Cohort 2026 Research Placement Project
About The Project
A new makerspace will open in October 2025 in Loughborough East, a Priority Neighbourhood recognised for high levels of deprivation. It will be located within the volunteer-run, grassroots organisation Charnwood Eco Hub, offering a unique opportunity for place-based research. Established in 2024, and supported by the council, Eco Hub combines a scrap store, gathering space, refill station, and a tool borrowing system — the ‘library of things.’ These services meet pressing needs in Loughborough, particularly since the town’s only zero-waste store closed in 2023.
As a new hub reliant on volunteers, however, questions remain about who will use the makerspace, how, and whether it can engage the full diversity of local communities. Evidence from across the UK shows that repair spaces, tool sheds, and makerspaces often become dominated by cis white men unless inclusivity is intentionally prioritised. Studies have found that such environments can be intimidating for women, who report feeling their skills are judged more harshly.
While makerspaces historically emerged from grassroots equality movements, they are often co-opted by more affluent groups, making them less accessible to people of colour and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. This raises important questions for Charnwood EcoHub at the point of launching its new space.
This 10-week scoping study will explore how the Eco Hub makerspace can be developed into a genuinely inclusive community hub. The project will use a design research approach informed by Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR), which centres equity, care, and collaboration with communities. The candidate will work with Eco Hub, Equality Action, and local partners such as Fearon Hall and the Marios Tinenti Centre to: – Identify community needs, aspirations, and barriers to participation. – Map key stakeholders and existing points of engagement. – Pilot one small-scale workshop co-designed with community partners. The study will produce a visual report documenting needs and barriers, a stakeholder map, and recommendations for three potential initiatives, one of which will be tested in the pilot workshop. These outputs will guide Eco Hub’s strategic planning while also generating lessons for other grassroots sustainability initiatives across Leicestershire.
Project Aims
This placement will scope the potential for inclusive community use of the newly opened EcoHub makerspace in Loughborough East.
The work will:
Co-design and test a pilot workshop that fulfils a community need and addresses at least one barrier to inclusive participation.
Produce a stakeholder map and evidence base that will inform next steps for community-led initiatives at Eco Hub and Equality Action. The study will act as a test run for a prospective place-based PhD studentship in the future.
Identify needs, aspirations, and barriers to participation in Eco Hub’s activities among local residents, including working-class, minority ethnic, and migrant communities.
Map existing use and engagement across Eco Hub’s mixed services, with a focus on the makerspace, with attention to who is present, who is absent, and how exclusion may emerge along lines of class, ethnicity, and gender.
Project Team
- Research Candidate: Martin Beneš
- Lead Supervisor: Dr Marianna Coulentianos (Loughborough University)
- Academic Co-Supervisor: Dr Kyungeun Sung (De Montfort University)
- Academic Co-Supervisor: Dr Garrath T. Wilson (University of Leicester)
- Community Supervisor: Emma Ward (Charnwood Eco Hub)