Cricket as a vehicle for community cohesion: Building bridges with British Muslims

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review practices and research within the social change and community cohesion disciplines, with a view to applying them in the context of British Muslims and cricket. The paper aims to discuss the role of sport, and especially cricket, to help build community cohesion and bring about social change between British Muslims and the wider British society. Design/Methodology/Approach: This paper uses an inductive and critical approach. Findings: This paper suggests that, the apolitical nature of sport and the popularity of cricket within the South-east Asian British Muslim community can be used as an effective tool to build relationships between British Muslims and the wider British Society. It calls for reflexive thought and action on the part of cricket management to engage in community projects that will enhance the image of cricket as well as genuinely benefitting the society. Originality/Value: Growth of British Muslims has created a great amount of interest from a marketing perspective. Research into Islamic Marketing and British Muslim consumers are still in its infancy. This paper introduces an under researched area of British Muslims (to date), namely British Muslim sport spectators, and calls for cricket managers and marketers to take an active approach to embarking upon social change

Career transition of UK armed forces officers

This research aims to understand the career transition of one segment of the UK armed forces – the Officers. Exisitng research, to a large extent, views the armed forces community as a single segment. However, due to various factors such as eduction levels and salaries of officer and non-officer ranks, the transition of officers and non-officers are likely to be different (MacManus, et al. 2012; Iversen, et al. 2005). Therefore, more specific understanding of various sub-segments of the UK armed forces is needed and this research aims to partially fill this need by focussing on the officer ranks of the armed forces

Can community cohesion help with radicalisation? Using music and poetry to build bridges

This paper calls for the use of music and poetry to make a concerted effort towards bridging the gap between communities in the UK. This paper proposes that bringing youth from various parts of the community can lead to a reduced risk of religious radicalisation by: a) creating a sense of community and belonging, b) providing a platform through music and poetry to express frustrations and disenfranchisement felt by youth

Service needs of the UK armed forces community

Public awareness and interest in the UK armed forces has increased over the years as a result of their involvement in various conflict situations. Research has also identified the increasing support and services that the armed forces community needs, including mental wellbeing and transition to civilian life. The voluntary sector has played a key role in providing support and services for the armed forces community in the UK. Gaining a more in-depth understanding of the armed forces community and their needs would help the various service charities to plan and deliver their services as well as promote themselves more effectively. The purpose of this research was to understand and identify the service needs of one cohort of the UK armed forces - officers and their families. Qualitative, in-depth interviews of case workers and beneficiaries of a service charity working with officers and their families were carried out, as well as observations and discussions with various service charities and attendees of veterans outreach services. Thematic analysis of the interviews, observations and discussion notes helped identify eight specific service needs that are important to the officers and their families

A Postgraduate Marketing Programme’s Journey Towards Internationalisation

Internationalisation has been a significant focus of educational institutions for some time now and yet many institutions are still grappling with the most effective way to achieve it. This case study provides a critical review of steps taken within a marketing postgraduate programme towards internationalisation. Three key steps are outlined here, with a view to sharing lessons learnt at each step: module-level approach, optional virtual exchange and programme-level approach. The paper concludes that internationalisation at home is a more inclusive way forward and that faculty development, use of technology and clearly defined learning outcomes are critical elements in securing effective internationalisation

Perceptions of non-profit brands through the lens of PCP

This paper investigates the brand perceptions of service charities (non-profit organisations established to provide services for the UK armed forces community) from the perspective of its service users

Enhancing student employability in challenging times.

Blog - technical Report- No abstract available

Enhancing employability: a student-led project using LinkedIn

Viewpoints is a LinkedIn based blog forum where students of the MA Marketing Suite of programmes share their thoughts and learning with the professional community. The aim of the project was to enable students to showcase their skills to potential employers and develop a professional network

Defining social change as social action: HE's role in addressing social change

Recent resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement across the world is a reminder for HE institutions that we have a key role to play in enabling that our graduates are competent in creating and delivering effective social change. This needs for us to move on from creating awareness of social issues to equipping our students to create and deliver social action. Education and measurement are key in helping us achieve this