Our research

Staffordshire University works in partnership with a diverse range of organisations on projects that benefit local communities, including projects designed to provide new skills to local communities or research projects that amplify the voices of communities to act on a social issue.

Connected Communities is a research-informed approach to community and civic engagement that also contributed to Staffordshire University’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) in 2021 through a number of Impact Case Studies with significant impact in our civic region including:  

Get Talking

Get Talking is Staffordshire University’s approach to Participatory Action Research (PAR) and has been used in many Connected Communities projects.

Appetite

Appetite is an Arts Council England Creative People and Places programme based in Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire. Get Talking formed the basis of the evaluation of Appetite between 2013 and 2016, using creative and artistic consultation tools to start a city-wide conversation about the arts.

Discover Digital

Discover aimed to boost digital inclusion across Stoke-on-Trent by engaging with communities to identify, understand and break down barriers to digital access.

Portland Inn Project

The Portland Inn Project is a collaboration between Associate Professor Anna Francis, professional artist Rebecca Davies, and the community of The Portland St Area of Stoke-on-Trent.

Raising Voices

Since 2019 we have worked in partnership with community researchers and voluntary, community and charity sector partners to conduct extensive research into the impact of hardship and poverty in the region.

Keep Talking

The original aims of Keep Talking were to understand how universities and community partners can develop sustainable structures for people to engage in long term, place-based research, with a specific focus on working with community researchers.

Young Community Researchers Project

Staffordshire Council for Voluntary Youth Services (SCVYS) and Staffordshire University are working together to support young people to have a say about the environment and what they think needs to change.

Academic Publications

Fox, R. et al. (2023). Raising Voices: Sharing Stories Through Lived Experience. In: Page, S., Coates, M., Tipping, J., Frangos, J., Goldstraw, K. (eds) Action on Poverty in the UK . Sustainable Development Goals Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37182-0_9 
Gratton, N. (2019). ‘People with learning disabilities and access to mainstream arts and culture: A participatory action research approach’, British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 48 (2) pp. 106-114.
Gratton, N. (2020) From Engagement to Strategy: The Journey Towards a Civic University. In Sengupta, E., Blessinger, P. and Mahony, C. (2020) University–Community Partnerships for Promoting Social Responsibility in Higher Education. (Innovations in Higher Education Teaching and Learning) Volume 23, Bingley UK, Emerald Publishing Limited. pp. 105–120.

Gratton, N. and Beddows, R. (2018) ‘Get Talking: Managing to achieve more through creative consultation’, in M. Stout (ed) From Austerity to Abundance? (Critical Perspectives on International Public Sector Management), Volume 6, Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing Limited, pp 141–160.
Gratton, N. and Reynolds, J. (2022) Participatory evaluation for large-scale arts programmes: challenges, adaptations and unexpected shifts in culture. Research for All Journal, 6 (1)
Gratton, N., Fox, R. and Elder, T. (2020) “Keep Talking: Messy Research in Times of Lockdown,” in Kara, H. and Khoo, S.-M. (eds) Researching in the Age of COVID-19: Volume II: Care and Resilience. Bristol University Press, pp. 101–110. doi: 10.46692/9781447360414.010. 
Jundi, D., Gratton, N. (2023). Addressing Digital Poverty Through Community Engagement. In: Page, S., Coates, M., Tipping, J., Frangos, J., Goldstraw, K. (eds) Action on Poverty in the UK . Sustainable Development Goals Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37182-0_13
Page, S., Gratton, N., Brindle-Wilkinson, R., Chamberlain, V., Campbell, N. (2020) Informing Prison Theatre Improvement through World Café Conversations with Prisoners. Prison Service Journal Issue 248, pp45-55 https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/publications/psj/prison-service-journal-248