Cooperative innovation: Ethnography in Lambeth

Mark Picksley (Lambeth Council)Dr. Robin Pharoah (ESRO)

Background

Single Equality Scheme

• Knowledge gaps• Equality Impact

Assessments

Cooperative Council

• Early adopter pilots• Securing learning

Objectives

• Increase our understanding of communities

• Develop actionable recommendations

• Build skills within the council

The training model

ESRO ESRO

Ethnography:101

1hr wkshp

Ethnography:In Lambeth1hr wkshp

Ethnography:Analysis

1hr wkshp

Fieldwork homework

Recruitment

Ethnography:Fieldwork

preparation

Ongoing feedback, analysis

and support

Accompanied fieldwork

First ethnographic study: Gypsies and travellers Second ethnographic study

Shadowing of ESRO

Tackling difficult projects

• Black Caribbean dissatisfaction• Disengaged English Gypsies• The transgender agenda

Research. Investigation. Engagement.

Being brave researchers

1. Out of office. Out of hours

2. Challenging environments, challenging respondents

3. Embracing discomfort

1. Out of office. Out of hours.

• The RVT: a field site less ordinary• Challenging personal values• Learning a new language

2. Challenging respondents

• Transitional housing• Former heroine addict• Former prisoner

3. Embracing discomfort

• Rumours and half-truths• Establishing contact• History of bad engagement

“This gipsy [sic] site disgraces the borough. It is a burden and a disaster for the local community. If accounts are true, it is also the scene of bizarre and cruel happenings.”- MP recorded in Hansard

Best community engagement/consultation 2013

London Borough of Lambeth / ESRO - Winner

Headline findings

• Challenging assumptions• Truly investigative• Uncomfortable truths

Black Caribbean dissatisfaction

• Does ‘housing’ drive negative perception?• The prominence of the ‘care services’ interface• The destruction of a community• No specific infrastructure… (victims of integration?)• Urban gardeners… the ethnographic gem

Transgender ‘community’

• Discussing ‘need’ in the community does not reflect diversity• There is inclusion and exclusion within the ‘community’• Bureaucratic language and services can exclude e.g. language on

forms, leisure centres etc.• Service visits can invade ‘private/safe spaces’• Travel fears

English gypsies

• Fear, stigma and insularity• Hidden population of women and children• A list of unmet needs• Tragedy is close• The need for new kinds of engagement

Research becomes actions

Transgender• Pan-London workshop• Trans-awareness training

Black Caribbean• Positive communications• Peer research and coproduced

action plan

Green Community Champions• Shaping the cooperative council

strategy and delivery models

Lives transformed

Gypsy and Travellers• Conference of partners  • Single liaison officer• Improved communication

and engagement • £400,000 of regeneration

funds allocated for site improvements- Outhouse refurbishment- Additional plot- Community facility- Play area

Innovation just what we do

Further ethnographic studies• Financial resilience• Early years support

Refocused research budget

For copies of the research reports:

http://tinyurl.com/ESRO-LambethResearch

www.lambeth.gov.uk/equalitiesresearch