Building the Civic University? Academic Outreach and Engagement in Sheffield
| DOI | 10.1177/2041905819891374 |
| Date | 01 December 2019 |
| Published date | 01 December 2019 |
| Author | Matthew Wood |
38 POLITICAL INSIGHT • DECEMBER 2019
Universities have faced a growing
crisis around their civic role and
identity, especially so since 2016.
Nine out of ten university sta said
they would vote to remain in the European
Union in 2016, while research shows not
having a university education was one of
the strongest predictors of voting Leave. In
university cities like Sheeld that marginally
voted Leave (52 to 48 per cent) this can be
viewed as part of a deepening cultural rift.
Indeed, survey research by YouGov shows
that Brexit has created polarisation not only
on political views but personal questions like
whether people would be happy if their son or
daughter married someone from the opposing
‘tribe’. These trends create a real tension, where
historically embedded universities risk being
disconnected from, if not antagonistic towards,
their local roots.
Civic universities
We created an outreach initiative to try to
mend relationships with local communities in
Sheeld, and to attempt to realise the ideal of
what has been called the ‘civic university’. Both
universities have venerable civic roots. The
University of Sheeld was famously funded
by penny donations from local residents and
workers in the steel and factory industry.
Similarly, Sheeld Hallam was created rst as a
design school in 1843, then a teaching college
and polytechnic, with a desire to provide
educational opportunities in one of Britain’s
most famous industrial cities. However, both
institutions are based in heavily ‘Remain’ voting
areas near the city centre, while peripheral
communities in the north and east of the city
voted strongly Leave.
Our aim was to start building general
collaboration between the community, and
sta and students from the universities’ politics
departments. Over a period of six months
we travelled back and forth to a pub based in
Gleadless Valley, an area in the south east of
Sheeld where two-thirds of the electorate
voted Leave according to BBC estimates. The
pub, the John O’Gaunt, was home to Friends
of Gleadless Valley, a community group
campaigning for more control over local
community assets. It was here was we focused
our attentions.
Building bridges
The initiative was dicult to set up. Trust was
one of the rst issues we found particularly
complex. Locals were very welcoming, but also
suspicious. Why had we just turned up out of
the blue? ‘Nobody ever comes up here’ was
a common refrain. Over the rst few months
we gradually built up some rapport, but not
through grand gestures and promises. Simply
going to the pub and talking to people was
enough.
Building the Civic
University? Academic
Outreach and
Engagement in Sheffield
In the age of Brexit and political polarisation, can universities facilitate
debate and the discussions beyond their walls? Can universities be
civic as well as educational? Matthew Wood reports from an outreach
project with politics students and a local community in Sheffield.
Then, as we started to have a clearer idea of
how we wanted to look at the eect of Brexit
on the area, locals chipped in with ideas. Pub
landlord Shep said that a lot of people voted
to leave in 2016 to bring investment back
to the area and to have more of a voice in
decisions about their lives.
So we got to work setting up an outreach
event allowing them to do just that. The event
would be a deliberative-style evening where
anyone could attend and have their say about
Brexit, what they want, and what ‘experts’ in
universities needed to hear.
Attention to detail
A key question was how we would make the
event as accessible as possible. We found a
spacious venue across the road from the pub,
in a Methodist Church that doubled as the
community food bank. We designed leaets
aimed directly at locals. The area has a distinct
dialect. The estate just next to the pub is
referred to as ‘the valley’, with events taking
place on the estate ‘on the valley’. So, the event
was called ‘Brexit on the Valley’. We distributed
leaets in person to roughly 500 houses over
two evenings in early March.
We were convinced this attention to
detail was important to attract people along
on the night. We wanted to show care in
our advertising, taking things from locals’
perspectives. We were not doing it purely for
‘impact’, ‘recruitment’ or standard university
tick-box exercises, but as a way of genuinely
building relationships.
The ‘fishbowl’
We set the Church Hall out to mimic ‘the
Political Insight December 2019.indd 38 05/11/2019 10:15
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