Knowle West Media Centre

Since KWMC was set up in 1996, we’ve used the arts and digital technologies to support people to imagine and develop ideas about social change, prototype new approaches, and share the learning across the UK and beyond. KWMC uses these tools as part of a wider action research process. Action research is a specific approach to research that does not start with a fixed ‘hypothesis’ to test, but with a bit of an idea that could be explored further. The research process is then about trying out, expanding and refining that idea through dialogue and creative exchange, with a range of people, who are all involved as co-researchers rather than as ‘researchees.’  As McNiff writes: “A useful way to think about action research is that it is a strategy to help you live in a way that you feel is a good way. It helps you live out the things you believe in, and it enables you to give good reasons every step of the way.” (McNiff, J. 2012[1])

At KWMC ‘socially engaged arts practice’ is understood as a type of action research that involves supporting people to do the things that they want to do, which may not necessarily be what is expected. The action research process also generates ‘actionable insights’ that are then articulated, not only through the practical products of a project, such as exhibitions and events, but also through written products.

The wide range of published research on policy and practice across the arts, digital technology, participation, community development and regeneration can be downloaded or accessed in the sections on the right. Hard copies of In Our Opinion and the 3e Houses Best Practice Guide can be obtained by contacting KWMC’s Front of House team.

- See more at: http://kwmc.org.uk/about/research/#sthash.j9dYqqLS.dpuf