Research-based collaboration for user inclusion in Billund

Carsten Stage from the Department of Scandinavian Studies and Experience Economy joined Birgit Eriksson from the Department of Art History, Aesthetics & Culture and Museology in a co-financed research project with an organisation called Capital of Children. 

Capital of Children is trying to brand Billund as a great town for kids, and wanted to improve the organisation’s future communication initiatives. At the invitation of Anne Marie Pahuus (vice-dean for research at the Faculty of Arts), a representative of Capital of Children contacted Carsten Stage and Birgit Eriksson and invited them to a meeting to discuss the potential for collaboration. Eriksson and Stage both felt that this collaboration might contain a number of interesting perspectives. But they wanted to make it more relevant for their own research. They are primarily interested in the potential for working with inclusive formats such as citizen science, in which citizens themselves help to produce knowledge. 

This balancing of expectations proved to be an advantage for the organisation and researchers alike 

The organisation was interested in knowledge about aesthetic communication and input about how to organise their communication processes as effectively as possible. The aim was to establish a knowledge-based point of departure to strengthen the organisation’s communication of its research about play and learning. Even though Capital of Children had not considered participatory and co-creative formats previously, they received Stage and Eriksson’s suggestion positively and agreed to target their collaboration at a field which had not been explored before. 

The parties agreed to collaborate after an introductory dialogue, and once their expectations had been balanced. The aim was that Stage and Eriksson should produce a research report. This report was based on some of their existing research, and was intended to present some best-practice examples of user-inclusive research communication. In return, Capital of Children gained access to a typology and a number of ideas about how to include the citizens of Billund. 

The collaboration resulted in a report which can be downloaded from the CoC Playful Mind's website. 

Carsten Stage’s arguments in favour of collaboration 

Co-financed research collaboration can bring the knowledge possessed by researchers into play in entirely new ways, which can be extremely beneficial. Co-financed research projects normally require an application-oriented focus from the partner concerned. So this type of collaboration makes it possible to find out how the theoretical knowledge you have developed as a researcher over a long period of time can make sense in a specific context. Stage points out that seeing your research being put to good use generates a great deal of motivation and job satisfaction. 

It’s a way of testing the robustness of your research in a practical context with a partner who has a different (practice-based) knowledge of the field. This kind of collaboration makes it possible to explore whether the typologies used make sense to people who need to produce specific inclusive processes. 

Collaboration can also challenge the habitual procedures adopted by researchers because such partners are interested in knowledge that requires you to adopt a slightly different angle on the field in which you are involved. So it gives you the chance to discover new areas of your field. 

Carsten Stage’s advice and points of focus 

• When you’re involved in external collaborations, it sometimes feels as if your partners are only interested in obtaining a finished product. So it’s often necessary to conduct an initial negotiation or to balance everyone’s expectations before starting. 
• You need to be prepared for misunderstandings and you may well have different objectives, so it’s important that researchers aren’t put off by such disagreements but remain seated at the negotiating table until both parties can appreciate the value of the project. And naturally, it’s important that the results of these negotiations are written down in a contract. 
• Co-financed projects are based on workload reductions for researchers, which means that they also create the opportunity for in-depth research and development.