"In conversation with...: co-designing with more than human communities" is a project funded by the ARHC as part of their Connected Communities theme. Our aim is to explore how a broader account of community - one that recognises the active participation of non-humans - might challenge understandings of how research can be co-designed and co-produced.

We were concerned that 'community' often only includes the human, leaving out the wide range of ways non-humans contribute to the creation of a community.  'Research' is also often only understood in terms of the human, even though our research practices have always been entangled with the lives, qualities and capacities of non-human actors. From the birds who demonstrated the vacuum in Robert Boyle's air pump, the dogs who demonstrated the effects of insulin and the genetically modified OncoMouse, much research has relied extensively on the contributions of non-humans. Our interest in this project, then, is to explore how both research and community might be rethought within a 'more-than-human' framework.

An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump by Joseph Wright of Derby (National Gallery, London)

Literature on the coproduction of research with communities emphasises the benefits of attempting to integrate a wide range of perspectives and experiences, arguing that this makes stronger research that is of more benefit to those the research affects. However, while there is some evidence that, in the context of climate change and biodiversity loss, proponents of participatory research have begun to recognise a need to extend the paradigm beyond the human communities it has focused on, this has not yet occurred. As a result, this project will initiate an exploration into the possibilities of co-designing research with more-than-human communities. We will be staging four 'conversations' with non-human actors and the humans who work with them. Reflections on these workshops will be available here on our website and we will produce an analysis of the opportunities and challenges of such an approach.

To read an overview of why we see a need for More-than-Human Participatory research go here.

Participants

Michelle Bastian (PI) University of Edinburgh | Phil Jones (Co-I) University of Birmingham | Richard Coles (Co-I) Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, Birmingham City University |  Owain Jones (Co-I) Countryside and Community Research Institute, University of Gloucestershire | Deirdre Heddon, School of Culture and Creative Arts, University of Glasgow | Martin Phillips, Dept of Geography, University of Leicester | Julian Brigstocke, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Plymouth | Johan Siebers, SAS, University of London | Niamh Moore, CRESC, University of Manchester |  Animal-Computer Interaction Network at the OU | Evesham Beekeepers Association | Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty | Collins and Goto Studio | Antony Lyons from The Confluence Project |

Supported by:

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