Sheffield-specific map of vibrant urban communities and innovative community place initiatives across Sheffield was the first step in the methodology of the Sheffield team of Urban Education Live research project. The starting point for this was our extensive number of collaborations with Sheffield-based community groups and organisations that has developed through the School of Architecture’s Live Projects and other teaching formats at the University of Sheffield.
In total, we charted more than 150 groups – some of which the School of Architecture had previously established links with, but others emerged as the research progressed. While the focus of the research was on groups that relate directly and actively to the built environment, it is important to state that not all mapped groups engage with the built environment to the same extent. However, they are all interested in and deliver activities and services that have a spatial dimension, for example a hub or community centre that they operate or hire to run their activities.
From this initial mapping we set up 4 focus groups with 20 representatives from 16 diverse types of community groups and organisations from across the city. We aimed to better understand the main challenges they face and to explore how the University could support them to do more for their communities and localities. This exploration has lead us towards more specific issues regarding the transformative aspects of the groups’ work in the city.
This map, showing the Sheffield place-based initiatives, was produced with support of Knowledge Exchange at University of Sheffield as part of the outputs in the UKRI National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF) Quality-Related research (QR) funded project. The map is based on the data produced throughout Urban Education Live project (2017-2021) and collated in a Google Map format available to access in the ‘Team Sheffield’ section of this website.
Download Pdf: Sheffield Community Place Initiatives Map – Poster
Download Pdf: Sheffield Community Place Initiatives Map – Fold Out
