Connected Communities book series

The Connected Communities series showcases engaged research from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), which seeks to understand the changing nature of communities and their role in addressing contemporary individual, societal and global concerns.

The series focuses on innovation in research methodologies and brings together interdisciplinary research, culture and creativity, and the expertise and insights of communities themselves. It discusses the co-production of action research to combine academic and public knowledge for high impact.

Series Editors: Keri Facer, University of Bristol and George McKay, University of East Anglia.

The overarching aim of the series is to make a substantive contribution in three areas:

to the theoretical and empirical understanding of the role of communities (in contrast to, for example, individuals, policy makers, ‘societies’) in addressing contemporary individual, societal and global concerns.
to the theory and practice of interdisciplinarity – in particular, to the bringing together of arts, humanities and social sciences perspectives and methods.
to the theory and practice of collaborative research with communities – in particular, to the use of interdisciplinary methods with communities who have previously often been excluded from formal research processes.

The series is strongly and reflexively interdisciplinary, and consequently draws on and contributes to a wide range of disciplines. ‘Core’ disciplinary areas include: cultural and social geography; participatory and community arts; design (social innovation); sociology; history; policy studies; economics (social innovation, asset-based development, creative industries); urban planning; community development; philosophy (studies of time in particular); new materialist studies; environmental studies; media and cultural studies; performing arts; representation (literature, film).

It is not necessary that books are tied too closely tied to individual projects – as series editors we want to encourage proposals for books that address clearly defined issues, themes and areas that demonstrably move forward thinking in an area related to Connected Communities. If it is a project book, it needs to be demonstrably more than, for example, a description of workpackages in the single project: authors and editors need to make the case for how their work will bring in new audiences and ideas, how it will address challenging issues and the contentious debates in the field of co-production and collaborative research.

You can download the full series rationale here.

Target audience

The key features of Connected Communities: Creating a New Knowledge Landscape publications are: theoretical rigour, novel empirical insights produced through methodological innovation, interdisciplinary, accessibly and engagingly communicating to a broad audience of interested readers.

The audience for the series is academic, policy, arts and civil society groups. The methodological innovations of the research are relevant in particular to those groups who are looking to build new relationships between ‘public’ and ‘policy’ groups, and to mobilising citizen and community participation in democratic decision-making. The substantive topics of the books are of interest to policy makers and civil society groups in areas ranging from local government, to health, to urban policy, as well as arts leaders and practitioners.

The practical contribution of the books draws on leading-edge community and participatory arts/media/performance to include a how-to element that will be attractive to practitioners. This is particularly important to enhance the innovative identity of the series. The theoretical contribution of the books includes their rigorous reflection on the nature of interdisciplinary and collaborative research for the substantive contributions to conceptions of ‘community’.

Submitting a proposal

The series particularly welcomes proposals that incorporate experimental forms of scholarship and publications that demonstrate innovative ways of connecting academic and public research.

A well-developed proposal should be approximately 5-8 pages (excluding CVs and any sample material) and cover the points detailed in these guidelines, preferably in the order presented. It is important that the proposal presents a convincing rationale for your publication. It should clearly outline the work’s objectives and explain the benefits and advantages it will provide to the intended audience, above and beyond what is currently available. The proposal is your opportunity to present your proposed publication to the publisher and readers, so please prepare the material carefully.

We advise that you use (where relevant) the following headings: Synopsis and aims, Background information, Content, Author information, Target audience, Competition, Typescript information, Timetable and Referees.

Full information regarding series proposal guidelines is here.

Publishing process

Your proposal will be read by the series editors and then by the appropriate subject editor at Policy Press who will discuss it with you before sending it for peer review, if appropriate. Once it has been sent for review we make every effort to collate the responses and feedback to you within 6-8 weeks of receiving your proposal. Policy Press are committed to working closely with their authors and to making publishing decisions as efficiently as possible so if there are any circumstances they should bear in mind from the point of view of timing, please do let them know.

Contact regarding proposals

If you would like to submit a proposal, or to discuss ideas, then please contact:
Keri Facer, University of Bristol (keri.facer@bristol.ac.uk) or George McKay, University of East Anglia (george.mckay@uea.ac.uk).