Title: Culture, Sport and Wellbeing Evidence Review: Social Diversity and Context Matters
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: Project aims This project aims to find out about the subjective wellbeing (SWB) benefits of different culture and sport practices and how they are distributed between different groups and user communities including: males and females, different socioeconomic groups, diverse ethnic and minority groups; a range of age groups; and people with disabilities. We also wish to ensure that our findings on SWB can be most effectively combined to meaningfully inform policy about, and delivery of culture and sport activities. Definition of subjective wellbeing Throughout our project we will use the Office of National Statistics definition of SWB which monitors SWB in terms of life satisfaction, experiences of happiness and worry, and worthwhile things in life. Collaborative approach to the project To conduct our project, a group of researchers from Brunel University London, the London School of Economics and the University of Brighton will work closely with 5 stakeholder groups; policy makers, commissioners, service deliverers, leaders and the public who are interested in finding, promoting and sharing the evidence to maximise the potential of culture and sport to enhance SWB. We will run a series of workshops in the first 6 months of the project where stakeholders will have the opportunity to discuss with researchers the relevance of SWB to culture and sport and to agree key topics and questions which can be answered using systematic searches of a range of literature sources. In the remainder of the project the researchers will identify and assess the evidence for the topics suggested and report to stakeholder groups through a series of ideas exchange workshops. We will focus on ensuring that the best evidence is presented and disseminated to relevant groups so that they can use it to inform policy on and delivery of cultural and sporting practices. We have support for our project from several stakeholders in the culture and sport sectors. We recognise that stakeholders have time and workforce challenges in supporting this kind of project and so we will work to use a range of on-line and virtual methods of communication as well as face-to-face approaches. Project methods We will use a variety of established methods for systematically identifying and evaluating existing evidence on culture, sport and wellbeing for different user groups. We will collect and review a range of types of evidence from different sources including the published academic literature, reports and surveys. We can provide short written overviews of evidence, longer reports with statistical reviews, and evaluation of cost information tailored to the objectives and requirements of different stakeholder groups. Communicating the findings of our project In our project we emphasise that for research evidence to have the most impact on culture, sport and wellbeing policy and practice, the people affected by the research need to be involved in work that reviews, synthesises and shares that evidence. We will communicate our findings to stakeholders throughout our project using employing a variety of methods including face-to-face discussion groups, a project website and twitter feed, and on-line focus groups. We will deliver an end of project 'findings' conference to include the diversity of audiences that our stakeholders represent. We will also deliver 3 public exhibitions of our findings at local cultural and sporting venues (including libraries, museums and sport facilities. To ensure that our findings are communicated to a UK audience we will also hold a series of national forums in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.


Research activity codes: 3.1 PRIMARY PREVENTION INTERVENTIONS TO MODIFY BEHAVIOURS OR PROMOTE WELL-BEING
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE