This thesis examines the idea of “continuity” and its role in community projects. It seeks to critically analyse the changing dynamics of a set of community projects over time in order to understand the conditions, relational aspects of continuity and the social implications that enable some projects to have tangible effects or lasting impacts on communities. Continuity is a collaborative process involving active citizens and practitioners (students, community, artists, and architects) moving toward a collective goal. It involves a set of uninterrupted or lasting yet nonlinear actions that continue to develop over time. Continuity promotes commitment to shared actions and outcomes, which depend on collaboration, motivation, temporality, and legacy for a community project to have a long-lasting positive impact.
The way this research approach continuity is through a set of community projects that exemplify these factors as case studies (Live Projects, Blackburn Is Open, Organisational Diagram for Everyday Life, Artist House 45, City School 1, Portland Works, and Tei Community Centre) located in
different contexts (UK and Europe). The thesis has identified the circumstances that define each project and its trajectory, or its start, development, and onward journey, using theoretical analysis, ethnographic and participatory methodology (with reference to the work of Petrescu, Melucci, Manzini and Rizzo, Tuckman, Forsyth, Johnston and Klandermans, Della Porta and Diani). Each case study is categorised according to the initiators of the projects with regards to their positionality: Student-led, Community-led, Artist-led, and Architect-led.
The research posits that practitioners play a crucial role in supporting and enabling community projects by strengthening social relations that reinforce collective identity and allow collective action to thrive. These actions together with the role of practitioners or collective actors as instigators ensure continuity in a number of ways which this thesis reveals. The thesis asks the key questions: What is continuity in a community project? This question explores the trajectory of community projects through seven case studies examined in this thesis. Followed by the question, what are the factors that enable continuity? analysing the theoretical and social context, instigators, and networks that sustain continuity in community projects provides an understanding of the complex dynamics that promote continuity and take forward community projects. What social actions are related to continuity? Through exploring the different theories related to social actions– understood in this thesis as collaborative endeavours towards a change – the thesis studies their complex dynamics and interrelations to sustaining continuity. These questions outline the complex dynamics that support, promote continuity, and take forward community projects.
Continuity occurs when groups engage in community projects because they feel identified with the project (civic engagement) and together they build a collective identity. Throughout the process they strengthen relations (community participation), and the collective identity is well defined. When they feel identified, they share a common vision, and for that reason, they act together toward the same objective (collective action). Once they have a clear structure, the group goes from acting together toward creating a formal structure that leads to the establishment of the group in which networks and associations with other groups, institutions, and organisations are created (social movement). When they have identified their collective identity as a group, they see themselves as “we,” establishing a clear structure and sharing a collective vision that allows them to expand their networks, forming partnerships with other organisations. The continuity of community projects is sustained by a well-defined collective identity followed by a set of actions; therefore, continuity is understood as a set of related social actions that are supported by a collective identity.
The research understands the processes that enable continuity through the examples of projects and initiatives in the case studies. It identifies collective identity as the principal factor that motivates people to participate and fosters a sense of agency that allows the projects not only to continue but to thrive. The thesis contribution is about paying attention to continuity as a way of both revealing the complex dynamics and interrelations of community projects and finding ways of supporting the ongoing efforts required to nurture the possibilities and opportunities of collective agency over time.
