Values and Learning in Urban Environments

Stakeholders have continuously referred to the need for spaces for reflection to have different kinds of discussions about sustainability in Greater Manchester. This work creates such spaces and contributes to the possibility of more coordinated coherent action for sustainability.

What values do stakeholders have for sustainability? What are the implications for how the city-region is organised, what decisions are taken and who is involved? How can the city-region better learn, reflect and engage its citizens in developing more sustainable futures?

This flagship initiative has three main aims:

1. To create a context for movement from individual to collaborative reflexivity around the values of and for sustainability in Greater Manchester

2. To contribute to the development of cultural memory and learning through knowledge exchange activities

3. To develop a holistic evaluation framework for qualitative research-practice relationships, trialled in real-time through the Greater Manchester platform

The work will be carried out through mixed methods, some pre-defined and others responding to the Greater Manchester LIP’s programme of activities as a whole. They include production of a Thinking Allowed paper, drawing on an intellectual orientation and interview programme; a suite of focus groups, seminars and translation of work for different audiences (including academic outputs); and an annual evaluation report based on reflexive self-evaluation by partners, interviews and desk-based impact mapping.