Theorising the Development, Implementation and Sustainability of Schools as Community Hubs

Abstract

Increasingly, school-based community hubs are aiming to engage and connect communities and service organisations in their daily operations. While some schools offer additional services to community members and share their facilities, there is limited research in the Australian context into how schools succeed in making their infrastructure and extended services accessible to both school and community members. This chapter proposes a research framework to investigate how schools as community hubs (SaCH) have been developed, implemented, and sustained, for the purpose of seeking insights into the processes, challenges, and lessons that have been learned by those involved. The chapter presents findings from the PhD study being undertaken by the author to illustrate how the framework guides attention to the socio-material relations at play within schools operating as community hubs, helping to make connections between the built environment and inhabitants’ practices, activities, and behaviours. The framework supports qualitative inquiry into the lived experiences of those associated with conceiving, delivering, operating, and using schools as community hubs, privileging the voices of policymakers, planners, designers, operators, and users.