The Centre for Culture, Sport and Events (CCSE) has developed from a collaborative partnership between the University of the West of Scotland and Renfrewshire Council. CCSE will provide a space to undertake collaborative research and development work that has relevance for the Renfrewshire area, nationally and internationally.
The Centre has been set up to conduct research, development, consultancy and knowledge exchange aligned to four key themes:
Current Blogs and Tweets

The PhD and the Pandemic Part Two: The ‘New Normal’ for a PhD Student
Back at the beginning of April, I wrote a short blog post sharing my experiences of some of the challenges of doing a PhD during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yes we might have been in lockdown, but the sun was shining and the colours of spring were beginning to bloom around...

One Crisis after Another: The Impact of COVID-19 on Roma Communities in Glasgow
It is evident that COVID-19 is radically changing the way we go about our everyday lives and the things we normally take for granted, whether it is community events, festivals, family celebrations and even attending funerals to show our respects. Through my voluntary...

UKRI Place Based Partnership – Evidence Review Launch
At the beginning of 2020, colleagues from STAR Project, Renfrewshire Council and the University of the West of Scotland organised a workshop, Paisley Art & Soul. The workshop brought together members of Renfrewshire’s local communities and other stakeholders to...

Light in the Dark Days
On an average Monday morning at Wallace Street, I start my working day greeted by Margaret with her little Chihuahua pup in arms. She tells me about her latest knitted dog coat purchase as other bodies start to shuffle through the narrow corridor. We settle in a...

Create Paisley’s Second Open Minds Summit
CCSE were partners to the Open Mind Summit along with Future Paisley, Renfrewshire Leisure, Kibble. The second annual summit hosted by Create Paisley launched the day before World Mental Health Day. It explored the role of creativity and culture in improving mental...

Covid 19: Participatory Action Research as Emergency Response
Never in my professional or academic career has my field of study and work been more relevant than over the last seven months. For the last decade I have been committed to playing my part in addressing digital inequality. I have highlighted, in both practice and...

A Postcard from Normality…
In March 2020, as offices and teaching moved online, I left Scotland for my native country of Sweden and haven’t been back since. In my research, I’m looking at the social and economic effects of festivals in Paisley, Scotland. On-site events research is,...

The Effects of Covid-19 on European Cultural Relations & the implications for Policy Makers
A couple of weeks ago, in October, CCSE premiered the latest instalment of #CCSEConversations series. On this occasion, CCSE Director Professor Gayle McPherson spoke with Gitte Zschoch - Director of EUNIC the network of European Union National Institutes for Culture....

A Glimpse of Normality. Notes from the Covid-19 Circus
Given the UK Government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis you might expect an article about the COVID-19 circus to be another piece hammering the test and trace system or the confusing messaging. But this is a piece about an actual circus installed on Blackheath to...

Lockdown 2020 – A view from Kibble
Nearly 6 months on from when our country was first put into ‘lockdown’, I reflect on working at Kibble throughout this unprecedented time; I’m left with a smile, a sense of nostalgia and an overwhelming feeling of togetherness! Despite being an extremely difficult...
The Centre will build on the University’s local, national and international expertise in these areas, bringing a range of interdisciplinary perspectives to its research enquiries into policy and practice, advancing the production of new knowledge.
Research evidence produced through the Centre will contribute to academic excellence and influence policy makers and practitioners working in culture, sport and events and social policy and change.