Discussing the value and politics of everyday participation in second-hand cultures

Posted on December 3, 2014 by Susan Oman

Delyth Edwards offers some reflections on her time spent in a Cheetham Hill charity shop

At the CRESC 2014 conference I presented a paper on the ethnography I carried out as a volunteer in a charity shop in Cheetham Hill, North Manchester. The subject of the conference was Power, Culture and Social Framing. It made sense to focus on the concept of charity and how it was in itself a discourse that had been framed and (re)framed over the centuries leading to the creation of charity shopping as we know it today. Continue reading →

Making an everyday case for arts and culture

Posted on November 26, 2014 by Susan Oman

By Abi Gilmore

Why should there be public funding for the arts? What role does cultural participation play in people’s lives? There has been an ongoing policy debate about the value of the arts to society which asks what kinds of returns policy makers should expect from public investment in arts and culture. ‘Raising our quality of life: the importance of investment in arts and culture’, explores Continue reading →

Introducing the Aberdeen case study

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Andrew Miles

Principal Investigator and lead on Aberdeen case study, Andy Miles, introduces the work taking place there

Work on the Aberdeen case study began in February 2014. Aberdeen is one of two UEP cultural ecosystem studies in Scotland that have been funded primarily by Creative Scotland, the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries, which is particularly interested in what it calls ‘edge’ communities. Continue reading →

Performing Places Symposium at Royal Central School of Speech & Drama – a Review

Posted on November 9, 2014 by Susan Oman

UEP’s new PhD, Ruth Webber offers some reflections on a symposium she attended in the first weeks of her PhD

I came to the Performing Place symposium with a view to hearing more about how to carry out research in a creative, experimental and fun way. My background is in Visual Anthropology so although I have been exploring creative methods which play with representation, focus on reflexivity and encourage a collaborative approach, I haven’t Continue reading →

Everyday Participation and Cultural Values in Glasgow

Posted on November 9, 2014 by Susan Oman

By Lisanne Gibson. Photography courtesy of Hugh Hood.

What are the key features of everyday leisure participation amongst different geographically located and demographically defined groups in Glasgow and how does is this participation activity linked to other spheres of an individual’s life? Continue reading →

Introducing our PhD Researcher in Glasgow: Ruth Webber

Posted on November 9, 2014 by Susan Oman

My PhD research fieldwork consisting of two ethnographies will be carried out over the period of a year from 2015 – 2016 in Glasgow. I will be supervised by Dr Lisanne Gibson in the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester, and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as part of the Understanding Everyday Participation – Articulating Cultural Values (UEP) project. Continue reading →

Experiences of an Early Career Researcher

Posted on October 31, 2014 by Susan Oman

Susan Oman discusses Connecting Epistemologies: Methods and Early Career Researchers in the Connected Communities Programme – FINAL EVENT which took place on 28th October, 2014 City University London

Continue reading →

UEP at the Connected Communities Festival 2014

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Mark Taylor

The first few days of July saw a huge number of people from different Connected Communities projects decamp to Cardiff for the Connected Communities Festival. This event was the successor to last year’s ‘Showcase’ – you can read about how we got on Continue reading →

Interim findings from Gateshead

Posted on July 15, 2014 by Abigail Gilmore

Intensive research has been underway in Gateshead, UEP’s 3rd ‘cultural ecosystem’, since March this year and at this half way point we are bringing together the local stakeholders to inform and consult with them of the emerging findings. Gateshead stakeholders have been incredibly generous with their time and with providing us with Continue reading →

Uncovering participation in Manchester and Salford: preliminary interview findings

Posted on May 22, 2014 by Abigail Gilmore

Catherine Bunting discusses the first wave of interviews in Manchester

We completed the first wave of in-depth interviews in Manchester in February and since then we’ve been pouring through the interview transcripts to find out what everyday participation looks like in Broughton and Cheetham Hill and how different forms of participation shape and are shaped by identities, social relationships and ‘place’. Continue reading →