With a little help from my friends: music consumption and networks

It is widely accepted that a shift has occurred in the cultural consumption patterns of those higher in the social strata. Where tastes were based around rules of exclusion, they are now based on openness to a variety of cultures, both esoteric and popular. What is less understood is how an individual’s social networks affect their cultural tastes. Using social survey data on cultural participation, we find that musical consumption is mediated and construed through networks, and these networks play a much more significant role in cultural behaviour than current theoretical frameworks suggest

Knowledge Exchange Trials: Pilot Programme Bridging the Academic-Policy Divide

The ESRC supported Manchester and Cambridge Universities to undertake pilot knowledge exchange projects in 2013-2014 to extend understanding of the issues facing social scientists seeking to interact with non academic communities and to increase knowledge of effective knowledge exchange (that helps non academics apply social science to their work for positive social and economic benefit). This is a brief summary of University of Manchester’s pilot knowledge exchange project

CIVIC LIFE: Evidence Base for the Triennial Review

This document forms part of the Equality and Human Rights Commission triennial review and covers equalities in civic life. It examines equality in political participation, freedom of language and freedom of worship. The primary aim is to map the various dimensions of equality and inequality in participation in civic and political life. We explore and review equalities, good relations and human rights in relation to civic life, and where possible we examine some of the driving forces behind the differences that we observe

Understanding football as a vehicle for enhancing social inclusion: Using an intervention mapping framework

This article outlines a partnership between an academic institute and a third sector organisation attached to a professional football club in the United Kingdom. The partnership concerns a sport for development intervention. The purpose of the article is to outline the development of applied monitoring and evaluation and the application of intervention mapping for an intervention to tackle anti-social behaviour through a football-based social inclusion project for children and young people. This case supports the development of third sector-university partnerships and the use of intervention mapping to meet shared objectives in relation to articulating the impact of interventions to funders and for research outputs

‘The man that got away’: Gender inequalities in the consumption and production of jazz

Jazz is remarkable among genres in emerging from marginalised communities to a position of status, and is also evidently male-dominated in terms of both audiences and musicians. Using the Taking Part surveys of cultural participation in England, we investigate the gender gap in jazz and how it compares with classical and rock. We find women are less likely to attend jazz concerts than men. We also report on a unique dataset of 983 musicians, and identify how the position of women in the jazz network differs from men. Women also feature lower recording productivity, an effect appearing to work directly rather than mediated by instrumental choice or period of birth. We argue that equality of access to cultural advantage requires that we attend to how gender inequalities operate within genres, both to inform measures for debiasing and also to uncover mechanisms of gender inequalities which may hold in other contexts

Physical activity assessment for public health: efficacious use of the single-item measure.

© 2015 The Royal Society for Public Health. Objectives: The accurate mass assessment of physical activity is essential for effective Public Health policy and practice. Combined with a desire to minimize participant burden, the self-reported single-item physical activity screening measure has become increasingly attractive and widespread. To help reduce any potential misclassification, refining this instrumentation in line with any changes in prescribed activity levels is essential to optimize accuracy. Study design: This study compares the levels of agreement, sensitivity and specificity for the single-item measure versus International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) using current physical activity recommendations. Methods: Agreement was assessed in a non-probability sample of 7650 adults. The κ statistic, sensitivity and specificity were used to assess agreement between the tools for classifying participants as sufficiently active for health (≥150 min of physical activity per week) or not, and being classified as inactive (<30 of minutes of physical activity per week) or not. Results: The single-item measure showed weak agreement with the IPAQ for identifying participants who met the current physical activity guidelines (κ = 0.13, 95% CI 0.12 to 0.14), sensitivity was 18.7% and specificity was 97.2%. For the classification of inactive participants it showed a moderate agreement with IPAQ (κ = 0.45, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.47), sensitivity was 74.2% and specificity was 79.7%. Conclusions: The single-item measure had a low diagnostic capacity compared to IPAQ. Further research is needed if it is to be used in large scale surveys and interventions where screening for sufficiently active or inactive individuals is the goal

Management Strategies Of Non-Profit Community Sport Facilities In An Era Of Austerity

Research Question: This qualitative research explores the impact of austerity on community sport facilities across England (United Kingdom), drawing upon resource dependence theory (RDT) embedded within network theory. Research Methods: In-depth semi-structured interview data were collected from 24 stakeholders related to community sport facilities (n=12 facility managers, n=6 regional grant managers, n=6 national funders both third sector and corporate). The qualitative data were thematically analysed to understand the impact of austerity on how community sport facilities managed their organisations and operations. Results and Findings: The findings from this research offer insight into the challenges that community sport facilities are encountering which have resulted from austerity, and a shrinking of the funding from central Government to local public services. Furthermore, different community sport facilities have navigated these challenges to maintain sustainability, essentially through adapting network structure and through income dynamism. In addition, using a network theory approach alongside RDT within a sporting context, has allowed us to address issues on how network flow and structure impact sustainability and operations within and between organisations. Implications: The article offers managerial recommendations for community sport facility managers, practitioners and policy makers who operate in times of fiscal constraint. It recommends that future sport research utilises and applies both RDT and network theory to examine these changes and the subsequent management strategies adopted to overcome the associated challenges of fiscal constraint