About the London Community Story
About the London Community Story
Keep Listening
Films, essays and datasets to support your work
The ‘London Community Story’ is a snapshot of Londoners in conversation with each other across key themes; Belonging, Digital Communities, Equality, Identity, Journeys & Travelling, Relationships.
Films, essays and datasets give us unique insights into the lives of Londoners. These creative approaches bring to life the complexity of people's stories, creating new ways of listening to each other.
The London Community Story tests community engagement approaches by; connecting individuals across live and digital settings, demonstrating the value of lived experience alongside quantitative data, offering research and resources for future storytelling.
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Community Voice
The Community Engagement team works in partnership with Londoners to create dialogue and interaction and involve them in deliberation, decision making and practical action. The London Community Story aims to:
- Provide spaces for Londoners to share and listen, so they feel more connected to each other - the Conversation Booth was on tour collecting 16 hours of audio conversations.
- Provide a platform for community voice as expert knowledge so that Londoners feel valued - working with peer researchers to analyse, transcribe and theme the research.
- Develop resources to inform research, policy and wider discussion so that the real stories of Londoners are told at all levels – allowing creatives to interpret the research into films and essays.
The ‘London Community Story’ is not one individual’s view, it is a remix of Londoners perspectives. It has been developed with passers-by, researchers, creatives including;
Citizen Led Engagement Programme, The Conversation Booth, City Intelligence Unit, Goldsmiths University, Old Oak and Park Royal Development Coorporation (OPDC), Queen Mary University of London, Southbank Centre, Thrive LDN, University of the Arts London and Woolwich Centre Library.
Process
To tell the stories within the capital, the project worked closely with Londoners since Summer 2018 to create this project.
In early 2020 the London Community Story - Process Map will be released, outlining the methodology in detail and lessons learned.
Our ethics statement aligns with the core principles of the Economic and Social research Framework. Collaborators have consented to participation or have been remunerated for their contribution.
Using a mobile audio recording facility called the Conversation Booth – consenting participants responded to a key question crowd sourced by the community eg. ‘What does mental health mean for you? And ‘Tell your story of Arrival in London’. Conversations took place in libraries, cultural venues and a university and were intentionally unfacilitated - over 16 hours of audio research was collected.
Working with peer researchers from our Citizen Led Engagement Programme and beyond. They listened, transcribed and identified 6 cross-cutting themes that they found in the conversation booth recordings. As an entry point into the audio conversations, they used the definition of social integration from the Mayor’s Social Integration Strategy: All of Us.
The London Community Story analysis was used by artists to translate the 6 themes into resources. Filmmakers from Goldsmiths University produced 1 minute films, journalists from the University of the Arts London reflected the material through essays. Alongside the films and essays, the final resource in the package is a collection of datasets. These speak to the themes, pointing largely to the Survey of all Londoners data – over 6000 Londoners responding to questions building social evidence in the capital.
The London Community Story research and resources, are for anyone interested in connecting with the lives of Londoners. They are tools to support the work of civil society, academics and policy makers in telling the real stories of Londoners.
Access Resources
The London Community Story research is made up of a 16 hour audio archive and selected transcripts. It is being deposited with the Museum of London and will be made available soon as open data.
A package of resources is available to share with Londoners, civil society, academia and policymakers, in line with the 6 themes. These tools help us tell the real stories of Londoners, test new ways of listening and finding common ground.
Independent authorship has been encouraged across the creation of all resources.
1.Datasets – Evidence from the Survey of Londoners relating to the 6 themes.
2.One minute films – Audio visual pictures of London developed by filmmakers from Goldsmiths University.
3.Essays – Perspectives on London by journealists from the University of the Arts London
Belonging
Digital Communities
Equality
Identity
Journeys & Travelling
Relationships
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