University of Sussex
Browse
sore12371.pdf (516.32 kB)

‘Don't show the play at the football ground, nobody will come’: the micro-sociality of co-produced research in an English provincial city

Download (516.32 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 00:47 authored by Ben RogalyBen Rogaly
This article examines the idea that community is best understood through the concept of micro-sociality, as a verb, as ongoing social relations in action, rather than a thing to be possessed, lacked or lost. Such an emphasis on already-existing relations has consequences for the conduct of publicly-funded interventions including socially engaged research projects. This article tells a part of the story of one such project in Peterborough, England in the 2010s. If the project was counter-cultural in working with what was already happening in the city, rather than seeking to proselytize a culturally specific view of citizenship and the arts, it also faced its own political choices regarding whose work to accompany and how. Initiated by a group of outsider academics and artists, it involved transformations at varying scales, both fleeting and longer-lasting, often unplanned. The article takes a look at the project’s own microsociality in the choices city residents made to accompany its intentions and practices. Like other people, university researchers and artists are seen to depend on social relations, including the commitment and care of people they work with.

Funding

Places for all? A multi-media investigation of citizenship, work and belonging in a fast-changing provincial city; G0355; AHRC-ARTS & HUMANITIES RESEARCH COUNCIL; AH/J501669/1

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Sociological Review

ISSN

0038-0261

Publisher

Blackwell Publishing

Issue

4

Volume

64

Page range

657-680

Department affiliated with

  • Geography Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2016-04-05

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2016-04-05

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2016-04-05

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Licence

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC