The Ecology of Community and the Future of Research

In this think piece, co-authored by Shaun Danquah, Marcus Tayebwa and Muhammed Rauf, our three team members reflect on an important and impactful year in their respective journey’s, navigating the ever-evolving world of Community Research and beyond.

Shaun Danquah

Firstly, I’d like to extend my congratulations to my incredible team for what has been an amazing year! The year of 2020 for all of its social upheavals and its global pandemic has seen our community research model effectively build capacity and cultural dexterity in research across the South London urban locale. Our community members have been recruited, upskilled and given a platform that commodifies the positionality, accessibility and credibility they hold within the urban locale in an equitable way which has set a new gradation for research.

The genesis and drive underpinning our community research model came to me when I observed an intellectual gap within academia between the community and academic institutions themselves. It dawned on me that to see a progression towards a greater synthesis between these two entities would only be possible once our communities were able to participate within academic research in a far more owned and directive manner. We, therefore, embarked on a journey to create a new research standard, embedded in the ever-evolving nuances of the urban mosaic.

Growing up in the 80s in a deprived part of Midlands, I had none of the cultural capital that Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological works would classify as a precursor to success. My mother used to tell me that the only way I’d make it out of my rough neighbourhood was in the back of a police van or via education. I used to laugh when I heard that. Sadly many of my peers spiralled out of control or end up doing long prison sentences. I experienced and thoroughly comprehended a harsher side of life and the stark realities of what extremes our inequalities can reduce people to.

However, I consider myself privileged by the fact that despite the dire environment I was cultivated in, my Irish mother was a feminist intellectual who was generous in teaching me her learnings. In the eye of that storm, I was oriented to seek education as the freedom pass for a young black man and more importantly, I was conditioned to grab it with both hands. By 2000s that’s exactly what I did. A degree, two masters and PHD later and nevertheless we are still seeing the exclusory flaws within academia. I took a conscious decision to build a programme that would look to change the nature of research forever, or at least for those from a socially deprived background similar to mine. My objective was to facilitate a passing of the baton that I’d been able to grasp hold of.

Along this fruitful journey, I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating and succeeding with various people hailing from: Malmo, Sweden; Compton, Los Angeles; Queens, New York and all the way back to Moss Side, Manchester. That said, I have also tasted many failures. There are numerous lessons learnt when your face is against the concrete that can carry you for life. To fall is not to fail. Subsequently, I went on to hone my academic expertise by publishing extensively on youth violence, counter-extremism, in-depth ethnography on the heightened deviance across Brixton and the backlash of vulnerability across the public space. 

Our rethinking of research with our Community Research model stands alone and on its own merit and is not a “bolt-on” to existing research methods. In strong comparison to the traditional ‘parachute model’ where communities feel extracted by traditional research methods, is our self-determining spirit and cultural-centric approach that the model has brought to our people through our research exploration. The inspiration we have both given and received during this journey is even more invaluable given the current complications and complexities facing the BME community who are at the forefront of worrying COVID-19 statistics.

Consequently, our team has worked tirelessly on building toolkits, designing community-based products, facilitating workshops and collaborating with culturally progressive enterprises. This product development is in response to an increased demand for our approach which brings an understanding of local nuance, layered with and the racially sensitive lens we have which is simpatico with the community itself.

Our USP is anchored in our ability to crystalize the emerging nuances that come from our lived experience. We have been able to unpick and coin deep and complex nuances such as the Black Identity Nexus, which through our academic literature reviews elucidated that one size does not fit all within the sentient and extremely varied urban black populous. We have also written academic literature illuminating the Health Activism going on within the black community which features alternative herbal/holistic remedies that have been generationally socialised as staples within counter health publics spheres. 

This year the strain of race relations globally has been acute for the black populous since the brutal and publicised murder of George Floyd. The scrutiny that ensued and has persisted since May 25th 2020 has highlighted structural racism and inequalities in a modern context that cannot be ignored. I feel honoured to be able to contribute to our proactive movement that empowers those who previously have had no platform in research nor a valid voice in research. Don’t feel shy to lift your heads high and contribute positively to such an important narrative.

To date our community research model has successfully:

  • Developed research frameworks for insight gathering within the urban locale.

  • Utilised that research framework to gain an insight into community responses and sentiments during COVID-19

  •  Identified and provided a relevant platform for street corner innovation and entrepreneurship.

  •  Developed a deep understanding of the cultural equity within disenfranchised communities.

  • Initiated a community-led approach to tackling air pollution and issues of environmental racism.

  • Assembled a forum for those on the reciprocal end of being voiceless to having a strong voice.

  •  Facilitated community engagement across counter health publics which include medical scepticism and a deep analysis of research weariness across the black community.

Now is the time for our movement to be taken seriously. 

We are in the very throes of constructing our own legacy. In my mind, our journey is reminiscent of Miles Davies’ contributing discoveries in jazz and how he, and other black pioneers of his era, came to be subjugated as tokenized entertainers of the white masses. In response to this exploitation, Davies’ and others created a brand-new medium  - in the form of Bebop - which allowed them to claim ownership of their narratives once again. I believe this innovation is comparable to our work in community research which emphasises incorporating our lived experience, positionality, credibility and accessibility across the urban motif, in everything we do.

We are tapping into our history and culture by modernising practices dating back to ancient Nubian approaches of storytelling, deep sense of conversational transparency, tacit learning and cultural intellectualisation. We have embarked on the analysis of empirical data through a culturally-nuanced lens in order to unearth the cutting-edge treasure that lays beneath what we already see and understand.

Furthermore, in pursuit of our aims, we have demonstrated through our community research model an interplay between robust consultancy, technical skills, academic rigour and community engagement. If my last 15 years of experience of working across urban locales in this field has taught me anything, it’s that you can't properly implement any of those variables in isolation. The influential substance and real unique selling point to what we produce is the cultural interface between those variables.

Purposefully, we have driven this formula into a new market which I consider a cultural opening. I envision this trend as the future of activism, and by activism, I don’t mean it in the negative sense of the word. This is a manifestation of a new cultural commodity. We’ve seen that in the year 2020, it’s more important than ever that organisations are purposeful in their vision or they will be seen to stand for nothing. They run the risk of being left behind and challenged by more adaptable organisations in their sectors who are showing themselves to be much more relevant in the current climate.

We have a special appreciation for TSIP which has provided a platform and an opportunity to grow and harness social innovation at its full capacity.  If there has ever been a time for social innovation to catch fire and show its true value, it is now. This is why we are gaining the traction we are around rethinking research. We are not suggesting the traditional approach is incompetent or obsolete. We are suggesting that in many places it's just not working in truly understanding and appreciating certain social groups.

Marcus Tayebwa

I’d like to concur with you Shaun on commending the amazing advancements we’ve made as a team in, what honestly feels like a blink of an eye. Time certainly flies when you’re having fun! Working together so extensively on this community research model with our beautifully diverse, culturally dexterous, empathic and spirited community research team has yielded abundant experiences for me. This is especially true to my experience as a young black man growing up on the fringes of society who can evaluate first-hand the reforms our research model have afforded our community. Research has never looked so culturally vibrant, nor been so equitable for those of us who have been born and raised in the counter-public spheres of our society.

I first met Shaun and came into contact with our model in an offstage and frankly undesirable part of South London and saw him as someone with real humanitarian ambition in search of a cutting-edge approach. The fact that the most powerful social agendas that affect my community are dominated by middle England’s narratives are not lost on me and that in itself causes the youth in my generation to disconnect severely with institutions that try to engage with us. Shaun, however, was able to approach me in an enlightening, empowering and relatable way which piqued my interest in the promising community research model he pitched to me. I immediately felt that I could provide crucial acuity to a local social movement that had the type of dynamism and futureproofing orientation that would align itself equitably with the strong sense of cultural identity I already have. 

Since our serendipitous meeting, I have spent the last 10 months developing the model in various ways that have ratified my standing within the team and in the social sector with real authenticity. I graduated from observation of strategy which went on to become participation in the field and eventually settled on leadership in rethinking research in a culturally competent way. I flourished by applying my cultural equity toward:

  • Community-led workshops

  • Design sessions with Google, Amazon and LSE

  • Presenting at the Kings Health Partners Annual Conference 2020

  • COVID-19 Intelligence gathering media campaigns

  • Collaborative work with Guys and St Thomas’ Charity

  • Design & strategy sessions for our community research model

  • Thematic analysis and evaluations of our research data

  • Literature reviews of Medical Scepticism and the Black Identity Nexus

  • Writing proposals for partnerships with organisations like NHS

  • Business development meetings for street corner entrepreneurialism

  • Book plan think tanks for our community research journey

  • Blog posts articulating our progress

  • Leading a local surveying cohort on Air Pollution within the Urban Locale

  • Facilitating a workshop with GEHL Cities for People

  • Hosting panels addressing systemic racism within the workplace

  • Collaborating with funders and public health bodies

In light of the social capital that our work has afforded me, I decided to set-up my own consultancy, Unifying Seed LLP, which solidified my ownership over my enterprises in a freelance way that suits my entrepreneurial ambitions. In doing so, I am now able to contribute to my local economy and by working with other business owners who are also interested in social enterprise. I have also created client partnerships borne out of my wider network, who in turn have developed into new members of our community research programme! All of this is testament to the latent cultural equity that people like myself have to offer when given the proper platform and ecology to thrive.

To be honest, I will admit that initially, I was circumspect about what kind of an impact we’d be able to make in an institutionalised world that historically is steeped in bias that excludes my community. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see the self-awareness of our cultural value that our community research model has consistently maintained and refined. By doing so, we have constructed an equitable framework for social brokerage between institutions and the community. This in itself has never been de rigueur as our communities rarely tend to have ownership of and full collaboration on research that is conducted on them. I consider this to be an outdated and culturally incompetent research approach that has continued to evolve in an ever more globalised world.

Actively getting to the heart of cultural matters in the research space has led to me having a bespoke and progressive repertoire that increases in value by the day. As society continues to demand more from institutions, culturally minded people like myself - who are able to effectively straddle between ethnographic lines - have a greater opportunity for social brokerage by applying our deep comprehension of cultural nuance to various fields of influence that struggle to adapt. Cultural nuance is fast becoming gold, as organisational working culture seeks to reflect the ever-increasing diversity of the labour force. As I always say to my colleagues, nothing exists in a vacuum. Therefore that means that the research space will be similarly affected by the same institutional and societal reforms that are unfolding right before our very eyes.

I look forward to a bright future as a leader and setting an example to others who may never have thought it was possible to be part of such significant societal change. As glorious and profound as that is, I know there will be many speed bumps on the tour de force toward systems change. Shaun has drilled a saying into me: “We go the direction we face and we face the direction we go”. I opine that we have long since set our sails in the direction of a culturally equitable model that incubates ownership and upskilling within our communities.

Muhammed Rauf 

Since the start of October 2020 when I was initiated into this community research model I can say that I have finally found my purpose. In a year that has caused so much complication and uncertainty in all of our lives, I never would have realistically thought anything good would come out of this year for me. It’s a well-worn cliché to proverbially say that ‘there is a light at the end of the tunnel’ and yet astonishingly, I personally feel that I’ve just metaphorically hopped onto the Eurostar! 

Growing up in south-east London, I grew to appreciate that I was not on a level playing field with those around me who hailed from middle-England who were – and still are -  blind to their advantages. I saw direct discrimination against my friends and community by the police more often than was digestible. I was always sold a narrative that we are ‘all in this together’, but every day this narrative wasn’t reflected in reality. It was clear to me that there is a difference between the insulated middle-England and the problems they say they endure, and the rest of us who face hardship every day from the moment we step out of the door. The truth has always been rather ugly, hasn’t it? Is that maybe why we pretend that it isn’t there?

In attending Kingston University, I was hoping life for me would be different and that as adults some of these problems would fade away in maturity so we could all be equal under meritocracy as I was taught to believe. Unfortunately, I saw the unadorned opposite. The differences between ‘us’ and ‘them’ became ever clearer to see in the light of systemic biases and unwritten rules I was forced to adapt to. There was a total disconnect in lived experiences between the same people who I knew we reared in the same borough together and why? Simply due to the colour of their skin.

Although I was born in England, I never identified myself as British – that is until I get stopped by immigration going through the airport. Drug tests, bag searches and 30 minutes of questioning later I would be allowed to proceed with the knowledge I will face the same experience over and over again. I wanted it to stop. I knew kicking up a fuss would only further exacerbate the issue as I would not be taken seriously, so I endured.

Marcus and I met in the queue for enrolment at Kingston University. I saw his head swivelling back catching a glimpse of someone he felt like he could relate to in an otherwise alien setting. In hindsight, I think we both immediately saw a bit of ourselves in the other. I felt we were simpatico when I talked on certain issues, and vice versa. The lived experience we both shared blossomed into debate and discussion over the common problems we still face to this day. We both shared sentiments of not wanting the youth in our respective communities to face the same problems we have had to. This is where my mind shifted from simply being aware of the issues to feeling as though we are really the only ones who can fix them. Research has traditionally been a space for the British middle class and we were both aware they would never be able to adequately solve our problems because they are yet to truly understand them.

Fast forward to just over a year ago and I embarked on a new career in the finance sector eager to make a name for myself. Marcus, now a very close friend and newly appointed community researcher, kept in touch as we progressed on our respective journeys. We have historically had many worldly deliberations on issues that affect our community such as medical scepticism, discrimination and a lack of career opportunities. These issues were just a snapshot of what I personally felt needed to change for Generation Y. Things are dishearteningly getting worse for my community in my view. 

Marcus informed me of the research work he was doing, and I was intrigued, to say the least. I have always had the motivation to be a force for positive change in my community but feeling like I lacked a way to facilitate. From the outset of him illustrating to me what was happening, what I liked was the importance placed on the community’s opinion. Marcus expressed how much weight his judgement held in relation to the work being done and he felt he finally had a platform in the community research model to put all those discussions we had in the past to good use.

This stuck out to me because traditionally institutions involved in our communities really had scant understanding of the problems we face and why we face them. When you reach out to these communities and ask them for the reason behind their dysfunctionality, they won't just say drugs, they won’t just say poverty, they will say there is a plethora of issues that those who are outsiders to these communities aren’t even aware of. There’s a paternalistic attitude of ignorance, that an outsider has more insight on a community than the community itself, finds its home in a variety of different institutions throughout the UK and has created a severe institutional distrust.

This was at the forefront of my mind when joining in October. I quickly vocalised my local insight and put it to work in our group meetings, expressing the values I had always held so dear in a format where it can influence the approach of our work with the community.

I commenced my community research involvement with joining our air pollution project which is an issue I knew very little about myself. Although I had asthma as a child it was the norm of my time that many children in my area did. Little did I realise that the area I grew up in, and in turn, my community has extremely poor air quality. This has been the catalyst for health issues in children and adults alike. This angered me as it was another issue on the extensive list that my community faces, and again like before, we were not being involved in finding solutions. Until now. The community research programme first created awareness for me to better understand the issue and then expedited my contribution in dealing with it. This is when I started to get the feeling of fulfilment. A feeling I think we all chase which I was told I would find in a traditional working environment. Which of course I did not.

I then thought about l how powerful my position can be. I was best placed to speak on behalf of my community to actually influence their involvement tackling air pollution and any other issues they face. I realised I was the person who will then assist other voices in our community to speak out. I was finally on the path to be the person I actually wanted to be when I was younger. That is the beauty of the community research model. It has highlighted the cultural equity and nuance I already have, and has provided a space for me to implement it to the benefit of my community.

When people would ask me what I was passionate about before, I would have little to say other than trivial pursuits which would fall by the wayside when working in a corporate office. Now I can say I am actually doing something I feel is important to my deeper sense of civic accountability. It’s not important because I was told by someone else that it is, it’s important because I know that it is. These are the issues I talked about way before this type of research model existed. So to be able to add value in the form of the experience and opinions I hold is definitely something I am passionate about! The cohort is made up of people who come from similar backgrounds that can understand and relate to what I say. I am now able to interact with my community in a manner that was never possible before, and more so in a meaningful and productive way. But you may ask why this is even important to me?

The breakdown of the community is plain to see and nowadays people don’t even know the name of their neighbour! This is a way for me to, not only give hope to others, to say ‘your opinion is valued,’ but an opportunity for us to remember what community is and be instrumental in sewing it back together. I want people to feel like they own the street they live on and not just simply because the council has placed them there. One elected MP does not have the time nor the reach to hear and then represent the views of every community in their borough. It is up to us as individuals to come together and create a force for change, which we own and control, and plan the future of. That’s what the community research model is about, an eco-system based approach for solving these issues, one step at a time.

What would you want your legacy to be?

50 years working for a Director who doesn’t know you exist? 

What about generations of youth inspired by the work you started? To solve their own problems? To improve the quality of living for the generations that come after?

I know what I've chosen.