RELEVANT EXAMPLES
Below are some examples of the projects mentioned in our proposal. You can find more projects on the Case Studies and Blog pages of our site.
Community Contributions in Later Life / Centre for Ageing Better
The above video is a 1-minute ‘teaser’ compilation snapshot, based on four ethnographic case studies. You can see the full length individual case study videos here. The brief for the project was to understand the experiences and motivations of older people involved in ‘informal voluntary contributions in the community’, and what would help others find meaningful ways to contribute. The Traverse team conducted research across five areas, working with peer researchers to interview older people over an extended period, whilst Cl0se-Up carried out the ethnographic research. The study culminated in the production of an overarching thematic report, these five local reports and the suite of video case studies. The findings have been widely shared e.g. at the VSSN 2019 conference.
Impacts of a family innovation fund / Essex County Council
This is one of our video case studies, aiming to understand the impact of Early Help interventions and support for children, young people, and parents/carers, with low level additional needs. In this mixed method evaluation, the Traverse team conducted in-home depth interviews with families at two points in time, while Close-Up Research conducted ethnographic video research with a selection of families. The evaluation culminated in this interactive report.
Experiences of the ‘Working Poor’ / National Consumer Council
This is one of our older, yet still very pertinent project. The aim was to understand the barriers faced by full-time, low- income workers, and what policy measures would help reduce those barriers. The team carried out a series of ethnographic video case studies and depth interviews with participants from a range of backgrounds. The resulting insights informed a written report by Traverse, and this summary video was twice shown at the House of Commons. The findings helped the client to “secure important policy changes and get the concerns of this consumer group firmly back on the policy agenda”.
Experiences of a ‘Welfare-to-Work’ Scheme/ Lewisham Strategic Partnership
Another one of our older, yet still relevant projects. The brief here was to understand the experiences of people who have accessed a ‘Welfare-To-Work’ scheme, and what would improve their employment outcomes. In this ethnographic study, the researchers spent between half a day to a day with each respondent and used a life mapping activity to help participants to tell their story. An overarching report and suite of nine written case studies were produced, alongside this ten-minute film summarising the findings. Further details can be found here.
OUTDOOR EXAMPLES
Below are two examples of our ethnographic research videos that use outdoor filming / experiences of an outside area:
Age-Friendly & Inclusive Volunteering / Centre for Ageing Better
This is one of five case studies we produced, exploring the impacts of a programme that funded projects across the country to help people over 50 set up and run their own community volunteering schemes.
Health Priorities in Lambeth & Southwark / Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charity
This is a one-min snippet from a project for Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charity, exploring the health priorities for people living in Lambeth and Southwark. It involved visiting five locations across the boroughs, from a BMX club in Peckham, to a community garden in Streatham, to speak with as many different people as possible. The main questions were: what are the most pressing health issues in the area and why? And what could be done to help?
Citizens’ Assemblies / Department of Digital, Culture, Sport & Media
This film includes some outdoor filming of three participants showing us around their towns. The participants are each from one of three pilot citizens assemblies addressing local issues. Our brief was to understand their experiences and provide a tangible context to the topics addressed.
VIDEO DIARY EXAMPLE
Below is an example of our research where video diaries were used:
Transport Experiences of Young People with Mobility Issues / Flourish
Flourish is a multi-sector collaboration to advance the successful implementation of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) in the UK. In this film we asked six young people from across England, to record video diaries about their different transport experiences over a month, and how their experiences might differ if travelling by driverless car.
ANONYMITY-PROTECTED EXAMPLE
Below is an example of our research where only voice audio was used, to protect the identities of participants:
Young People’s Experiences of Temporary Housing / Children’s Rights Alliance for England
We worked with several young people who have lived in temporary housing, to understand what life has been like for them, and come up with a respectful and effective way to communicate their experiences. To protect the young people’s privacy, no faces are shown. But the voices you hear are not performed, they’re from authentic interviews with the participants, who also helped out on set for the filming as part of a ‘co-production’ process. For maximum traction, we titled the video ‘Thousand of British Children Live Like This’, and the film was shown to MPs at the House of Commons.