From Engagement to Strategy: The Journey Towards a Civic University

Gratton, Nicola

doi:10.1108/s2055-364120200000023008

Cited by 8 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…As such, staff members tended to bring with them strong connections with a wide range of communities and external organisations. These relationships and its outward-looking focus formed a strong element of CCU's identity throughout its lifespan, and they were evident through the three areas of CCU's practice: teaching, consultancy and research (Gratton, 2020). In this context, the values and principles of CCU were strongly aligned with those underpinning PAR.…”

Section: Participatory Action Research and Get Talkingmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…In one such project, a team of community researchers identified a local park as being of concern to local residents (Vincent, 2010), from which a 'Friends of' group has been established in response to their recommendations for action. This group was instrumental in securing substantial funding for the park five years after the initial consultation activity took place (Gratton, 2020). Another large public sector organisation used the findings from a Get Talking consultation to develop an informed and responsive Children and Young People's Strategy (Gratton and Beddows, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Participatory evaluation for large-scale arts programmes: challenges, adaptations and unexpected shifts in culture

Gratton

Reynolds

2022

Research for All

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Researchers at Staffordshire University have a long history of undertaking community-based research in and with communities in Stoke-on-Trent. Commitment to the principles and practice of participatory research by the university’s Creative Communities Unit (CCU) team led to an approach to participatory action research called Get Talking. This article highlights the use of Get Talking to evaluate Appetite, an Arts Council England Creative People and Places project in Stoke-on-Trent. Staffordshire University conducted a participatory evaluation using Get Talking for the three years of the programme’s first phase. As well as reflecting on the strengths of the approach, we also discuss the ways in which the approach was adapted in order to address some of the key challenges that were encountered, and the impact of taking a participatory approach to the evaluation on the programme’s culture in relation to community engagement and co-production.

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Section: Participatory Action Research and Get Talkingmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Participatory evaluation for large-scale arts programmes: challenges, adaptations and unexpected shifts in culture

Gratton

Reynolds

2022

Research for All

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“…Those wishing to adopt what Gratton and Jones (2023) term a ‘more-than-civic’ role in their cities and regions must resolve these operational challenges. For Gratton (2020) this involves embedding civic engagement into the strategic vision and operation of the university.…”

Section: Blurring Boundariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A civic and sustainable 15-minute campus? Universities should embrace the 15-minute city concept to help create vibrant sustainable communities

Barratt

Swetnam

2022

Local Economy: The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit

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This article looks at the value of applying the 15-minute city concept to city-based university campuses. We argue that attention to the public realm within and beyond university campuses has the potential to reduce carbon emissions, enhance civic engagement and improve the vibrancy and liveability of cities. The 15-minute approach addresses aspects of poverty and inequality through the relative affordability of sustainable travel and access to affordable goods and services. To realise these benefits universities must focus on three areas; (1) Establishing porous campus boundaries where services can be shared with the local community and vice-versa. (2) Playing an active role in evaluating and improving the sustainability and liveability of the area surrounding the campus. (3) Promoting, enhancing and enabling high-quality public transport and active travel networks to reduce reliance on private vehicles. The 15-minute campus approach marks a change from the idea of a ‘sticky campus’ where the university is seen as an enclosed one-stop resource for staff and students – often set apart and secured from its host city. Our notion of a 15-minute campus is a more civic minded conception that promotes an awareness of what lies both within and beyond the confines of the campus, challenging the definition of what the university is, and who it is for.

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“…An interesting example of action research with local communities is Staffordshire University's Creative Communities Unit (CCU), a dedicated public engagement unit which ran from 2002 to 2018 (Gratton, 2020). Their "Get Talking" approach to participatory action research emphasized the use of creative engagement techniques to connect with vulnerable and hardto-reach groups via "community researchers" who were trained and often paid to work as partners on projects.…”

Section: Action-oriented Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact Culture: Transforming How Universities Tackle Twenty First Century Challenges

Reed

Fazey

2021

Front. Sustain.

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New ways of doing research are needed to tackle the deep interconnected nature of twenty first century challenges, like climate change, obesity, and entrenched social and economic inequalities. While the impact agenda has been shaping research culture, this has largely been driven by economic imperatives, leading to a range of negative unintended consequences. Alternative approaches are needed to engage researchers in the pursuit of global challenges, but little is known about the role of impact in research cultures, how more or less healthy “impact cultures” might be characterized, or the factors that shape these cultures. We therefore develop a definition, conceptual framework, and typology to explain how different types of impact culture develop and how these cultures may be transformed to empower researchers to co-produce research and action that can tackle societal challenges with relevant stakeholders and publics. A new way of thinking about impact culture is needed to support more societally relevant research. We propose that healthy impact cultures are: (i) based on rigorous, ethical, and action-oriented research; (ii) underpinned by the individual and shared purpose, identities, and values of researchers who create meaning together as they generate impact from their work; (iii) facilitate multiple impact sub-cultures to develop among complementary communities of researchers and stakeholders, which are porous and dynamic, enabling these communities to work together where their needs and interests intersect, as they build trust and connection and attend to the role of social norms and power; and (iv) enabled with sufficient capacity, including skills, resources, leadership, strategic, and learning capacity. Based on this framework we identify four types of culture: corporate impact culture; research “and impact” culture; individualistic impact culture; and co-productive impact culture. We conclude by arguing for a bottom-up transformation of research culture, moving away from the top-down strategies and plans of corporate impact cultures, toward change driven by researchers and stakeholders themselves in more co-productive and participatory impact cultures that can address twenty first century challenges.

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From Engagement to Strategy: The Journey Towards a Civic University

Cited by 8 publications

References 6 publications

Participatory evaluation for large-scale arts programmes: challenges, adaptations and unexpected shifts in culture

Participatory evaluation for large-scale arts programmes: challenges, adaptations and unexpected shifts in culture

A civic and sustainable 15-minute campus? Universities should embrace the 15-minute city concept to help create vibrant sustainable communities

Impact Culture: Transforming How Universities Tackle Twenty First Century Challenges

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