Co-producing research: A Community Development Approach

Offering a critical examination of the nature of co-produced research, this important new book draws on materials and case studies from the ESRC funded project ‘Imagine – connecting communities through research’. Outlining a community development approach to co-production, which privileges community agency, the editors link with wider debates about the role of universities within communities. With policy makers in mind, contributors discuss in clear and accessible language what co-production between community groups and academics can achieve. The book will be valuable for practitioners within community contexts, and researchers interested in working with communities, activists, and artists.

Clare Levi works with older people at the Search project based in Benwell, Newcastle, UK. She coordinated the ‘Growing old in West Newcastle’ project for Imagine North East.

Ben Kyneswood is Lecturer in Sociology at Coventry University. His work involves using community photographic archives to challenge dominant narratives and established thinking. His company Photo Archive Miners recently published the photography book of Masterji and exhibits worldwide.

University of Huddersfield

Beverly Wenger-Trayner is a learning consultant specializing in communities of practice and social learning systems. Her expertise encompasses both the design of learning architectures and the facilitation of processes, activities, and use of new technologies. She has also been the creative director of an Open Source platform for networked communities.

Suna Eryigit-Madzwamuse is Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the Centre of Resilience for Social Justice, University of Brighton. Her work focuses on promoting wellbeing and resilience of children, young people and their families, taking into account biological and contextual risk and protective factors from a developmental perspective. She also volunteers for the social enterprise, Boingboing.