AHRC Doctoral Landscape Award: Co-Designing place-based participation

About the Project

Local authorities across the UK are facing growing challenges in meaningfully engaging residents who are underserved, marginalised or structurally excluded from mainstream participation in services and policy development. At the same time, co-creative and participatory methods have shown promise in opening new forms of dialogue, imagination and collaboration to support services design and policymaking, ultimately fostering belonging and agency among communities who are rarely heard.

We invite applications for research-through-design projects that are both situated and practice-based while engaging critically with relevant theoretical perspectives. We are particularly interested in projects that draw on participatory design, critical social theory and/or policy studies. The projects should support a plural and critically engaged approach to community building, service design, critical policy studies and/or disability studies.

This PhD offers an opportunity to explore how co-creative, situated and participatory practices support reimagining participation in the design of services and policy at the local level. The project will research, innovate and develop methods to support community building by harnessing collective imagination to foster a sense of belonging, identity and agency for participants. The project invites applicants to investigate how lived experience, collective imagination, place-based approaches and co-creative processes inform more inclusive relationships and affective services and policy development between communities and local government teams.

The successful applicant will shape the project and developed it through their own disciplinary, methodological or creative interests. They will be supported to develop their own specific focus and approach within the broader frame of participatory design methodologies and co-creative approaches to services and policy development in UK local authorities.

Potential areas for exploration

Research themes (or contexts) may include displacement (migration, refugees), disability, homelessness, climate justice, and community or capacity building.

The research emphasis is on participatory and co-creative methods, for example:

• co-creative methods that challenge dominant or “universal” models of participation used in local government
• co-design approaches that foreground lived experience, particularly from people who do not normally engage with local services or policy design
• local authority approaches to community-building and capacity-building with marginalised or excluded groups
• the role of collective imagination, storytelling, and place-based affective practices in shaping more inclusive services and policy futures
• community-building and skills development strategies that support climate justice and just transitions.

Project partner

The PhD student will work closely with teams from 2 local authorities (from 2 different London borough councils) in a secondment-style arrangement. This will provide access to organisational knowledge, working practices and relevant information, enabling the student to co-design place-based processes and interventions aligned with local council strategies.

The partner organisation within London local authorities will be selected in relation to the research theme and focus of the successful candidate. We also welcome applications from candidates who already have partnerships with UK-based local government or public services and who wish to incorporate these collaborations into their research.

Supervisors and research at UAL

The project will be hosted and supported by the IsITethical Research Hub. This will provide the successful candidate with the opportunity to work closely with UAL researchers who collaborate within IsITethical, as well as with its international research community. This will enable the student to benefit from research collaborations, peer support, and cross-sector engagement, including participation in high-profile conferences, events and publications.

The successful candidate will also be able to work within the award-winning Knowledge Exchange via Teaching & Learning projects run annually within the PGT programmes of the LCC Design School. This will provide opportunities to apply emerging research insights through pedagogical tools and activities with students from courses including the MA Service Design and MA Design for Data Visualisation.

• Dr Keir Williams has experience in participatory and practice-led research, creative technologies, and collaborations with local authorities and community partners, including former prisoners, UK SEN schools, and local community service providers. His research, supervision and teaching focus on inclusive, ethical and design-led practices.
• Dr Malé Luján Escalante is a co-designer with expertise in knowledge exchange, developed through co-creative methods that support community building with marginalised groups. Over the past 5 years, she has led creative, collaborative international research projects focused on refugees, displaced people and homelessness. She is the Director of IsITethical and has over 12 years of experience working with services for emergency response and risk management.
• Dr. Rachel Clarke is a design researcher and practitioner who combines visual communication with qualitative research, performance and storytelling on issues of climate change, sustainability and social inequality. She has co-led doctoral cohorts and has extensive supervisory experience.

Beyond the Supervisory Team, the PhD student participate in UAL wide research networks and communities, including:

• Space and Place (LCC)
• Centre for Sustainability (London College of Fashion)
• Policy Lab (Central Saint Martins)
• UAL Doctoral School.

How to apply

See the application guidance and submit your application on our website.