Hi,

 

I think this is very important. I don’t know how the REF will measure impact, because I think few individual academic studies can lay claim to a change in policy. The more participatory work however does impact more immediately, and directly, on communities and individuals. Follow-up surveys are time-consuming, costly, and possibly alienating to the people that participatory work is seeking to engage. Who wants to be surveyed, and tick-boxed? It may put people off joining in to participatory research if they feel they are really doing it so the researcher can “score points” with the REF.

 

Frances

 

 

This one is for UK academics, and only those interested in the REF – the next incarnation of our research audit machine (thats about 3 of you then...)

 

I wondered if as PYGYWG we want to respond to the current consultation on the shape of the REF (See http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2009/09_38/)

 

Especially relevant for us as piggies here are the suggestions about “impact” (which they suggest will make up 25% of the assessment – which, taken at face value, i guess many of would welcome).

 

To cut a long story short they want to be quite open about what impact is, and attempt to conceptualise it as non-linear in time (post research projects/outputs), though other parts of the document are contradictory. So maybe there is mileage in having some input given University research will be judged by this. No doubt it'll mould activities just like its predecessor.

 

But in particular note the emphasis on industry/policymaking, and relative absence of working with the voluntary sector / counter-policy / activist and co-produced research with grassroots groups – it would be good to see these visible and different kinds of impacts valued.

 

There are also intriguing questions about how to evaluate and demonstrate the impact of research - the main solution the document suggests at present seems to be surveys – how many lives saved, environments made sustainable, wellbeing indicators ticked...

 

My questions are

 

i)                    Does anyone care? Is it worth responding?  

ii)                   Can anyone comment on how to demonstrate or argue for the “impact” of community based / activist research?

 

rachel

 

Rachel Pain
Department of Geography
University of Durham
Durham DH1 3LE
England   

tel. +44 (0)191 3341876

website: www.dur.ac.uk/geography/research/researchclusters/?mode=staff&id=352

Co-Director, Centre for Social Justice and Community Action www.dur.ac.uk/beacon/socialjustice/

Editor and Book Series Editor: Antipode www.antipode-online.net

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