(Re)Instilling Civic Belonging: The Role of Cultural Infrastructure in Everyday Participation

Key Details

Project Title: (Re)Instilling Civic Belonging: The Role of Cultural Infrastructure in Everyday Participation

Deadline:11:59pm, 29 June 2025 

Host University: Loughborough University

Start date: Monday 06 October 2025 

Funding offer: Tax-free bursary of £1,300 (paid in 2 parts, in arrears).

Working hours: Part-time (11-14hrs per week). 

Working style: Primarily in-person at host university. Flexible working supported. Working pattern to be agreed between successful candidate and lead supervisor.  

Project Supervisors

• Lead Supervisor: Dr Cagri Sanliturk (CS)(Loughborough University)
• Co-Supervisor:  Professor Rachel Granger(De Montfort University)
• Co-Supervisor:  Dr Robert Schmidt III (RSIII) Loughborough University
• Community Supervisor: Varsha Parmar (Equality Action (EA)

About The Project

The Context: In Loughborough, over 23% of the population identifies as Black, Asian, or Minority Ethnic (BAME), including 15.7% Asian or Asian British and 2.9% Black or Black British residents. However, this diversity is not reflected in equal access to services, support, or civic participation(1). The Loughborough Town Deal (2) report highlights that disadvantage is particularly acute among BAME communities, with clear indicators of lower income levels, reduced educational attainment, poorer health outcomes, and shorter life expectancy.

The Key Community Group: Equality Action, a Loughborough-based charity, has spent over 50 years addressing these inequalities through grassroots action. In 2023/24 alone, the organisation handled over 1,300 individual cases, supporting people from all backgrounds(particularly BAME communities) on issues including welfare, immigration, debt, housing, employment, and education. Its work builds vital trust and delivers tailored support through holistic advice services, wellbeing initiatives, and community-led integration projects.

The Proposition: Yet despite these ongoing efforts, the community hubs where civic life unfolds such as public buildings, community centres, and the local library often fail to reflect or support the rich social fabric of the communities they serve. Many public buildings and communal venues across Leicestershire and Rutland remain underused not because of a lack of needs, but because they are perceived exclusionary, or disconnected from the lived realities of these communities.

This research placement focuses on Equality Action’s work as a lens through which to understand and reimagine civic belonging. It asks: how can we build cultural infrastructures that centre equity, emotional connection, and everyday participation? And how could this begin to take shape through the formation of a community-led civic hub embedded in the revitalisation of Loughborough’s under-utilised historic Generator Hall.

Loughborough’s historic Generator Hall is undergoing a £2m physical refurbishment through the Town Deal. Yet its transformation into an inclusive, community-led civic space will depend not on its physical structure, but on its programmes, social relationships, and capacity to generate shared communal meaning. This research placement aims to explore how cultural everyday practices can become a method for civic participation, to foster social connections and establish network resilience and hence facilitate the co-creation of a programme for the Generator Hall as an inclusive place of belonging.

This project has been co-created and is supported by researchers from Loughborough University, De Montfort University, and partners at Equality Action. The successful candidate for this project will be enrolled at Loughborough University.

Project Aims 

The overall aims of the project are:     

1. Understand Civic Belonging: Investigate how local communities particularly those supported by Equality Action define and experience civic life and belonging in Loughborough, especially through cultural activities and shared space.
2. Map the Cultural Ecosystem: Identify under-connected cultural initiatives and civic networks including those emerging from Equality Actionʼs community programmes that could be meaningfully linked through the Generatorʼs emerging programme.
3. Engage a Diversity of Voices: Facilitate inclusive, creative engagements that centre marginalised or underrepresented perspectives including migrants, people experiencing poverty, and those facing barriers to civic participation.
4. Co-Develop Programmatic Ideas: Prototype concepts for early Generator programming that activate inclusion, intergenerational dialogue, and cultural co-authorship.

What will the successful candidate be doing?

• Conducting a brief literature review by drawing on key texts on civic belonging, cultural infrastructure, participatory and inclusive research methodologies, Equality Actionʼs community work, and the Generatorʼs development plans.
• Deliver mapping workshops with community participants, using the outcomes and data collected through these to develop a visual ecosystem map and other resources.
• Produce a final, co-produced report that highlights your learnings and offer evidence-based recommendations.

Core Competencies 

Project-Specific Competencies 

Essential	Assessed:  Application (A), Interview (I)	Desirable	Assessed:  Application (A), Interview (I)
Ability to build trust and respectful relationships with participants through deep listening, sensitivity to lived experiences, and respect for diverse cultural narratives.	A / I	Ability to reflect on and analyse social issues with depth.	A / I
Experience of supporting or facilitating group discussions in community workshops, listening sessions or similar events	A / I	Skilled at locating, evaluating, and using diverse sources effectively.	A / I
Demonstrable commitment to fostering inclusive environments with the ability to be impartial and fairness when engaging with sensitive or potentially taboo topics.	A / I	Experience of presenting insights and information through visual formats like maps, infographics and diagrams.	A / I
A genuine curiosity about how people connect through everyday cultural practices—like storytelling, celebration, food, or music and how public spaces can reflect and support diverse communities. Ideal for someone who cares about local voices, inclusion, and how places like the Generator Hall can bring people together in meaningful ways.	A / I	Experience of distil data into accessible and engaging, co-produced outputs.	A / I
	A / I	Experience with community or cultural projects such as previous involvement in grassroots, or civic initiatives.	A / I

References for Further Reading 

1. Vanni, I. & Crosby, A. (2023). Place-based methodologies for design research: An ethnographic approach. Design Studies, 85, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2023.101168
2. DellʼEra, C. & Landoni, P. (2024). Living lab: A methodology between user-centred design and participatory design. Creativity and Innovation Management, 23(2), 137-154. https://sweet-lantern.ch/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/DellEra-C.-and-Landoni-P.-2014-Living-Lab.-Creativity-and-Innovation-Management.pdf
3. Karvonen, A. & van Heur, B (2014). Urban laboratories: Experiments in reworking cities. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 38(2), 379-392. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1468-2427.12075
4. MacKinnon, D. & Derickson, K.D. (2013). From resilience to resourcefulness: A critique of resilience policy and activism. Progress in Human Geography, 37(2), 253-270. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132512454775
5. Petrescu, D., Petcou, C., Safri, M. & Gibson K. (2021). Calculating the value of the commons: Generating resilient urban futures. Env Pol Gov. 31: 159-174. https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.1890