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Brad Beaven's research into the changing character and form of popular culture in the English city between 1850 and 1945 underpinned the `Portsmouth Voices' project, a collaboration with Portsmouth City Museum supported by a £223,500 Heritage Lottery Fund award. Previous exhibitions had presented rather narrow and parochial narratives of Portsmouth's history. Beaven's research significantly structured the project's engagement with class, gender and ethnicity in narrating the city's past, and played a guiding role in the curation of a major exhibition that successfully challenged preconceived ideas on generation, race and sexuality. In presenting both an inclusive and challenging story of Portsmouth's history, the exhibition attracted significant visitor numbers and a new section of the public who engaged with the Museum for the first time.
In March 2013, the British Library (BL) launched the first national oral-history archive of the British Women's Liberation Movement (WLM). A permanent public resource preserving the voices of 1970s/1980s feminists, the archive was the outcome of 'Sisterhood and After: The Women's Liberation Oral History Project', a three-year Leverhulme-funded research-partnership project led by PI Margaretta Jolly, in partnership with curators at the BL and the Women's Library (WL). Through the national prominence this archive has achieved and the numerous curatorial, educational, cultural and community activities directly associated with it, the research is having a significant impact on the public perception of feminism, bringing it to life for new audiences.
Vanessa Toulmin's research into working class entertainment has had cultural and economic impact, creating and interpreting cultural capital to enrich and expand imaginations and sensibilities, and applying the knowledge gained from research to create wealth in the service, creative, and cultural sectors. Her research has galvanised the regeneration of Blackpool's Winter Gardens, helping raise £40 million to save the complex, and has rejuvenated Blackpool's cultural scene. These activities have increased visitor numbers and revenue, and have enhanced the public appreciation of these historic entertainment locations. Public understanding of the cultural and creative significance of working class entertainment has also been furthered by high-profile events such as CircusFest at London's Roundhouse, and numerous media appearances.
Through accessible local history resources co-produced by academics and community volunteers, Riden has helped to open up previously academic-focused research to new, local audiences. He has empowered amateur historians through new research skills to take an active role in documenting and thereby conserving their communities' histories (this has included volunteers publishing their own research). He has contributed to an improved quality of visitor experience at a local heritage organisation through providing new knowledge and confidence to volunteer guides. Through translating the co-produced resources for use in primary and secondary schools, he has given children new research skills which they have then used to develop new understanding of their community's history.
Since 1948, Leicester historians have transformed the way we look at the past by pioneering new methodologies centred on Local History. In the last two decades, this "Leicester Approach" has reconnected history to ordinary people, involving them in historical research and showing in practical ways the relationship between history and local communities. This case-study highlights the public impact of Leicester's latest research projects, which have systematically empowered local communities to explore, understand and enjoy their family, regional and cultural histories. In a fast-moving, migratory world, the projects enhance public awareness of a shared past, boost local place attachment, and foster cultural understanding and cohesion.
Mass Observation has encouraged public participation in the creation of knowledge since 1937 and pioneered the dissemination of social research to a mass audience. Active collaboration between Sussex historians and the Mass Observation Archive continues to shape popular understandings of modern British social history, specifically through work with the media. This partnership has also created an Open Educational Resource through which the public can gain a hands-on understanding of the very recent past. Working with the Mass Observations Project, Sussex academics encourage `ordinary' people to write directly about their lives within a structured environment, creating historical sources for the future.
`Zion 100' was a pioneering research project engaging the people of Hulme in the study of their own history as part of a wider effort to regenerate an inner city area of Manchester. It directly engaged over 2000 people with nearly 300 people participating in activities related to researching local history. Participants developed transferable skills and built self-esteem whilst preserving the heritage of their community. Historical material was uncovered by local residents and used to produce an exhibition and a series of historical enactments that brought over 1800 local people together. Zion 100 led to significant historical, cultural and social impacts that have helped to build a sense of increased community cohesion and intergenerational understanding. Publically accessible archive material has been produced along with educational resources for local schools.
David Alamouti's documentary films have impacted on `Civil Society', `Cultural life' and `Public Discourse' in the socio-political domain via innovative approaches to the documentary genre. His contribution to diaspora studies is internationally recognised and evidenced by several awards. Public benefit is claimed through stimulating public discourse, new approaches to creative practice, contributions to public fora policy debates, economic benefit via the creation of an acclaimed film production company: Contra-Image. Screenings of his work by the BBC, Al Jazeera, Sky and Russia 24, in addition to film festivals, have brought diverse and often antagonistic audiences together to debate highly sensitive issues.
An Ofsted review of the National Curriculum found that diversity and multiculturalism is taught poorly in British schools and recommended that personal, family and local history be included in the curriculum. A joint project between LSE and Cambridge University, in partnership with Runnymede Trust, used underpinning research on Bengali migration and settlement to develop a new approach for teaching history that is effective in addressing Ofsted's concerns. The project produced a website and educational resources for teachers and students, tested and proved the new approach in three diverse cities, and influenced Government revisions to the National Curriculum to ensure that important diversity and multicultural elements were retained. The website has received over 66,500 visits (one-third UK, two-thirds international), has been selected by the British Library for the permanent UK Web Archive, and has become an inspiration and template for other diversity-related knowledge transfer projects such as 'Revealing Romans'.
A significant contribution has been made to: a) occupational health policy debates and widening public awareness about the connections between employment environments and disease, and b) compensation struggles and campaigns to improve health and safety in the contemporary workplace, as a result of oral history research on targeting the experience of asbestos and coal mining-related diseases. This has benefitted agencies, organisations and policy-makers involved in campaigning for disease victims and those individuals, families and communities who suffer from occupational diseases — including asbestos-related ones — within Scotland, the UK and globally. There has also been a wider public impact in terms of contributing to sustainable public and community heritage.