Building resilient communities through co-creative environmental practice The RECOMS project is training fifteen Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) in developing more just, inclusive and community-based approaches to enhancing and transforming the sustainability of local environments and resources. Project co-ordinator, Alex Franklin, illustrates how the project works closely with people in both urban and rural communities.
“Spaces of Possibility” Exhibition featured interactive objects, for people of all ages and backgrounds to explore.
An aim of
RECOMS is to enhance the connections between communities and their local environments, for the purposes of tackling societal challenges such as food insecurity, energy use and climate change. Urban parks, woodlands, food allotments, community farms, waterways, village theatres, community housing – all such places (and many more besides) have the potential to elevate and empower communities. However, in order to do so in a manner which benefits the majority rather than merely the (already empowered) few, their management, planning and models of ownership need to be grounded in more just and inclusive forms of public participation, engagement and use. The premise is that the people who are affected by such places, can play a pivotal part in planning their usage and their future. Enabling this in turn will help maintain people’s mental and physical health, their individual and collective sense of well-being, and ultimately the resourcefulness and resilience of their communities. Moreover, alongside it will ensure that such places retain greater social value and are more sustainable environments. By empowering local communities to be the driving force for change, the RECOMS project is in line with broader EU goals of sustainable and inclusive growth and territorial resource-based development, enhancing social cohesion and social innovation. How people plan, interact and maintain their own local environments is recognised as important to sustaining those environments and give them purpose and longevity. The project’s objective is to ultimately build resourceful and
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resilient communities via the adoption of adaptive and transformational environmental practices. The RECOMS ESRs seek to tackle such socialecological challenges, working hand-in-hand with vulnerable communities to transform urban and rural environments. It is critical to planning, to find more socially equitable ways to reveal the aspirations, requirements and also the expertise of those who can both influence and benefit from these shared spaces. The project hinges on the premise that dictating solutions is not the way to understand or transform such environments. It is essential to engage those who use the areas, so they nurture their own ideas and creative solutions for more meaningful, sustainable developments.
Inclusivity at the heart of effective change A key part of the process is to achieve greater inclusivity and equality at a local level for work on developing these places and spaces, which means nurturing a broader participation. Within RECOMS, in support of this goal, participation What is RECOMS? Enhancing the connections between communities and their local environments for the purposes of tackling societal challenges such as food sustainability, energy use and climate change.
hinges on a concept of prioritising co-creativity, where collaborative and creative forms of action and reflection are favoured, researching ‘with’ rather than ‘for’ the people using them. Such methods flatten hierarchies and make sure one voice does not overpower; rather, all the voices of a group are heard and valued. Indeed, there are many methods of reflection, analysis, and communication, from debate to visualisation, creative, to metaphorical or lateral thinking. It is important to select methods that can be used most effectively. Imogen Humphris (Groningen University), RECOMS ESR, explains why it is important to explore new methodologies: “There are those systems and structures in society which daily life is governed by and organised by. We have to think about transitioning without those structures, to find progressive ways forward, whilst having to weave these new ways with existing systems already there. We also have to recognise those who are not represented in the process.” The creative and innovative approaches to research adopted by the ESRs through RECOMS have been shared in an edited book by Palgrave, titled: Co-creativity and engaged scholarship: transformative methods in social sustainability research. The book highlights the work which considers how, through socially inclusive forms of action and reflection, co-creative methods can be used to stimulate alternative understandings of why and how things are, and how they could be. RECOMS’ portfolio of outputs includes standard forms of academic research publications, but also goes well beyond this by having creative methods and modes of communication as a thread running through
EU Research
