Coproduction lessons

I can't define coproduction. But I think I can spot it. And I think Barod and I have learned a few lessons about 'doing coproduction':

• you can't coproduce unless you can communicate freely
• you can't coproduce unless your shared vision is stronger than your desire for the familiar and personal comfort zone
• you can spot coproduction because anyone in the group can initiate anything (budget decisions, ideas, strategies, projects, parameters for working together, who should be involved), and everyone knows what the budget is
• coproduction isn't the only way to work together. Consultation and representation on boards are still important and valid.  What's vital is that we don't label something as 'coproduction' just because it sounds good or involves some form of working together.

Do those tests work for you when you reflect on your own experiences of coproduction? What would you add? What would you lose?

Welcoming myself home

It's a long time since I blogged.

This time a year ago, I didn't honestly think I would ever come back to my PhD. A lot has happened since then.

Here's the quick version:

• moved to Swansea
• husband (newly redundant) started exploring botanical papermaking. Quick plug for his Etsy shop and Twitter account
• have new supervisors and a new approach to the PhD
• work part time in Barod and study PhD part time
• just starting to regain confidence and find my feet

We've given me until the end of September to get back to having fun with theory, enjoy getting to know and think with new people, and play with concepts.

1st October is time enough to start thinking about the shape of the PhD and what information I will need. For now, I am happy, creative and (ironically perhaps) enjoying the freedom to make the connections that lead to long term research impact.

Along the way, and believe it or not, it's part of the playing, I'm going to have a go at consulting on a topic using three methods. To play fair, I'm reading up on how to do them so I can try to use the methods in the way they are intended. The terms Focus Group and World Cafe are banded around so loosely that it's been an eye-opener going back to literature about them. My third method is Barod's Coffee Shop Conversations. It's almost time for a blog about them - but not quite! I'm still working out quite how to explain them clearly. Let's just say for now that the Coffee Shop Conversations method is a world apart from other public consultation methods, but not a million miles from what some ethnographers get up to down the pub.

So, I'm back home. Back where I love. Back where I'm relaxed. Back using a blog to help me think aloud and letting me stash that thinking in a place where even I find it again.