Engaging with River Landscapes.

Since 2007, I have been undertaking research in the Dearne Valley, South Yorkshire, in the use of `imaginative methods´ of engaging communities in issues affecting their local landscape. The area is broadly post-industrial in character and its landscape has changed greatly in recent years as a result of reclamation and building programmes following the decline of coal mining and steel production.

Engaging with Rivers in a Period of Uncertainty. (Economic and Social Research Council + Homes and Communities Academy Targeted Initiative in Skills and Knowledge for Sustainable Communities RES-182-25-0006)

Research team:

Paul Selman and Rowena Bailey, Department of Landscape, University of Sheffield

Anna Lawrence and Claudia Carter,Forest Research

Clare Morgan, Kellogg College,University of Oxford

As part of a targeted research initiative funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and Homes and Communities Academy, we have been investigating the use of arts-based approaches in promoting social learning as an important skill for sustainable communities.

Rivers help to define local landscapes and contribute strongly to sense of place. Sometimes they are highly valued; sometimes they are neglected and virtually forgotten. At present, rivers are often seen as hazards, causing extensive and long-lasting flood damage. The EU Water Framework Directive requires widespread stakeholder involvement in the strategic planning of water quality and river management. How can communities raise their awareness of the complexities of catchment science in order that they can both celebrate their rivers and make informed contributions to catchment management plans?

This research project has explored the use of `imaginative engagement´ as a means of involving local people in future possibilities for river management. Our basic idea was that some of the problems of effective participation arise from the complexity of the river catchment as a scientific concept, and the degree to which communities have often become `disconnected´ from their rivers, except when faced with flood hazards. One increasingly popular way of `reconnecting´ people with local landscapes and enabling them to grasp high-level concepts is by using `imaginative engagement´ approaches – arts-based methods in which volunteers become involved in producing creative works related to the environment.

We have applied this approach within the valley of the River Dearne in South Yorkshire. This is a diverse catchment, rising in relatively wild and unspoilt moorland in the East Pennines, and progressively becoming more urbanised as it flows through Barnsley to the River Don. Over the years, it has been associated with some serious floods. Our research also related closely to an Environment Agency regeneration project, Dearne Valley Green Heart. The centre piece of our research has been a creative writing group recruited from local people in the Dearne Valley.



Our team devised an `action research´ approach with an embedded evaluation methodology. The project has been co-ordinated by Paul Selman of Sheffield University, who has particular interests in the planning and management of large-scale landscapes. The first part of the research involved a systematic review of literature, undertaken by Dr Rowena Bailey. This focused on participatory approaches to river basin planning and the use of arts-based methods in re-engaging communities with the local environment. Dr Clare Morgan, an expert in creative writing from Kellogg College, Oxford University, was our `imaginative engagement´ specialist...so our next step was to recruit a writing group from communities in the lower part of the Dearne catchment. A workshop was held in the Old Moor Visitor Centre, an area of reclaimed wetlands managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and this helped raise awareness of the research amongst stakeholders in the area.



The writing group met in the Maurice Dobson museum in Darfield for six two-hour workshops during the summer of 2008. An innovative aspect of the research was the degree to which we embedded an evaluation of the effect on participants into the whole activity. The profiling of change was undertaken by Dr Anna Lawrence and Claudia Carter of Forest Research. They have conducted a series of questionnaires and interviews with participants, as well as analysing the content of workshops and creative outputs. Their work is crucial to understanding how people´s insights change and how their connection to the river landscape strengthens.

Although this research project aims to provide new knowledge and skills in support of sustainable communities, it was also intended to be enjoyable for the participants. As well as the scheduled workshops we also organised additional masterclasses on creative writing. We concluded the project in October with a dissemination event at a local parish hall, which was also a celebration of the writers´ achievements. Also at this event, Dave Pritchard, of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM), gave an important paper on the participatory role of arts-based projects.

Results from the research indicate:

• Imaginative writing was experienced as a versatile and powerful tool to encourage engagement with complex issues and different perspectives.

• Imaginative writing provided a level playing field for experts and lay people to communicate and learn from each other.

• The project facilitated learning about people, rivers and local history (mostly during events but also between events through raised interest).

• The workshops provided an opportunity for the older participants (aged 60+) to contribute much of their historical knowledge.

• Participation in the project triggered some changes for participants in their 30s, 40s and 50s with regard to some of their work practices, recreational activities and professional development.

• Workshop discussions and homework tasks provided an incentive to search for information about the local river and different perspectives on engaging and thinking about rivers at different scales.

• Participation in the project increased the time spent thinking about the state, use, meaning and management of rivers more generally.

If you are interested in learning more about the project, you can read our open access paper: Selman, P., C. Carter, A. Lawrence and C. Morgan 2010. Re-connecting with a neglected river through imaginative engagement. Ecology and Society 15(3): 18. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol15/iss3/art18/ You can also access our literature review of public participation and social learning in river management, our review of arts-based approaches to environmental participation, our account of how the writing workshops were facilitated, and a preliminary assessment of the effectiveness of the workshops in promoting environmental engagement.

Imaginatively engaging people in visions of the Green Heart – arts-based approaches to involving Dearne Valley residents. (Funded by University of Sheffield Knowledge Transfer Rapid Research Fund, and Royal Society for Protection of Birds)

Research Team: Paul Selman and Thom White (University of Sheffield) and Clare Morgan (University of Oxford)

In 2009-10, we extended our work into the visual arts, by collaborating with a Workers Educational Association art group led by Ruth Waterworth. The project was inspired by the local work of the Dearne Valley Green Heart Partnership, and involved producing an ambitious frieze of the Dearne landscape throughout history, running forward into alternative `good´ and `bad´ futures. Mid-way through the artwork, Clare Morgan led a small group of creative writers who `gave voice´ to characters in the frieze. The work culminated in an exhibition in Goldthorpe Library in July 2010, and was also used at the official launch of the Dearne Valley Green Heart project the following month.

The project provided important additional insights into the use of imaginative engagement approaches, particularly:

• there are many advantages to collaborating with existing groups rather than trying to recruit a new group (as we had done in the original project) – recruitment from scratch is very difficult whereas existing groups have better continuity and are already embedded in the community;

• although relatively few people can be directly involved in an imaginative engagement exercise, many others can be reached through exhibitions, press coverage, etc.;

• imaginative engagement requires considerable organisation, sustained effort and expertise – if the method is rolled-out for wider use, it would benefit from written guidance and case study materials for tutors;

• the project reinforced our earlier findings that participants become strongly engaged with the work, and enthusiastically research background information and discuss issues – for example, the group wanted to emphasise the importance of community sustainability and ensured that people and jobs, as well as landscape and wildlife, were prominent in the `good future´.