{"id":2293,"date":"2014-02-28T17:46:10","date_gmt":"2014-02-28T17:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/?p=2293"},"modified":"2015-09-08T16:14:48","modified_gmt":"2015-09-08T16:14:48","slug":"re-imagining-the-future-of-citizen-led-social-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/?p=2293","title":{"rendered":"Re-imagining the future of citizen-led social innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_2295\" style=\"width: 154px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-2295\" href=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/?attachment_id=2295\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2295\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2295\" title=\"Erinma Ochu\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Erinma.bmp\" alt=\"Photo of Erinma Ochu\" width=\"144\" height=\"160\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2295\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Erinma Ochu, Public Engagement Fellow, Wellcome Trust<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Change takes time, persistence, commitment, care, collective action. How does this fit with academic pressures to produce journal publication after journal publication and busy teaching commitments?<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re into social and environmental change, there&#8217;s a tension, a challenge with coming at change from an academic perspective where your contributions to wider society and the environment might not be valued. For me, the reward, is a feeling &#8211; not money, not promotion &#8211; but a sense that day-by-day a different world is crafted when our work is shaped by outside influences and we are ourselves open to change.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I discussed these issues at a recent research seminar at the Open University as part of their Engaging Research series. You can watch a recording of the seminar below. (Slides <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slideshare.net\/erinmaochu\/citizen-led-social-innovation-open-university-seminar\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p><object classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/xqU9-rustdA?version=3&amp;hl=en_US\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/xqU9-rustdA?version=3&amp;hl=en_US\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2369\" style=\"width: 122px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-2369\" href=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/?attachment_id=2369\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2369\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-2369\" title=\"challenges\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/challenges1-112x150.jpg\" alt=\"challenges image\" width=\"112\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/challenges1-112x150.jpg 112w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/challenges1-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/challenges1.jpg 336w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 112px) 100vw, 112px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2369\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Challenges<\/p><\/div>\n<p>There is the opportunity to grow shared resources at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thepsychologist.org.uk\/archive\/archive_home.cfm?volumeID=20&amp;editionID=146&amp;ArticleID=1172\" target=\"_blank\">edge<\/a>. Whilst this is not without its challenges, as we explored during the workshop, and as by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.publicengagement.ac.uk\/about\/ethics\/resources\" target=\"_blank\">others<\/a><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">,<\/span> take heart from a growing network of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/higher-education-network\/blog\/2012\/dec\/11\/flipped-academic-research-community-engagement\" target=\"_blank\">flipped academics<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/uclexcites.wordpress.com\/2014\/02\/11\/a-taste-of-possibilities-extreme-citizen-science-on-the-ground-in-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo\" target=\"_blank\">extreme citizen scientists <\/a>and <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.lse.ac.uk\/impactofsocialsciences\/2014\/02\/27\/citizen-social-science-human-method\/\" target=\"_blank\">citizen social scientists<\/a>. Gradually people are beginning to <a href=\"http:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/environment\/integration\/research\/newsalert\/indepth_reports.htm\" target=\"_blank\">see the value <\/a>of how you work.<\/p>\n<p>From my own personal experience, some tips&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>1. Find <a href=\"http:\/\/www.earlycareeracademic.co.uk\/?page_id=31\" target=\"_blank\">mentors <\/a>to guide you<\/p>\n<p>2. Connect to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.publicengagement.ac.uk\/how-we-help\/ambassadors-scheme\" target=\"_blank\">networks <\/a>that can support you<\/p>\n<p>3. Share your story with others<\/p>\n<p>4. Use <a href=\" https:\/\/www.dur.ac.uk\/beacon\/socialjustice\/ethics_consultation\/\" target=\"_blank\">ethical principles <\/a>to guide you<\/p>\n<p>5. Take time off<\/p>\n<p>And remember&#8230; let your passions shine through &#8211; the future, begins in the here and now.<\/p>\n<p>Stay in touch: <a href=\"mailto: erinma.ochu@manchester.ac.uk\" target=\"_blank\">Erinma Ochu <\/a>or twitter.com\/erinmaochu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Change takes time, persistence, commitment, care, collective action. How does this fit with academic pressures to produce journal publication after journal publication and busy teaching commitments? If you&#8217;re into social and environmental change, there&#8217;s a tension, a challenge with coming &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/?p=2293\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[66,67,65],"class_list":["post-2293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-presentations","tag-citizen-science","tag-public-engagement","tag-social-innovation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2293"}],"version-history":[{"count":89,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6086,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2293\/revisions\/6086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}