Cooperative innovation:
Ethnography in Lambeth
Mark Picksley (Lambeth Council)
Dr. Robin Pharoah (ESRO)
Background
Single Equality Scheme
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Knowledge gaps
Equality Impact
Assessments
Cooperative Council
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Early adopter pilots
Securing learning
Objectives
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Increase our understanding of
communities
Develop actionable
recommendations
Build skills within the council
The training model
Ethnography:1
01
1hr wkshp
Ethnography:
In Lambeth
1hr wkshp
Ethnography:
Analysis
1hr wkshp
Ethnography:
Fieldwork
preparation
Recruitment
Shadowing of ESRO
ESRO
Fieldwork
homework
First ethnographic study:
Gypsies and travellers
Ongoing
feedback, analysis
and support
Accompanied
fieldwork
ESRO
Second ethnographic study
Tackling difficult projects
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Black Caribbean dissatisfaction
Disengaged English Gypsies
The transgender agenda
Research. Investigation. Engagement.
Being brave researchers
1. Out of office. Out of hours
2. Challenging environments, challenging respondents
3. Embracing discomfort
1. Out of office. Out of hours.
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The RVT: a field site less ordinary
Challenging personal values
Learning a new language
2. Challenging respondents
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Transitional housing
Former heroine addict
Former prisoner
3. Embracing discomfort
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Rumours and half-truths
Establishing contact
History of bad engagement
“This gipsy [sic] site disgraces the borough. It is a
burden and a disaster for the local community. If
accounts are true, it is also the scene of bizarre
and cruel happenings.”
- MP recorded in Hansard
Headline findings
Best community engagement/consultation 2013
London Borough of Lambeth / ESRO - Winner
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Challenging assumptions
Truly investigative
Uncomfortable truths
Black Caribbean dissatisfaction
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Does ‘housing’ drive negative perception?
The prominence of the ‘care services’ interface
The destruction of a community
No specific infrastructure… (victims of integration?)
Urban gardeners… the ethnographic gem
Transgender ‘community’
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Discussing ‘need’ in the community does not reflect diversity
There is inclusion and exclusion within the ‘community’
Bureaucratic language and services can exclude e.g. language on
forms, leisure centres etc.
Service visits can invade ‘private/safe spaces’
Travel fears
English gypsies
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Fear, stigma and insularity
Hidden population of women and children
A list of unmet needs
Tragedy is close
The need for new kinds of engagement
Research becomes actions
Transgender
• Pan-London workshop
• Trans-awareness training
Black Caribbean
• Positive communications
• Peer research and coproduced
action plan
Green Community Champions
• Shaping the cooperative council
strategy and delivery models
Lives transformed
Gypsy and Travellers
• Conference of partners
• Single liaison officer
• Improved communication
and engagement
• £400,000 of regeneration
funds allocated for site
improvements
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Outhouse refurbishment
Additional plot
Community facility
Play area
Innovation
just what we do
Further ethnographic studies
• Financial resilience
• Early years support
Refocused research budget
For copies of the research reports:
http://tinyurl.com/ESRO-LambethResearch
www.lambeth.gov.uk/equalitiesresearch