In this episode, Rob Watson discusses how his PhD in participation and advocacy in community media came about, having been inspired through his engineering expertise in digital technologies to set up radio production courses and to run De Montford University’s student-led station as local community radio. Not coming from a social sciences background, Rob had a steep learning curve, settling on a symbolic interactionism framing and employing immersive participant observation in the field. In 2018, just six weeks after completing his doctorate, he was made redundant from his lecturing job. He has since developed a business in community communications training based on the principles of civic democracy and empowerment. Rob runs projects using radio and podcasting to facilitate community development, drawing on Jungian philosophy to construct a social economy model based on the belief that people should be empowered to tell their own stories.

Rob and Sophie talk about researcher positionality, the importance of authentic participation in socially engaged research, and what positive steps should be taken to ensure the effective communication of important messages for ensuring meaningful engagement, improving trust in our institutions, and building a better society.

Links:

https://decentered.co.uk/about/rob-watson/

https://decentered.co.uk/category/podcast/

https://decentered.co.uk/tag/vox-pops/

https://www.germsjourney.com/