How can you use creative writing groups to connect people with their local environment?

University of Sheffield
Professor Paul Selman

Dr Anna Lawrence and Dr Claudia Carter (Forestry Commission), Dr Clare Morgan (University of Oxford)

With this research project we wanted to see how creative writing could be used to get local people involved in river management and environmental issues.

Key points

• The creative arts can improve engagement between experts and the public
• Workshops can act as a catalyst to encourage greater public participation
• This can lead to changes in working practices, recreational activities and professional development
• Workshops encourage social learning to happen – and there are opportunities to learn about the experiences, views and associations of others.

We visited the area around the river Dearne in South Yorkshire, and with the support of the Environment Agency recruited local people to a creative writing programme.

Our aim was to test the idea that the imaginative process could encourage people to actively engage with the river on their doorstep. We also wanted to see if the programme could help people better understand some of the complex issues around river management.

Recent years have seen growing concern around issues such as flood risk, drainage and water quality. It is increasingly clear that technology and ‘hard engineering’ does not have all the answers. At the same time, rivers can also act as a great source of enjoyment and even pride for people. At the policy level, instruments such as the EU Water Framework Directive have introduced a requirement for river basin management plans to be developed.

We wanted to see how the imaginative opportunities of the creative writing process could get people thinking about these issues and possibilities. We aimed to reconnect people to their local environment. And we wanted to find ways to equip them to contribute to the development of plans and solutions for the river’s future.

We also wanted to see what impact taking part might have on participants’ working lives, their recreational activities and their professional development. Would it change the way they thought and felt about their local river and how they interacted with it? Would it enhance their knowledge of the river; its history and the people who live along it?

Conclusions

Creative writing offers new opportunities for people to think about and engage with environmental issues and river management. Those taking part in the workshops we facilitated generally viewed the experience positively.

We believe involving people with issues through the creative arts also has the potential to improve engagement between experts and the public. To be successful, they need to be properly evaluated and effort needs to be made to sustain their use. Evaluation needs to include study into the immediate and lasting effects of participation. The creative process itself needs to be at the centre of the process; with less emphasis on imparting information to participants.

Participation can also lead to changes in work practice, recreational activities and professional development. These can help reconnect people with local environmental assets and equip them to get involved with developing solutions to local environmental problems.

These new approaches also promote social learning and help people to learn about the different experiences, views and associations of others. Our research suggests benefits are not restricted to the workshops themselves. Instead, the workshops can act as a catalyst to encourage greater participation once the classes have finished.

For more information view the programmme website at http://gs.strath.ac.uk/suscoms