IN BRIEF
In a nutshell, I want to tag along with you on your journey towards achieving community ownership for the thing you care about, or if you've already done it, follow the twists and turns of running a community-owned asset.
That means sitting in on the meetings, reading the group emails and WhatsApp chats - however it is that you organise your work. If you're a new campaign, I'd love to come to your launch event and hopefully eventually raise a glass to your successful campaign. If you're already in community ownership, I'd like to come to your AGMs and member meetings, and generally get a feel for what happens at your asset. I'd like to do this for about 6-9 months, although you can pull out at any time if it's not working out.
You'll be very busy, so I won't take up your time with interviews and so on - I just want to hang around and take notes. And if it's helpful, I can share my own experiences of community takeovers and community ownership, stuff envelopes or help out with admin.
I've prepared an in-depth information sheet, below, that will hopefully answer any questions. It's a bit long (sorry!), but it's important that I cover all of the bases so that I can get permission from my university to start the study. If anything isn't clear, or if you have any questions, just shout.
INFORMATION FOR PARTICIPANTS
[This is the official information sheet that my university has approved. I've tried to keep it as simple as I can. But I am allowed to change it, so I'd love to know if you think it could be improved.]
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If I have invited you and your group to take part in my PhD research project, please take time to read the following information carefully and let me know if you have any questions.
Before you decide whether to take part, it is important for you to understand why the research is being done and what it will involve. You may also want to discuss this with other people in your group.
PROJECT TITLE: How do transitions from private to community ownership reshape power and possibility?
What is the purpose of the project?
I want to take a closer look at the nuts and bolts of how groups come together and take the things that matter to them into community ownership, and then run and manage them democratically. This includes how they develop and launch community share offers. I have personal experience of this, having first helped to take my football club, Bath City FC, into community ownership in 2015-16, and later worked occasionally as an advisor to other community groups.
To do this, I am asking to observe the meetings, discussions and activities of groups that are considering taking something into community ownership via a community share offer, or have already done so. This includes online discussions via email and WhatsApp, etc.
I am interested to find out how such groups come together, how they make sense of the tasks they face, how they make decisions and negotiate different points of view, how they identify potential supporters and appeal for support from local communities, and so on. I believe that carefully observing the practical work of groups like yours up-close will add something valuable to the existing research on community ownership, which tends to take more of a birds-eye view.
My hope is that this exploratory study will benefit both researchers and communities by helping us understand more about what happens and what is at stake during community ownership transitions and community share offers.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF I TAKE PART?
I would like to shadow your group’s activities for at least six months, although you will always have the right to withdraw at any point during the data collection period. The total fieldwork period will run until the end of 2023, and the final thesis will be published in about three years’ time. I will regularly present my interim findings and give you opportunities to feed back.
If you and your group agree to take part, I would ask you include me in your activities by:
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Allowing me to attend your meetings in person (where practicable) or via teleconference or videoconference
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Copying me into email chains and include me in messaging groups (e.g. WhatsApp)
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Giving me access to important documents as they are drafted and redrafted, such as strategy plans, timelines, marketing materials, etc. (e.g. via email or shared cloud storage such as Google Drive)
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Allowing me to visit the thing you are trying to take / have taken into community ownership, to observe the everyday activities that take place there.
My main method is simply observing and taking notes, so you will not be expected to take part in any interviews, questionnaires or surveys. However, any casual conversations we have will be treated as data, so please be clear if you would like to speak “off the record”.
As a purely optional extra, I may ask members of your group to give me a personal tour of the thing you are trying to take into community ownership, to understand more about what it means to you.
RESEARCH ETHICS
I am committed to carrying out my research in an ethical manner. Below, I describe my default approach to basic ethical research practice. However, all of this is up for discussion – I am happy to agree to further specific measures e.g. around anonymity or confidentiality, and so on.
Will this benefit me or my group? What are the risks?
Ideally, I want this research to benefit both you and future groups. If you like, I can act as a participant as well as an observer, sharing my experiences of past community share offers in ways that may be helpful, or undertaking light volunteering tasks, in return for being allowed access. We can discuss this at the start of the engagement.
Beyond this, having a researcher around carries both potential benefits and risks for you and your group. I will regularly present updates and give opportunities for feedback: while I hope that these will be helpful and enlightening, there is inevitably the risk that you and/or your group may feel that my accounts misrepresent you, or otherwise cause discomfort. To reduce this risk, I will be sensitive regarding how you feel about the content of what is shared (including through one-to-one dialogue and pre-warning), as well as the timing of how it is shared.
What data will you collect, and what will happen to it?
As above, I am mostly seeking to observe you and your group’s meetings, discussions and activities, including those that take place online. This also includes how others outside the group react to your plans and activities.
I will mostly record my observations through written field notes rather than audio or video recordings. Again, I will not write down anything that you expressly share “off the record”. If I do want to record photo, audio or video, I will always seek permission and explain why.
All the information that I collect about you during the research will be kept strictly confidential. I will take all reasonable steps to ensure that you, your group and the thing you are trying to take into community ownership will not be able to be identified in any ensuing material. However, I should stress upfront that social media and search engines make it difficult to completely guarantee full anonymity, particularly as there are relatively few community-owned assets in the UK. While I will not reveal the location of your asset and can take some steps to disguise it, it will be difficult to pretend that a pub is in fact a theatre, for example. As above, we can negotiate and agree the exact arrangements for anonymity and confidentiality at the start of the engagement.
All data will be stored securely using encrypted files and password-protected laptops and hard drives, and backed up using my institution’s secure cloud storage system. Only I will have access to it. At the end of the project, all emails and messages will be deleted. No photo, audio or video recordings will be archived or published without the express permission of you and your group. I will retain my anonymised written field notes indefinitely unless you object.
What will happen to the results of the research project?
The results of my research will inform my PhD thesis, as well as any peer-reviewed academic papers I may write. I may also seek to publish my PhD thesis in a modified form as a book. I will likely give presentations at academic and non-academic conferences, and may take part in interviews, podcasts and blogs etc.
It is important to me that all participants have a “right of reply” to what I write. I will provide regular research updates, including a regular newsletter for participants and an interim presentation that people from all participating groups may attend. Your reflections and responses will be incorporated into the final thesis.
DECIDING WHETHER TO TAKE PART
Do I have to take part?
It is entirely up to you whether to take part. If you decide to do so, you will be given this information sheet to keep and will be asked to give your consent. You can withdraw from the project at any time during the period of data collection, without giving a reason.
What if others in my group want to take part, but I don’t?
That’s absolutely fine, no-one should feel peer pressure to take part. In this case, one option may be that I observe the group, but do not include you in my observations or field notes. If you prefer not to be observed at all, I will simply end my involvement with your group. I would encourage all groups to have an open and honest discussion about any potential concerns before agreeing to take part in the project, and will make myself available beforehand to answer questions.
What if something goes wrong?
I will always be available to discuss any of your concerns and will check in regularly during the project to make sure that you are still comfortable. However, if you have any concerns about your participation or about the project in general, you should first contact my PhD supervisors Michael Guggenheim and Katherine Robinson at m.guggenheim [at] gold.ac.uk and k.robinson [at] gold.ac.uk. If you feel your complaint has not been satisfactorily handled, you can contact the Department of Sociology Ethics Officer and Chair of the Sociology Research Ethics Committee, Brian Alleyne b.alleyne [at] gold.ac.uk.
Thank you for reading this information sheet and for considering whether to take part in this research project.