The question sparked a semester-long community-engaged learning partnership between Dr. Jennifer Long's third-year anthropology class and RECOVER Urban Wellbeing.
In the early days of the pandemic, when public and retail spaces were closed, there seemed to be more people coming into City Hall – and more disturbances. RECOVER, a City of Edmonton project that aims to improve well-being and elevate the voices of people and communities who face different barriers, was tasked with looking at safety in the municipal government's administrative home.
As part of that process, staff at RECOVER started asking questions about the purpose of the building itself. "We know City Hall is the centre of democracy. We know it's defined as a public space. But how does that actually play out in real life? How do people use this space? Can it be a space of connection?" asks Amanda Rancourt, RECOVER's strategic planning analyst.
Dr. Long's students spent the Fall 2022 term working closely with RECOVER to find answers. Over three months, they learned about the organization's well-being framework, refined a series of interview questions and split into groups to interview representatives from city council, security, 311 (the city’s information and services line), custodial and maintenance, tours, City Hall School and the on-site cafe.
"The importance of relationality became really apparent throughout this course," says Paige Russell. "We had to build relationships with one another as students, but we also had to build relationships with our interviewees to get the data we needed."
The process of gathering that data was enlightening, adds Melissa Walker.
"My original personal perception about City Hall was pretty negative – I'm not going to lie – but in stepping away from that, going through the interviews and learning about the actual people who work at City Hall changed the way I see things. There are people there who care."
The students also uncovered a range of opinions about City Hall's purpose – from a place for the mayor and council to do their work, to a hub for information about the city, to a "city centre" where everyone should be welcome.
"We interviewed a security person and a 311 person. It was interesting to see their contrasting opinions based on who they connected with during their work – how people who work in the same space can have completely different views of how the public uses that space," says Walker.
At the end of the term, students presented the information they had gathered and analyzed to the RECOVER team.
"The students brought great insights and perspectives, and their observations will carry forward in our work and even spur new directions," says Rancourt.
That's precisely the outcome Dr. Long wanted.
"Whenever I have a class do community-engaged work, from day one, I stress that this is real work," says the assistant professor. "Students are doing innovative, original, creative work that matters and will have a real impact."
That real-world connection is something students appreciate.
"Being able to do something specific to Edmonton and the culture of our city grounded this experience for me," says Walker. "It felt like we were more invested in it – that we were doing something important."
Work is currently underway to publish the class's findings on a website that will make the information accessible to researchers and the general public.