Overview

We live in an increasingly urbanized world, and one where the evidence indicates that disconnection from 'nature' affects us negatively. The response to overcoming this disconnection has taken two distinct approaches:

• attempts to provide nature for people, and to involve people in planning and consultation approaches to ensure their requirements are met;
• a gradual (and now accelerating) move to community control and/or ownership of land and natural spaces - instigated from the bottom-up by communities themselves. 

These twin approaches of 'providing nature' and 'managing nature' are paralleled by the twin assessments of how people are 'enjoying/experiencing/consuming nature' and 'producing nature/ecosystem services'. Much of the work to date has focused on one or other part of this duality. Our vision is to connect these forms of participation in both the consumption and production of nature. To do so, it is essential to take as the starting point the experiences, narratives and creative activities of those participating.‌

These creative activities include participatory art (e.g. woodland sculpture making, music or edible artwork), community festivals (e.g. harvest festivals) and events (e.g. learning heritage skills). Our research focus, then, is on the question 'How do cultural and creative activities help to shape the connections between people, places and production' - we have termed this 'eco-cultural production'.

The outputs from this network will be a review of the latest literature, including information from the communities themselves.

Project Impact

The direct benefits of the proposed research will be achieved through two activities. Firstly, the various workshops will allow interaction and knowledge exchange between community groups and academics from a range of art and humanities disciplines. This two way dialogue will potentially benefit both parties by communicating the interests and needs of communities to academics - and similarly providing communities with current academic information relevant and useful for them.‌

The second direct benefit for the grant will be achieved through the project website and social media. This will dissmeminate the information on project activities and key findings to a wider audience - including community organisations, academics, landowners, policy and decision makers. The issues of eco-cultural production are pertinent to policy development and landuse planning across Europe and North America.

The project's findings could inform moves for increased localism in planning and decision making making them relevant to local planners, national policy makers and communities lobbying for particular schemes or initiatives.

The project ties into the wider policy focus on ecosystem services and the determination of benefits and trade-offs of different landuses. It will provide new insights on the cultural benefits provided by different landscapes and the role of nature in delivering these benefits. Ecosystem services are currently the focus of both national and international interest by academics and decision makers.

Partner network

Partner Network

•  –Is a geographer with an interest in developing map-based approaches for including the public in environmental decision making. He led the Eco-Cultural Production grant that helped build a network of researchers, artists and community practitioners to discuss and develop the ideas and concepts.

• Alice Goodenough - Has a background in the links between landscapes, history and culture and is particularly interested in how people understand and value natural and community spaces, such as woodland. Alice works at the Silvanus Trust, a charity, aimed at influencing policy concerning sustainable and viable woodlands and inspiring and involving communities to manage and value trees and woodland

• Althea Davies – Is a paleoecologist with interests in the relationship between environmental changes and the development of landscapes.
• Morgan, Alun - is a geographer with an educational background – firstly in schools and latterly in higher education. He is interested in using landscapes for the benefit and to stimulate learning.

• Andrew Church - is a geographer with a longstanding interest in the interaction of landscapes and culture from domestic gardens to football stadia.

• Bianca Ambrose-Oji - Joined Forest Research in October 2008 and has 18 years of experience in social forestry and forest governance, which includes time as an action researcher, consultant, practitioner and professional trainer. Her key research interests include understanding the management of natural resources in urbanising and peri-urban contexts.

• Christina Welch - has a diverse background in humanities and social science. Her interests include the links between religion and visual representation.

• Graeme Evans - Is an urbanist and cultural planner working across the social, economic and environmental dimensions of cities and metropolitan governance. For 6 six years was director of a large community arts and resource.
• Jo Sayers - Works with communities around the Mersey forest. Mersey Forest is a growing network of woodlands and green spaces across Cheshire and Merseyside and the organisation Jo works for has been creating 'woodlands for over 20 years.

• Kate Lock - Is an environmental consultant based in York and chair of the local Environment Forum. She has a keen interest in local community development and opportunities to boost local resilience through on the ground actions. 

• Kerry Chappell - Has a background in dance and education. Her research interests include the interdisciplinary study of creativity and methodologies for participatory research.

• Maria Devereux - Works for Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming – which advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improving the working and living environment, enriching society and culture and promoting equity. Sustain represents around 100 national public interest organisations working at international, national, regional and local level.

• Marialena Nikopoulou - Is an architect with research interests including people’s perception and use of space and sustainable design.

• Neil Ravenscroft - Has over 20 years’ experience researching natural resources, communities and environment. He is also director of Tablehurst city farm.

• North Cloich - Is a project set up on the Scotish Borders whose aim is to create a sustainable community of people engaged in co-operative living and working, whilst establishing a Forest Garden as a haven of biodiversity. They aim to work in harmony with nature to transform North Cloich from its current clear-felled state into a productive forest garden, to provide food for members and visitors and habitats for wildlife.  The North Cloich team support and encourage home-grown arts and entertainment and believe that music has the power to form productive, positive bonds between people. They aim to provide a platform for local artists and musicians to work within a natural setting, and will promote social inclusion via a varied programme of events and activities.

• Rebecca Wade - Has an academic background in the environmental benefits that green and blue spaces in cities can provide people. She has a keen interest in linking people with science and co-investigating research problems with communities.

• Timothy Collins - Is an artist who seeks transformative experience and ideas that can leverage small creative freedoms for people, places and things. He completed a PhD in Art, Ecology and Planning in 2007.

Literature review

Literature review

Literature review (PDF , 867kb) represents the key documents identified by a network of academics, community organisation representatives and arts practitioners in relation to eco-cultural production. The network was brought together as part of a consortium building exercise in response to funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Connected Communities Programme Research Development Workshop held in May 2012 entitled Communities, Cultures, Environments and Sustainability. The overall aim for the network was to investigate the opportunities around helping communities to respond to the challenges posed by environmental change and ways of moving towards more sustainable living.