A Record of the Emergent: Researching the Relationship Between the Work and the Producer
This piece of work was written for an assignment for Anthony Schrag’s teaching in the area of ‘Practice as Research’. All the work I have been producing for the course I operationalise in the world outside of formal academia, in particular relating to the social practice I have been doing through Ragged University which ultimately got me invited onto a Masters course on the basis of the work I did and continue to do in the community.
Table of Contents
Introduction

This has been a way of supplementing my experience in formal academia and developing the work beyond the specious confines of assessment models which educators in formal education are forced to operate under. Whilst in formal education, the teaching I have found excellent despite the feeling of being on a factory conveyor belt increasingly propelled by silicon valley and business school perspectives.
In response to these increasingly sociologically denuded experiences of institutional environments, found I needed to counteract the loss of the agency of the educators by enriching my learning in the formal setting with the reconstitution of a broader pedagogical experience outside, in ‘wild’ cognitive spaces which are socially enriched. What follows is the summative assessment I was graded on for the Practice as Research:
The context for my piece of Social Practice research is that of the informal education project: Ragged University (Ragged University, 2025). The Ragged project aims to be accessible and inclusive, employing social learning methodologies operating as a social practice that can exist beyond the constraints of finance.
Dunedin, A. (2025). “The Project – Ragged University” Ragged University, 3 Jan. 2025, raggeduniversity.co.uk/about/ presentations/. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.

The project draws on the positive histories of the Ragged Schools movement (Mair, 2016) and other social traditions of learning in order to bring people together and enrich the lives of people through pedagogies which have not been enclosed. In this community context, learning and knowledge act as animating catalysts to generate inclusive forms of Social Capital (McClenaghan, 2000) and the conditions for Human Development (Sen, 1999).
Mair, L. (2016). The Only Friend I Have in This World’ Ragged School Relationships in England and Scotland, 1844-1870. PhD Thesis. Available at:
https://era.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1842/22997/Mair2017.pdf (Accessed: 11 November 2024).
Dr Laura Mair published one of the most significant modern historical documents of the Ragged Schools movement making explicit the relationships between people a focus of her study. You can buy her book ‘Religion and Relationships in Ragged Schools: An Intimate History of Educating the Poor, 1844-1870‘ from Routledge publishers.
You can download a copy of her PhD for free here:

McClenaghan, P. (2000). ‘Social Capital: exploring the theoretical foundations of community development education’, British Educational Research Journal, 26, 5, 565–82. Available: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1501991

Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. Anchor Books (Page 144)

Ragged holds free and open events where everyone is welcome to share what they are passionate about. It meets in ‘Third Spaces’ (Oldenburg, 2023), places which we all co-own such as pubs, cafes, libraries and parks. Anyone can do a talk to share what they are passionate about and speakers do not need formal qualifications on their topics.
Oldenburg, R. (2023). The Great Good Place: cafes, coffee shops, bookstores, bars, hair salons, and other hangouts at the heart of a community (Berkshire edition). Berkshire Publishing Group LLC. (Page 32)

The Ragged University project emerged around 2010, partly as a response to limited access to formal education and the need to access means of Human Development; and partly as an imperative to generate community in a sociologically denuded society; that is, a society which has financialised social activities and the sociological habitat such that a pay-to-play environment has emerged producing new forms of poverty, harms and alienation (Dunedin, 2019).
Dunedin, A. (2019). Education as Human Development. Ragged University. Available at: https://www.raggeduniversity.co.uk/2019/05/03/education-as-human-development/ (Accessed: 11 November 2024)

Over the years I have learned through what people have shared in Ragged. I have become interested in the relationship between the person and what they make. I have learned about the nature of education and the various ways which people bring others into understanding parts of their world through what they create. This has made me appreciate how what people embody in the world is experienced as an embodiment of their identity and ‘self’.
Be it a scheme of ideas which is worked on and vocalised, a painting someone has produced, a piece of furniture that has been crafted or an essay – each becomes the object of ‘the gift’ (Mauss, 1990) in a social behaviour of interrelationality and an animus of sociological connection and
exchange.
Framing the Research
In the proposed research I aim to explore the relationship between the person as creator and the thing they create. I plan to put on six public events over a year where people (academics, artists and artisans) are invited to share what they are passionate about. I will ask people if they would mind my recording an informal conversation after the event where I explore questions about their work and what they have shared.
Creating rapport through learning from their presentation represents an essential realisation of the gift dynamic in social relations. Along with this, working to facilitate their work is a vital embodiment of the virtuous circle found in the nurture dynamic. This sets the scene by making explicit the personal relationship and active listening which constitute shared place making. This is central to making people know that this is an opportunity for people to better know them and value their work.
Once recorded, transcripts will be made of the audio files where narrative analysis will be used to glean insights into the relationship between the author and their work. Special interest will be focused on how they feel about it; how they feel about other people engaging and interacting with it, what they would like for the work; and their thoughts on the role their work plays in their life and the lives of others.
Literature Review: Framing Ideas
Practices of research are a primary part of learning and development employed by people in order to arrive at better understandings of our world. Learning and development are motivated by the desire to discover the true nature of something through activities which reveal aspects that are descriptive of characteristics of the object of study.
In the pursuit of knowledge humans use tools and mediums in order to explore and express what ‘knowingness’ (knowledge) has come to them through their activities and efforts. The process of learning (and one could argue that knowledge is in part only manifest through communicating what one has learned (Dunedin, 2015) is intimately associated with a search for ‘Being’ in context; something which is an imperative for the construction of meaning.
Dunedin, A. (2015). Common Sense: A Theory of Inherent Knowledge. Ragged University. Available at: https://raggeduniversity.co.uk/2015/01/11/common-sense-inherent-knowledge/ (Accessed: 11 November 2024).

That construction of meaning involves ‘being in relation with other’ giving rise to new forms of self and consciousness embodied as different collectivities. These collectivities form various cultures (small and large) which change and evolve as the ontological premises do over time.
Thus, in these philosophical terms, learning and development involve searching and ‘re-searching’ for understandings in an iterative way over time in order to refine maps of experience which hold descriptive and explanatory power. In practical terms my interests converge in Participatory Action Research (O’Brien, 2001), a paradigm which acknowledges that the subjective is necessarily involved in understanding what is discussed as the objective with a view to making something generative come out of the research activity.
O’Brien, R. (2001) “An Overview Of The Methodological Approach Of Action Research.” In: RICHARDSON, R. (ED.) Theory And Practice Of Action Research. Joao Pessoa, Brazil: Universidade Federal Da Paraiba. Available: www.semanticscholar.org/paper/An-Overview-of-the-Methodological-Approach-of-O’Brien/

As a research perspective it recognises the researcher as entering into a shared relationship with other people who are understood as co-researchers; people who have unique and valuable knowledge as a part of the project. Participatory Action Research acknowledges and foregrounds the values which the initiating researcher brings to the setting; in this way it is well placed to notionalise complex phenomena in the Baradian ‘intra-active’ (Kleinman, 2012) sense having all the apparatus to signal the context necessitating extended Theory of Mind (Baron-Cohen, 1991) – in order to better apprehend complex influence and counteract latent tendencies of dehumanisation (Waytz, Schroeder, & Epley, 2014).
Kleinman, A. (2012). ‘An interview with Karen Barad’, Mousse Magazine, 34. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/1857617/_Intra_actions

Baron-Cohen, S. (1991). “Precursors to a theory of mind: Understanding attention in others”. In Whiten, A. (ed.). Natural theories of mind: evolution, development, and simulation of everyday mindreading. Oxford, UK & Cambridge, Massachusetts: B. Blackwell, pp. 233–251.

Waytz, A., Schroeder, J. and Epley, N. (2014). The Lesser Minds Problem, In Bain, P. G. (2014). Humanness and dehumanization. New York: Psychology Press.

Production as Method
Artifacts are a way which we record and produce stores of knowledge for sharing with our changing selves and associated others over time. In terms of how we go about making a study of being, the use of objects has a long history. The production of an object can be understood as the production of a knowledge artifact – something which has been generated through a creative process in order to synthesis an expression of what the producer(s) have come to know.
Imbued in material artifacts are expressions of the non-material realities we, as people, are subject to/of. In this way authoring production in the phenomenological realm may be seen as giving access to the non-material experience so it can be put before others in order to facilitate apprehension of otherwise obscured realities (processes which have happened over time for example).
It is through this synthetic modality that objects function to store and reveal knowledge and history about our human experience in the universe. The semiotics of learning, knowledge and recognition seem to embody particular traits which can be identified in various disciplines, contexts and
histories.
The production of an artifact so that others may reflect and interact with others’ knowledge (‘knowing-nesses’) may be seen in various cultural contexts such as artists and ateliers, artisans and workshops, and academics and classrooms. All these settings may be formatively understood as places where learning, knowledge, education and recognition are located. It is in these settings that the procedure of creating knowledge artifacts may be explicitly explored. I will use an historical example in order to extrapolate:
In the Middle Ages, to become a ‘master’, people (journeymen) frequently had to produce a “masterpiece” in order to demonstrate the skills vital for each craft in their trade. If the masterpiece was accepted by fellow guild members, they could vote to accept them as a master – someone who has mastered the skills necessary to create a certain piece of work to a recognised quality (Bosshardt and Lop, 2013). This demonstrates the dynamic of signs and signifiers which could be understood in all objects framed as knowledge artifacts.
Bosshardt, W. and Lop, J. S. (n.d.). The Economics of World History. Business in the Middle Ages: What Was the Role of Guilds? (2013) Social Education, 77(2), pp. 64–67.

In a recent educational context, this pedagogical approach was utilised by Prof Keith Smythe and colleagues in retrospectively looking at digital artifacts (blogs, websites, etc) produced by individuals in the community and valuing the content and skills employed in their production (Smyth, 2016).
Smyth, K. (2016). Personal Correspondences. Keith Smythe is an acquaintance and friend who I met many years ago in Edinburgh when we were both connecting with the Adult Learning Project (ALP) prior to him getting his professorship. I was interested and inspired by the innovative work he and his colleagues did when they worked with a range of community organisations producing accreditations by retrospective analysis of digital artifacts (blogs, websites, videos, audio, etc) taking the position that ‘for them to have produced a given product, they would have had to have knowledge and skills to employ in order to have made it’. Below you can hear his inaugural address when he was given professorship of pedagogy at the University of the Highlands and Islands.
A note on Keith’s address – I think that Smyth’s use of ‘Third Space’ is inconsistent with Prof Ray Oldenburg’s study of ‘Third Places’ (what I see as sociological habitats) but suspect that in the presentation he is extrapolating on the use of social spaces and applying these understandings to digital spheres. It may be that he needs to develop the work of social affordances of digital spaces for learning as ‘Fourth Place’ whilst problematising the digital realm – but that is a different piece of work to that being examined here.
‘Art’ as a Knowledge Object: ‘Knowledge’ as an Art Object
In the etymology of the word ‘Art’ is stored “skill as a result of learning or practice,” from Old French; “work of art; practical skill; a business, craft,” from Latin; “manner, mode” from Sanskrit and Proto-Indo-European; and “to prepare” from Greek (Etymoline, 2019). Mediums are used to express ideas which people may have worked on into the phenomenological world; an idea once expressed in some sensible form may be externally examinable through the medium and its affordances; this may be sound and dialogue, or paper and ink, for example.
Etymonline (2019). Origin and meaning of art by Online Etymology Dictionary. Available at: https://www.etymonline.com/word/art (Accessed: 11 November 2024).

In these ways knowledge can be understood as an art object, and art as a knowledge object. Drawing on the work of Umberto Eco, I suggest the use of objects as tools constitutes one of four elementary cultural phenomena consistent to human cultures. I relate Eco’s words – “The production and employment of objects used for transforming the relationship between (the hu)man and nature” (Eco, 1997). I suggest this in part speaks of the generation of consciousness – the coming to be aware and sensate of some new aspects of the universe.
Eco, U. (1997). A Theory of Semiotics. Bloomington, Ind: Indiana University Press. Page 15

I qualify this using Socrates’ caveat the “unexamined life is not worth living” (Miller, Platter, & Plato, 2010) extrapolating that ‘the unexamined life has not been lived’ simply because we have no awareness of what we don’t examine. Neuroplasticity and neurophysiology offer strong evidence for this view (Marzola et al, 2023).
Miller, P.A., Platter, C. and Plato (2010). Plato’s Apology of Socrates: a commentary. University of Oklahoma Press. Page 128

Click to download Preface and Introduction
Marzola, P., Melzer, T., Pavesi, E., Gil-Mohapel, J. and Brocardo, P.S. (2023). Exploring the Role of Neuroplasticity in Development, Aging, and Neurodegeneration. Brain Sci. 2023 Nov 21;13(12):1610. doi: 10.3390/brainsci13121610. PMID: 38137058; PMCID: PMC10741468.

The Object Utilised as Animus
The employment of objects for transforming relationships between ourselves and nature may be a primary modality of human nature like language. Seen this way there is an accompanying need to express this nature in order to meet basic human needs (assuming behaviours develop in order to meet needs). Humans create objects imbuing them with their thought and intention, their learning and experience, and the material means shape the human. For some, different tools become mediums, hold presence and have agency.
Morrison’s work suggests that in the production of a knowledge artifact a unique setting is generated where uncertainty can be met through creative play and novel understandings emerge (Morrison, 2023). The ‘Knowledge Artifact’, or synonymously ‘Art Object’, might be interpreted as something expressed in the sensible (phenomenological) realm that comes to exist independently from the subject(ive); those things that have ‘lives’ of their own of which we are only privy to aspects – a work of art, a piece of furniture, an essay.
Morrison, J. (2023). The Aesthetics of Agency: Ethnofiction Recast in Generative Design Research for Illuminating Tacit and Latent Knowledge on Care Identity and Lens-based Technologies. Proceedings of the 2023 International Conference of the European Academy of Design.

Speculating on how art is functioning; we are given opportunities to realise the embodied reality of being an onlooker in with worlds beyond our senses; simultaneously we are given chances to examine how we are subject to our own experience, imminence and causality in ways which other people are not. This suggests the hypothesis that Art is life affirming as it generates important conditions for ‘being’ through learning.
Methodology as Prospecting
In order to research what has emerged as interesting, valuable and useful understandings from the context of the Ragged University project, it is important to pick appropriate methodologies which are inherent in the activities and consonant with an environment crafted over years where people feel comfortable.
Choosing to create audio recordings of informal conversational interviews as a methodological approach allows for the building on of rapport established between the Ragged event coordinator and the person sharing their work. As an informal education project, the ‘co-ordinator’ is not just the chief organisor of the public event but also the ‘active learner’ who structures their learning from the session.
By looking at the Art Objects/Knowledge Artifacts people have created and having a conversation with them, my aim is to explore what is happening and emerges from such practices. Recording an open conversation with some structuring questions gives a good opportunity to learn about the relationship between the person and their work, the roles and functions it serves them in their life, how they feel and other exploratory things which might help develop a deep understanding of art as a complex phenomenon.
By creating transcripts of the audio recordings and using narrative analysis I hope to prospect for expressions identified across the group and see if those ideas speak to, or problematise, the pragmatic scheme of thought I have laid out. It is through prospecting that I hope the situation informs what my research questions should be in order to understand dimensions of human development.
Bibliography of References
Baron-Cohen, S. (1991). “Precursors to a theory of mind: Understanding attention in others”. In Whiten, A. (ed.). Natural theories of mind: evolution, development, and simulation of everyday mindreading. Oxford, UK & Cambridge, Massachusetts: B. Blackwell, pp. 233–251.
Bosshardt, W. and Lop, J. S. (n.d.). The Economics of World History.
Business in the Middle Ages: What Was the Role of Guilds? (2013) Social Education, 77(2), pp. 64–67.
Dunedin, A. (2015). Common Sense: A Theory of Inherent Knowledge. Ragged University. Available at: https://raggeduniversity.co.uk/2015/01/11/common-sense-inherent-knowledge/ (Accessed: 11 November 2024).
Dunedin, A. (2019). Education as Human Development. Ragged University. Available at: https://www.raggeduniversity.co.uk/2019/05/03/education-as-human-development/ (Accessed: 11 November 2024).
Dunedin, A. (2025). “The Project – Ragged University” Ragged University, 3 Jan. 2025, raggeduniversity.co.uk/about/ presentations/. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.
Eco, U. (1997). A theory of semiotics. Bloomington, Ind: Indiana University Press. Page 15
Etymonline (2019). Origin and meaning of art by Online Etymology Dictionary. Available at: https://www.etymonline.com/word/art (Accessed: 11 November 2024).
Kleinman, A. (2012). ‘An interview with Karen Barad’, Mousse Magazine, 34. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/1857617 Intraactions_Interview_of_Karen_Barad_by_Adam_Kleinmann (Accessed: 11 November 2024).
Mair, L. (2016). The Only Friend I Have in This World’ Ragged School Relationships in England and Scotland, 1844-1870. PhD Thesis. Available at:
https://era.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1842/22997/Mair2017.pdf (Accessed: 11 November 2024).
Mauss, M. (1990). The Gift: The form and reason for exchange in archaic societies (W. D. Halls, Trans.). Routledge.
Marzola, P., Melzer, T., Pavesi, E., Gil-Mohapel, J. and Brocardo, P.S. (2023). Exploring the Role of Neuroplasticity in Development, Aging, and Neurodegeneration. Brain Sci. 2023 Nov 21;13(12):1610. doi: 10.3390/brainsci13121610. PMID: 38137058; PMCID: PMC10741468.
McClenaghan, P. (2000). ‘Social Capital: exploring the theoretical foundations of community development education’, British Educational Research Journal, 26, 5, 565–82.
Miller, P.A., Platter, C. and Plato (2010). Plato’s Apology of Socrates : a commentary. University of Oklahoma Press.
Morrison, J., & Stewart, F. (2024) The Aesthetics of Listening: Material-Discursive Exploration of Verbatim Testimony and Augmented Reality. Proceedings of the Cumulus Budapest 2024 Conference– P/REFERENCES OF DESIGN. In Press.
Morrison, J. (2023). The Aesthetics of Agency: Ethnofiction Recast in Generative Design Research for Illuminating Tacit and Latent Knowledge on Care Identity and Lens-based Technologies. Proceedings of the 2023 International Conference of the European Academy of Design.
Oldenburg, R. (2023). The great good place : cafes, coffee shops, bookstores, bars, hair salons, and other hangouts at the heart of a community (Berkshire edition). Berkshire Publishing Group LLC. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/jj.9561417
Ragged University (2022). About Ragged. Available at: https://raggeduniversity.co.uk/about/ (Accessed: 11 November 2024).
Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. Anchor Books.
Smyth, K. (2016). Personal Correspondences.
Waytz, A., Schroeder, J. and Epley, N. (2014). The Lesser Minds Problem, In Bain, P. G. (2014). Humanness and dehumanization. New York: Psychology Press.
With thanks to Anthony Schrag, John Morrison, Keith Smyth, Susan Brown and numerous people who on reflection all feature subtley from the visible in the work which is produced. Their patience, inspiration and magnanimity has made manys the differences