Slides from the Cultural Intermediation Project Continuity Day, 3 October 2014

1. CIRCUS - Collaborative
Interdisciplinary Research
Connecting Urban Society
Professor Tim May
SURF, University of Salford Manchester.
AHRC CONTINUITY DAY, BIRMINGHAM, OCTOBER 3, 2014

2. Overview
CIRCUS HAS FOUR ELEMENTS:
• seminar series around cultural intermediation from academics,
practitioners and other stakeholders nationally and internationally;
• ongoing process of reflection on research practice and knowledge
exchange.;
• coordinating and producing outputs from the project including new
media - drawing on existing expertise in generating multiplatform
content.;
• PhD project investigating the interrelationships between
communities of practice and epistemic communities with a focus
on the role of universities as cultural intermediaries.

3. Populating The Missing Middle
EXCELLENCE
Cultures of
Inquiry
SPACE OF COMMUNICATION BELONGING
ACTIVE INTERMEDIARIES IN PRACTICE
Translation, Integration and Transformation
Cultures of
Reception
RELEVANCE
http://www.surf.salford.ac.uk
POSITIONING

4. Active Intermediation
Active intermediation is a constant agonism;
there is no state of resolution, rather a set of
practices that inform the possibility of producing
excellent-relevant knowledge. This requires
intensive work at understanding the boundaries,
limits and consequences of collaborative
working.

5. WORKSHOP 1 – MAY 16, LIVERPOOL LIBRARY
Art, Recognition and Social Science: Re-Thinking
(E)valuation
Carolyn Curtis Magri - artist engaged in drawing, painting, installation
and film.
Loraine Leeson - visual artist who focuses on use of the arts to bring
community-based knowledge into the public domain.
Alison Rooke - focuses upon developing critical and collaborative
approaches to research and evaluation.
Jeremy Spafford - actor, dancer, psychiatric nurse and advisor to
homeless young people – now Director of Arts at the Old Fire Station,
Oxford.
Afternoon - Dave O’Brien – academic partnerships and re-thinking
evaluation

6. INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP 2 – SEPT 1st and 2nd ANTHONY
BURGESS FOUNDATION, MANCHESTER
Universities, Cities and Transformation: Practices of
Cultural Intermediation and Expectations of Knowledge
To bring together academics from different disciplines to engage in
critical reflection based on their own practices around a set of core
questions:
a)what are the expectations that different groups place on knowledge
generated by universities in relation to socio-economic development
in cities?
b)how is that knowledge generated?
c)what benefits does that knowledge have for our cities and their
communities?
d)are there alternative modes of organizing knowledge that might
enable more positive transformations for urban communities?

7. Beth Perry @Beth_Perry_SURF · Sep 1
'Best practice' erodes critical thinking say Zarina and Saskia @MistraUrbanFut #univer-city
Beth Perry @Beth_Perry_SURF · Sep 1
Prof Tim May - 'what is distinctive about university knowledge?' that is the most uncomfortable question to ask. #univer-city
@CultIntermed
ICCLiverpool @ICCLiverpool · Sep 2
@Beth_Perry_SURF sums up #univer-city - unlocking academic deadlock; taking HE shelter; academic complicity in
'shifting responsibility' (1)
Cultural Intermediat @CultIntermed · Sep 1
Prof Tim May: where is the critical reflexivity in doing engaged research? #univer-city
Blog from Dr Clare Melhuish, UCL: http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/university-led-urbanregeneration/
Next steps: Collating presentations and proposing special edition of journal.

9. Plans
Interviews, attendance and events/conferences/workshops – SRHE with Keri
Facer.
May, T. ‘Urban Governance: Issues in Practice’. Urban Studies – 2015
May, T. and Perry, B. ‘Reflexivity and the Practice of Qualitative Research’, In
Flick, U. (ed) Handbook of Qualitative Research – Sage, 2013.
May, T. and Perry, B. Universities, Reflexivity and Critique. Policy Futures in
Education – 2013.
May, T. and Perry, B. Reflexivity – A Guide for Social Scientists – Sage, 2015
May, T. and Perry, B. Cities and Knowledge: Promise, Politics and Possibility -
Routledge, 2016.
May, T. and Perry, B. Cities and Knowledge: Issues in Practice. In Marvin, S.
and May, T. Special Edition of Local Environment – 2015.
Bauman, Z. And May, T. Thinking Sociologically. 3rd Edition. Blackwell – 2016
Perry, B. and May, T. ‘Lesson on the Research-Practice Relationship’. In Polk,
M. (ed) Co-Producing Knowledge for Sustainable Cities, Routledge, 2014
Offers – 5th edition of Social Research (with Beth - 2016) and 2nd Edition of
Qualitative Research in Action (....)
Durham IAS Fellowship – Spring 2016.

10. Plans
Interviews, attendance and events/conferences/workshops – SRHE with Keri
Facer.
May, T. ‘Urban Governance: Issues in Practice’. Urban Studies – 2015
May, T. and Perry, B. ‘Reflexivity and the Practice of Qualitative Research’, In
Flick, U. (ed) Handbook of Qualitative Research – Sage, 2013.
May, T. and Perry, B. Universities, Reflexivity and Critique. Policy Futures in
Education – 2013.
May, T. and Perry, B. Reflexivity – A Guide for Social Scientists – Sage, 2015
May, T. and Perry, B. Cities and Knowledge: Promise, Politics and Possibility -
Routledge, 2016.
May, T. and Perry, B. Cities and Knowledge: Issues in Practice. In Marvin, S.
and May, T. Special Edition of Local Environment – 2015.
Bauman, Z. And May, T. Thinking Sociologically. 3rd Edition. Blackwell – 2016
Perry, B. and May, T. ‘Lesson on the Research-Practice Relationship’. In Polk,
M. (ed) Co-Producing Knowledge for Sustainable Cities, Routledge, 2014
Offers – 5th edition of Social Research (with Beth - 2016) and 2nd Edition of
Qualitative Research in Action (....)
Durham IAS Fellowship – Spring 2016.