Our research is collaboratively developed between academics, communities, artists, and organisations. We are keen to champion and learn from work that is interdisciplinary and utilises co-creative and arts-engaged methods. All of our research falls under one (or more) of our priority areas:
Areas of research vary, but all projects are seeking answers to research questions that concern human flourishing and social justice, and all are interested in exploring methodological innovation.
Below you will find information on some of the research projects currently being conducted with the Binks Hub team, our students, and how to learn more about wider participatory and arts-engaged research projects (as well as how to share your own with us!).
Find out more about some of the current research happening at the Binks Hub:
The REALITIES consortium has five established asset hubs in Clackmannanshire, Dundee, Easter Ross, Edinburgh and North Lanarkshire. So far, we’ve co-produced a systems-level model with deprived communities, policymakers, practitioners and researchers collecting and respecting different types of knowledge and alternative evidence-bases (from arts performances to nature walks; words to statistics) as equally important to understand complexities of unjust and avoidable health differences.
Binks Hub research fellow Jimmy Turner has been working with the Edinburgh Centre for Research on the Experience of Dementia (ECRED) on a project exploring ways to include people with advanced dementia as co-researchers through the arts.
The Binks Hub has been working closely with Ripple Director Rachel Green since Spring 2022 on a co-created community arts-based research project; the idea for our exhibition ‘The Ripple Project: Past, Present and Future’ was born.
Dr Jimmy Turner, Dr Christina McMellon, Dr Autumn Roesch-Marsh and Ellen Saffrey Stuart have been working on a review of the experiences of those outside universities involved in research projects in a ‘researcher’ context.
The Binks Hub were engaged in a project throughout 2023 with People Know How, evaluating their Reconnect service and conducting training with volunteers in community research.
In collaboration with Staf, Dr Autumn Roesch-Marsh has been researching friendship and care experience.
In partnership with No Knives Better Lives and YouthLink Scotland, Dr Emma Davidson explored how youth work impacts youth over time.
Our mission at the Binks Hub is to co-create research for human flourishing. This project explores the academic, practice, and artistic perspectives on the concept of ‘human flourishing’.
In collaboration with the Association for Fostering, Kinship & Adoption Scotland (AFKA), researchers Dr Autumn Roesch-Marsh and Dr Robin Sen have undertaken a knowledge exchange project analysing the housing issues affecting kinship families in Scotland.
Toolkits are often produced as a form of knowledge exchange at the end of a project. This research explored whether toolkits really inform the purpose as intended by the creator, and what value this output brings to both users and creators.
Bringing together the Poverty Truth Community, the Binks Hub and the University of Edinburgh Library Service, this project involves the co-creation of a digital ‘quilt’ that will showcase the Poverty Truth Community’s work in advancing change for those experiencing poverty.
Dr Jimmy Turner, Dr Autumn Roesch-Marsh and the Active Inquiry theatre company worked together over 18 months on a research and development phase of a project titled Drama for Democracy.
This project explores what makes a meaningful, equitable collaboration between artists and researchers through exploring the experiences of both artists and arts-engaged researchers.
Binks Hub co-director Emma Davidson and Lisa Howard have been using collaborative and creative methods to explore how the Fife Gingerbread service is being delivered, and what elements are helping families most.
Funded by the Binks Hub PhD Studentship, Helen Berry is taking forward a research-on-research piece exploring research co-production, a collaborative-relational research practice for creating knowledge in partnership with communities. Her work explores multiple perspectives on the meanings and value of co-producing research.
PhD student Nishat Tasneem is working with the social innovation charity People Know How on an SGSSS Collaborative Award funded project to formulate an understanding of the processes and support that people from marginalised households find most useful in their journeys from an experience of digital exclusion to that of digital inclusion.
We also share information and updates about Binks Hub members’ projects on our blog.
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