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Visualising participation

Getting and keeping people involved

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‘A picture is worth a thousand words’

These are the slides used at the Getting and keeping people involved event, 30 October 2013, held in Stockport. They provide a selection of different ways of visualising participation, and were displayed on flipchart sheets on the wall around the room to prompt discussion.

These are certainly not the only ways of visualising participation, but were chosen as offering a good selection of both shapes and words.

Each slide has a reference, for those who want to track down the sources, but we’ve also added a brief explanation of each as well, for those who don’t.

This is possibly the most straightforward visualisation. It was suggested by Hannah Worth, of Renaisi, and is based on a framework used by BCEN, Birmingham Community Empowerment Network. One of the reasons for including it is the choice of language. Unlike many of the others, the words chosen are from the perspective the person participating ‘I am aware’, ‘I am active’, etc.

The International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) uses an arrow to emphasis a progression from participation that is intended to do little more than inform through to participation with the goal of empowering participants. The words chosen to describe participation differ from those used by BCEN in emphasising the intended outcome of the activity, to: ‘inform’, ‘consult’, ‘involve’, etc.

The upended pyramid was used by Jakob Neilson to illustrate how, in the online communities he studied, there were a small number of heavy contributors, a larger group of intermittent contributors and a much larger group of people descriptively referred to a ‘lurkers’, meaning people who are interested, but not yet confident enough to contribute (or just happy to follow the discussions). Neilson’s study was published in 2006. It is possible that the proportions may have changed, but the idea that there is often a small group of very active participants, with others happy to occasionally ‘dip in’ and others supportive but largely silent may still ring true.

Wenger-Traynor

But beyond the academic title is also feels like common sense. That within a group there is often a core group of people who maintain the vision and look after the core processes and knowledge. They are supported by a group of regular active members as well as others who are occasionally drawn in because of their particular interests or expertise . Beyond them is another group who are peripheral. They may be the people who are new, just listening to find their feet before offering an opinion or becoming active. Then there are transactional relationships with people beyond the group, like suppliers.

In a way this is similar to the upended pyramid, but uses concentric circles instead. It is popular with academics as a way of talking about how communities of practice support learning … and has a suitably academic title ‘Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation’.

This slide grew out of some research undertaken by the RSA. It looked at connections within New Cross, in South London, in 2010. The blue dots represent people with the most connections. What is interesting is that the paid workers and umbrella organisations tended to be amongst the ‘red dots’. The people in the community with most connections, the ‘blue dots’ were those who didn’t actually have a formal role as a connector – shopkeepers, vicars, the crossing patrol person, etc. Perhaps not too surprising, but a useful insight in thinking about the best way to get information out and about in a community.

ncvo - Institute for Volunteering Research - Involve

The final two slides are slightly different. The National Council for Voluntary Organisation, the Institute for Volunteering Research and Involve wanted to find out some of the reasons why people start, as well as stop, volunteering. This slide shows that a number of things usually align to prompt someone to start participating in a project – they are motivated (they care), there is something that triggers their action (may be a conversation), they have the resources (time and energy) and there is an opportunity. They continue to participate whilst the experience is good and they continue to have the resources to do so. They may stop participating for a variety of reasons, it could be just one.

Life events may be both a trigger for getting involved or a reason for stopping. This slide, from the same research, shows how events or changes in a person’s circumstances may affect their volunteering. Their first experience of participation might be as a Scout or taking part in a demonstration. Having a baby may both restrict someone’s ability to volunteer and change the focus of the volunteering they do. And so it continues. The reason for including the visualisation is that it neatly explains that people’s ability to volunteer and their priorities in volunteering are likely to fluctuate over their life time.