Description
Presentation of the Connected Downs AHRC IAA–supported research and engagement project. The project explores how young people form connections to local landscapes, and how digital cultures can act as a bridge rather than a barrier to engagement with place. Situated in the eastern South Downs, the project addressed a pressing societal challenge shared across the GLAM sector: how to engage younger audiences with heritage, landscape and environmental care in ways that feel meaningful, inclusive and contemporary.Responding to concerns around young people’s wellbeing, environmental disconnection and place attachment, the project set out to understand the perceived barriers that exist between teenagers and the natural world, and whether digitally mediated practices might support new forms of belonging. Connecting past and present was central to the work: histories of landscape use, conservation and memory were explored alongside contemporary digital habits, revealing how heritage is continually re made through lived experience rather than passively inherited.
The project was developed through a new partnership with a range of organisations, including the National Trust, Railway Land Wildlife Trust, East Sussex College and Eastbourne Borough Council. Working closely with Changing Chalk and cultural partners, Connected Downs responded to GLAM specific challenges around audience development, participation and relevance, particularly in relation to youth engagement and co creation. The IAA funding enabled time, space and trust for experimentation, supporting a shift from consultation toward participatory practice.
Innovative creative methods underpinned the project, combining digital and visual ethnography, participatory design, film making, mapping, walking practices and storytelling in the landscape. Workshops were structured to gradually move participants from digitally familiar environments into physical spaces, allowing attachment to emerge through shared experience, reflection and co production. This approach foregrounded care, responsibility and ethical engagement, recognising the researcher’s role in creating safe, meaningful and reciprocal encounters.
The project revealed powerful intergenerational and community stories about the Downs, including participants’ changing perceptions of ownership, belonging and responsibility toward the landscape.
Outcomes to date include a prototype engagement framework, new cross sector networks, skills development for students and community partners, and an exhibition that communicates both process and findings to wider audiences and key stakeholders. The project has informed subsequent heritage engagement work, contributed to the Changing Chalk programme, and laid the groundwork for further funding bids and scalable impact models focused on creative practice, place and connection.
| Period | 18 Jun 2025 |
|---|---|
| Event title | Impact South East – AHRC IAA SE Conference, Southampton 2025 - Invited Speaker |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | southamptonShow on map |