Community Research?

The Community Wellbeing Collective (CWC) describe themselves as ‘community researchers’, emphasising their community connections, the grassroots nature of their organisation and their interest in ‘finding out more’.

Social Practice?

Perhaps, in part, CWC’s choice of words stems from their history. CWC were brought together in 2021 by social-practice artist Jeanne van Heeswijk, as part of a commission by Edinburgh Art Festival and WHALE Arts.

But there is another set of words – ‘Social Practice art’ [and all its associated synonyms].
Social Practice art aims to create social or political change through engagement and collaboration with individuals, communities and institutions in the creation of participatory art. Collectively imagining alternative realities and then acting on these, as if it were possible.
“We can’t build what we can’t imagine” Wahlida Imarisha

Because people and relationships form the medium (substance) of this work, social engagement is not just the process, but also an aesthetic in itself. The beauty of human interaction and social discourse.

Knowledge Exchange

So what about my history? My job title is Knowledge Exchange and Impact Officer. I’m expected to ‘engage’ with a wide range of ‘stakeholders’ who might have something to say about or who could contribute to our Mental Health Data Science research (from clinicians to policymakers). When I work with community groups, my work is sometimes called Public Engagement (PE). When those community members have lived experience of mental illness, then the term ‘Patient and Public Involvement’ (PPI) may come into use. (My career began in Science Communication, where the emphasis was more on informing and teaching (one way communication from expert to learner).

Impact

The second part of my job title ‘Impact’ emphasises change. Making a difference in the world or bringing new ideas from ‘outside’ into the realm of academic research.

Other terms
Within the university, different terms are used by different departments.
In science and engineering, Citizen Science is used; whereas Participatory Action research is more common in the social sciences and education. Co-production is often used in art based work. The library has recently set up a ‘Participatory Research Service’ to support staff and students with this form of work.

Learn from each other

Each of these words gives hints towards the rationale behind the work and the methods used to scaffold them.  Nevertheless, there are many commonalities and much we could learn from each other – if only we could stop tripping over our words!

Community Researchers? Knowledge Exchange? Public Involvement? The many different words we use / Mental Health - Imagining Beyond by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0