The Everyday Participation since the Pandemic Project (EPSTP) aims to explore the range and variety of people’s day-to-day spare-time activities in order to better understand how they participate in these activities and what their participation means to them. Specifically we are looking to speak to people living in Gateshead, Peterborough. Stornoway, South Uist, Peterculter, Broughton (Manchester), Cheetham (Manchester), and those living in and around the villages of Buckfastleigh or Moretonhampstead in Dartmoor.
This research is a follow-up study to the Understanding Everyday Participation – Articulating Cultural Values project, which carried out research into these questions between 2013 and 2017. We now seek to understand the effects of social, cultural and political change since the pandemic on the way people participate in ‘everyday’ activities and the value they attach to this. We will use the findings of this research in publications and reports including recommendations as to how policymakers can do more to recognise the changing dynamics and importance everyday participation to individuals and communities.
Get involved
We are asking people who live in the areas listed above and who might be interested taking part in a 90-miunte interview for this research to complete a short questionnaire to register their interest. We will then use this information to contact people who have expressed an interest in taking part. If you are invited to take part in an interview for the project we will then discuss suitable date and time. Participants taking part in interviews will be compensated for their time.
To help you decide whether you would like to express an interest in taking part in the interview you can either download our Participant Information Sheet or read the the Participant Information section below. Before taking part in any interview you will also be asked to complete a Consent Form.
If you have any questions or need any further information about the project please contact Professor Andrew Miles at andrew.miles@manchester.ac.uk.
Participant information
We are inviting people living in Gateshead, Peterborough. Stornoway, South Uist, Peterculter, Broughton (Manchester), Cheetham (Manchester), and those in and around the villages of Buckfastleigh or Moretonhampstead in Dartmoor to take part in a research study that will explore the range and variety of people’s day-to-day spare-time activities in order to better understand how they participate and what their participation means to them. Before you decide whether to take part, it is important for you to understand why the research is being conducted and what it will involve. Please take time to read the following information carefully before deciding whether to take part, and discuss it with others if you wish. Please ask if there is anything that is not clear or if you would like more information. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
About the research
Who will conduct the research?
The person leading the research is Professor Andrew Miles from the Department of Sociology, School of Social Sciences, at the University of Manchester, aided by a small study team of University of Manchester based research assistants.
What is the purpose of the research?
The research is following-up study to a previous project on people’s leisure interests and hobbies called Understanding Everyday Participation – Articulating Cultural Values (UEP) that was conducted before the 2019-21 COVID-19 pandemic in several parts of the UK. It seeks to understand the effects of social, cultural and political change since then on the way people participate in such ‘everyday’ activities and the value they attach to this. As well influencing academic debates and feeding into teaching on university courses, the research will generate recommendations as to how policymakers can do more to recognise the changing dynamics and importance everyday participation to individuals and communities.
Am I suitable to take part?
We are inviting you because you were either a participant in the original UEP study or someone aged 18-30 who did not take part in the original study. Most of the original participants are now older than 30 and we want to know about the activities and views of younger people as well.
Will the outcomes of the research be published?
We will use the findings of the research in journal and book publications, policy reports, blogs and conference presentations. These outputs may include direct quotations from your interview responses but they will be presented in pseudonymous format so that that you are not identifiable. A summary of the project’s findings will be made available to you if you consent to receive this.
Who has reviewed the research project?
The project has been reviewed by The University of Manchester Research Ethics Committee 3.
What would my involvement be?
What would I be asked to do if I took part?
You will take part in a single one-to-one interview lasting approximately 90 minutes. You can do the interview online or in-person. We will agree a time and place convenient to you. If the interview is in-person, it will be in a public place. The researcher will ask a series of questions about your life history, your attachments to the place you live in, how your participation is impacted by your sense of identity, and connected to you views about society and politics. We will also ask you to tell us some specific information about yourself, including your age, gender, ethnicity, the area you live in, your current or previous education and your job (if applicable). This information means we can
better understand the different voices included in our project. The interview will be audio recorded. This is essential for the project, as we need to have an accurate account of your responses to our research questions, which will then be transcribed for the
purposes of analysis. However we will check that you are comfortable with the recording process during the interview and you will be free to stop the recording at any time. The interview itself is designed so it feels like a conversation so if you are taking part online we will ask you to turn your computer/laptop/smartphone camera on.
Will I be compensated for taking part?
After completion of the interview, you will receive a gift voucher for your time to the value of £40.
What happens if I do not want to take part or if I change my mind?
It is completely up to you to decide whether or not to take part. If you do decide to take part you will be given this information sheet to keep and will be asked to sign a consent form to confirm that you are happy to help us with the research. If you decide to take part you are still free to withdraw at any time without giving a reason and without detriment to yourself, which you can do by contacting the project lead using the contact details below. However, it will not be possible to remove your data from the project once it has been anonymised as we will not be able to identify your specific data. This does not affect your data protection rights. If you decide not to take part you do not need
to do anything further.
Data protection and confidentiality
What information will you collect about me?
In order to participate in this research project we will need to collect information that could identify you, called “personal identifiable information”. Specifically we will need to collect:
- your name
- contact details
- age
- gender
- ethnicity
- area of residence
- current or previous education
- employment status (whether or not you are working and your occupation if applicable)
- an audio recording of your voice
Under what legal basis are you collecting this information?
We are collecting and storing this personal identifiable information in accordance with UK data protection law which protect your rights. These state that we must have a legal basis (specific reason) for collecting your data. For this study, the specific reason is that it is “a public interest task” and “a process necessary for research purposes”.
What are my rights in relation to the information you will collect about me?
You have a number of rights under data protection law regarding your personal information. For example you can request a copy of the information we hold about you, including audio recordings. If you would like to know more about your different rights or the way we use your personal information to ensure we follow the law, please consult our Privacy Notice for Research.
Will my participation in the study be confidential and my personal identifiable information be protected?
In accordance with data protection law, The University of Manchester is the Data Controller for this project. This means that we are responsible for making sure your personal information is kept secure, confidential and used only in the way you have been told it will be used. All researchers are trained with this in mind.
The study team at The University of Manchester (UoM) will have access to your personal information and they will anonymise it as soon as possible. The interview recordings will be made on a University approved encrypted recording device, downloaded to secure UoM servers, then removed from the recording device as soon as possible. The recording of your interview will be destroyed after we have transcribed it. We will use a University approved and trusted supplier to transcribe the recording. Your name and any other identifying information will be removed from the recorded and transcribed interview and replaced with a random ID number (a process known as ‘pseudonymisation’). Only the research team will have access to the key that links this ID number to your personal information, which will be kept securely and separately from your interview data.
Your consent form will be retained for 5 years in a locked cabinet on UoM premises for audit purposes. With your consent, we would also like to retain your contact details for 5 years in order to provide you with a summary of the findings for this study and also to inform you about future studies that you may be interested in. If you provide consent for this, your details will be safely stored on UoM servers in a digital folder only accessible to the study team and used only for the purposes described above. You can withdraw your data from the project up to 6 months after taking part in the interview after which the key that links your interview to your personal information will have been broken and data from the interview may already be included in publications.
So that we can provide the shopping/Amazon voucher as a thank you for your time, your full name and email address will be shared with our Finance department who will send the voucher to you. You can withdraw your data from the project up to 6 months after taking part in the interview.
At the end of the project we aim to deposit a fully anonymised dataset comprising de-identified interview transcripts in an open data repository where it will be permanently stored. We will use Figshare at the University of Manchester Library for this. Researchers at other institutions will then be able to access the anonymised data directly from the repository and use it for further research or to check our analysis and results.
Potential disclosures
If during our conversation you reveal any information which means you may be at risk of harming yourself or others, we will be required to break confidentiality in order to put you in touch with the correct support. This may involve signposting you to relevant support services, calling a family member or friend or calling emergency services.
Please also note that individuals from The University of Manchester or regulatory authorities may need to look at the data collected for this study to make sure the project is being carried out as planned. This may involve looking at identifiable data. All individuals involved in auditing and monitoring the study will have a strict duty of confidentiality to you as a research participant.
What if I have a complaint?
If you have a complaint that you wish to direct to members of the research team, please contact: Professor Andrew Miles: Tel: 0161 275 3372; Email: andrew.miles@manchester.ac.uk
If you wish to make a formal complaint to someone independent of the research team or if you are not satisfied with the response you have gained from the researchers in the first instance then please contact:
The Research Ethics Manager, Research Office, Christie Building, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, by emailing: research.complaints@manchester.ac.uk or by telephoning 0161 306 8089.
If you wish to contact us about your data protection rights, please email
dataprotection@manchester.ac.uk or write to The Information Governance Office, Christie Building, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, M13 9PL at the University and we will guide you through the process of exercising your rights.
You also have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office about complaints relating to your personal identifiable information. Tel 0303 123 1113.