community economies (e.g. community enterprises, cooperatives) currently working with a range of people to foster entrepreneurialism and job training. While these organisations program diverse activities in communities across the UK, critics claim that these strategies do little to address deeper structural inequalities within mainstream economic development and urban regeneration initiatives. On the other hand, many grassroots artistic social enterprise groups are said to offer a foothold for resisting austerity in marginalised communities. Furthermore, analysis of them may illuminate novel strategies for engaging underrepresented communities/people in local regeneration and economic development planning. This research programme builds on community economies research, an area of analysis that explores alternative economic development models. Engaging social enterprise groups in three diverse U.K. regions - South West England, urban Scotland and the remote Scottish Highlands and Islands -- this research programme examines how artistic social enterprise groups negotiate contradictory pressures on their work and generate change. It assesses and tracks how arts-based community development organisations share strategies for promoting social and economic development as well as promote artistic production. This project maps and examines the reach and purpose of creative strategies that seek to challenge patterns of inequality. It will develop a more nuanced understanding of the potential of artistic social enterprise for encouraging social and economic sustainability. This research will benefit a wide range of audiences: scholars researching social enterprise and community economies; social enterprise practitioners; social policy and cultural policy researchers; artists practicing community-engaged work; urban regeneration planners. In order to maximise the impact of the project, the following activities are planned: the production of academic papers for journals and conferences and a book on artistic social enterprise accessible to both practitioners and researchers; the creation of an on-line 'Artistic Social Enterprise Hub,' a space for artists and social enterprise practitioners to upload and discuss innovative community economic development models, examples of arts practices and strategies for enacting alternative business strategies; a 'Knowledge Exchange and Strategy Forum' that will bring together social enterprise groups to share good practice and critically debate how their strategies traverse communities; the production of briefing papers and best practice booklets on artistic social enterprise activities with a range of artistic social enterprise practitioners; research visits to Australia to work with community economies experts and to facilitate a public discussion with the Sydney chapter of the Community Economies Research Network; the production of innovative digital stories to share education about arts-based community engagement and development that I will post on the on-line Hub; public workshops about innovative artistic social enterprise strategies with artists, scholars and community stakeholders at the University of the Highlands and Islands and the University of Bristol. This Future Research Leader award will build new national and international collaborations and foster interdisciplinary scholarship.