Amplified Leicester: Impact on social capital and cohesion

Amplified Leicester aims to share new skills and increase innovation. This report examines the project’s impact from a social research perspective.

Amplified Leicester aims to share new skills and increase innovation. This report examines the project’s impact from a social research perspective.

Key findings:

  • Participants gained new social media skills and strengthened existing skills.  
  • Many people created new links and enhanced their networks through the diversity of the group.
  • Participants agreed that social media can contribute to collective action and to change.
  • In terms of contributing to cohesiveness in Leicester, participants have started to inform existing communities and amplify them by using social media in innovative ways.
  • It is important to allow people and groups to adapt different social media applications for their own needs and to have the space to explore and experiment with these.

This report has been compiled for Nesta as part of the Amplified Leicester programme.

 

Amplified Leicester is a city-wide experiment designed to grow the innovation capacity of Leicester across the city's disparate and diverse communities, and to share new skills which are fast becoming essential in 21st century workplaces and communities. The project was inspired by the potential of this unusual city to nurture a unique creative environment, and it was enhanced by the extensive use of social media for communication and collaboration.

 

Authors:
Thilo Boeck and Sue Thomas, De Montfort University