Exploring the urban jungle through lived experience, participation and independent investigation
What happens when you stop studying something from a distance and become involved in it?
What can you learn about homelessness by living without a home? What can you understand about disability by participating in disability communities? What happens when you establish a community initiative rather than simply reading about community development?
These are the sorts of questions that have interested me throughout my life.
I’ve never been particularly satisfied with understanding the world exclusively through books, professional opinions or second-hand accounts. They are valuable sources of knowledge, but I believe there is something else to be learned by entering environments, developing relationships, participating in activities and observing what happens.
I’ve spent much of my life doing precisely that.
I’ve experienced homelessness, lived on unemployment benefits, participated in psychosocial rehabilitation communities, worked in community kitchens, established woodworking classes, developed small businesses, joined choirs and helped coordinate grassroots community initiatives.
Some experiences have been deliberate investigations. Others have developed through circumstances, opportunities or unexpected encounters.
Over time, I’ve begun to recognise a common approach connecting them.
To know it, do it!
Research outside the institution
My interest in research has developed alongside my education and professional experience.
I studied Economics, Arts and Social Work at university, completing a Master of Social Work. These disciplines introduced me to different ways of understanding the world.
Economics encouraged me to examine resources, incentives and economic relationships. Arts provided opportunities to explore culture, history and human experience. Social work introduced me to critical thinking, systems, power, relationships and the social conditions that influence people’s lives.
But my interest in independent investigation has never been confined to formal education.
I’ve become interested in what can be learned without a university department, a research grant or a large organisation directing the work.
Sometimes the most interesting questions emerge from everyday life.
A community workshop can reveal something about institutional power. A food kitchen can provide insights into poverty and social relationships. A small business can demonstrate the barriers people encounter when attempting to participate in the economy.
These experiences provide opportunities to ask questions that might otherwise remain theoretical.
I don’t suggest that personal experience alone establishes the truth about a social issue. Nor do I consider every activity I’ve undertaken a formal research study.
Rather, I see participation as a starting point for investigation.
It provides observations, questions and experiences that can be examined alongside other evidence, research and perspectives.
The urban jungle
I use the expression Exploring the Urban Jungle because society is a complicated environment.
It contains different communities, institutions, economic arrangements, cultures and systems of power.
People navigate these environments in different ways. Some have considerable resources and opportunities. Others experience exclusion, poverty or institutional control.
There are often significant differences between how an organisation describes itself and how people experience it.
I am interested in exploring those differences.
Why do some people find it difficult to access services? How do organisations respond to new initiatives? What happens when people challenge established expectations? How do economic arrangements influence relationships? What makes a community inclusive?
These are not necessarily questions that can be answered from an office.
They require observation, participation, reflection and sometimes a willingness to enter unfamiliar environments.
Five investigations
The following five investigations provide an introduction to the R3SEARCH approach. They represent different ways of exploring social life, from personal experience to establishing practical initiatives.
01. Homelessness: From the Streets to the Shared Table
Research area: Poverty, food insecurity and social exclusion.
Between approximately 1997 and 2000, I experienced homelessness in Tasmania. For eighteen months, I visited Bethlehem House in Hobart for lunch every weekday.
Years later, I became involved in community kitchens, food rescue and the organisation of Food Not Bombs Hobart.
These experiences provide an opportunity to examine homelessness from different positions: experiencing food insecurity, participating in community food environments and eventually organising practical responses.
Questions for investigation:
- What does homelessness mean beyond the absence of accommodation?
- How do people develop informal systems of survival?
- What role do community kitchens play in social connection?
- Why do some people avoid conventional services?
- Can mutual aid offer something different from traditional charity?
This investigation follows the relationship between food, poverty, belonging and community participation.
02. The Cognitive Factory: Woodworking and Cognitive Impairment
Research area: Disability, education and inclusive participation.
I established a woodworking class for people with cognitive impairment in an existing community workshop environment.
The idea was straightforward: provide opportunities for people to learn practical skills, use tools, make objects and participate in a shared activity.
The experience also introduced questions about organisational culture and the challenges of introducing new approaches into established environments.
There were differences in expectations about how the space should operate, who should make decisions and what activities belonged there.
Questions for investigation:
- What makes a community workshop genuinely accessible?
- How do people with cognitive impairment experience practical learning?
- What happens when an initiative challenges established organisational expectations?
- How do informal power structures influence inclusion?
- Can making things provide opportunities for confidence and independence?
This investigation explores the relationship between disability, practical education, organisational culture and participation.
03. Woodwork Warriors: Creativity in Psychosocial Rehabilitation
Research area: Mental health, rehabilitation and community development.
My involvement with Eureka Clubhouse and the broader psychosocial rehabilitation environment extended over approximately sixteen years.
During this period, I became interested in the role of practical activities in supporting relationships, learning and community participation.
Woodwork Warriors was one expression of that interest.
Rather than organising everything around a person’s diagnosis or treatment needs, woodworking provided an opportunity to focus on skills, creativity and making something tangible.
Questions for investigation:
- What is the relationship between meaningful activity and psychosocial rehabilitation?
- How do practical skills influence confidence and participation?
- What role does the community environment play in recovery?
- Can people move beyond the identity of being service recipients?
- How can rehabilitation settings encourage genuine independence?
This investigation considers what happens when people are recognised for their abilities and contributions rather than primarily through their difficulties.
04. Woodcraft Adventures: Building a Business Through Craft
Research area: Disability, employment and economic participation.
Woodcraft Adventures developed from an interest in woodworking into a small business opportunity.
The initiative involved establishing a craft enterprise for a woman who had not previously been involved in employment.
We explored product development, Tasmanian timber, retail relationships, wholesale opportunities, online selling and the practical economics of a small handmade business.
The project raised questions about conventional employment and the opportunities available to people who may find ordinary workplace arrangements difficult.
Questions for investigation:
- Can craft provide an alternative pathway into economic participation?
- What makes a small artisan business commercially sustainable?
- How do people with disability access markets and business opportunities?
- What support is required to develop an independent enterprise?
- Can microenterprise provide greater autonomy than conventional employment?
This investigation explores the relationship between craft, disability, entrepreneurship and economic inclusion.
05. Food Not Bombs Hobart: Building a Community Without a Traditional Hierarchy
Research area: Mutual aid, organisational structures and grassroots community development.
Food Not Bombs Hobart provides an opportunity to investigate how people can organise practical responses to food insecurity.
The initiative brings together food rescue, volunteer coordination, community meals, food deliveries and relationships with local suppliers.
The Shared Table is one expression of this approach.
Food Not Bombs has a philosophy of sharing food and challenging conventional assumptions about charity and social responsibility.
Putting these ideas into practice creates interesting questions about organisation and leadership.
How do you coordinate volunteers? How do you distribute responsibilities? How do you maintain accountability? How do you create space for participation while ensuring that essential work gets done?
Questions for investigation:
- Can a grassroots initiative operate without conventional organisational hierarchy?
- What structures are necessary to sustain mutual aid?
- How do people move between giving and receiving assistance?
- What makes community participation meaningful?
- Can food rescue become a starting point for broader social change?
This investigation explores the relationship between mutual aid, food security, leadership and alternative forms of community organisation.
How I approach an investigation
Although these experiences differ considerably, I find myself returning to a similar process.
1. Enter the environment.
Find an opportunity to participate in the activity, community or setting being investigated.
2. Develop relationships.
Understand the people involved, their circumstances, experiences and perspectives.
3. Observe what happens.
Pay attention to everyday practices, relationships, expectations, organisational arrangements and unexpected outcomes.
4. Ask better questions.
Look beyond the obvious explanation. Examine the social, economic, cultural and organisational factors influencing what happens.
5. Reflect and investigate further.
Compare personal observations with existing research, professional knowledge and other people’s experiences.
6. Put ideas into practice.
Where appropriate, develop an initiative, test an alternative approach or make a practical contribution.
7. Document the experience.
Record what happened, what was learned, what remains uncertain and what might be investigated next.
This is not a substitute for formal research methods, ethical review or specialist knowledge. Research involving other people requires particular care around consent, privacy, safety and representation.
It is a framework for turning participation into thoughtful inquiry.
Independent research and the question of power
One of the things that interests me most is the relationship between knowledge and power.
Who gets to decide what constitutes valid knowledge? Who is permitted to conduct research? Which experiences are considered important? Who controls the resources and institutions through which knowledge is produced?
Academic research has an essential role in understanding society. But people also develop knowledge through lived experience, professional practice, community participation and independent investigation.
These forms of knowledge can complement one another.
I am particularly interested in experiences that are often overlooked because they occur outside established institutions.
The knowledge of someone experiencing homelessness, a person living with disability, a volunteer organising a community kitchen or someone trying to establish a small business can reveal things that are not always visible in formal reports.
The challenge is to take those experiences seriously, examine them critically and make room for different perspectives.
An ongoing investigation
R3SEARCH is not a completed body of work.
It is an evolving collection of personal histories, practical experiments, social observations and independent investigations.
The five examples above are only a starting point.
There are many other areas I want to explore, including family relationships, unemployment, institutional power, education, technology, Australian culture, community organisations and the nature of care.
Some investigations will draw on experiences from decades ago. Others will emerge from projects currently underway in Hobart.
I also welcome contributions from people who have their own experiences, professional knowledge or alternative perspectives.
I am interested in conversations that challenge assumptions rather than simply confirm them.
Perhaps the most useful research begins when we recognise that there is something we don’t yet understand.
To know it, do it!
I don’t believe that understanding society requires us to stand outside it.
We are already participants in the environments we are trying to understand.
The challenge is to become more observant, more curious and more willing to question what we take for granted.
Sometimes that means reading a book or examining a government report.
Sometimes it means entering a community, joining a workshop, organising a meal, learning a skill or developing a relationship.
Sometimes it means discovering that the problem you set out to investigate was not quite the problem you thought it was.
That is part of the process.
Research begins with curiosity. Participation gives it context. Reflection turns experience into knowledge.
Welcome to R3SEARCH: Exploring the Urban Jungle.
To know it, do it!
Christiaan McCann
Explore the research collections
- Poverty, Work & Economic Survival
- Disability, Care & Community
- Family, Relationships & Social Bonds
- Education, Knowledge & Learning
- Institutions, Power & Society
- Environment, Technology & Culture
Participate
Have an experience, observation or research question you’d like to contribute?
I’m interested in hearing from people who want to explore the social world, challenge conventional thinking and investigate practical alternatives.
Research is an ongoing conversation.
Leave a Reply