Reclaim the Lanes
The project started by working with residents of an area surrounding a back lane in the Arthur’s Hill area of Newcastle, most of whom are Slovakian in origin and had previously had very limited dialogue with either the council or Greening Wingrove.
Project Dates: February - May 2016
Funder: ESRC Knowledge Exchange Secondments Programme
School Contact: Dr David Webb (Co-investigator)
Partner(s): CHAT Trust; Greening Wingrove; Digital Civics at Newcastle University
The project started by working with residents of an area surrounding a back lane in the Arthur’s Hill area of Newcastle, most of whom are Slovakian in origin and had previously had very limited dialogue with either the council or Greening Wingrove, the local community partnership project. The project encouraged local teenagers who had been developing their musical skills at the CHAT Trust to perform as part of a series of street parties in the back lane.
Dr Webb will continue this work, using the CHAT Trust's sound and film recording equipment together with new technologies designed by Digital Civics, to engage with the local Slovakian community using Facebook, by producing music videos and through focus groups.
The results of this work will be produced as short films and shown in the back lane to bring the community together and to encourage debate on how local services might be adapted to meet their needs.
Reclaim the Lanes contributes to a broader interest across the School in alternative forms of practice and co-operative and user-led forms of direct environmental action and will strengthen existing links with the CHAT Trust and Greening Wingrove Community Co-operative.
End of Project Report
The Reclaim the Lanes final report is available to download: Advocacy through environmental change: developing a critical praxis (PDF: 1.6 MB).
Co-operative Neighbourhoods: working together
This participatory workshop was organised by Dr David Webb with the CHAT Trust and Greening Wingrove in January 2017 to investigate how communities can be activated in service delivery and debate whether digital technology can help in collaborative working.
You can read a blogpost about the day, which includes the participant's presentations, on our School blog. One participant, Annabel Davidson Knight from Collaborate, also wrote a post about the event which can be read on the Collaborate blog.
Reclaim the Lanes film
You can watch a film montage of the project below.