Research Room 4: Starting from Values

About this session

In this session we will look back on our participation in the project, Starting from Values, which brought together partners from two Connected Communities research projects, Scaling Up Co-Design and the Authority Research Network, with the Values and Sustainability Research Group at Brighton University . The aim was to co-develop creative ways of identifying, evaluating and enhancing intangible, values-related aspects of project legacies.

This project created an unusual space for those of us involved to develop a values framework we could use to reflect on impact and legacies at an individual, organisational and project team level. This had a profound impact on the partners involved and played an important role in the evolution of the strategic partnership between The Glass-House Community Led Design and The Open University’s Design Group.

Areas of Exploration

Themes we will explore in this session include:

• Exploring the value of “intangible legacies” of collaborative research
• Creating a values-based framework as the foundation for collaborative research 
• Using a values-based framework to support a different way of evaluating impact at a personal, group and community scale
• Taking a values-based approach from research into practice 

You might like to have a look at the project summary publication before you join the session. However, this is entirely optional. Do also feel free to just turn up and find out more.

Book your free place now.

About Research Rooms

The Research Rooms series is a collaboration between national charity The Glass-House Community Led Design and The Open University's Design Group. These events share learning, resources and anecdotes from the many research projects we have done together.

Research Rooms are informal online spaces for discussion with members of the research team from academia, practice and communities. Those attending can learn about the projects, their outputs and outcomes and the influence they have had on those involved. There will also be space to share your own experience and explorations of the project themes.

More about Starting from Values - Evaluating Intangible Legacies Project

(from the University of Brighton website)

The 'Starting from Values' project was one of seven projects funded to investigate the legacy of projects funded under the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Connected Communities strand.

The main project strand brought together partners from two Connected Communities groups: The Authority Research Network and Scaling Up Co-Design. The aim was to co-develop creative ways of identifying, evaluating and enhancing intangible, values-related aspects of project legacies.

The second strand of work involved taking the co-developed approach and learning from the first phase to a further six Connected Communities projects. In so doing, the project planned to find new ways of lending legitimacy and authority to previously unheard or less ‘tangible’ legacies of Connected Communities projects, and contribute to wider questions on shared values, authority and legacies in collaborative research projects.

Co-investigators from academic and community partners were responsible for the second phase of the work, facilitating project partners to become (vernacular) designers of values-focused evaluation systems – embedding the ethos of ‘scaling up’ and capacity-building within the project.

If you would like to explore the project before the Research Room session, you can read the: 

• Starting from Values legacies booklet
• Starting from Values multimedia report

More about Scaling Up Co-design

Scaling up Co-design Research and Practice was a collaborative action research project led by the Open University, with academic partners Brunel University, Northumbria University, Sheffield Hallam and civil society organisations The Glass-House Community Led Design, Silent Cities, The Blackwood Foundation and Fossbox and Flossie, as well as freelance researcher Hannah Goraya.

The project was one of ten projects funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Connected Communities programme under their Co-Design and Co-Development strand. This was an innovative two-stage funding programme which supported the co-design of the research by all project partners in the first phase, and its implementation in the second phase.  

Here is a selection of resources capturing the project:

• Film capturing the Scaling Up Co-design project showcase
• Scaling up Co-design website
• Scaling up Co-design series publication

More on The Glass-House website about the project include:

• Scaling up Impact and Reach through Co-design
• Scaling up design champions
• Scaling up design education
• Film: Creativity, media and place