Summary of the impact

This case study outlines how our research has improved intercultural communication for a wide range of beneficiaries in Norwich, Norfolk and the East of England. The impact it describes is threefold. We have changed practice, perceptions, and values around issues of intercultural understanding in an increasingly globalised context. Beneficiaries are local government (Norwich City Council), businesses (Norwich City Football Club), service providers in sensitive domains (law enforcement agencies, legal interpreters), and the general public. The impact is thus on practice and policy in the region, but also, importantly, on public attitudes and cultural assumptions, exemplified by the testimonial from the Head of Equality and Diversity at Norfolk Constabulary.

Underpinning research

This case study originates in research carried out by members of our Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Studies research group on aspects and issues of intercultural communication. We have identified, and examined, challenges faced by individuals and local communities when their cultural capital is considered within comparative, transnational and global frameworks, such as negotiating meaning (or understanding) in interpreted interviews, and responding to the increasing mix of cultures in contemporary society. These raise key questions and provide new directions for stimulating links between research and impact in the field.

This research has crossed boundaries and forged new connections in Area Studies, and so has our impact: it has changed local attitudes to, and perceptions of, intercultural issues in Norwich and Norfolk by enhancing understanding of the global cultural context by which they are shaped.

Two key areas from this broad research base have been chosen to illustrate the impacts of this case study on professional practice (public/legal mediation) and intercultural understanding.

Filipović's (Senior Lecturer at the University of East Anglia (UEA), 2011-) work (carried out since 2005) demonstrates how an understanding of linguistic contrasts can help avoid serious misunderstandings in translation-mediated police interviews. These research findings made police representatives aware of the explanations of problems in cross-linguistic communication when interviewing suspects, witnesses and victims through interpreters. This research has developed through further collaboration with the Police (invited presentations to Norfolk Constabulary) and led to the publication of a book chapter [reference 4]. It has influenced the understanding of the need for further research into translation quality as well as the need for improvements in Police interviewing practices [sources 1 and 2].

Our Norwich — City of Interculture initiative is underpinned by a range of different research projects. We have selected examples from this on-going body of research carried out throughout the assessment period (see section 3) where the impacts on attitudes to intercultural communication have arisen from the work of various colleagues in this area (indicative examples provided from Baines (Senior Lecturer UEA, 1996-), Guillot (Senior Lecturer UEA, 1995-), and de Pablos Ortega (Lecturer UEA, 2007-). Baines' work [references 1 and 2] reveals the particularity of power relationships between host institutions and elite migrant athletes evident in translation and interpreting events; Guillot's work [reference 5], points out the importance of understanding culturally different attitudes to the acceptability of `interruption' in conversational interaction; and De Pablos' work [reference 3] has shown how native speakers of English respond to thanking in Spanish and how this can help identify, understand and appreciate cultural differences. These research findings have changed the values and perceptions regarding intercultural interaction for Norwich City Football Club as well as for local communities and members of the public [sources 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7].

References to the research

Underpinning Research and Direct Outputs:

Key Grants and Awards:

- Filipović has been a co-investigator during the assessment period on the project MovES funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (project funding awarded €113 740, 2010-2013; http://www.unizar.es/linguisticageneral/index_archivos/MovEs.htm).

- The 2013 Norwich — City of Interculture initiative attracted funding of £23,000 from the AHRC Cultural Engagement Fund.

Justification of Quality:

All outputs underwent double-blind reviewing before publication in top-ranking international research journals or by leading academic publishers.

Details of the impact

We have organised various research-led events for local benefactors in order to develop impact from our research. These have taken the form of exhibitions, public lectures, discussion fora, and interactive workshops centred on Norwich — City of Interculture. This `festival' celebrating intercultural relations took place at the Forum in Norwich, a public venue that houses the Millennium Library, lecture theatres and exhibition spaces and BBC East. The Forum was chosen as the fulcrum of these public engagement activities because it is central — geographically and culturally — to the life of the city. The Forum sees a large amount of footfall from local organisations and individuals using its facilities, as well as from significant numbers of tourists visiting the city. It has therefore been both the means by which we have presented our research findings directly to significant numbers of the public and the central hub from which we have developed collaborative work with Norwich City Council, Norwich City Football Club, and Norfolk Constabulary. Our impacts flow directly from the fostering of these communicative networks. By using such means to engage various local beneficiaries with our research we have enhanced their understanding of intercultural communication and thereby driven changes in the practice and policy of Norfolk Constabulary, Norwich City Football Club and Norwich City Council, in local perceptions of identity and culture, and &mdash more broadly — in the values people hold when thinking about themselves as global citizens as well as members of specific local communities.

The impact of Filipović's research results from the public dissemination of her research findings. Initial insights from Filipović's research were presented, as part of the Norwich — City of Interculture events, at a public research and engagement seminar entitled `Translating and Interpreting in Police Contexts' (5/12/2011) with invited guests from Norfolk Constabulary and the regional community interpreting services (INTRAN) including the Head of Equality and Diversity representing Norfolk Constabulary Operations and Communications Centre who comments that the event `provided valuable new insights into the importance of interpreting services within law enforcement and Police interviewing practices' [source 1]. The impact was immediate: the Police authority saw that such research — because it brought to their attention problems in bilingual communication of which they were previously unaware — could improve their understanding of, and professional practices in, investigative interviewing with witnesses and suspects who do not speak English. As a result, a further collaboration with Filipović was instigated through invitations to present further research findings to other Police representatives. Norfolk Constabulary has acknowledged that this collaboration will inform their policy and practice and they are currently collecting data of bilingual Police interviews for the UEA collaborative research team (Filipović (PI), Guillot, de Pablos-Ortega, Musolff and Pounds) to focus on aspects of cross-linguistic and cross-cultural communication. This project, called TACIT (Translation and Communication in Training), is endorsed by the National Policing Improvement Agency [source 2].

Since 2011 we have run a series of research and engagement seminars, public workshops, public roundtables, exhibitions and lectures under the Norwich — City of Interculture initiative, which encompassed over fifty free events at the Forum in Norwich designed to promote intercultural understanding and communication. The Head of Equality and Diversity at Norfolk Constabulary comments that `The Norwich: City of Interculture initiative has played a key part in raising public awareness of, and changing the public's sense of, the value of intercultural understanding in their lives' [source 1] while Norwich City Council's Executive Head of Customers, Communications and Culture testifies: `[This] work with the local community on intercultural communication has affected the Council's thinking to the extent that we are looking at whether Norwich might become a member of the European Commission's Intercultural Cities programme' [source 5]. Such membership would benefit the city and its citizens through Council of Europe consultancy, and create `a Diversity Advantage' (Wood 2012) of economic, social and cultural innovation in such key city functions as housing, security and education. The Chief Executive Officer of HEART (Heritage Economic and Regeneration Trust) has noted that `this research has been extremely useful to us in developing strands of cultural heritage activity and in delivering economic and social impact' [source 4].

Another illustration of the impact of the Norwich — City of Interculture series can be found in Baines' research into translation and professional sport, which has had an effect on the local Premiership football club, Norwich City's approach to translation. In February 2012, we invited the club's Head of Media to Baines' research and engagement seminar on professional sport, globalization, and translation. Subsequent collaboration with him, including his involvement in the Public Roundtable which closed our Cross-cultural Pragmatics at a Crossroads conference in 2013, has led to the club investing in additional translation of their social media output in particular and their interlingual media work with migrant players in general. The Head of Media, Norwich City Football Club, testifies that `exposure to Dr Baines' work has increased the Club's understanding of linguistic and cultural assimilation issues potentially faced by foreign players and staff coming to work in the English game' [source 3].

Sources to corroborate the impact

1) Head of Equality and Diversity at Norfolk Constabulary, Norfolk Constabulary Operations and Communications Centre [letter, 26 September, 2013].

2) Principal Research Officer, National Policing Improvement Agency [letter, 21 May 2012] and the Head of Joint Criminal Justice, Norfolk and Suffolk Constabularies [email, 07 October, 2013].

3) Head of Media, Norwich City Football Club [email, 27 August 2013].

4) Chief Executive Officer, Norwich Heritage Economic and Regeneration Trust [letter, 10 July 2013].

5) Executive Head of Customers, Communications and Culture, Norwich City Council [letter, 8 July 2013].

6) Advisor to the Council of Europe on the Intercultural Cities programme [Wood 2012, `Intercultural Cities: Building the future on diversity', Intercultural cities: governance and policies for diverse communities, Council of Europe,
http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/cultureheritage/culture/Cities/ICCOutcomes_en.pdf] [email, 5 July 2013].

7) Responses from the public: Questionnaires, exit surveys, visitors' book from Norwich — City of Interculture.

Some examples of impact include comments by individuals stating:

`Very interesting and informative — has greatly increased my awareness of languages and culture'

`Being able to see cultural exchanges is wonderful, it helps better interactions and understanding of local people I work with'

We also designed child-friendly activities to make an impact on the next generation's awareness of other cultures, and received the following confirmation of our success: `The Treasure Hunt was great because it made me realise the presence of different cultures'

`Intercultural map: great to see who lives here, makes me realise this city is more international than I thought'.