Past CCSE Projects
Integrated Event Planning: Festivals Edinburgh, Mega-Event Research
Following the return of live events to Edinburgh’s world famous festival city, festivals and stakeholders now wish to reflect on the event planning process for the peak Edinburgh Festivals season. The aim of this project was to conduct research to recommend how integrated multi-year planning could be strengthened, in the context of relevant best practice.
Through this research study, Edinburgh’s Festivals are interested in testing the hypothesis that applying the definition of a mega-event – traditionally used for sporting rather than cultural events – to the peak season Edinburgh Festivals, could lead to a concomitant level of dedicated event
management focus and increased perception of value, amongst other long term benefits.
Great Place Scheme
Commissioned by Renfrewshire Council, this project sought to identify the culture and heritage that unites and defines Renfrewshire’s places, exploring relationships between landscape, built and social heritage. The project was aimed at growing talent, developing skills and creating strong networks to support an improved visitor experience throughout Paisley and Renfrewshire. Colleagues from CCSE and across UWS worked with participant groupings in learning sets, to help them develop a strong bond and support mechanism with each other over the course of the training and development.
The Social Value of Community Events
This Spirit of 2012/ Local Trust funded piece examined the social value of community events, seeking to go beyond a predominately economic considerations to gain insight into the ways in which community events generate social impacts and value. Based in a thorough investigation of relevant literature we worked to develop an evaluation framework for use by small, community-led events providing a resource to enable them to reflect on their event, what happened and why. Ultimately, achieving a better understanding of an event will allow organisers to make the case for their continuation in the future. The suite of resources developed through this work is available to all on the Spirit of 2012 webpage.
FESTSPACE:
A Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA) funded project focusing on how festivals and events enable or restrict access to, and use of, public spaces, including the extent to which they might effectively host interactions and exchanges between people from different cultural, ethnic, socio-economic and socio-demographic backgrounds. The project explored how the design and operation of urban festivals and events might help to dismantle existing divisions, while also acknowledging that festivals and events have the potential to symbolically, financially and physically exclude marginal populations from conventional public spaces, hence making spaces less public or less diverse. FESTSPACE focused on Western European cities that are dealing with significant demographic changes caused by in-migration. The project also examined the festivals and events staged in three archetypal public spaces – streets, squares, parks – while acknowledging the potential implications for indoor public spaces (particularly museums and libraries). It adopted a series of innovative methodological approaches to study the influence of festivals and events on urban public spaces, including video and auditory ethnographies, go-along interviews, and participatory planning charrettes and salons.
Leveraging Parasport Events for Community Participation:
A Social Science and Humanities Research Council (Canada) funded research project that explores the leveraging strategies of different major sport events for persons with disabilities. This study found that policy initiatives are important but need to be informed by all stakeholders, including persons with disabilities; improvements in attitudes towards disability are measurable directly post-event but the relationship to societal behaviours and the lived experiences is poorly understood; urban accessibility improvements are often temporary and highly contextual; and; structural and societal change will not necessarily happen during the lifecycle of a Games but strategies implemented for the Games may improve sport participation opportunities in the long term, if they continue to be resourced. SSHRC has funded a follow up study focused on the post-event effects on persons with a disability in the host location named Project Echo which utilises a participatory approach to understand more about the lived experiences of persons with a disability in the host cities some years after the major event has finished.
A Review of the Contribution of Arts & Culture to Global Security & Stability:
Commissioned by the British Council, this work comprised an appraisal of relevant academic and grey literature, followed by three country case studies exploring arts and culture focused post-conflict, resolution and peace-building interventions in Colombia, Syria and Rwanda. The case study research was augmented by interviews with stakeholders in the case-study countries, British Council and Whitehall. The review suggested areas of potential further study and recommendations for the British Council. A mapping framework was also included; listing arts and culture-based projects with aims and objectives that coincide with those, which contribute to security and stability agendas in the case study countries and beyond. The final report has been included in the British Council’s 2018 tailored review submission and, has been positively received in Whitehall.
Arts, Culture and Soft Power: Developing an Evidence Base:
Commissioned by the British Council, this work examined the use of arts and culture in the achievement of soft power objectives. The research team sought to build on the evidence generated during the recent AHRC Cultural Value Project, other international examples and the British Council’s own bank of arts-based evaluation alongside other relevant research to address the following a trio of research questions. We looked at whether the arts contribute to the aims, aspirations and delivery of soft power, the mechanisms though which this was achieved and what “value” can be ascribed to the arts contribution to this agenda. The research also examined what conditions for change the arts can create within a soft power agenda and, how we can develop a creditable evidence base or evidence framework and “theory of change” to measure the impact of the arts in the delivery of soft power outcomes.
Festivals Connect:
Festivals Connect was a Spirit of 2012 funded investigation into how festivals and events seek to support the realisation of equality, diversity and inclusion aims at macro, meso and micro levels. The project was part of Spirit of 2012’s Moments to Connect work. CCSE collaborated with a number of partners, including Glasgow Mela and UCI World Cycling Championships. The project lauched in April 2023.
We already know that festivals and events can make a significant contribution to bringing communities together, strengthening social capital, enhancing social cohesion, facilitating intercultural encounters and producing convivial environments that foster interaction. However, there is insufficient research that explores the practical effects of participation in, or the presence of, major festivals and events on those living in the cities that host them. Often, outcomes are ‘expected’ or ‘presumed’ rather than being empirically demonstrated. In FestivalsConnect, we sought to address this gap longitudinally, so that we can better understand objectives, expectations, delivery approaches and effects beyond immediate event delivery itself.
EventRights:
A EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange project which seeks to explore, and share knowledge, on the extent to which the landscape of major sport events (MSEs) can be improved to ensure a progressive, rights-focused agenda is pursued by awarding organizations, host governments and implemented in the formal institutions tasked with organizing these events. The project will produce recommendations as to how MSE organizing committees, awarding bodies, and the local/national state can be mandated to ensure that opportunities to address inequality, enhance diversity and facilitate greater dialogue are enshrined in the planning, delivery, and legacy plans for the events themselves. Staff mobilities form the main component of the project, to partners in the US, Canada, Japan and Brazil. In 2023, 10 UWS staff members and PhD students attended the EventRights International Research Training School hosted at Western University, Ontario, Canada, along with scholars from across Europe and internationally.