Research Methodology

Steel City Pride Lab is a community-led research and cultural mapping project exploring the past, present and possible futures of LGBTQ+ life in Sheffield.

The project exists to better understand how LGBTQ+ people experience connection, belonging, nightlife, culture, friendship, safety, wellbeing and community infrastructure across the city.

Rather than beginning with assumptions or predefined solutions, the Lab begins with listening.

We recognise that Sheffield already contains multiple LGBTQ+ ecosystems, communities, spaces, organisers, networks and lived experiences. Some are highly visible. Others are fragmented, temporary, underground, digital, informal, emerging, historically overlooked or difficult to access. Different people can experience the same city very differently.

The purpose of this research is not to declare a single “truth” about Sheffield’s LGBTQ+ community, but to build a richer, more credible and more nuanced understanding of:

• what currently exists 
• what is working well 
• what barriers people experience 
• what forms of connection people are seeking 
• where gaps, tensions or unmet needs may exist 
• how communities sustain themselves over time 
• what histories, memories and cultural knowledge risk being lost 

The Lab approaches this work as custodians rather than gatekeepers. Participation, withdrawal and silence are all treated as meaningful.

The project uses a mixed-methods research model, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches.

This means we gather:

• large-scale community survey data 
• individual interviews 
• focus groups 
• oral histories 
• informal conversations 
• organisational perspectives 
• historical and cultural reflections 
• ecosystem mapping observations 

Using multiple forms of data allows findings to be explored from different angles rather than relying on a single narrative or demographic group.

The aim is not simply to count people, but to understand lived experience, emotional reality, barriers, motivations, contradictions and patterns across the wider ecosystem.

LGBTQ+ community life is complex and cannot be understood through statistics alone.

For example:

• A survey may tell us people feel disconnected. 
• Interviews may help explain why. 
• Oral histories may show how community structures changed over time. 
• Focus groups may reveal tensions, fears or unmet needs that are difficult to capture through fixed-response questions alone. 

By combining methods, the Lab hopes to create findings that are:

• more representative 
• more emotionally accurate 
• more contextually grounded 
• more useful for future community conversations and development

One major part of the project is a large-scale modular questionnaire referred to as “The Big One.”

The survey is designed to explore:

• community connection 
• nightlife and sober spaces 
• wellbeing and belonging 
• barriers to participation 
• loneliness and isolation 
• sexual health culture 
• safety and discrimination 
• identity and representation 
• digital vs physical community spaces 
• volunteering and future participation 
• oral history and memory 
• hopes, fears and future possibilities for Sheffield 

The questionnaire is intentionally modular.

Participants can complete only the sections relevant or comfortable for them. The project recognises that people have different levels of emotional energy, privacy needs, trust and lived experience.

The Lab aims to gather broad representation across different LGBTQ+ groups, backgrounds, ages and experiences within Sheffield and surrounding areas.

Current participation goals aim for:

• a minimum of approximately 400 responses for credible exploratory community mapping 
• 600+ responses as an aspirational target for stronger representation across subgroups 

These figures are exploratory targets rather than rigid thresholds.

The project also includes one-to-one conversations with:

• community members 
• organisers 
• venue owners 
• performers 
• activists 
• support organisations 
• sports/community groups 
• nightlife providers 
• artists and creatives 
• people connected to Sheffield’s LGBTQ+ history and culture 

These conversations may explore:

• personal experiences 
• barriers and exclusions 
• community change over time 
• memories of historical spaces or events 
• what feels missing 
• what feels valuable 
• concerns about the future 
• experiences of safety, belonging and visibility 

The Lab recognises that oral history is not just nostalgia. Cultural memory often contains important insight into how communities survive, fragment, adapt and rebuild.

Focus groups are intended to create spaces for collaborative discussion between people with shared or differing experiences.

These discussions may explore:

• community needs 
• tensions and misunderstandings 
• accessibility 
• identity and belonging 
• nightlife culture 
• sober and non-nightlife spaces 
• intergenerational experiences 
• perceptions of safety 
• barriers to participation 
• visions for the future 

The Lab recognises that group dynamics can influence discussion. Focus groups are therefore treated as exploratory conversations rather than objective “truth.”

The project aims to include a wide range of experiences across:

• sexuality 
• gender identity 
• age 
• ethnicity 
• disability 
• neurodivergence 
• relationship structures 
• socioeconomic background 
• community involvement 
• nightlife participation 
• sobriety 
• faith and cultural identity 

The Lab also recognises that some individuals may feel disconnected from LGBTQ+ spaces entirely, despite identifying as LGBTQ+.

Those experiences matter too.

The project does not assume that all LGBTQ+ people want the same things, experience the same barriers or agree with one another politically, socially or culturally.

Complexity is expected

All research contains bias, assumptions and limitations.

The Lab attempts to reduce this through:

• transparent methodology 
• multiple forms of data collection 
• optional participation structures 
• reflexive questioning 
• openness to contradiction 
• avoiding premature conclusions 
• acknowledging uncertainty where it exists 

The project recognises that researchers themselves influence research environments. Ongoing reflection around power, language, interpretation and representation forms part of the methodology.

The aim is not to eliminate subjectivity entirely, but to approach the work with honesty, humility and accountability.

The Lab is community-oriented, but does not claim to speak on behalf of all LGBTQ+ people in Sheffield.

Participation does not require ideological agreement, activism, nightlife participation or deep involvement in LGBTQ+ spaces.

People may participate once, repeatedly, anonymously, publicly or not at all.

All of these relationships to the project are valid.

As the project develops, findings may contribute to:

• public community reports 
• ecosystem maps 
• oral history archives 
• community discussions 
• future collaboration projects 
• wellbeing and safety initiatives 
• conversations with venues, organisers and stakeholders 
• future research and cultural preservation work 

Where possible, findings will be shared back with the community in accessible and transparent ways.

The Lab believes research should not simply extract information from communities. It should also create understanding, reflection, connection and future possibility