AHRC CONNECTED COMMUNITIES

Connected Communities is a multi-million pound research programme designed to help us understand the changing nature of communities in their historical and cultural contexts and the role of communities in sustaining and enhancing our quality of life.

The programme seeks not only to connect research on communities, but to connect communities with research, bringing together community-engaged research across a number of core themes, including:

•      community health and wellbeing

•      community creativity, prosperity and regeneration

•      community values and participation

•      sustainable community environments, places and spaces

•      community cultures, diversity, cohesion, exclusion, and conflict

A growing body of work under the programme is exploring the temporal dimension to communities, while other clusters of projects are exploring issues such as cultural value in community contexts and 'community and performance'. Another strand of research is exploring the potential for arts and humanities to support approaches to engagement with communities to active participants in the research process, through the creative arts and media, narratives, crafts and by enhancing consideration of issues such as ethics, power and voice.