Participatory approaches such as citizen science offer the potential to open up research to society, yet the majority of people participating are affluent and well-educated. At ENoLL’s Digital Living Lab Days 2021 in September, KWMC’s Lorraine Hudson shared experiences from the UK case study “ReThink ReCycle ReMake“, where the Bristol Living Lab collaborated with people typically underrepresented in science – those who face social economic disadvantage and Black, Asian and other minority ethnic communities. KWMC had a practitioner presentation accepted through the conference peer review process, which was attended by 391 people.
KWMC’s video talk ‘ReThink ReMake ReCycle – participatory science communication’ was given on the 7th of September as part of the ‘Culture & Creativity in Times of Disruptive Change’ research session. The abstract is available on the Open Living Labs website. In her talk, Dr. Lorraine Hudson shares experiences of collaborating with people typically underrepresented in science communication. In the question-and-answer session, there was a lot of interest in the use of creative approaches to community engagement and science communication.
On the 28th of October, the UK ParCos team will be collaborating with Maker City (KWMC’s programme for makers aged 10 – 15 from across Bristol) to run an event called the ‘Factory Takeover’. They will be working together with local families around sustainability and science communication: designing laser cut protest placards, experimenting with biomaterials, and seeing how KWMC: The Factory can turn their plastic offcuts and waste material into new recycled sheets. More to follow soon!