Research

Research Programme of the LML. The following provides a brief description of the three sectors of the research programme of the LML.

Education

This sector focuses on the use of audiovisual composing processes in the curriculum. Its projects include Communication and Social Skills; Towards a Theory and Practice of Audiovisual Language and Learning funded by the Schools Council, Gulbenkian Foundation and School Curriculum Development Committee: European Audiovisual Cultures and Languages funded by Commission of the European Communities and the European Cultural Foundation: Beneath the Hood - Evaluation Project (use of the arts and audiovisual composition in social empowerment for young people excluded from mainstream schools and raising awareness and expectations for those staff and students in other areas) funded by Creative Partnerships.

Development, Health and Community Enhancement

This sector focuses on the use of multimedia composition and communication in development, health and community enhancement projects, including:

SaRA (Salud Reproductiva para Adolescentes/Reproductive Health for Adolescents): SaRA is continuing development initiative conceived to contribute to the betterment of the sexual health and well being of the adolescent population in Peru. It was funded by DfID for the first two years (1997-9) and is now self-sustainable The project is developing community-based networks with adolescents in rural and urban-marginal areas of Peru, with the double goal of creating a social system of innovation and communication of resources for living, and developing a sustainable gendered space for health promotion, identity construction and culture re-creation. For the systematisation and generalisation of the project’s outcome a highly innovative multi-media methodology is being implemented in Peru, where community groups gain empowerment through communications showing and telling what is and what could be, and gain empowerment and resources for action – SaRA has now been formally adopted as a universal methodology in this respect throughout the province of Lima, Peru. More information

Positive Futures Young People’s Views. This project, currently funded by the Home Office Drugs Strategy Directorate under a sub-contract to NACRO, builds and develops the methodology and community networking developments pioneered in the SaRA project. It has three principal aims. First it will extend and validate the model established in the Young Peoples’ Views Pilot Project for involving young people in the evaluation of Positive Futures projects and the utilisation of multi-media technologies as enablers of communication processes. Second, it will gather, analyse and report on views of young people taking part in the Positive Futures programme and show how these develop and are linked through new initiatives. Third it will provide the basis, and the fundamental procedures which may be employed to incorporate participatory multimedia communication as a key tool for practice and development in Positive Futures.The project is ongoing and expected to be completed by March 2006. More information

Alfa Network CHICA (Community Health: Innovation, Cooperation and Action):

CHICA is a continuing multidisciplinary initiative developed to contribute to the intensification and amelioration of cooperation between higher education institutes in Latin America (Brazil, by the through he Community Research Group at LSE. The CHICA Network has developed a joint training programme in Community Health targeted for doctoral students and focused on innovative social approaches to the problem of health promotion. Core topics range from community networking to community self-organising, from applied methodology to multi-media case study building. CHICA was initially funded by DGIB-Alfa of the European Commission 1999-2001

Innovation and Creativity in Organisations

This sector focuses on the use of multimedia composition and communication for collaborative authoring of outcomes in organizational contexts Creativity and innovation is founded on techniques and events integrating information, environment people and process The LML is researching, developing and implementing these techniques in association with the Ludic Group LLP www.ludicgroup.com. Its research projects include:

Creativity, Complexity, Mediation and Facilitation.

This project forms one of the four streams of the LSE/EDS Innovation, Technology and Creativity research programme, funded by EDS 2004-2009. The principal investigator is Professor Patrick Humphreys. Major outputs will be:

1) 2005 - Book: Images and Sounds: Audiovisual Language and Process for extending the boundaries of communication: Theory, practice and cases.

2) 2006 - Seminar: The evolution of group decision support systems to enable collaborative authored outcomes. 2006: Hosting of IFIP WG8.3 international conference on Innovation and Creativity in Decision Support at LSE.

3) 2007 - Book: Group decision authoring and communication support. Seminar: Spaces, processes, and event design facilitating innovation, creativity and communication in complex organisational contexts.

4) 2009 - Book and International Conference: Exploiting complexity through participatory multimedia – enrichment of context and creation of resources.

ECCACO: Enabling Contexts for Collaborative Authoring and Construction of Outcomes.

Through an understanding of the evolution in decision support models from prescriptive solution specifying models to collaborative authoring and construction of outcomes, this project investigates the positioning of innovative and creative support for decision-making within four enabling contexts: Multimedia platforms; Collaborative environments; Peer-to-peer information authoring and communication; Design led approach. It is identifying processes and models integrated across these contexts, which can support the collaborative authoring of outcomes to enable action and real change in the broader constituencies. ECCACO is currently funded by Lego Serious Play.