Jeni Burnell

Research Associate - CENDEP
Chair, The Small Change Forum

Profile

Jeni Burnell trained in architecture before perusing a career in participatory art, architecture and community development. Within the charitable sector Jeni was instrumental in setting up and running the UK charity, Architecture Sans Frontières-UK (ASF). Additionally, she has worked for a number of development organisations in Nepal, Australia and the UK, and has consulted to British Red Cross (2005).

In 2009, Jeni joined CENDEP as a research associate. Since this time, she has carried out research into shelter after disaster, senior NGO staff development within the aid sector, and the role of cultural action in community development in the UK. As part of her work with CENDEP, Jeni has developed The Small Change Forum (The Forum), a practice-based research initiative carried out in partnership with community arts organisation, Multistory.

The Forum is designed to promote small change learning and practice through its documentation and analysis of case files. Small Change theory is based on the common sense assumption: if you want to achieve something big, you start with something small and you start where it counts. To these ends, Jeni is involved with a series of community development projects in Britain and internationally which explore cultural action, including participatory arts, as the catalyst for community development. Furthermore, Jeni leads the research component of The Forum including organising The Small Change Forum: ingenious people make better places conference. This event launched The Small Change Forum and took place on Friday 7 October 2011 at Oxford Brookes University.

Jeni is due to graduate from the CENDEP Masters programme in 2012 whilst also freelancing as an architectural associate, with Oxford Design Studio.

Example of recent publications

Burnell, J and Sanderson D. (eds) (2011), Whose reality counts? Shelter after disaster. p 189-192. Editorial in Shelter after disaster, Environmental Hazards: Human and Policy Dimension, Routledge, Volume 10, Issue 3-4, 2011