Communities and Social Justice

The Communities and Social Justice group aims to amplify, and centre, the experiences of communities who use, co-design, and contribute to knowledge.

Our work is framed by theories of systemic, structural, intersectional, contextual, and social, justice and is orientated around five objectives.

Objective 1: Explore the diversity of communities including communities of identity, place, and action, and how they relate to each other

We are particularly focused on communities of identity in respect of sexuality, gender, age, ethnicity, race, and nationality – and various intersections across these; both in terms of people who deliver services and people who use those services. A strong sub-set of this work involves collaboration with communities within Durham and the North-East more broadly, whereas other projects consider internationally based communities, or communities of action across geographical bases.

Current examples of our work include:

Objective 2: Promote safety for, and address harms experienced by, communities around the world

We undertake research to promote safety and address harms experienced by various communities around the world, including domestic abuse, sexual abuse, and extra-familial forms of harm (such as exploitation). Communities impacted by these harms, and for whom we promote safety in a range of contexts include women and men in prison, LGBTQ+ young people, parents (and often mothers specifically), and young people facing multiple structural and contextual disadvantages. We identify, and seek to build examples of, safety in community, service, education, home, and interpersonal contexts.

Current examples of this work include:

Objective 3: Understand, critique, and shape service organisations locally, nationally, and internationally, recognising their potential to be both sources of safety and sources of harm

We are actively reimagining service organisations by building evidence of the harm they cause, often in partnership with them and those who use those services. This evidence base is providing the foundations for alternative approaches to welfare, justice, and community sectors, and across a spectrum of abolitionist and reformist agendas. In all cases we situate improvement in a radical transformation of services, rather than solely in increased access to, or funding of, all services that already exist; particularly those that police or punish communities as opposed to care for and support them.

Examples of this work include:

Objective 4: Contribute to, and build upon, critical research traditions, by being community-engaged, aspiring to feminist and decolonising principles, and using various methods including collaborative and participatory research approaches

We embrace, and continue to develop, a range of collaborative and participatory research, significantly aided by the methodological leadership of the Centre for Community Justice and Social Action. In recent years we have increased our use of arts-based methods, with both practitioners within services and people who experiences those services, to both collaborate on the creation of knowledge, and to disseminate knowledge to an array of audiences. Our methodologies are part of the way in which reimagine systems and services, troubling where power sits and where power is limited in the onward production of knowledge as well as social, policy and practice impacts.

Examples of this work include:

Objective 5: Foster inclusion and challenge the marginalisation of communities who are minoritised, oppressed or under-served by governments, the academy and other institutions that influence state intervention

We work to not only identify marginalisation by to actively challenge it. As such we do promote or recommend services that we know are oppressive to communities, particularly those which too easily frame communities as the source of social problems, rather than as living in contexts of enduring structural, systemic, and interpersonal inequalities. We hold a mirror up to ourselves, and to the services with whom we work, to critically challenge the academy and research users on the extent to which their work upholds oppressive regimes to the benefit of some, but to the detriment of others, and seek solutions that promote inclusion for all.

Examples of this work include:

For further information on the Communities and Social Justice Group and details of our meetings, events and projects please contact carlene.e.firmin@durham.ac.uk