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>> Just beyond the Victorian grandeur
of University College London's Quadrangle lies the
College's Faculty of Law.
Nestled on the top floor
of the aptly named Bentham House is the home
to the UCL Bentham Project.
>> My name is Philip Schofield.
I'm Professor of the History of Legal and Political Thought
in the Faculty of Laws here at UCL.
I'm also Director of the Bentham Project and general editor
of the new edition
of the Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham.
Jeremy Bentham is one of the most important
and influential philosophers of modern times.
He was born in 1748,
he died in 1832, and developed the theory known
as utilitarianism, the principle that actions are right in so far
as they promote the greatest happiness
of the greatest number.
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>> Working alongside Professor Schofield are research
associates Dr Valerie Wallace, Dr Tim Causer,
and Dr Oliver Harris.
>> I do have a variety of tasks but one
of them is to try to get people involved
in our online transcription initiative, which is where
members of the public can log in and transcribe
some of Bentham's works, and so in order to drum up support
for that we have to do a variety of publicity
activities to try and raise awareness.
So that's basically what I was employed to do.
>> I came to the Bentham Project at the beginning
of October last year to join the Transcribe Bentham initiative
so that's been my main task during last six months or so.
My background is in Australian colonial history.
I write my research mostly
on convict transportation to the colonies.
>> I've been working here part-time
for 13 years now.
I originally came here when I was working on my PhD and I came
as a transcriber of Bentham's manuscripts.
I'm not a Bentham scholar.
It's not really my field or my period at all.
I just happen to have fallen into it.
>> Public engagement is taking academic work and presenting it
to an audience of non-academics, of nonspecialists.
It's showing the way in which, in a sense, our work is useful.
That would be entirely in accord with Bentham's own views
that if knowledge is not of some use then it's not
worth pursuing.
So hopefully people will find Bentham's ideas both interesting
and stimulating and provocative.
They're still of great relevance.
>> To help see what's involved in the organisation
of a public engagement event the staff agreed
to film their event planning meetings.
>> So congratulations to Valerie
on getting the Beacon Bursary award.
Now we have to plan the events we want to do and the idea is
to bring together local historians
with the Bentham Project to investigate Bentham and London.
>> We only have just --
we've got about £600-odd, just under £700, and that's
to pay for room hire for the second event, refreshments
for both of the events and printing of more
of these leaflets to hand out to people.
>> But it seems that not all the project staff are convinced
and Dr Oliver Harris has voiced some concerns.
>> I've certainly raised some doubts
about it as to how far the ideas
of Jeremy Bentham can be brought to a wider public
or whether this is quite the manner in which to do it.
>> The error in your starting assumption
in that you're confusing local historians
and amateur historians.
And your sort of perception is
that these people are history buffs, history enthusiasts
who have latched onto a local history society
but are rather vague in their interests and that all they need is
for somebody to expose them to the wonders of Bentham
and they'll have this moment of epiphany.
And they'll realise that this is the true historical path they
want to follow.
>> I think
that people would be interested in Bentham.
I don't think many people are aware
that he was a Londoner for a start
and that he did spend his whole life here.
And so I think that that's something that's worth saying.
I think that people may be quite fascinated.
I mean if I was historian of the Houndsditch area where he was from
and I found out that Bentham was from there,
I would be really interested in that.
>> No, I mean it's sort of the new world
of public engagement and we don't really know
who our public are going to be
but I hope we'll have a clear idea at the --
by the time we've got our three meetings.
>> So we're having three public events.
The first held here at UCL.
The second held out in the community
and then the third is a guided walk around parts of London
with which Bentham is associated.
And we're having speakers from the Bentham Project
and also external speakers: history bloggers,
or one is a City of London qualified guide, to come
in and to deliver talks.
And so we're hearing from both spheres
and hopefully it will start a dialogue between the two.
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>> It's the day of the first event, being held
at the project's home of Bentham House.
Valerie and the rest of the team are busy preparing
for this evening's event.
>> I think it's going to be good, we've got
20-odd people. Somebody signed up last minute, this afternoon,
which is good and I only had one person, that I know
of, that's not coming, that's pulled out, and I think it'll be quite lively.
>> Slowly members of the public arrive
and the room starts to fill.
Before long it's time to start.
First to speak is Professor Schofield himself.
>> Thank you Valerie and thanks
for coming this evening to UCL.
When you think about great British philosophers
and you get very few of them actually from England,
you know, David Hume from Scotland,
Edmund Burke from Ireland
and Adam Smith's Scottish,
and so you know Bentham's actually English,
not only English but a Londoner.
>> Professor Schofield's talk seems to be going very well
and the audience are engrossed
with his brief history of Jeremy Bentham.
Next up to speak is Lucy Inglis, a local history
blogger who talks about the period and area
where Bentham grew up.
>> Yes, Bentham was born in Spitalfields
and he was born in the height
of the successful period for Spitalfields when
they were achieving new things with silk production
and it was just at the beginning of outsourcing.
>> Then finally it's time for the last speaker of the evening,
Mike Paterson, who runs a local history society.
>> First I'd just like to thank Valerie
for inviting me to do this.
It's a great pleasure and a great honour to share a platform
with Lucy and Professor Schofield.
The fact that I'm here - I think that I'm right in saying
that we knew each other existed prior
to this event happening although I don't think we'd actually met.
And the reason for that is basically technology.
The reason for that is social networking
and I can't remember whether it was blogs or Twitter
or however it came about...
>> Then the evening is finished off with a Q&A with the panel
of speakers and other members
of the Bentham Project before moving onto drinks.
There's also a chance for members of the audience to try
out Transcribe Bentham,
the Project's online transcription tool.
The next morning the team discuss the previous
night's event.
>> We had our first event last night
and I was very pleased with it in the end.
Disappointed that there were not more people there.
Quite a few people signed up who didn't show up.
I think this is probably fairly typical of events
where, you know, you get a third of the people
who said they will come, for one reason or another don't show up
but still we had quite a decent sized audience in the end
but nowhere near the number we were hoping for.
>> We had positive feedback
from people who came along.
Somebody actually said that they had been afraid
that it would be quite -- too highbrow
or they wouldn't be able --
it would be pitched at a level that she couldn't understand, and actually she said
that it wasn't like that,
and it was quite a general discussion
and quite accessible.
So that was really good because that was what we were aiming for
and I wondered whether having it at UCL in the Laws
Faculty might seem a bit daunting
because it was within UCL,
and it wasn't in a public space in the same way.
So that was good to hear that because that was the point.
>> The object of the exercise of course was
to reach the wider community at large.
And I suppose there's a slight disappointment that most
of the people who turned
up actually did have some existing connection with UCL.
So we hadn't quite reached out into the wider community
in that sense but of course our next event is going to be
at an external venue in East London.
So we hope that'll do better in terms
of reaching the wider public.
>> The next event is at the Women's Library
in East London where Professor Schofield will talk
about Bentham and his childhood in London.
David Woosnam, who's a qualified London tour guide, will
talk about the area in which Bentham grew up
and how it's changed over the years.
And Oliver Harris, Dr Oliver Harris, who works here
at the Bentham Project will be talking
about the Mill Bank and Jeremy Bentham's panopticon
prison in relation to that.
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>> Before long it's the evening of the second event, being held
at the Women's Library in East London.
Unfortunately the event has not attracted as many people
as expected and the staff are outnumbering the guests.
But regardless of the lack of attendance the evening begins
and the people who have attended the event are listening intently
to the three presentations given.
Back at Bentham HQ the team are coming to terms
with the poor attendance at last night's event.
>> My fears about the second event sort
of came to pass, at least in terms of the attendance,
only four or five people external
to the Bentham Project came along,
which was quite disappointing because the quality
of all the talks was great
and they all flowed together very well
but the main issue was just lack of attendees really.
>> It's quite disheartening
in a way whenever you put so much effort
and you have quite a good idea and
yet it falls a bit flat or it appears to.
I mean the good thing is that the people
who did come loved it, the people that we had; but that
in a way makes it even more disappointing
because you think what greater impact you would've had
if you had more people.
So in a way it does put you off
because you think, what a lot of effort
for not a lot of reward, but at the same time I think
that you learn as you go and the next time you put something
like this on you'll know exactly what to do differently.
>> Over lunch the team put last night's event behind them
and move on to the planning of the third and final event.
>> So when we do the walk,
we're going to start at Westminster Abbey.
>> You can say what you were going to say
with George III.
>> Oh yeah Bentham went
to see George III's funeral.
>> And then we're going
to Westminster School and you can do Bentham
as a boy at school.
>> I'll have to dig up the various stories.
We don't have a lot but we have a few interesting things.
>> We've got a guided walk planned
for the final event where we will be beginning
at Westminster School where Jeremy went to school.
We'll be heading up from there up to UCL, and we'll be stopping off
at various sights of interest relating to Jeremy
and that seems to be quite popular.
After last night's event we've had another four
or five people sign up and there's only really, I think, four
or five places left on that one.
So we're reasonably confident that one will sell out.
>> This is the event I'm most anxious about,
because I don't whether the logistics will work,
you know, moving people around and
there's a reasonable distance to walk
and we also are probably going to involve a tube ride
as well, to get them up from Westminster up here to UCL.
So 15 sounds like about as many as we can cope with.
I don't think that many people have signed up yet
but there's still time for more people to sign up
but if the numbers are smaller then I don't think that'll be
a disaster.
As I say this is the first time we've done it and it's a bit of an experiment.
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>> The day of the final public engagement event is here.
The Bentham team wait outside Westminster Abbey anticipating
their audience's arrival.
Before long a small crowd gathers and it's time
for the tour to begin.
Professor Schofield welcomes the group and starts to talk.
>> We started with a problem
in that we couldn't get near Westminster School.
We weren't allowed through the barrier by somebody
who was sort of 'well it's more than my job's worth' but still, you know, I was able to sort
of speak about Bentham and Westminster School.
>> Despite this minor setback the tour moves
on from Westminster Abbey and made their way to the Ministry
of Justice, which was once the former site of Bentham's home.
This time there was a chance for Dr Oliver Harris
and the other members of the team to speak to the tour group.
>> Dr. Valerie Wallace: Out of all the three events,
I think the Bentham walk was probably the most enjoyable
and successful for everyone involved.
I think the Bentham Project staff thought it was successful,
thought it was fulfilling and worthwhile.
And I think that the people that were
on the walk really enjoyed it as well
and it was particularly gratifying.
>> The tour ends back at UCL with a chance for the group
to finally meet Jeremy Bentham himself.
Now that all of the events have taken place the Bentham Project
reflect on whether their adventures
in public engagement have been successful.
>> In all
of these events I think we have enhanced the profile
of the Bentham Project and UCL.
Certainly the people who came along were impressed.
Now it's disappointing that there were not more of them
but then again you -- there are sort of ramifications
in that one of the -- a couple of the people
who came presented very nice blogs and so it does get
to a wider online audience.
And also in merely advertising the events,
people can see we're actually trying to do something.
>> I think in the future we need
to plan these things a bit more in advance.
It was largely a necessity of the way
that we got the Beacon Grant that
it was arranged over a fairly short timescale.
I think next time around it would --
it needs to be several months in advance in terms for publicity
and arranging things and getting people interested.
>> I admit I did have some reservations
at the outset.
Now that it's all over I think that we put a lot of hard work in
and we have had some results.
Obviously there was disappointment over the numbers
that turned out but of the people who did come,
I think that we've had some very positive feedback.
And in terms of actually getting a message about Bentham
out to the wider community, I think we have succeeded.
>> I think public engagement is
definitely worthwhile.
It is a lot of hard work and it was disappointing
that we didn't sort of recruit the numbers that we'd hoped
but we still managed to reach people
that we wouldn't have reached if we hadn't put these events on.
And we know now how to improve
and make the events better in the future.
I recently had an email from somebody who is interested
in writing a blog post about Bentham - someone
who had attended the events -
and you know that was really
gratifying to reach --
just to know that we had sparked interest in an area
that we wouldn't have if we hadn't put these events on.
So I do think that there are --
it's definitely a worthwhile thing to do.
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