This project is a pilot study that aims to conceptualise how mutual forms of solidarity can first address lived experiences of inequalities among diverse ethnic, racialised, gendered and classed local communities in Greater Manchester. It builds upon the previous work the research team conducted (funded by the ESRC IAA Covid-19 and SEED Business Engagement fund), which has shown that lived experiences of inequalities are rarely confined to one area of concern, such as health or education (Choudry et al., 2021). This study will bring together local community leads who we perceive as members of a community group, local policy stakeholders, practitioners, and academics engaged within local communities and with a shared interest in health, education and the environment to analyse barriers to building solidarity and enact social change. It aims to directly impact these diverse communities by supporting them to document their needs and concerns related to health, education and environment through a collaborative research and engagement partnership model.
Specifically, the project consists of two phases:
Phase 1: The first phase pertains to the literature review analysis work package. We are critically reviewing existing theorisations and conceptualisations on building solidarity with, within, and between local communities with lived experiences of inequalities about health, education and environment-related issues.
Phase 2: The research team will conduct three workshops (Workshop 1, 2, and 3) and up to 12 follow-up interviews with community leads from Manchester and Greater Manchester areas to analyse the barriers to building solidarity and enact social change among diverse community groups based on the findings of workshops.
The first workshop (Workshop 1) focuses on exploring and sharing practices of building solidarity with, within and between local diverse racialised, gendered and classed communities with the academic community. It also aims to help us extend our long-standing research collaborations across various disciplines (such as Health and Green Research) across the university, including from within the Manchester Institute of Education (e.g., Power, Inequalities, Activism), SEED and Faculty of Humanities and beyond (e.g. medicine) at the University of Manchester. We will also build our advisory group for a larger project from this meeting.
The second workshop (Workshop 2) will focus on Manchester as a case study. Workshop participants will comprise community leads, professional practitioners, and academics with a shared interest in the health and education effects of global emergencies (including poverty, inequality, famine, and pandemics). Through small groups and roundtable discussions, it will document perspectives on barriers to building solidarity with, within, and between diverse communities in Manchester. We hope it will also support the participants by documenting their needs and concerns related to health, education, and the environment, as well as promoting the building of a collaborative research and engagement partnership model.
The third workshop (Workshop 3) is a comparative case study based on locality. It will test the outcomes of Workshop 2 (Manchester) in other areas of Greater Manchester (i.e. Oldham, Bury, Rochdale). These groups and this workshop will a) test our hypothesis of building solidarity with (that includes academic group) within (diverse community groups) and between (all the previous groups), b) test the outcome of Workshop 2 in other localities, such as areas in Greater Manchester. It aims to triangulate and validate our findings of workshop 2. It also aims to ascertain if deprived localities such as Rochdale present a differing case to inner-city issues such as in Manchester.