Considering managed retreat
It is likely that some UK coastal communities will be unviable in their current form (CCC, 2018). However, the issue of managed retreat is rarely addressed in pre-emptive circumstances (Lawrence et al., 2020). We propose a research project that begins to explore the potential of the Time and Tide Bell sculptures as gathering points for conversations about coastal resilience to climate change, including the often neglected and sometimes contentious issue of managed retreat.
An embedded researcher would be invited to spend time with the Time and Tide Bell team, but also with one or more of the communities that hosts a bell. We would encourage the use of action-research, working with key individuals within the community to initiate a consideration of managed retreat, placing the bell at the centre of the process. This collaborative approach would allow for capacity-building that would then remain within the community itself.
Moving towards climate action
Action on climate change is long overdue. Our aim is that the bells, in their role as an emblem, motif or allegory of the need for change, can also act as a rallying point for concrete activity at a community level. We are developing a programme whose goal is to support local communities in developing activity – suited to their circumstances – that will make a meaningful contribution to their resilience in respect of climate change. There is a possibility that this may have overlap with the topic above.
An embedded researcher could play several roles in this: to explore and develop insights from work that has already taken place in this field, for example in the IPPR’s climate commons programme; to help develop and deliver the interventions necessary to achieve the project’s goals; and to document the process, to contribute to broader understanding.