RECOMS

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 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

the entire programme of research and training. Already published examples include: a series of animated educational film clips, a toolkit of creative methods, and a public exhibition, with others soon to follow. Further to this, Sara Smaal (ILVO), RECOMS ESR, is currently finalising an engagement toolkit (RE-ADJUSTool) designed to enable policy makers, practitioners and citizens to jointly unpack, discuss and integrate social justice within their specific economic, cultural and political food governance contexts.

Whilst RECOMS seeks to enable communities to explore innovative thinking around shared spaces and sustainability, it is also enhancing the way that the research is communicated, so as to be more meaningful to particular target audiences and acknowledge the inputs of both individuals and whole communities to research findings. RECOMS makes a difference by thinking beyond traditional methods. Parts of the project are rewriting the rule book of academic presentation, in order to connect with the people who are involved. For sustainability research to be truly transformative, in addition to the accepted ways it is essential to pursue a range of different ways of communicating research findings and ensuring the voices of those who are often unheard, due to their lack of power, are properly represented.

A new way of sharing research

An idea that took shape for one part of the project was the creation of an exhibition of research, where the RECOMS ESRs represented their ideas and findings through a curated mix of objects, visuals, soundscapes and games. It was an innovative way to change how social science research is absorbed, shared and offered. Convened by ILVO and held in the greenhouse of a local community food initiative (Parckfarm), it was designed to be highly interactive, for people of all ages and backgrounds to explore.

The exhibition was visual, tactile, presented with colour, bite sized, impactful information and elements that drew the viewer through a narrative. It had broader appeal than academic texts and it became an experimental place to

A key aspect for Green Open Space management and preservation is inclusiveness. This is a pilot test of the Participatory GIS tool that RECOMS ESR Nohemi Ramirez Aranda (ILVO) is working on to improve the inclusiveness of minority groups in spatial decisions.

share points of view on the world. It was clear this unique research presentation would benefit a wider spectrum of people. It communicated results in a way that was relatable to people’s everyday lives and places of residence.

Field research reaps knowledge

For the RECOMS researchers advanced training provided during the project has included integrated action-based learning, collaborating with communities directly and experimenting with creative techniques.

“A lot of us work with community groups in physical places. Through working dialogically between their material landscapes and their bodies these groups are building intimate knowledges of their environment,” explains Humphris.

What has emerged from RECOMS is how the meaning of environments to the people that use them can often be misunderstood by planners and policy makers, who may have a more remote, disconnected understanding of them. For establishing the optimum use of a shared environment, it is imperative to find ways relevant for all those who reside locally, or are otherwise connected to it, to share their experiences, their needs and their aspirations for that space. Only then can it be sustainably and inclusively managed, cared for and used, with this in turn contributing to the building of resourceful and resilient communities.

An interactive game, outlining the different pathways to sustainability, each of us can achieve locally, was a hit with all ages.

Resourceful and Resilient Community Environmental Practice Project Objectives

RECOMS is comprised of a transdisciplinary consortium of scientists, practitioners and change agents from eleven public, private and non-profit organisations located in six European Union countries. It will train fifteen Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) in transdisciplinary approaches to supporting resourceful and resilient community environmental practice. Through individual doctoral projects, collaborative learning and guided training, the ESRs will develop advanced skills and expertise in tackling social-ecological challenges such as how to transform urban and rural environments for the health and wellbeing of vulnerable communities.

Project Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 765389.

Project Partners

https://recoms.eu/partners

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Alex Franklin Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, UK T: +44 (0) 755 742 5456 E: ac0569@coventry.ac.uk W: https://recoms.eu

Alex Franklin Moya Kneafsey

Alex Franklin is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University. Her research explores collaborative forms of environmental action and care, with a particular focus on placebased practice, situated knowledge and morethan-human relations. She is co-ordinator of the RECOMS project. Moya Kneafsey is Professor of Human Geography, Food and Local Development at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience at Coventry University. Her research concentrates on ‘alternative’ food networks, short food supply chains and food justice. Her latest publication is Geographies of Food: An Introduction. She is joint co-ordinator of the RECOMS project and co-ordinator of COACH.