School of Education research projects contributing to thinking on civic engagement and social cohesion

Two School of Education research projects, ‘Imagine’ and ‘Taking Yourself Seriously’ (TYS), have been contributing to national policy thinking on social cohesion and civic engagement.

Photo by the Steve Pool, a visual artist who has collaborated with Kate and the community partners on the Taking Yourself Seriously Project.

Both projects have had papers published on the The House of Lords website after responding to a call for evidence on the nature of the citizenship challenge by the Select Committee for Citizenship and Civic Engagement.

These submissions, which were jointly produced by community researchers, artists and university researchers in Rotherham and Sheffield explain among other things how co-production and grounded, experiential arts-based methodologies are crucial in helping to build bridges with and between communities.

These projects are also involved in a one to one briefing meeting between people working in the field of social cohesion across Sheffield and Rotherham with representatives from the House of Lords select committee on citizenship and civic engagement on the 16th November.

The Imagine Project was also praised in a letter from Cabinet Office for ‘mobilising knowledge from different perspectives’ in order to shape policy.

Read the papers:

Imagine — click here

Taking Yourself Seriously — click here