community x-change
Each community x-change is a series of workshops where members of the public, scientists and policymakers meet to discuss issues involving science. Participants share their thoughts, feelings and ideas for possible actions.
Read the final report of the community x-change project (pdf 560kb)
The community x-change aims to:
The community x-change is a partnership between the British Science Association and the Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences (PEALS) Research Centre in Newcastle.
Find out more about the workshops in:
The community x-changes were supported by the Government's Sciencewise-ERC scheme, in East Anglia also by Defra's Climate Challenge Fund and in Liverpool also by the Wellcome Trust.
Sciencewise-ERC, funded by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) helps policymakers commission and use public dialogue to inform decisions and policymaking in emerging areas of science and technology. Its core aim is to develop the capacity of government to engage in successful two-way communication with the public and other stakeholders and to embed the principles of good dialogue into internal Government processes. Sciencewise works closely with the Horizon Scanning Centre and Foresight, and is also part of the ‘Together We Can’ initiative - bringing the public and government together - which is funded by the Department for Communities and Local Government.
The Climate Challenge Fund provides financial support for communications projects seeking to achieve positive changes in public attitudes about climate change. The project is interested in reaching new audiences and communities so the fund aims to support work at different levels - from national organisations to regional or local initiatives.
To help the Wellcome Trust achieve its mission of improving health through research, the Public Engagement programme works to foster an environment within which biomedical science can flourish through:
Read the final report of the community x-change project (pdf 560kb)
The community x-change aims to:
- Provide opportunities for publics to discuss issues involving science and other issues they feel strongly about
- Improve involvement processes between scientists and publics, acknowledging that each bring their own expertise
- Develop processes of effective inclusion of marginalised groups
- Build capacity such that there can be further interaction between people involved in the x-changes
- Create an involvement process in which policymakers have opportunity to engage both in the topics and the process
The community x-change is a partnership between the British Science Association and the Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences (PEALS) Research Centre in Newcastle.
Find out more about the workshops in:
| Liverpool | East Anglia |
The community x-changes were supported by the Government's Sciencewise-ERC scheme, in East Anglia also by Defra's Climate Challenge Fund and in Liverpool also by the Wellcome Trust.
Sciencewise-ERC, funded by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) helps policymakers commission and use public dialogue to inform decisions and policymaking in emerging areas of science and technology. Its core aim is to develop the capacity of government to engage in successful two-way communication with the public and other stakeholders and to embed the principles of good dialogue into internal Government processes. Sciencewise works closely with the Horizon Scanning Centre and Foresight, and is also part of the ‘Together We Can’ initiative - bringing the public and government together - which is funded by the Department for Communities and Local Government.
The Climate Challenge Fund provides financial support for communications projects seeking to achieve positive changes in public attitudes about climate change. The project is interested in reaching new audiences and communities so the fund aims to support work at different levels - from national organisations to regional or local initiatives.
To help the Wellcome Trust achieve its mission of improving health through research, the Public Engagement programme works to foster an environment within which biomedical science can flourish through:
- learning - enhancing interest and learning about biomedical science and its past, present and future impacts on society through making information available, and stimulating interest and excitement
- dialogue - stimulating an informed dialogue to raise awareness and understanding of biomedical science and its achievements, applications and implications
- impact - informing the Trust's (and national) research plans and policies in relation to public interests and concerns.
- View the 6 videos from the East Anglia x-change here:
1 - A Safe Place
2 - Environmental Concerns
3 - Scientists and Citizens
4 - Local Issues
5 - Science Issues
6 - What About the Future?
The community x-change is deliberately seeking to reach people who don't normally have the opportunity to be involved in discussions about issues like climate change.
Two outreach workers therefore spent a number of months building contacts with various community groups in East Anglia. In the end the final panel was made up of 39 people, primarily from Norwich, Lowestoft and Peterborough. Participants included young men from a Norwich hostel and people from black and minority ethnic groups, some of whom did not speak English. Sixteen participants had responded to an invitation sent to people on the electoral roll and eight scientists were recruited through the University of East Anglia and Norwich Research Park.
Six young people were involved in the workshops as they had previously been part of a community video project. They worked with the other participants to produce a video of the x-changes. The main reporting mechanism for the community x-change is a series of short videos.
This diverse group met over four days on 10, 11 June and 1 & 29 July. We were delighted that only one or two people did not attend all four days.
The climate change community x-change workshops were run over four days, starting with the weekend of 10 & 11 June. The workshops were held in Norwich in the pavilion at Waterloo Park. Although participants were coming from as far as Lowestoft and Peterborough, it was felt that this location would be easy to get to in terms of transport links.
As well as the location, other aspects of accessibility were considered. Participants' travel costs were covered, including taxis for the infirm, as were child care, a contribution to loss of earnings and translation.
Despite the large size of the group, and with many people not knowing anyone else attending, relationships quickly developed, especially as people began to meet those who lived close to them.
Initial discussions focussed on people's local environment. In particular, this included issues the group deemed to be important to them, such as transport and crime. This enabled the group to feel they had ownership of the discussions and that no question or comment was out of bounds. The group also began to gel together.
On Sunday 11 June, a local environmental campaigner, Maxine Narburgh from Suffolk Connect, helped to facilitate the sessions. Since one of the aims of the meetings was to empower those attending and to enable them to feel that they could contribute to action on the issues being discussed, Maxine had also invited six environmental volunteers to attend - people with whom she works. These volunteers enabled the group to begin to think about issues around the environment and climate change. In particular, this helped the participants to relate the issues they had raised to climate change.
On the third day, Saturday 1 July, the participants delved deeper into the issues that they had begun to discuss over the first weekend. Part of the process involved the group looking at various scenarios, which were written to present some of the tensions there are in responding to a subject like climate change.
Participants talked about the issues in small groups, two of which decided to present their thoughts in the form of a drama. One drama addressed flooding in Norfolk and the other issues of exclusion and isolation. In both cases, the dramas brought a real depth and richness to the process.
The last day of the workshops was Saturday 29 July. Participants were given the opportunity to discuss issues that had been raised during the process and that they are passionate about, with "information providers".
One session in the previous workshop on 1 July had been devoted to drawing up a list of potential information providers for this final day. The group were therefore able to say who they deemed to be trusted sources of information.
For the first half of the final workshop participants each chose a couple of issues which they wanted to talk about with the information providers. Having divided themselves into small groups, with issues in common, a list of potential questions was generated to ask each of the knowledge providers. Over lunch the participants were able to meet the information providers before having the opportunity to question them.
The information providers were:- Julie Brociek-Coulton, Executive of Environmental Management, Norwich City Council
- Simon Gerrard, CRed environmental group manager
- Dr Ian Gibson MP, Member of Parliament for Norwich North
- Rik Martin, Raising Aspirations coordinator
- Maxine Narburgh, Suffolk Connect environmental group
- Sarah Strivens-Coups, Police Community Support Officer
The format of this final session was held in a similar manner to a world café. First, the participants returned to their small groups. The information providers then each joined a group. After about 15 minutes, the information providers moved on to the adjacent group, so that by the end of the session, each group had questioned each information provider.
