New study probes radical rethink on culture

A £1.5 million investigation, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), has been launched to understand how society can get the most out of the vast array of often overlooked cultural activities Britons take part in. A team of experts from the universities of Warwick, Exeter and Leicester, headed up by Manchester's Andrew Miles, will seek to understand the value of hobbies, community festivals and other leisure activities, which millions of people take part in every day. The team will carry out historical analyses and produce new data to help policy makers and arts organisations target their funding more effectively. They will find out where cultural participation takes place, how it is valued, and carry trials of new policy interventions - with the help of national partners and community organisations - in Manchester, Gateshead, Peterborough and Dartmoor. Additional funding from Creative Scotland will enable two further trials will take in Aberdeen and Stornoway. Eleonora Belfiore, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at Warwick's Centre for Cultural Policy Studies said: "This is an exciting and ambitious project which will allow me to explore how, as a society, we have come to place value so firmly on certain forms of cultural participation at the expense of other, less visible types of cultural activities which are equally important in shaping our everyday experiences." Miles, who is based at the University of Manchester's Centre for Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC), said: "Though millions of Britons take part in participatory activities every day, we need to do more to understand the contribution these make to communities and places.