engage keynote 2013

8/10/2019 Engage Keynote 2013

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Re-imagining the University:

What do we think were doing

when were doing engagedresearch?

Keri Facer, University of Bristol & AHRC Connected

Communities Leadership Fellow

@kerileef @ahrcconnect


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Overview

Context for Engaged Research - Beyond theuniversity (trends and challenges)

Period of radical experimentalism

Experiments in re-imagining universities

Experiments in re-imagining research Connected Communities & others.

Contemporary debates, muddy oppositionsand key positions

Conceptual tools for forming new alliances?

Thinking in public


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BEYOND THE UNIVERSITY:

TRENDS AND CHALLENGES


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Context 1new economic conditions

Consequences of the 2007/2008 crash More than just a blipliving with low/no growth

Demands for new social and economic structures (Castells)

Radically increasing economic inequalities, hollowing out of themiddle classes and positional competition

Increasing demands (reduced affluence) and constrainedresources (shift of wealth to wealthy) for public services andvoluntary sectors

For Higher Education Demands for greater accountability for public funding

Intensifying competition for fewer places for diminishing returnsfor studentswhat does equpping students for the economylook like in this context?

Demands to play a role in re-imagining social and economic life


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Context 2environmental disruption

2 degree temperature rise.. Increasing amounts spent on adaptation of critical

infrastructure

Increasing migration and movement of people aroundglobe

Growth in campaigning organisations and experiments innew ways of living

For Higher Education? Increasing pressure on public funds and demands for

mitigation and amelioration technologies and strategiesfrom universities

Potential decline in international student marketsalongside significant growth in local student diversity

Universities for new economies?


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Context 3technological change

The Internet exists

New knowledge and information landscapesmaking visible

diverse forms of knowledge, allowing people to network and

share and exchange ideas globally.

+++ bioscience, new engineering

For Higher Education?

Growth in gift economy for learning eg 5min

Emergence of new forms of accreditatione.g. Mozilla Badges Learning to live with not being monopoly providers of

information, teaching or accredition

Disruptions to the time and place of education


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Context 4aging

Declining global fertility and increasing longevity Europe/North America become more aware of our

minority position in the worlddiversification of researchpriorities, cultures and practices (from 1114 to 1145 by2060)

Over 50% of western Europe aged over 50 by 2035, over25% aged over 65

For universities? Lifelong learning role?

Education as an NHS model? Initial degrees asvaccinations, with more sustained ongoing relationshipwith older adults over time, and more openness to olderadults participating for the first time?


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Critical challenge for universities

Our societies and our communities are under

significant pressure

How will universities contribute to the survival

and flourishing of our societies through the

21stcentury canyon ?

How will they help us to imagine and build

better futures?


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WHAT SHOULD A UNIVERSITY BE IN

THIS CONTEXT?


10/35

There has been a bit of change in

universities before

12th/13thCentury - medieval universities

Increasingly complex societies require new forms ofprofessional knowledge, new relationships with church.

14th/15thcenturyhumanism

new ideas, new texts, discontent with annotating oldclassics disputations and creations of new institutions

19thcenturyrise of civic and land grant universities

meeting changing economic conditions and new social

needs

Late 19th/ early 20thcentury

Workers Education, Co-operatives, Houses of the People,


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Experiments with the idea of

universities todayfocus on teaching

Massively open online coursesturning traditionalinstitutions inside-out

Certification Universities, online only (e.g. PhoenixcfTurkey/Middle East)

Commercial Providerse.g. Pearson, entering thescene

Massive growth of university provision in Asia

University of the Arts (Grayling etc)traditional form,new financing model

Collectivist approaches: Peer to Peer Universitiesself-organised, not accredited; Co-operative Universities

Free Universities/ Guilds/ Collectives


12/35


13/35

A landscape of radical experimentalism

Open Innovationclose collaboration betweenindustry and researcherse.g. MOD/Maths &Social Policy; HP/Computing;

Patient Syndication in Medicinesharing IP,commissioning research, e.g. Alzheimers

Social Innovation & Co-production

Action Research, Participatory Action Research

Education, Development Co-designarts, design, computing

Oral histories and community archeologiesaction heritage


14/35

Connected Communities:Researching community with, by and for communities

Cross Research Council Programme, led by the AHRC

To date (rough/latest figures):

300+ projects including

10 large grants (more coming within next 18 months )approx 1.2- 2m; 5 WW1 Hubsconnecting public andacademic histories; 10 x 100k co-design projects; 50 x HLFcollaboration projects

NBCommunity Organisations as Co-Is, funding forhonoraria for participation

Methodological innovationpremised upon the ideaof communities as having powerful knowledge.


15/35


16/35

Projects cover a wide range of issues

relating to understanding and helping

communities to flourish Participatory arts, wellbeing and dementia, connecting

craft and communities, studies of citizen participation,historical analyses of community, the use of ICT in

tackling marginalisation, the role of community music,everyday creativity, regeneration and resilience,

Local food systems, street drinking, co-design methodsand ethics, religious communities, global communities

and shakespeare, families and prisons, crowd-sourcing,violence in communities, housing, oral history andheritage, volunteering

And many more .


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Valuing multiple forms of knowledge

Everyday Participation What are the overlooked forms of creative practice that

communities engage in, and how might this be more fairlysupported in comparison with current funding arrangements?Partners include Arts Council, local sports groups, individual

ctizens Creative Practice as Mutual Recovery

How can creative practice in arts and humanities supportencounters between professionals, carers, patients, healthpractitioners

Productive Margins Aims to re-shape the way in which decision making is made by

connecting communities in Bristol and South Wales withresearchers from the Universities of Bristol and Cardiff to co-produce new forms of engagement across politics, policy andthe arts.


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Methodological Innovation: from

Bees to Boats

Untold History of Volunteeringperformancetechniques, boat building and culturalanimation to interrogate different

volunteering experiences (PI Keleman) In Conversation withco-design with more-

than-human communities (PI Bastian)

Walking Interconnectionsenvironmentalactivists and disability groups learningtogether (PI Porter)


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Re-imagining research causes real

difficulties Disrupt systemsbudgets, finance, procurement,

funding processes

Require reflection about what knowledge counts

Demand new metrics and new ways of valuing research

Challenge academics and collaborating organisations todevelop and share new skills

Disrupt traditional academic identitiesdisrupttraditional claims to knowledge

Create new forms of inclusion and exclusion in researchpracticesnew people are being allowed in, othersare feeling left out

Its exciting but also emotional, heated, and tense


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WHAT COUNTS AS AUNIVERSITY?

WHAT COUNTS AS RESEARCH?

Purpose How does the How is knowledge valued?


21/35

Purpose How does the

university act in the

world?

How is knowledge valued?

The

University

for Capital(Utility)

The Civic

University

(Praxis)

The Critical

University

(Theoria)

The Popular

University

(Phronesis/

Theorisis)



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world?


The

University


Develop individual

human capital, engine

for economic growthe.g. Gibbons

In its purest form

provides research and

education services toconsumers, industry,

govt

What sells? Determined outside

the university through research

investment and individual studentpurchasing decisions

The Civic

University

(Praxis)

The Critical

University

(Theoria)

The Popular

University

(Phronesis/

Theorisis)



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world?


The

University


Develop individual



In its purest form



govt




The Civic

University

(Praxis)

Address wider social

needs, solve social

problemse.g. Watson,

Burawoy

Brings specific expertise

to bear in collaboration

with industrial,

professional and civilsociety bodies

Negotiated between practice an

theory. Truthfulness through

relevance to action. Evidence and

application.

The Critical

University

(Theoria)

The Popular

University

(Phronesis/

Theorisis)



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world?


The

University


Develop individual



In its purest form



govt




The Civic

University

(Praxis)


needs, solve social


Burawoy



with industrial,





application.

The Critical

University

(Theoria)

Develop conceptual

reason, preserve and

push forward human

reason, contest

totalitarianisme.g.Collini

Stands outside the

world, acts to create

civilisation and norms

through students and

through public educationand knowledge sharing

Agenda set within discipline &

canon, judged by academy to

contribute to the sum of existing

human knowledge, judged by

society to shape underpinningconceptions of the world,

knowledge for knowledges sake

The Popular

University

(Phronesis/

Theorisis)



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world?


The

University


Develop individual



In its purest form



govt




The Civic

University

(Praxis)


needs, solve social


Burawoy



with industrial,





application.

The Critical

University

(Theoria)

Develop conceptual


push forward human

reason, contest

totalitarianisme.g.Collini

Stands outside the




through public educationand knowledge sharing





society to shape underpinningconceptions of the world,

knowledge for knowledges sake

The Popular

University

(Phronesis/

Theorisis)

Create a good society

for all, empower the

people to be able to

create that society e. . Giroux A adurai

Actively develops

popular capacity for

change through shared

learning, research andteachin

Recognises multiple knowledges,

recognises knowledge embedded

in power relations, knowledge

valued through negotiation judgea ainst contribution to o ular



26/35



world?


The

University


Develop individual



Service Provision

(research and education)

to externally definedneeds.

Determined outside the university

through research investment and

student purchasing decisions

The Civic

University

(Praxis)


needs, solve social

problemse.g. Watson



with industrial,

professional and civil

society bodies




application.

The Critical

University

(Theoria)

Develop conceptual


push forward human

reason, contest

totalitarianisme.g.

Collini

Stands outside the




through public education

and knowledge sharing





society to shape underpinning

conceptions of the world,knowledge for knowledges sake

The Popular

University

(Phronesis)

Create a good society

for all, empower the

people to be able to

create that society

e.g., Giroux, Appadurai,

Actively develops

popular capacity for

change through shared

learning, research and

teaching

Recognises multiple knowledges,

recognises knowledge embedded

in power relations, knowledge

valued through negotiation judge

against contribution to popular

e.g. KT/KE ,Translational

Medicine (some forms of) Co-

Design; commissioned research

e.g. University-Community

Partnerships; Community Help Desks,

City Collaboratories

Oral histories, citizen

science, STSblue

skies research driven

by conversations and

social settings

Participatory Action

Research, Continuing

Education, (some forms of)

co-production


27/35

The terrain of the great university

debate: opposition 1

University for

CapitalCivic University

Who should benefitindividual

positional benefit/economic growth

or collective/public good?

Critical University

Popular

University


28/35

Opposition 2

University for

CapitalCivic University

Critical University

Who determines the research

questions?

Popular

University


29/35

Civic University

The great university debate

University for

Capital

Critical University

Popular

University

Who gets to decide what counts as

valuable knowledge?


30/35

How might this typology be useful (1) ?

As a tool for moving the debate forward Clarify which questions we are actually arguing about?

As a tool for widening our repertoires in research

When is it help to operate with a civic or a popularparadigm in research practice? When do we want todisrupt existing knowledge and when do we want toharness and apply it?

As a tool for reflecting on current practice When and why are these different framings of the

university missing? Why is it easier to push for oneparticular vision of the university not another? What arethe concernsis it about knowledge, or about

accountability or about agenda setting?


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How might this typology be useful (2)?

As a way of identifying unlikely allegiances inaddressing the 21stcentury canyon

If (and I am aware that not everyone will share

this view) you believe that the current economic,environmental and social model is unsustainable,

then we need to explore how to reframe that, not

just work within it.

If that is the case, we need to explore which ideas

of the university will help us to do that,

My suggestion is that this means


32/35

Civic University

A new alliance?

University forCapital

Critical University

Popular

University

Are radically different and better

futures imaginable?


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To conclude

There are significant and radical changes happening outside universities anduniversities are being challenged to respond

The response is often organised around very different sets of questionsaroundwho sets the agenda, around knowledge, around who benefits

If we asked the questionhow best can universities help us all to imagine radicallydifferent and better futuresmy proposition is that there will be powerful newallegiances formed in particular between critical and popular conceptions of theuniversity.

Often these two ideas are conflated within the idea of the public university or thecivic universityand their tensions are obscured. My suggestion islets be clear

about where these are in tension, lets work out how and where these can be putinto dialogue with each other, if we do that

1. we create institutions that cannot simply be done elsewher; and

2. we create a powerful capacity to imagine different and better futures.


34/35

Thank you

Thanks to Bryony Enright, Paul Strauss, Lindsey Horner, Robin

Durie, Kate Pahl, Steve Pool, Andrew Miles, Pat Thompson, Helen

Manchester, Morag McDermont, Gareth Williams, Jasber Singh,

Wendy Larner, Nick Mahony and many Connected Communities

Programme researchers for conversations that have informed this

discussion.


35/35

Images

Hire Me - http://blogs.reuters.com/uknews/2009/09/21/raising-the-cost-of-university/

Lecture of strategic optimismfrom

http://universityforstrategicoptimism.wordpress.com/2010/12/07/pictures-from-

open-day/

Group in Gardenfrom http://www.sevenstreets.com/ground-force-mr-seels-

garden/

Man at lecternCouncil for the Defence of British Universities

Group discussionOccupy University Movement

Chinese Universityhttp://lahore.olx.com.pk/free-admission-in-china-s-top-

universities-for-mbbs-b-ds-engineering-iid-519956976

Reverse your decision -http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/commentisfree+education/londonm

etropolitanuniversity

All others taken by Keri Facer. Feel free to re-use with acknowledgement.
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engage keynote 2013

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