Uncategorized – CIVIC LEARNING

Student Volunteering in India: Life-changing or just a cliché?

11 May 201917 Jun 2019 Posted in Higher Education, Podcasts, Political participation, Research, Uncategorized

I haven’t been to India for a couple of years, I think it’s fairly well known I don’t like flying and despite my love of De Montfort University’s Square Mile India programme, the food and the politics of the country, I cannot face an 11-hour journey including an internal flight to Ahmedabad, Gujarat. That said, my trips to India have impacted my life, I have seen extreme poverty, people living under questionable religious order (the caste system), beautiful colours, interesting faces and millions of people enjoying another level of spirituality I could not reach no matter how much drink and drugs I consumed on a journey to truly find myself. I can live with the fact I’m not George Harrison but it certainly feels like India does effect people in a way visits to other countries do not. Sure you can see poverty in London, New York, Berlin, and the bottom of your street, but few comeback from a holiday and say ‘that was truly life-changing’. Yet people who come back from India do, so much so it’s becoming something of a cliche. When the brilliant folks in ADH at DMU said they wanted to a research exhibition about India in The Gallery, I thought this was my chance to lance my boil and actually investigate whether students volunteering in India was truly life-changing or just a cliché. I am in the process of writing a paper on this, but as the exhibition closed last week I wanted to share the story so far and I’m happy for an academic collaboration to get the paper into shape for a future journal submission. I also created a podcast with Chris, Kainaath and Lucy from one of the focus groups that you can hear here:

DMU and Leicester Prison – the ‘inside’ story…

30 Nov 201817 Jun 2019 Posted in Uncategorized

Heading home from a night spent at the Times Higher Awards with a banging headache and a huge feeling of disappointment probably isn’t the best time to update this blog, but it might help me get a few things off my chest. Naturally being shortlisted for a national accolade and not walking away the prize is a bit deflating. Even though the judges thought we weren’t number one, I thought I could share some insight into De Montfort University’s work in Leicester Prison, so at least I’ve told you how good it is. Since I am trying to theme my blog posts around UN Sustainable Development Goal 16 – let me point out that work in prisons forms an important part of the targets. The UN indicators recognise that poor prison conditions and prison overcrowding point towards systemic deficiencies in justice systems. Reforming the penal system and prisons is high priority across the world, as well as access to justice. These areas include a lack of access to legal aid, alternatives to imprisonment, youth crime prevention programmes, offenders’ rehabilitation; social reintegration measures, as well as the overuse of pre-trial detention. The programme at Leicester Prison very much focused on offenders’ rehabilitation and social reintegration. The idea was, and continues to be, that by working with staff and the men inside the prison, the university might be able to influence a different path to reoffending upon release.

Public Engagement Blog: Proaction Cafe creates debate about what Smart City should look like

12 May 201717 Jun 2019 Posted in Community, Higher Education, Participation, Public engagement, Research, Smart City, Uncategorized

Using waste ground coffee to grow mushrooms, create a make-do-and-mend culture and find ways to stimulate a ‘sharing economy’ were at least three ideas for a ‘Smart City’ I didn’t see coming. They were given to me at Leicester’s first Proaction Café at the LCB Deport. I was asked to host a table at the event and seek a solution to my challenge – in my case consulting people on what does Leicester as a Smart City mean to you? It is part of what hopefully be a series of Proaction Café’s in the city led by Leicester Interchange. Billed as ‘Idea Generation’, the event invited people to come to support others to generate ideas on how they can address social issues that affect the lives of Leicester’s residents. Around 30 people joined the session and they were invited to choose which subject they would like to contribute to from the five table hosts at the event.

Public Engagement blog: Design your life in an app and define what a Smart City could be…

26 Feb 201717 Jun 2019 Posted in Citizen Science, Participation, Public engagement, Research, Smart City, Uncategorized

What is a Smart City?

Most people don’t know what a ‘Smart City’ is, and let’s face it why would they care? Even the most simplified definition, like this one, taken from Wikipedia, would switch off any man or woman in the street quicker than a dodgy smartphone battery: “A smart city is an urban development vision to integrate multiple information and communication technology (ICT) and Internet of things (IoT) solutions in a secure fashion to manage a city’s assets – the city’s assets include, but are not limited to, local departments’ information systems, schools, libraries, transportation systems, hospitals, power plants, water supply networks, waste management, law enforcement, and other community services.” If you haven’t already blown your own brains out and get the gist of it, you soon realise that this stuff is much bigger than us, so probably wont engage with it. To quote The Smiths: “It says nothing to me about my life…” I met with my colleague Dr Lee Hadlington who sits with me and on the De Montfort University Smart City Project Board to work out how we can get people more involved in the idea, as we work on a plan to see how Leicester could be a Smart City*.

Public Engagement Podcast: Working with refugees in Berlin

23 Sep 201617 Jun 2019 Posted in Podcasts, Public engagement, Uncategorized1 Comment

I was recently with a delegation of De Montfort University (DMU) students researching Berlin’s response to the huge influx of Syrian people to the city – so that we can reinvigorate a programme to help refugees and asylum seekers in Leicester, United Kingdom. During my time in the German capital I recorded the following podcast with two DMU students, Nabs and Ruth, who were interviewed with ex-Syrian refugee, now architecture student, Manar.

Public Engagement Blog: Students learning with Syrian refugees creates a powerful energy

3 Sep 201617 Jun 2019 Posted in Community, Public engagement, Research, Uncategorized3 Comments

In a gloomy, dank school gymnasium in a backstreet of Berlin I got a tiny insight into what life is like for the displaced people of Syria who find themselves trying to settle in Germany. One sports hall in the complex was turned into a makeshift community centre for children and families. Adjacent to this was the living area for up to 150 families who have come to Germany in search of a better life. In my role as Head of Public Engagement at De Montfort University, I was with a delegation of (DMU) students researching the city’s response to the huge influx of Syrian people – so they can reinvigorate a programme to help refugees and asylum seekers in Leicester,

Public engagement blog podcast: Recreating the 1960s cinema experience

11 Jul 2016 Posted in Higher Education, Participation, Podcasts, Public engagement, Research, Uncategorized

There’s nothing like a great piece of music, fashion or a movie to set the scene of the 1960s some of the most exciting and creative times in modern history. Earlier this month I was lucky enough to take part in an event in London where a group of De Montfort University staff and students recreated the 1960s cinema experience from the findings of research of more than 1,000 people sharing their memories. The research project was led by DMU’s Dr Matthew Jones and was brought to life in collaboration with staff and students from DMU’s Drama studies course.For me, it was great to see such an innovative way to disseminate research findings. This podcast was recorded at the event, held at the Picturehouse Cinema in London’s Piccadilly Circus. It features first year DMU Drama Student Sophie Dolling, Senior lecturers in Drama Kelly Jordan and Alissa Clarke and Lecturer in Cinema and Television History, Dr Matthew Jones. Read the full blog about the event here. I hope you enjoy the podcast, if you have any questions please email me on mcharlton@dmu.ac.uk

Public Engagement blog: Attempts to break a cycle of poverty in India

10 Mar 201617 Jun 2019 Posted in Public engagement, Uncategorized

I looked out of my hotel window – five, six, seven dogs ran through the street, a gentle warm January breeze tossed dozens of kites caught in a tree and cars continued to peep their horns loudly at 2am. An old man walked by eating ice cream and the lights had finally gone out on a nearby slum. Ahmedabad, India, had given me an insomniac’s welcome that was far from restful. The stiffest drink in the hotel bar, a can of Diet Coke, was not going to help me fall asleep so I sat staring at the road below, reflecting on my day.I was thinking about that cliche of Indian life – where extreme poverty and wealth live side by side.

Higher Education’s public engagement and its evaluation

31 Jan 201617 Jun 2019 Posted in Higher Education, Participation, PhD experiences, Public engagement, Research, Uncategorized

There is a growing interest in how universities work with the public to pursue projects that aim to deliver mutual benefits through engagement (Owen and Hill S, 2011; Watson, 2007; NCCPE, 2015) and while public engagement in higher education is not a new concept (Robinson F, Zass-Ogilvie I, Hudson R., 2012), there is now a need for greater accountability from funding bodies and authorities, increasing the need for universities to demonstrate how they connects their work with people beyond the campus (Wellcome Trust, 2011). This literature review aims to discuss two elements. It sets out to provide analysis of the existing literature around university-community engagement. It also identifies a gap in the literature around evaluation of engagement activities. Higher Education sees its third mission, beyond teaching and learning, as sharing its knowledge to benefit the wider public (Goddard J, 2009) (Boyer, 1990). How this is achieved can take many forms, from people taking part in research, school children participating in Higher Education taster days to community groups using campus facilities (Robinson F, Zass-Ogilvie I, Hudson R., 2012).How universities engage with people from outside their organisations differs from institution to institution (Universities UK, 2010) and how this is described is inconsistent across the sector, nationally and internationally (Hart & Northmore, 2011), (Mason O‘Connor K, et al 2011).

Definitions of this work will be considered, along with why different types of engagement need to be evaluated.

Public Engagement blog: Mapping DMU Square Mile across the city

8 Oct 201517 Jun 2019 Posted in Participation, Public engagement, Research, Uncategorized

This is a work in progress and may be slightly inaccurate in that it doesn’t show every location that a DMU Square Mile project has taken place. However it does go some way to show the number of projects we have operated across the city since 2014. Box 1 shows the original square mile location where projects began in 2011. Box 2 shows our recent work in the Beaumont Leys community. The remainder shows how capacity has allowed us to share existing activities with different Leicester communities. See an interactive map here

CIVIC LEARNING

Blog about working with communities and business to promote sustainable development

Category: Uncategorized