From frustration to understanding

May 27th, 2023

It’s been four days now since my first workshop, and I have heard nothing. There is a small feeling of frustration setting in again, but it’s equally matched with that sinking anxious feeling of “I flew here for this. I’m working extra jobs to fund this – and what will I do if this doesn’t work out?”. 

As the frustration and anxiety settled, a level of understanding took its place. Without being an ‘expert’ on community engagement, I could understand how this could be a reality of many researchers. When you’re not part of the community, when you arrive as an outsider, you are just another ‘project’. Another researcher, another initiative. It became clear to me that I was not the first to walk through this door, asking for time, input and engagement. I would also not be the last. The people I was asking to participate had likely been asked a hundred times before – by councils, researchers, non-profits, etc. How many of these projects had actually resulted in change?                                                                                        

I became acutely aware of my own situation. I wasn’t offering any monetary compensation to the organisation. I was not a government-backed initiative. I had no immediate solutions to offer these community members. What I was asking for wasn’t resources but time – which was something that community members are rarely given back. The best my project could do was start a conversation, in the hope that someone, somewhere could take my project serious enough to start physical change. However, with austerity measures, budget cuts and political stagnation affecting the whole of the UK and Scotland, is it feasible to expect significant change in the next few years? Or am I just documenting decay as it worsens, recording stories that might never be acted upon?

I just read a piece written by some artists at Creative Dundee. They are talking about how policy is starting to reflect the need for more sustainable public spaces, but now change in neighbourhoods is generally decided using a top-down placemaking system initiated by people that don’t live in them. By only involving communities in the later stages of development, their contribution often become tokenistic and limited to a vote for or against particular measures. For them, community engagement fatigue is a strong barrier, where communities are endlessly asked for their time and ideas, only to see no change happen. Perhaps the lack of participation in my workshop is not disinterest, but rather a defence mechanism – why would you invest time in yet another project when so many have led to nothing concrete in your own neighbourhood?