Public engagement

Public engagement is a key concern for CCIG. Through our wide-ranging research activities we aim to work as a catalyst for the creation of new publics that drive social change and enrich our collective life.

Publics are groups of people who come together to bring about social, economic, cultural or technological change. They are vital because, without them, many local, global, private or inter-personal concerns would not be owned, represented or considered collectively. For example, without publics assembling around issues of environmental sustainability, global trade justice or proposed changes to UK forest management it is unlikely that they would have been pushed to the top of the political agenda.

Our approach is distinctive and unconventional because it treats publics as diverse rather than uniform, dynamic rather than static and unpredictable rather than predictable. We also recognise that publics emerge and are sustained through interaction and exchange. So our work in this area is experimental, bringing together expertise from different areas and making full use of both old media (such as press and broadcast) and new technologies (such as web platforms).

We believe our approach to public engagement is truly innovative; by creating new publics we work to intervene in social change in relevant ways, bringing real benefits to citizens, governing organisations and pubic life, in all their varied manifestations.

CCIG now has a dedicated research project, Creating Publics. The Creating Publics project looks afresh at how research can play a role in the mediation and generation of publics. It is inspired by contemporary research into the dynamics of public formation and the proliferation of innovative forms of public mediation. Between 2011-2014 this project will explore and test-out more horizontal and interactive ways of relating social science research and public practices.

Additionally, examples below highlight just some of the different ways that CCIG's public engagement work is being realised.

The Bisexuality Report

The Bisexuality Report, led by Meg Barker (Senior Lecturer in Psychology, OU), Rebecca Jones (Lecturer, Health & Social Care, OU), Christina Richards, Helen Bowes-Catton & Tracey Plowman (of BiUK) is the first of its kind in the UK. It summarises national and international evidence and draws out recommendations for future bisexual inclusion in many different settings.

NCCPE-ESRC Research Synthesis on Using Segmentation Tools for Public Engagement Benefit

National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement

This project builds on conceptual work on new forms of public action developed during the ESRC Research Seminar Series on Emergent Publics (2008-2010), which was jointly supported by Geography and CCIG at The Open University.

Visual Perspectives on Place, Social Inequality and Well-being

This research was developed by Janet Fink and Helen Lomax (Faculty of Health and Social Care) as part of a collaboration between the ESRC Seminar Series:Visual Dialogues team and LINk:MK's Action Learning Project (ALP). The ALP was focused on issues of well-being in the Coffee Hall neighbourhood of Milton Keynes and was funded by the Department of Communities and Local Government.

The Surveillance Society Report

Kirstie Ball researches surveillance in and around organisations and society. In 2006 Kirstie Ball and five colleagues from the UK and Canada successfully tendered to write a report on the Surveillance Society for the UK Government’s Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

Re-inventing Public Administration: the New Synthesis Project

Janet Newman's long standing engagement with policy and public service recently led to her joining The New Synthesis project. Initiated by the former head of the civil service in Canada this draws together policymakers, practitioners and some academics across Canada, Brazil, Singapore, the Netherlands, Austrailia and the UK.

ENACT project: European Policy Briefing

The ENACT (Enacting European Citizenship) project highlights ways in which the scope, content and perception of European citizenship is shaped by the complex ways in which citizenship is enacted, within, across and beyond member states.

Young People, Bereavement and Loss: Disruptive Transitions

Jane McCarthy's research focuses on families and relationships, and in recent years this has included relationships at the end of life.

British Library Summer Games Website

Kath Woodward's research looks at the contradictions of the Olympic movement. At one level this movement is democratic and inclusive, yet the history of the games is marked by elitism and corruption. Kath has drawn on this research when contributing to the British Library Summer Games Website.

BiReCon: collaborative research and accountable engagement

Meg Barker's research on the bisexual community, particularly in the UK has led to Meg setting up, with colleagues from inside and outside the OU, the biennial BiReCon event. BiReCon stands for both Bisexual Research Conference and also Bisexuality Reconnaissance.

The Experimental Democracy Console

Nick Mahony's research investigates contemporary popular democratic cultures as they are emerging across and in-between governmental, social movement, arts, popular media and industrial domains. The Experimental Democracy Console is a repository of popular democratic experiments.