Introduction

This chapter explores the interface between co-produced research and community development, drawing on work undertaken in North East England as part of the Imagine project. Discussion of the process and outcomes of Imagine North East provides fruitful material for contributing to perennial debates about whether certain forms of co-produced research (especially participatory action research) are, in fact, indistinguishable from community development. In this chapter we offer a brief overview of the work of Imagine North East before outlining the debates about the relationship between co-production and community development. We then examine three elements of Imagine North East: (1) an academic-led study of community development from the 1970s to the present; (2) a series of community development projects undertaken by local community-based organisations; and (3) a joint process of reflection and co-inquiry. We consider the role of co-produced research in challenging stigma, celebrating place and developing skills and community networks, and also the challenges of a co-inquiry approach.

Exploring community development from the outside and inside: The work of Imagine North East

Imagine North East was a partnership between 12 community-based organisations in Tyneside (including a local museum) and Durham University, officially running during 2014 and 2015, with dissemination and reflection work continuing in 2016. Community development featured in several ways. Not only did community-based sub-projects use processes of community development (mobilising people to work together) and generate community development outcomes (for example, strengthened communities, improved facilities) in their work for Imagine North East, but our study also had community development as its main focus. We adopted three approaches to the study of community development, as outlined below:

• 1. Studying community development from the outside: The starting point of the research was the community development projects of the 1970s in Benwell (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) and North Shields. These were part of Britain's first anti-poverty programme, combining community development work and research with a view to diagnosing and alleviating poverty locally (Loney, 1983; Banks and Carpenter, 2017). We also looked at community development processes over time (from the 1970s to the present) as these areas were subject to numerous regeneration schemes in which local people were more or less engaged. This research was largely done by academic researchers and then shared in the wider group.