How to capture the unmeasurable aspects of the human experience? To feel, to relate, to connect is fundamentally human. To feel, to relate, to connect is fundamentally linked to our health and wellbeing.

But how to ‘prove’ this? How to ‘evidence’ that when people come together in community, their health and wellbeing improves? Is it true that ‘if you can’t measure it, it does not exist’? Or are we ‘measuring’ in a way that doesn’t give us access to some community members’ truth(s)? Thinking of ‘evidence’ in a way that doesn’t acknowledge the role of creativity and neglects to give us access to the human experience? And what is ‘truth’ anyway?

When Measuring Humanity started we were on a mission to measure health and inequalities through connectivity and creativity. One of the key questions that emerged was “why are we measuring?”. I played with this concept through my writing recently and found myself moving from ‘measurement’ to ‘magic’.

Then UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) got on board and funded more magic through ‘Art is Everywhere’ part of the Art and Humanities Research Council’s Place-Based Programme.

This got me thinking about the nature of reality when it comes to research, policy and practice. What’s ‘real’ for me may not be ‘real’ for you. Whose reality counts? Whose knowledge matters?

UKRI were suitably excited by this idea too so we found ourselves researching REALITIES. 57 of us in a transdisciplinary consortium found ourselves Researching Evidence-based Alternatives in Living, Imaginative, Traumatised, Integrated, Embodied Systems.

And so the journey continues…

If you’d like to get involved, get in touch by hitting Contact.

Dr Marisa de Andrade – Principal Investigator, Measuring Humanity