Using history, artistic practice, writing, poetry, autobiography and collaborative ethnography, this book literally and figuratively re-imagines a place, presenting a `how to’ for researchers interested in community collaborative research and accessing alternative ways of knowing and voices in marginalised communities.

Part One: Introductions; What kind of book is this? ~ Elizabeth Campbell; Policy, practice and racism: social cohesion in action ~ Zanib Rasool; Part Two: Community histories; Introducing Rotherham ~ Kate Pahl and Miles Crompton; How can historical knowledge help us to make sense of communities like Rotherham? ~ Elizabeth Pente and Paul Ward; Some poems, a song and a prose piece ~ Ray Hearne and Ryan Bramley; Who are we now? Local history, industrial decline and ethnic diversity ~ Elizabeth Pente and Paul Ward; Silk and steel ~ Shahin Shah; History and co-production in the home: documents, artefacts and migrant identities in Rotherham ~ William Gould and Mariam Shah; Tassibee: a case study ~ Khalida Luqman; Identity ~ Zanib Rasool; Part Three: Community ways of knowing; Methodology: an introduction ~ Elizabeth Campbell; Collaborative ethnography in context ~ Elizabeth Campbell, Luke Eric Lassiter and Kate Pahl; Safe spaces and community activism ~ Zanib Rasool; Emotions in community research ~ Zanib Rasool; What parents know: a call for realistic accounts of parenting young children ~ Tanya Evans, Abigail Hackett, Joanna Magagula and Steve Pool; Where I come from and where I’m going to: exploring identity, hopes and futures with Roma girls in Rotherham ~ Deborah Bullivant; Introduction to artistic methods for understanding contested communities ~ Kate Pahl and Steve Pool with Marcus Hurcombe; What can art do? Artistic approaches to community experiences ~ Zahir Rafiq in conversation with Kate Pahl and Steve Pool; Using poetry to engage the voices of women and girls in research ~ Zanib Rasool; The Tassibee `Skin and Spirit’ project ~ Cassie Limb; `The Rotherham project’: young men represent themselves and their town ~ Nathan Gibson with Zanib Rasool and Kate Pahl; Part Four: Communities going forward; Re-imagining contested communities: implications for policy research ~ Robert Rutherfoord and Maria O’Beirne; What this book can teach us ~ Elizabeth Campbell, Kate Pahl, Elizabeth Pente and Zanib Rasool.

"These community stories and voices highlight the power of storytelling and narrative as a research methodology and method. This book will be of great interest, I believe, to academics, community practitioners and organizers, social justice advocates, policy makers, students at all levels, artists, humanists, and others." Theodore Alter, Co-Director of the Centre for Economic and Community Development, The Pennsylvania State University