A marriage of art and social science – Part 1

Tom Cockburn is a social scientist at the University of Bradford who together with colleague Rory Francis – an artist at Manchester Metropolitan University, is looking to assess how action research and art can function together to initiate social change. He talks to Rita Dimasi about his research in this field, and the upcoming SOLAR Forum that he will host together with Rory Francis.
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Tom Cockburn is a social scientist at the University of Bradford who together with colleague Rory Francis – an artist at Manchester Metropolitan University, is looking to assess how action research and art can function together to initiate social change. He talks to Rita Dimasi about his research in this field, and the upcoming SOLAR Forum that he will host together with Rory Francis.

According to Cockburn, the role of an action researcher itself has a very long history. Originally the process was used by people who looked to initiate change within organizations, however in the 1970s and ’80s the process became part of the education system. Teachers used research to reflect upon their own practices, before initiating change, and then regularly reviewing that change. Since then, action research is used by many government organizations to initiate changes within their practices and policies. For instance, in the UK, most government money from the European Union and from central government in Westminster must undergo some form of action research to evaluate where and how it should be spent.

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Rita Dimasi
About the Author
Rita Dimasi is an Arts Hub reviewer.