Evoking Belonging was developed as a 100% practice-based doctoral research enquiry in the field of contemporary Social Sculpture and Connective Practice. Through the research practice, I have formulated the Evoking Belonging approach comprising the Ubuntu Practices. These are informed by my Evoke theory of inclusive and equitable participatory enquiry. The practice emphasises the significance of experiential knowledge (lived experience), enlivenment and performance. Experiential knowledge is understood as an intangible heritage, a means of knowing, which enlivens our cultural practices. Performance in the Evoking Belonging Ubuntu Practices occurs as participants and researcher come together as co-researchers to new forms of knowing. This results in a sense of enlivenment, achieved through enquiry into memories, cultural practices, mythology, symbol and philosophy. Enlivenment is experienced as an inner awakening to new ways of seeing. In this enquiry, I work with narratives of migration to illuminate possibilities of a transformative relationship between belonging, experiential knowing and the imagination. I work with the Southern African Bantu philosophy of Ubuntu, meaning: ‘humanity’ as an epistemological lens for enquiry in this imaginative social sculpture practice enquiry. I interpret Ubuntu, into the phrase: ‘Without you, I do not exist’, and develop creative strategies for enlivening the invisible, phenomenological materials of belonging. This enquiry practice emphasises the narratives of lived experience and embodied knowledge of African-Caribbean migrant communities in the UK. The three research questions are: 1) How can I work with Ubuntu to enliven a sense of belonging as a cultural practice? 2) How can I work with embodied migration experiences of African-Caribbean diaspora communities in to evoke a sense of belonging and civic enlivenment? 3) How can this social sculpture connective aesthetics practice, enable equitable approaches to inclusive community engagement and participatory enquiry? I developed the Evoking Belonging approach, featuring three Ubuntu practices informed by the Evoke theory. The Ubuntu practices include: 1) Ubuntu Conversations: a one-to-one process 2) Ubuntu Reflections: a day-long immersive process linking the individual to a specific community of belonging and 3) The Ubuntu Town Hall Meeting: a process bringing together a variety of stakeholders with the participants to explore the Evoking Belonging Ubuntu Research Axis. The Ubuntu Research Axis, intersects a) Identity & self-hood b) Diaspora communities & Sustainable Cities c) Migration & displacement d) Belonging & ecological citizenship. The methods in this research practice include social sculpture root methodologies and formulations of auto-ethnography and narrative enquiry. I created the poetic, imaginative and evocative modes of enquiry by integrating dialogic, contemplative and reflective methods. The research practice demonstrates how the Evoking Belonging approach connects the autobiographical and personal to the cultural, social and political through story, re-storying and re-living experience. It illuminates cultural perspectives and opens pathways towards understanding ethical priorities for stakeholders invested in sustainable city making. The Evoking Belonging research enquiry creates a new dimension of trans- disciplinary research in the field of social sculpture and connective practice by re-imagining pathways, which link Ubuntu, migration, culture and civic enlivenment. This social sculpture research contributes to new knowledge through the transformative approaches outlined in the Evoke theory, its principles and the Ubuntu Practices. By opening inner spheres of being and evocative knowing, the Evoking Belonging approach cultivates civic enlivenment and creates pathways to envisioning belonging as a co-created cultural practice.
Permanent link to this resource: https://doi.org/10.24384/f3am-1e12
Regisford, Dianne Claudia
Supervisors: Sacks, Shelley
School of Arts
Year: 2022
© Regisford, Dianne Claudia Published by Oxford Brookes UniversityAll rights reserved. Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.