The value of community research as evidence for change
The value of testimonies and stories from people is central to our work here at the Rural Design Centre to generate new approaches and solutions to challenges. One reason it has been so exciting collaborating with Durham Community Action and Durham University’s Centre for Social Justice and Community Action, to co-design and deliver a community research network.
The Rural Durham Community Research Network is part of an innovative, national approach to research and research funding, led by UKRI, that aims to shift the power of research to local communities, and to demonstrate the value of community research data and findings.
Last month, in Manchester’s People’s History Museum, the Young Foundation and UKRI brought together the nine community research networks that they are funding and supporting. Over two days, we celebrated progress, learned from the different approaches in our respective places, identified shared challenges, and were inspired. And there was dancing a singing!
Community research networks are evidencing the empowering effects on individuals and communities of ‘doing’ research, with numerous stories of individual and community achievements, ambitions, connections and change, pride and hope. One challenge shared is the value placed on community research and its data and findings in the metrics research institutions are judged on, and as evidence for decisions and investments.
In product design, the importance of understanding how a product works, or not, in people’s real lives, is taken for granted. In public service design too, a shift in the language of policy to include ‘human-centred’ and ‘place-based’ is evident, but, in real-world contexts of continued financial constraints, our collective mindsets can get stuck in old models. This is a challenge community research networks are taking on with another three and half years of funding and working.
Here’s some useful resources if you're interested in the value of lived experience and of community research: