Yearly Archives / 2013

Realities of fieldwork: Sheetal Sharma, HSC PhD student on fieldwork in rural Nepal.

BU research, PG research

(c) Sheetal Sharma

Open air focus group in rural Nepal, (c) Sheetal Sharma 2013.


Roosters crowing, cows mooing, bleating goats, birds chirping, mobile phones ringing, children screaming, laughing and running around while women, breastfeeding, talk over one another excitedly in the sun as they need to leave us soon to drop the children off to school and/or head to the field to cultivate the season’s crop this spring it is wheat, last summer, rice. Women do this work as most of their husbands are away in the capital, Kathmandu or in the Arab Gulf. This is the reality of conducting focus groups in rural Nepal.

Although we, as researchers, spend considerable time to perfect the ideal ‘tool’ of the interview schedule and imagine the transcription clear and the background; a researcher must be prepared for every eventuality. Noise, din and interruptions: Today a dog nibbled on a nearby goat and a few men kept creeping to listen in why was this videshi (foreigner) recording conversations and making notes. The women shooed them away as today was a discussion on contraception; also that the discussion of the focus groups should be in ‘controlled environment’, safe, quiet; and in Nepal where women are not the main decision-maker for their reproductive health, it should mean a lieu women should be able to discuss freely these issues. In this Green Tara’s (www.greentaratrust.com) intervention area, which my PhD, supervised at HSC BU by Catherine Angell, Vanora Hundley, Edwin van Teijlingen and University of Sheffield’s Padam Simkhada, aims to evaluate both quantitatively and qualitatively, shows one the decision-making outcomes improved: increased the use of contraception in the Pharping area from 4.3% (2008) to 24.6% (2012) after 5 years of health promotion conducted by two auxiliary nurse-midwives.
40 minutes later recording (with 2 digital recorders) and once the demographic data and recording is double-checked and any last questions answered we set off walking 2 hours downhill visiting a tea-shop on the way for a cup of chai.

Edwin van Teijlingen and Emma Pitchforth, Qualitative Research: Focus group research in family planning and reproductive health care J Fam Plann Reprod Health Care 2006;32:1 30-32doi:10.1783/147118906775275299
http://jfprhc.bmj.com/content/32/1/30.citation

Open Access journals: Remember to check for changes!

BU research, PG research, Research news

BUI Research BlogThe BU Research blog has seen various pieces on Open Accessing Publishing, including http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/bu-internal-funding-opportunities/open-access-publication-fund/  or http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/files/2011/08/Open-Access-Fund-policy-180711.pdf).  Moreover, Bournemouth University professors are actively involved in Open Access journals.  For example  Prof. Vanora Hundley and I are both Associate Editors of a major Open Access journal (see:  http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2012/10/23/prof-hundley-associate-editor-bmc-pregnancy-childbirth/ .

This blog highlights that journals can change and that some become Open Access that were not before.  This happened to some of my methods papers in the scientific journal of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG).  Their journal the Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health Care used to be published in house as one of the RCOG journals.  The journal had a fairly closely defined readership and a very traditional way of paper-based publishing.  This meant very few academics, practitioners or students had access to my papers published over the years in the Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health Care. Then, a year or two ago, the journal became part of the BMJ Group (http://group.bmj.com/), which publishes over 40 journals in the health and health care field.

 

The deal between the Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health Care and the BMJ Group must include some arrangement to make previous issues available through Open Access.  All of a sudden seven of my research methods papers are freely available on the web through Open Access [1-7].   One of the key messages here is that it is worthwhile to see which journals offer Open Access, and to check regularly for changes in journals’ policies and publishers.

 

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, School of Health & Social Care, Bournemouth University

 

References:

  1. van Teijlingen, E.R., Forrest, K. (2004) The range of qualitative research methods in family planning and reproductive health care, Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health Care 30(3): 171-73.
  2. Forrest Keenan, K., van Teijlingen, E.R. (2004) The quality of qualitative research in family planning and reproductive health care, Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health Care 30 (4): 257-59.
  3. Forrest Keenan, K., van Teijlingen, E.R., Pitchforth, E. (2005) The analysis of qualitative research data in family planning and reproductive health care, Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health Care 31(1): 40-43.
  4. Pitchforth, E., Porter, M., van Teijlingen, E.R., Forrest Keenan, K. (2005) Writing up and presenting qualitative research in family planning and reproductive health care, Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health Care 31 (2): 132-135.
  5. van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V. (2005) Pilot studies in family planning and reproductive health care, Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health Care 31 (3): 219-221.
  6. van Teijlingen, E.R., Pitchforth, E. (2006) Focus Group Research in Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care, Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health Care 32 (1): 30-32.
  7. van Teijlingen, E.R., Pitchforth, E., Bishop, C., Russell, E.M. (2006) Delphi method and nominal group techniques in family planning and reproductive health research, Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health Care 32 (4): 249-252.

School of Health and Social Care – PhD/Open Research Seminar on Wednesday 27th March @ 1 pm

PG research

You are cordially invited to the lunch time seminar below which is one of a regular series of HSC PhD seminars which are open to all. Please feel free to bring your lunch.

‘A Method to My Madness’ – Michele Board

Michele is coming towards the end of her PhD studies. She has been researching the meaning of home for the Baby Boomers (i.e. those born between 1945-1965), using an innovative approach. She has used a combination of methods to help unpack the significance of home for six participants. The participants have taken photographs of their home and then once these have been printed they have discussed their meaning in a recorded interview. The photographs were then shown to a review panel to see if the meaning of home could be interpreted by the photographs alone. The final interpretation was made by looking at the transcript of the interview, the photographs and the review panel comments together, to form a story of the meaning of home for each participant. At this presentation one of the participants stories will be shared as well as the challenges posed when writing this qualitative approach up for the thesis.

Date: Wednesday 27 March 2013; Time: 1-1.50 pm, R207, Royal London House

Travelling with a purpose: the altruistic, personal motivations and experiences of conservation volunteers on an expedition to Bardia National Park, Nepal

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research

The further development of partnerships between conservation research and ecotourism is highly desirable.  However it is reliant on attracting willing participants to go on conservation expeditions.  Understanding the motivational and experiential aspects of such travel is therefore fundamental to devising research volunteering opportunities and marketing that provoke necessary tourist applications. There is much cynicism in the tourism literature about the desire to ‘travel with a purpose’ mostly on the assumption that volunteering merely eases developed-world middle class guilt. A counter view, however, is that this type of travel not only supports worthy causes but also leads to learning and personal development where tourism is based on being, doing, touching and seeing rather than just seeing.

Due to my continued interest and publications in wildlife tourism and conservation, I was selected to join a scientific expedition to Bardia National Park in Nepal to participate in a study of the regions’ unique population of wild elephants. The expedition was led by the well-known explorer and author Colonel Blashford-Snell, the founder of Operation Raleigh and the Scientific Exploration Society, whilst the research is under the supervision of Professor Adrian Lister of the Natural History Museum.

I travelled with twenty individuals who brought various skills to the team. My fieldwork consisted of semi-structured, in-depth interviews with fellow participants during the expedition.  The interviews explored their motivations for joining the team, what the expedition meant to them, their experiences of travel and transformation, and their notions of adventure and altruism.  A travel diary was also kept which logged observations of the day’s activities, logistics, the teams’ thoughts on what they had encountered and achieved, the sharing of significant stories, and the hopes and personal challenges of living and ‘working’ in the jungle.

I had a number of duties which have been assigned to me beyond the logging, measurement and photography of elephants. These included providing an advisory role to the local naturalists / guides wishing to expand and develop ecotourism in Bardia National Park, and keeping a species list of birds and butterflies.  Part of the expedition also included visiting and helping the villages near base camp as well as involving them in elephant conservation.  I am currently writing up the study and findings will eventually be disseminated at a special interest / nature based tourism conferences and published in a peer reviewed journal. The raw data presents a number of recurring themes namely that:

  • The place itself is less important than the volunteer activity
  • There is a search for like-minded people and meaningful friendships
  • This type of travel is a quest to ‘join a community’, i.e. that the co-volunteers become a family or a community with shared memories and experiences
  • Traditional travel is perceived as ‘islands in time’ whilst expeditions are different as friendships, contacts, reunions and fund-raising activities stretch into the future.
  • It is not the places that are visited, it is more the thoughts and feelings that are brought back to everyday lives following an expedition

Dr Susanna Curtin, School of Tourism

New AHRC strategy: The Human World

Funding opportunities, Grants Academy, Research news

It has been announced that over the next five years, the AHRC will strengthen knowledge and understanding of the human world by focussing on excellence of achievement, extending opportunity and building capacity through partnerships. Published friday, The Human World: The Arts and Humanities in our Time (2013-2018), the AHRCs new Strategy, sets out the AHRCs distinctive role in the UKs system of support for research and how it intends to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing research environment.

Over the next five years the new strategy commits the AHRC to: supporting collaborative and inter-disciplinary research, whilst maintaining its strong commitment to responsive mode and ambitious researcher-led projects; enhancing postgraduate provision; extending and increasing the opportunities for researchers to work collaboratively with a wide range of partners; maintaining the UKs international leadership in arts and humanities research; and further explaining and evidencing the value and importance of research in the arts and humanities.

The Strategy was developed through extensive discussions with the AHRCs Council and Advisory Board as well as comments received from the research community gathered from the publication of a draft strategy, institutional visits, subject associations and learned society meetings, the Peer Review College and focus groups and town meetings. I took part in a number of meetings held here at Bournemouth, along with other panel members and recipients of AHRC funding.

Some of the key points relate to reflecting the value and importance of the arts and humanities research, so linking their funding more directly to the impact agenda of the REF.  The aim is therefore to ensure the people, skills and research AHRC supports have a clear strategy for interacting with and impacting upon public life to bring cultural, intellectual and economic benefits to the UK and beyond.

The strategy is available here (http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/News-and-Events/News/Documents/AHRC-Strategy-2013-18.pdf) while the website also contains further information in a variety of formats (http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/News-and-Events/News/Pages/AHRC-Strategy-2013-2018.aspx). The message is clear however, if there is no clear pathway to impact the project will not be funded and it will no longer be acceptable to rely on academic publications as the only means for dissemination for research findings.

Change BU through 15 mins invested in CROS & PIRLS

BU research

Despite sounding like a cheesy folk musical duo, CROS and PIRLS are actually two key tools for you to tell BU your thoughts on being an academic member of staff here….

What are CROS & PIRLS?

The Careers in Research Online Survey (CROS) and the Principal Investigators and Research Leaders Survey (PIRLS) are two short questionnaires (about 15 mins) prepared by Vitae to capture the experiences of research active staff. As part of our EC HR Excellence in Research Award Badge, it is critical we know your views.

The surveys are run biennially and gather anonymous data about working conditions, career aspirations and career development opportunities for research staff and research leaders in UK Higher Education.

Why should I complete a survey?

PIRLS and CROS will have a significant impact on those conducting and leading research in the UK.

For instance feedback CROS has provided to the government has led to additional funding to institutions for research staff development, as well as significantly raising the profile of research staff both within institutions and nationally.

On a local level, we will use the feedback from these surveys to improve support we offer at BU. This is your time to have your say so make sure your voice is heard. Don’t rely on others to complete this and give your views; the more responses we have the greater the knowledge we will have about what life is like for you at BU. Once we have this, we can respond more effectively to your needs and ensure any policy developments are evidence based.

 

Do I have to complete both surveys?

No – PIRLS is aimed at those who are a research grant holder, personally responsible for the management of research staff and/or the formal supervision of postgraduate researchers and those principally responsible for setting the intellectual direction of research. If you match this description, please complete the PRILS questionnaire.

CROS is aimed at those who have the primary responsibility of conducting research and are employed for this purpose. If you are employed primarily to conduct research and have no formal staff management/supervision responsibilities please complete the CROS questionnaire.

How do I complete the survey?

The surveys will remain open  until 25 March 2013 and the hyperlinks are here: CROS & PIRLS

CEMP Research & Innovation Bulletin

Funding opportunities

Here is the updated CEMP Research & Innovation bulletin and agenda for the next cluster meeting – CEMP Cluster bulletin and agenda 28.3.13_KE

The cluster meeting is on Thursday March 28th, 9.30-11.30 in the CEMP office.

Thanks to Kris Erickson for these updates.

The ‘thinktank’ reading for discussion at the meeting is SURRENDERING THE SPACE Convergence culture, Cultural Studies and the curriculum

Thanks to Ashley Woodfall for this.

Expressions of interest in the funding opportunities in the bulletin and / or to confirm meeting attendance, please email julian@cemp.ac.uk.

 

 

 

CIPD Research Showcase Event

BU research

The Department of Human Resources and Organisational Behaviour in The Business School held a successful Research Showcase for members of the CIPD (the professional body for HR practitioners) on Wednesday 13th March.  The event focused on highlighting to the wider business community the research and knowledge exchange work of the HR/OB team. 

The event included a networking buffet, poster presentations showcasing the areas of identity at work (Dr Anne Benmore), leadership practice (Dr Lois Farquharson), false performance (Dr Gbola Gbadamosi), HR and ethics (Dr Louise Preget), health and wellbeing management (Dr Davide Secchi), cross-cultural HRM and diversity (Dr Huiping Xian) and two interactive presentation/discussion sessions covering ‘docility’ in hiring practices (Davide Secchi) and High involvement HR practices and work attitudes (Hong Bui). 

The event was ably chaired by Dr Fabian Homberg.  In addition, the opportunity was taken to launch the CIPD Approved MSc Professional Development (HRM) course which begins at the EBC in September 2013 (link: BU Link to MSc PD (HRM) Course details).  Thanks is extended to all those who contributed to the event and attended the event.  We look forward to delivering more research events in the future.

5th Annual PGR Conference @ BU – REMINDER

PG research

A Celebration of BU PGR Research

Our annual conference is designed to showcase the best of BU’s postgraduate research and to provide a unique opportunity for you as PGRs to present your work within a safe learning environment. Our multi-disciplinary conference will allow for cross-school interaction as well as opportunities for collaboration, where appropriate.

The 2013 conference will build on the great success of the previous PGR Conferences held in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012.

Call for Abstracts

We are inviting abstracts for oral, poster presentations AND new for 2013, a photography presentation – no matter at what stage you are in your Research Project. Presentations may focus on:

  • Research area
  • Specific methodological approach
  • Initial findings
  • Experience of your research journey e.g. transfer

There will be prizes for the best poster, oral and photography presentations. Please be aware that there are limited number of oral presentation slots.

We are also looking for volunteers to help chair sessions, so if you are interested please email the Graduate School.

Guidelines

Please see

How to Register

You will all need to register, whether you are contributing or just attending.  Please complete the booking form (conference booking form) and send via email to: graduateschool@bournemouth.ac.uk

Deadlines

For submitting abstracts: Monday 25 March 2013
For attending the conference: Friday 12th April 2013

Revision to the Activity Proposal Form Process

BU research, Guidance

Currently all research and knowledge exchange bids require an Activity Proposal Form (APF) to be signed off by the applicant, Dean and depending on the value members of UET and the Board.  To date the APF has focused on financial issues, primarily the financial recovery of a proposed bid or grant.  Currently the APF process has been a paper based system rather than one which allows for electronic approval.  This is about to change with one important addition!

The APF has to date not required any sign-off with respect to bid quality, yet submissions of poor quality endangers both personal and institutional reputations. In future all bids will require a dual sign-off one focused on financial issues and one focused on quality.  The quality will be determined by a senior academic within a particular school, typically the Deputy Dean for Research/Knowledge Exchange and other nominated assessors.  This will all be wrapped up in a new paper-free system. 

The redesigned APF process will introduce a formal three stage approval process which will work as follows:

Stage One: An Intention to bid form will be completed by the Principal Investigator (PI) in conjunction with RKE Operations and approved before the PI can progress with the bid.  As part of this process, the PI will nominate a quality approver from a School’s approved list.  Out of curtsy the PI is expected to inform the nominated Quality Approver that they will receive the bid in due course.   Once the form is completed and RKE Ops have entered the details on RED, the Authorised School signatory will be sent the bid electronically, which they will receive in the form of an email containing a link.  Clicking on the link will direct them to the APF Approval Screen to make their decision.  If UET/Board Member approval is required then it will follow the same process and they will receive the link also.

Stage Two: Each School’s Deputy Dean Research/Knowledge Exchange has provided a list of Quality Approvers.  Training is being provided to the Quality Approvers during February and March.  When the bid is ready the Quality Approver will be sent the bid electronically to confirm that it is of sufficient quality to be submitted for external funding and they will approve the bid via link as per Stage One.  Sufficient quality is defined as ‘without causing reputational damage to the individual or BU’.  The Quality Approver will be required to justify their decision and may also provide feedback to help the applicant fine tune the final bid.  If a bid has been through the Internal Peer Review Process this step will be largely automatic.  Quality approval is only required for: (A) competitive research bids (e.g., RCUK, Charities etc.) regardless of value; and (B) competitive knowledge exchange bids such as tenders and contract research bids where the value is in excess of £50k.  If a bid is declined by a Quality Approver RKE Ops will inform the Dean and RKEDO Internal Peer Review Team to trigger support and guidance to the PI to improve the quality of the bid if there is sufficient time.  The Dean will be responsible for informing the PI that their bid has been declined on the grounds of ‘Quality’ and will provide them with feedback.  Appeal can be made directly to the PVC who will adjudicate differences of opinion on the basis of their own review of the bid. 

Stage Three: Final approval is only required if finances within a bid have changed  significantly changed from those set out in Stage One.  RKE Ops will decide whether this is the case and whether re-approval is required. 

For all stages of approval, all approvers will be sent an email containing a link to the bid; relevant documentation will be provided in the link; comments can be added to say why a decision was made (these will appear on the APF); and no log-in to RED is required.

The APF Process is being piloted in HSC throughout March and the official go-live date for all Schools will be 2 April.  The RKE Operations team will provide the PI with the Intention to Bid form.  Jo Garrad, RKE Operations Manager, will provide a user guide explaining the new process once the pilot has been completed.

A Conference for South West Postgraduate Students – Representations of Modernity 1850-1960

PG research

When and Where: Saturday 2nd November 2013  – Plymouth University

Keynote Speaker Dr Daniel Katz , University of Warwick

A one-day all-inclusive interdisciplinary conference inviting postgraduate students studying in the South West to present ideas on and discuss the significance and impact of Modernity. We welcome anyone studying or researching within the fields of Literature, History, Art History, Architecture and Cultural Studies.

Call for Papers deadline: 1st July 2013 | 250 word abstracts

Email abstracts to: RoMPUenquiries@gmail.com

Possible topics could include but are not limited to:

  • New City, New Tourism
  • Warfare
  • Industry and Industrialization
  • Trauma and Narration
  • Urbanization and Suburbanization
  • Modernism
  • Conceptualisations of Space
  • The Avant-garde
  • Material and Visual Cultures
  • Marginality; the Periphery
  • Nature; the Rural
  • Revivalism
  • Technology
  • Gender and Sexuality
  • The Body and Machine
  • Cinema

For further information check out the Conference Flyer – Nov 2013

HEFCE is looking to appoint new members to its Strategic Advisory Committees

Research news

HEFCE logo

 

HEFCE wishes to appoint new members to three of its four Strategic Advisory Committees. These positions provide a unique opportunity to contribute to higher education at a time of significant change in the sector. We are keen to recruit new members from education, business and the professions, as well as from individuals who can represent the interests of students.

Enhancing the diversity of the membership of the committees is important to us and we welcome applications from under-represented groups including women, disabled people and people from an ethnic minority background.

Further information and a person specification are available from the appropriate committee contact:

One-page application statements addressing the person specification should be sent to the appropriate committee e-mail address above by midnight

on 12 April 2013.

Congratulations and Good Luck

BU research, Featured academics, News from the PVC

February had a good deal of activity around bids being submitted and awarded, with Schools winning consultancy contracts, research grants and organising Short Courses.

For Applied Sciences, congratulations are due to Richard Stillman for his consultancy contract with the Welsh Government, to Mark Maltby for his consultancy contract with Central Bedfordshire Council, to Andrew Ford for his two consultancy contracts with WPA Consultants and Axent Embroidery, to Ralph Clark for his consultancy contract with the Environment Agency, to Phillipa Gillingham and John Stewart for their award from Natural England.  Good luck to Daniel Franklin with his application to the Marine Management Organisation, to Emilie Hardouin for her application to FSBI, and to Rob Britton and Richard Stillman for their proposed consultancy with DEFRA.

For DEC, good luck with the applications submitted by Katherine Appleton to the Humane Research Trust, by Simon Thompson to the Royal Society, and by Tania Humphries-Smith to the HEA. 

For HSC, congratulations are due to Anthea Innes for her award from the NIHR and also good luck with her application to Bournemouth Churches Housing Association, as well as her consultancy training for Gracewell Healthcare together with Michele Board, Vanessa Heaslip and Sue Barker, and finally, for Anthea and Michele Board’s short course with RBCH.  Good luck also to Edwin Van Teijlingen for his application to NIHR.

Congratulations to the Media School for Liam Toms consultancy contract with Kestrel Medical Ltd, to Rebecca Jenkins for her consultancy contract with Craft Strategy Ltd.  Good luck to Stuart Allan and Einar Thorsen for their application to ESRC, and to Darren Lilleker, Dan Jackson, Richard Scullion, Einar Thorsen and Shelley Thompson for their application to ESRC, to Julian McDougall and Kris Erickson for their application to The Spencer Foundation, to Carrie Hodges and Janice Denegri-Knott for their application to the British Academy, to Iain MacRury, Chris Williams and Steve Harper for their consultancy bid to SKILLSET, and to Liam Toms with his consultancy bid to Work Research Limited.

For the School of Tourism, congratulations go to Richard Gordon for securing funding for his short courses with the MoD and NEMA, and good luck to Jon Hibbert with his contract to Liz Lean PR Ltd, to Christian Lemmer and Crispin Farbrother with their short course to Wuhan City Vocational College, to Lisa Stuchberry for her contract to NHS Dorset, to Stephen Calver with his contract to Bournemouth Borough Council, and to Nicky Pretty and Lisa Stuchberry for their contract to Godolphin Company.

For applications and bids submitted, a number of people have submitted applications to the European Commission and so good luck to Adrian Newton, Kathy Hodder, Elena Cantarello, Judith DeGroot and Chris Shiel from Applied Sciences who are investigating Bio-regional approaches to sustainability transitions, to Jon Williams, Luciana Esteves and Christos Gatzidis also from Applied Sciences. To Ian Swain who is researching the Mediterranean diet against depression, to Katherine Appleton, Emili Balaguer-Ballester for their separate applications,  all from DEC, and to Abdelhamid Bouchachia (DEC) and Hammadi Nait-Charif (MS) for their application, to Anthea Innes and Michele Board from HSC with their Erasmus application, to Edwin Van Teijlingen also from HSC, to Stuart Allan from the Media School, and to Dimitrios Buhalis, Alessandro Inversini and Katherine King, all from the School of Tourism.

Finally, good luck to Jian Jun Zhang, Xiaosong Yang and Lihua You (all MS) with their application to EPSRC for an award in Human Robot Symbiosis in a shared Nervebot for phantom limb pain, to Jonathan Williams (HSC) for his contract to the International Tennis Federation concerning Lumbo-pelvic-hip motion sharing in tennis players.  In HSC, good luck goes to Keith Brown who is applying for two separate KTPs with Brent Council and Dorset County Council.  Good luck to Venancio Tauringana in the Business School, who has submitted an application to the British Academy’s International Partnership and Mobility Scheme.

Don’t miss the ‘Festivity Mashup’ – today at 5pm in the Loft (food and drinks available)!

BU research, Research themes

You are invitied to join the Leisure and Recreation research theme for their Ideas Cafe, titled “A ‘Festivity Mashup'”!

When: 20 March 2013, 5pm – 7pm

Where: The Loft, Poole House, Talbot Campus

‘Festivity’ is an expanding and critical phenomenon that is impacting on all areas of life from events, technology and gaming, health and wellbeing, media and digital culture, to tourism, fashion and food.  ‘Festivity Mashup’ is an informal ‘eat, drink and discuss’ session that explores these areas, their research and practical applications as well as future. Don’t be worried, not all festivity is about ludic behaviours, role inversion and communing in liminoid environments. So, if you like research with a difference, where casual sociability and soft engagement mingles critique and a hint of intrigue join us in the Loft on March 20th, starting at 17:00….

Potential themes:

·         Gamification of the Live and Lived Fantasy

·         Mediated Lifestyles: Communities of Convergence

·         Wellbeing and Wonder: Edutainment in Action

·         Festivalization of the Everyday

·         Festive Identities from Parade to Protest

·         Journeys of Emotioneering & Imagineering

.         Meanings, Value and C2C Co-creation

·         Globalising Cultural Policy: Place Wars

·         Festival for Whom?: the Politics of Place

·         Experiential Dreams in the Age of the McFestival

·         Consumerism, Sustainability and Post-Festivity

·         Digital Brandscapes: New Worlds of Performative Play

If you are interested in attending please let Naomi Kay (nkay@bournemouth.ac.uk) or Julia Hastings Taylor (jhastingstaylor@bournemouth.ac.uk) know.