Sheerwater as an evolving community

This paper presents an approach to initial engagement with a community, with a view to help them rediscover a sense of hope. In the realm of community operational research (COR), there is an emerging interest in developing or rediscovering meaningful forms of engagement between researchers and community groups. This however, requires further thought. A systems approach is there proposed and validated with a short case study of a project about Sheerwater, a housing estate in Surrey, UK. The approach used a combination of historical research and soft mixed methods to establish initial conversations with Sheerwater residents and other stakeholders towards helping them rediscovering a sense of hope. Through the organisation and running of a workshop-exhibition, it was found that through there were different ideas about Sheerwater as a community, with a strong reference to historical ideas about hope embedded in community visions, and a need to create communication bridges between stakeholder groups. However, doing so would necessitate shifting efforts towards considering communities as evolving systems, with researchers considered part of this unfolding, observing and listening to rather than leading emerging changes.