Reweaving urban water‐community relations: Creative, participatory river “daylighting” and local hydrocitizenship

Abstract

Framed by questions about “hydrocitizenship” in the 21st century, this co‐produced, interdisciplinary arts and humanities‐centred research explores the (re)weaving of local knowledges, experiences, perceptions, and values of water and place through the concept, process, and practice of “daylighting hidden rivers.” Located at the nexus of three theoretical frames – “participation,” “hydrocitizenship,” and “daylighting,” it engages reflexively with strong and weak “hydrocitizenship” and with paradigms of ‘daylighting.’ Working with diverse communities and organisations in South Bristol (UK), this eco‐social research project discovered community concerns and needs, and positioned itself in relation to these in co‐production. This involved older people, children, and professional stakeholders in a place‐specific, “catchment” setting, using novel arts‐led, creative, narrative mapping processes. We critically examined the value, opportunities, and tensions of this multi‐method approach to people's past, present, and future connections and relationships with their local (water) environment, their senses of self and community. Our iterative processes of seeking out “lesser heard” voices were conceived and played out around a braided cascade of “openings”: emerging, connecting, enacting, imagining, and reflecting. Thinking critically about our oblique, emergent processes, we identify 15 “top tips” concerning the creative participatory daylighting of lay knowledges and values, and “river visioning.” These can inform co‐working with communities to enable and empower citizen engagement with places and local water issues for resilient futures. Our findings contribute new understandings of “hydrocitizenship” and creative participatory “daylighting” in combination, when urban spaces are construed as “water cities,” cascading both water and narratives. Importantly, our co‐production processes with lesser heard groups also exemplify “higher‐order participation” in co‐visioning resilient futures, with all the messiness, complexity, and conflicts exposed.