Gwenda van der Vaart

The appeal and challenges of creative research methods Attention for the use of creative research methods in various scientific disciplines is increasing. In this article, several reasons are given as to why researchers are drawn to these methods. The challenges that researchers may face in using these methods are also described. The article ends with a brief outlook on the possible future of creative methods, pointing to how they can contribute to acquiring acknowledge and tap into different types of knowledge.

In today’s society, the resilience of communities is in the spotlight. How can communities shape and respond to the challenges they face in order to achieve a better future? For researchers focusing on this question, researching artistic practices can provide valuable insights and inspiration. From a resilience perspective that seeks to incorporate people’s everyday lifeworld and local knowledge, community arts in particular hold much potential, being an art form that actively engages people in the creative process. Evidencing the impact of community arts projects has become more important over the years. However, as this chapter discusses, there are several tensions and concerns around evaluating the impact of the arts. The chapter takes as its empirical focus one such project in particular: the multi-year theatre-trilogy Grutte Pier, which took place in the Dutch village Kimswerd between 2014 and 2018. In this village, the site-specific theatre company PeerGrouP worked together wi...

This paper explores the roles and practices of collective citizen engagement in spatial planning. Drawing on a selection of core articles in planning scholarship, it investigates how citizens (re-)shape urban places by responding to perceived flaws in how spatial planning addresses societal challenges. Formal planning interventions are often spatially and socially selective, ineffective, or even non-existent due to a lack of institutional capacities and resources. Consequently, citizens take on roles that they consider as missing, underperformed or ineffective. The paper shows that this results in a variety of practices complementary to, independent from, or opposing formal planning actors and interventions. Five dilemmas citizens face are identified, highlighting the tensions that surface on exclusion, participation, and governmental responsibilities when citizens claim their role in urban governance.

The value of ‘the arts’ in community development is increasingly being recognized. This paper contributes to emerging insights on the various impacts of the arts on communities by highlighting when and how they can have binding and dividing effects on a community. We draw on a participatory research project conducted in Pingjum, a village in the Netherlands that hosts many cultural activities and in which many artists live. We discuss how the arts in Pingjum influence the community in the village. In our discussion, we pay attention to the sense of community that the arts generate, the meeting opportunities they provide and how the community is engaged by some artists. Our study shows that the influence of the arts is context-dependent, with the arts having both binding and dividing effects on the community in Pingjum. In terms of the value of the arts for community development, we emphasize three key issues: that the arts (i) do not have only advantages for a community; (ii) do not...