The Aim of my research as a PhD student over the last two and half years has been to examine how the Japanese and Tokyo governments, through sports diplomacy, will use the Olympic Games as a soft power tool.
Continue reading “The Olympic Games as a Weak Excuse”
Football is Nothing Without Fans – Matt Busby
Bellshill’s finest football thinker, Matt Busby, predicted the uncanny experience of people watching cultural and sporting events take place in empty spaces during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Continue reading “Football is Nothing Without Fans – Football, Theatre & COVID19”
This Thursday, I complete my last day at UWS before I move back to France to start a permanent job as a Lecturer in Geography at the University of Amiens. As I have been a member of CCSE over the last two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow on the FESTSPACE project, I thought that it would be a good time to pen some reflections on my time here.
Continue reading “‘Au revoir’ FESTSPACE & CCSE (But Hopefully Not An ‘Adieu’!) 👋”
The Centre for Culture, Sport & Events is delighted to invite you to our virtual annual conference. The event ‘Recovery, Repair & Renewal: The role of arts and culture in the future of urban places’ will take place on Wednesday 9th June 2021.
Continue reading “Recovery, Repair & Renewal: The role of arts and culture in the future of urban places”
During the 1980’s and 90s, when social enterprise was an innovative concept in Scotland, Strathclyde Regional Council, Objective 3 Partnership and the Scottish Centre for Regeneration were surprised when Fablevision board members thanked them for turning down applications for funding on the grounds that we were ‘not sustainable’.
Continue reading “Post-Pandemic: The Cockroaches of the Cultural Sector”
I can’t quite believe it’s been a year since I took a seat at my dining room table and mastered the virtual meeting world to join Renfrewshire Leisure’s Arts Team for a vital discussion: what are the needs of the Creative and Cultural Sector in Renfrewshire?
Continue reading “The Creative Road to Recovery”
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.
Continue reading “One Crisis after Another: The Impact of COVID-19 on Roma Communities in Glasgow”
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 discuss the ways that art and culture affects individual and community prosperity and wellbeing.
Continue reading “UKRI Place Based Partnership – Evidence Review Launch”
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 semi-circle of kind faces and laughter, and I can hear the sound of mugs clinking and the smell of coffee brewing in the background.
Continue reading “Light in the Dark Days”
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 health and wellbeing for children and young people.
Continue reading “Create Paisley’s Second Open Minds Summit”
Never in my professional or academic career has my field of study and work been more relevant than over the last seven months.
Continue reading “Covid 19: Participatory Action Research as Emergency Response”
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.
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!
Continue reading “Lockdown 2020 – A view from Kibble”
The 2020 festival would have been our 19th in a row! Our festival started as a small afternoon event and grew into a multi event 23-day festival. They say that timing is everything and for the 2020 festival that was a very true comment! The scope of the festival can be seen I the list of events.
Continue reading “Lochwinnoch Arts Festival 2020: The Festival That Never Really Was!”
COVID-19 has hugely affected – and is still affecting – lives across the world. Isolation, economic shutdown and contact tracing have impacted our psychology, our daily routines and social activities.
Continue reading “Sport Diplomacy and The Pandemic of Racism: Addressing Issues on Athletic Activism & Protest”
A couple of months ago, colleagues from CCSE teamed up with collaborators from STAR Project and Renfrewshire Council to deliver a workshop as part of our UKRI supported, place-based partnership funded work looking at the impact of cultural regeneration on improving prosperity and wellbeing.
Continue reading “Paisley’s Art & Soul: A Short Film 🍿 📽️”
Our Colleague, Dr Stephen Collins’, short film ‘James Town & Slavery’ has been selected for the Changing the Story International Film Festival.
Continue reading “Short Film, James Town & Slavery”
Our FESTSPACE project was conceived in a pre-COVID19 world, where those interested in festivals, events and urban policy were debating how to best design and manage public spaces to bring people together, to encourage co-presence and generate convivial atmospheres involving as wide a representation of the population as possible.
Continue reading “Festivals, Events & the COVID-19 Pandemic”