From The Sporting Past To Future Wellbeing: Intergenerational Sports Heritage in Glasgow's Southside
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Stirling
Department Name: Communications, Media and Culture
Abstract
'From the Sporting Past to Future Wellbeing' recognises the importance of sport in the community, as well as the connections between the past, present and future. In the shadow of debates about the social and cultural legacy of the London Olympic Games and in light of the prospect of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the project will help a diverse range of people from the community to explore the nature of sport in the community and how it has changed over time. Through a focus on the meaning of sports heritage for different generations in the community, the research will deepen our understanding of how Glasgow's past links to its future.
The research and community heritage project seeks to engage local sports clubs in inter-generational heritage research with primary school children. The project will explore the history and meaning of sport in communities through intergenerational collaboration between the academic researcher, primary school children and experienced members of Glasgow Southside's sports community. The research will reflect on the process of intergenerational heritage activities to inform future cultural histories of sport, and future wellbeing. It will contribute to the AHRC's theme 'Care for the Future' through a focus on interpreting cultural and social change in Glasgow sport, as well affording opportunities to examine the usefulness of intergenerational communication in community settings.
The project will investigate the cultural transmission of sporting cultures of the past, and its influence over, or disconnection from, contemporary sporting practices of young people. Specifically, it will explore the connections between sport and its heritage in the community among local sports clubs and school children aged between 8 and 12. It aims to enable sports clubs to connect with the wider community, in order to explore the sporting heritage themes, including places, organisations and people, with the objective of exploring the meaning of local heritage in the community.
The project intends to open up access to the film holdings of Scottish Screen Archive and other media archives for use in sports heritage projects. School children and sports clubs will be given guidance on the value of film and printed media in heritage projects, and how to interpret media as part of heritage activity. Led by the academic researcher, school children will visit the sites and relics of community sports based in Glasgow. This will encourage children to learn about the history of different clubs and venues and develop a sensory mapping of local sports culture and heritage sites. Drawing on intergenerational encounters and the field research school children will engage in a digital cultural mapping using Google Maps and other social media such as Pinterest on iPads, in order to share knowledge and experience of local sports heritage. The heritage activity will be curated online and process evaluated for its contribution to community learning. The heritage project will have the added value of creating a sense of shared pride in the area's sporting history and identity and help bring together diverse parts of the community - in terms of age, gender, ethnicity and socio-economic difference - to produce sustainable connections, positive social values around sport and provide inspiration for other community heritage groups in this field.
The researcher will collaborate with other award holders investigating Care for the Future to explore the lessons learned from the research and the share experiences with the theme network through online materials and attendance at AHRC-led workshops to enhance the wider academic impact of the research.
The research and community heritage project seeks to engage local sports clubs in inter-generational heritage research with primary school children. The project will explore the history and meaning of sport in communities through intergenerational collaboration between the academic researcher, primary school children and experienced members of Glasgow Southside's sports community. The research will reflect on the process of intergenerational heritage activities to inform future cultural histories of sport, and future wellbeing. It will contribute to the AHRC's theme 'Care for the Future' through a focus on interpreting cultural and social change in Glasgow sport, as well affording opportunities to examine the usefulness of intergenerational communication in community settings.
The project will investigate the cultural transmission of sporting cultures of the past, and its influence over, or disconnection from, contemporary sporting practices of young people. Specifically, it will explore the connections between sport and its heritage in the community among local sports clubs and school children aged between 8 and 12. It aims to enable sports clubs to connect with the wider community, in order to explore the sporting heritage themes, including places, organisations and people, with the objective of exploring the meaning of local heritage in the community.
The project intends to open up access to the film holdings of Scottish Screen Archive and other media archives for use in sports heritage projects. School children and sports clubs will be given guidance on the value of film and printed media in heritage projects, and how to interpret media as part of heritage activity. Led by the academic researcher, school children will visit the sites and relics of community sports based in Glasgow. This will encourage children to learn about the history of different clubs and venues and develop a sensory mapping of local sports culture and heritage sites. Drawing on intergenerational encounters and the field research school children will engage in a digital cultural mapping using Google Maps and other social media such as Pinterest on iPads, in order to share knowledge and experience of local sports heritage. The heritage activity will be curated online and process evaluated for its contribution to community learning. The heritage project will have the added value of creating a sense of shared pride in the area's sporting history and identity and help bring together diverse parts of the community - in terms of age, gender, ethnicity and socio-economic difference - to produce sustainable connections, positive social values around sport and provide inspiration for other community heritage groups in this field.
The researcher will collaborate with other award holders investigating Care for the Future to explore the lessons learned from the research and the share experiences with the theme network through online materials and attendance at AHRC-led workshops to enhance the wider academic impact of the research.
Planned Impact
The project has a direct social impact through collaborative engagement with Glasgow sporting communities, as well as intergenerational heritage work with young people in the Shawlands Learning Community in the Southside of Glasgow. More specifically, the research will have a wider impact on the following public policy areas and educational and cultural practices:
Heritage and Public Policy: The public engagement with community sports clubs links directly in to local, regional and national initiatives around sports development, as well as a more immediate link to policies on Olympic legacy from London 2012. It will also be of interest to sports development and heritage divisions of Glasgow Life, the cultural department of Glasgow City Council, as well as those involved in sports development and legacies of Glasgow 2014, the organising body of the Commonwealth Games. The research on community sport in Glasgow will be of interest to the national agency for sport, Sport Scotland, as well as Scottish Disability Sport and the Scottish Association of Local Sports Councils. The activities centred on the use of sports film will be of direct interest to the outreach and educational division of Scottish Screen Archive which is part of the National Library of Scotland. The research will have a wider relevance to local authorities who manage both sports development and heritage in their communities, and will provide evidence of how intergenerational projects can form part of wider social policy initiatives related to health and wellbeing for the future.
Community Sports Policy and Practice: The research will directly engage those working in the third sector for community amateur sports clubs. The connections made between sports clubs and schools will greatly benefit the visibility of sport in the community, raising the profile and development of particular clubs, as well as fostering long-term relationships which can grow after the life of the research. The evaluation of the project will be made available to key stakeholders in grassroots sport, including the Sport and Recreation Alliance, the umbrella organisation for the governing and representative bodies of sport and recreation in the UK which has more than 300 members.
Educational Practice: The intergenerational project will involve public engagement with schools in the Shawlands Learning Community located in the Southside of the city of Glasgow. This includes eleven primary schools and one secondary school. The project will help develop awareness of both sport and heritage in Glasgow among young people, in particular focusing on the role and function of amateur community sports clubs in the Southside of the city. The planned research recognizes the value of media and sport education as an essential component in the social inclusion of young people in their communities, helping the development of cultural citizenship, media literacy and self-esteem. It is also of potential value in opening up new ways of raising the profile and status of Scottish sports archives to new audiences.
Heritage and Public Policy: The public engagement with community sports clubs links directly in to local, regional and national initiatives around sports development, as well as a more immediate link to policies on Olympic legacy from London 2012. It will also be of interest to sports development and heritage divisions of Glasgow Life, the cultural department of Glasgow City Council, as well as those involved in sports development and legacies of Glasgow 2014, the organising body of the Commonwealth Games. The research on community sport in Glasgow will be of interest to the national agency for sport, Sport Scotland, as well as Scottish Disability Sport and the Scottish Association of Local Sports Councils. The activities centred on the use of sports film will be of direct interest to the outreach and educational division of Scottish Screen Archive which is part of the National Library of Scotland. The research will have a wider relevance to local authorities who manage both sports development and heritage in their communities, and will provide evidence of how intergenerational projects can form part of wider social policy initiatives related to health and wellbeing for the future.
Community Sports Policy and Practice: The research will directly engage those working in the third sector for community amateur sports clubs. The connections made between sports clubs and schools will greatly benefit the visibility of sport in the community, raising the profile and development of particular clubs, as well as fostering long-term relationships which can grow after the life of the research. The evaluation of the project will be made available to key stakeholders in grassroots sport, including the Sport and Recreation Alliance, the umbrella organisation for the governing and representative bodies of sport and recreation in the UK which has more than 300 members.
Educational Practice: The intergenerational project will involve public engagement with schools in the Shawlands Learning Community located in the Southside of the city of Glasgow. This includes eleven primary schools and one secondary school. The project will help develop awareness of both sport and heritage in Glasgow among young people, in particular focusing on the role and function of amateur community sports clubs in the Southside of the city. The planned research recognizes the value of media and sport education as an essential component in the social inclusion of young people in their communities, helping the development of cultural citizenship, media literacy and self-esteem. It is also of potential value in opening up new ways of raising the profile and status of Scottish sports archives to new audiences.
Organisations
Publications
Haynes R
(2019)
From sporting past to future well-being: sport heritage and intergenerational learning in Glasgow
in Sport in History
Haynes, R
(2015)
Hosts and Champions: Taking the Commonwealth Games Scotland Archive on tour
in Archives: Journal of the British Records Association
| Description | In responding to the 'Care for the Future' theme the research in Glasgow encouraged young people to reflect upon the concepts that are used to join together the past, present and future - including ideas about memory, legacy, heritage, and wellbeing. One broader context for the research was the prospect of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games hosted in the city, and a desire to connect aspects of the city's sporting heritage to notions of legacy, prosperity and wellbeing that are commonly associated with hosting such global sports mega-events. The research explored different creative, artistic and media modes of community engagement with the city's sporting past and through intergenerational engagement triggered senior members of the Glasgow sporting community to draw upon different emotions evoked by reflecting on the past - such as nostalgia, celebration and pride when reflecting on the longevity of particular sporting clubs in the area - many of which were formed in the mid-to-late Nineteenth Century. The project was the catalyst for 24 young people aged 9 and 10 of mixed abilities and diverse cultural backgrounds from Shawlands Primary School to connect with senior members of the local sports community aged between 48 and 80. The children met senior club representatives and visited sporting venues from in and around Shawlands, Pollokshields, Pollokshaws, Queens Park and Govanhill to investigate sporting heritage. The academic purpose of the research was to develop our understanding of how the concept of heritage is understood, contested and authenticated, and assess the role and value of sports heritage for cultural and social change. The project investigated the transmission of sporting cultures of the past, and its influence over, or disconnection from, contemporary sporting practices of young people, which tend to be highly commercialised and mediated. The intergenerational research therefore enabled young people to learn why particular sports clubs existed in their local area, and understand how their membership and association with the community may have changed over time. Through community engagement the children were encouraged to think about the sustainability of sports clubs, and in some cases interview the people who were integral to the survival of such institutions. With this in mind, the children also explored local lost spaces sport, such as the former ice rink at nearby Crossmyloof and the former football stadium at Cathkin Park, to understand where sport used to be played in the south of the city and how the urban landscape of sport had changed over time. This aspect of the research connected with the pupils knowledge and understanding of new sporting arenas in the city (many of them being built for the Commonwealth Games), enabling them to think about why certain sports venues flourish where others do not. The research used a variety of methods and activities co-created with the school and local clubs, to explore the relationships between people, places and discourses of sporting heritage, including: • Intergenerational communication; • Community heritage activities; • Engaging communities in the interpretation of sports films and visual culture; • Enabling communities to explore the continuities & transformations in sports cultures in their localities; • Experience playing particular sports, in some cases for the first time. Some of the most valuable resources used on the project were films held by Scottish Screen Archive and the newsreel archives of British Pathe, which had captured sport in the area throughout the Twentieth Century. For example, an amateur film from 1946 of the opening day at Shawlands Bowling Club, which is located adjacent to the school, revealed the ritual of the club president's wife bowling the first bowl of the season - a tradition continued to this day. Both children and senior participants had the opportunity to share their thoughts on such film, interpreting the sporting past in relation to its present and future. But by far the most valuable aspect of the research was the engagement of young people with senior members of the clubs including: • Clydesdale Cricket Club • Poloc Cricket Club • Pollok Football Club • Titwood Tennis Club • Shawlands Bowling Club • Govanhill Baths Community Trust • East Kilbride Curling Club The children recorded the reminiscences and stories of club members and used iPads to take photographs of heritage items stored by the clubs. The data collected was used to inform the pupils' projects on each sport, and a selection of this material was later posted on the project blog and used in an exhibition. The integration of community engagement, and the co-creation of the methods used in the research project, ensured the research embedded impact with the various partners from the outset. The driving principle of the research was the need to instigate intergenerational connections and dialogue between the participating school in the Shawlands Learning Community and the clubs with a view to enhancing future collaborations in the context of sport in the community. The pupils used Apple™ iPad Mini's as a technological resource to access images, film, maps and a range of information and resource sheets uploaded and created by the researcher. The iPads were also used to visually capture visits to the various clubs in the community and access apps, such as Historypin, which were used to produce a cultural mapping of sport in the south of Glasgow available to view at: (http://www.historypin.com/channels/view/45478/#|photos/list/) Working with their teacher, the children produced a wide range of creative outputs from collage, paintings, poetry, models of sports places and objects as well as recorded presentations of their findings. All this material and a range of posters created by the researcher were curated and exhibited in an exhibition held at the school with invited guests including parents, representatives from the clubs, the local sports development officer, a representative from the Hampden Experience and other children from the school. One of the guests, now 80 and a former president of Pollok Football Club, had attended Shawlands Primary as a boy, nearly seventy years previous, which provided a special moment of connection between the past and the present. Another significant output of the research was a blog maintained by the researcher: http://sportheritage.wordpress.com/. The blog became the main way of reporting on the various themes and activities of the heritage project, reviewing the available resources of sports heritage in Glasgow, aspects of specific interest around issues of gender equality, identity and place, and most crucially, providing a visual record of the community engagement activity itself accompanied by a narrative of each heritage visit written in an accessible and open tone. The blog posts were promoted via Twitter and have received an excellent reception from sports historians, sports professionals and organisations, sports charity's, academics and wider publics. |
| Exploitation Route | The research revealed the value of intergenerational sports heritage to engage communities in thinking about the connections between the past, present and future. The co-creative methods using a variety of activities from site visits, creative practices, digital mapping, blogging, video presentations and photography all helped stimulate debate and discussion on the value of sport n the community and its links to local heritage. The educational benefit across different aspects of the Curriculum for Excellence of studying the social history sport in the community were also seen to be of value and transferable to future projects of this kind. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://sportheritage.wordpress.com/ |
| Description | The research on sports heritage in Glasgow demonstrated the use of archival research, geo-referencing and mapping activities with school children to engage with communities across generations. Some of these findings were used as part of outreach work with schools as part of the touring exhibition Hosts and Champions: Scotland in the Commonwealth Games. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2014 |
| Sector | Education,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | AHRC/LABEX Franco-British Research Workshop 1 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A Franco-British Research Workshop of grant holders from the AHRC's Care for the Future grant call and LABEX's (Laboratory of Excellence) grant call 'Les passes dans le present: histoire, patrimoine, memoire' was held at the former Cistercian Abbey of Royaumont 20 miles north of Paris in January 2015. The title of the workshop was 'Delving back into the past to look into the present and future' and the main aim was to explore interconnections between the AHRC Care for the Future and LABEX Pasts in the Present research calls. Both grant themes sponsor modes of representation of the past from interdisciplinary perspectives. My talk addressed issues rallying to intergenerational connections on sports heritage in Glasgow and demonstrated the use of archival research, geo-referencing and mapping activities with school children to engage with communities across generations. The joint workshop was an excellent example of Franco-British cooperation and a new initiative for AHRC and LABEX. Andrew Thompson and director of the LABEX theme, Marie-Claire Lavabre, in their concluding remarks also indicated their clear and joint intention to launch a joint funding call between AHRC and LABEX for research projects involving collaboration between researchers from the Care for the Future theme and the LABEX 'Les Passes dans le present' theme |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://careforthefuture.exeter.ac.uk/2015/02/northcott-report-workshop-1/ |
| Description | European Film Conference, Lund, Sweden. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | I gave the presentation 'Mapping cultural heritage through sort on film: intergenerational sports heritage in Glasgow' to 30-40 academics from European universities at the European Film Cultures Conference, European Communications Research and Education Association, University of Lund, 8 - 10 November 2013. Academic networking with film and media research scholars from across Europe. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | International Sport History Conference, Barcelona |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Over 50 international sports historians, mainly from mainland Europe, attended the conference on European Sport History. My paper entitled 'Care for our sporting future: intergenerational sports heritage in Glasgow' was delivered at the European Committee for Sports History (CESH), Universitat Ramon Llull, Barcelona, 21 - 23 November 2013. International networking with other academic researchers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Pass It On: Sport Heritage in Scotland Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk given on the future purpose of sport heritage in Scotland based on my research experience of the project 'From Sporting Past to future Wellbeing' and the exhibition 'Hosts and Champions: Scotland in the Commonwealth Games'. The presentation explained the purpose and usefulness of intergenerational heritage activities and their links to the Curriculum For Excellent from early years to Level 4. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://archives.wordpress.stir.ac.uk/2017/01/05/pass-it-on-celebrating-scotlands-sporting-heritage/ |
| Description | Sport Heritage Conference (London) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The talk at the British Library presented findings from the AHRC Care for the Future development study focusing on the usefulness of intergenerational learning and oral history in sports heritage activities. The audience for the talk included sport museum practitioners, heritage managers, heritage policy advisors, publishers, journalists and academics. The talk was published on the Sporting Heritage Network website as part of their knowledge exchange activity and database. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://oralhistoryandsport.wordpress.com/conference-presentations/ |