Oh no! Another PhD student has started a blog, what will they claim is different about theirs? The content? The interviews? What about the detailed insight into theoretical issues? Well really, everything. This blog did not start because of self-aggrandising desires, but out of demand from communities of frustrated residents, students and sportspeople.
This summer my PhD research was brought to life with a campaign to save local facilities in the most unprecedented of events! The world is increasingly seeing a practical necessity for answers to big philosophical and theoretical considerations. This was the case for me as leisure facilities were put at risk due to the Covid-19 pandemic, subsequent lockdown, and the recession that followed. This led to a reduction in leisure facilities when reopening. In becoming involved with a campaign to save these facilities, I was repeatedly told to go into politics and the media. Yet, I remain politically neutral with my own words, and have been cautious after seeing them used in left vs right discussions. However, I have heeded the advice to some extent, for I have started this blog, to build on the momentum that was garnered through the recent campaign. As highlighted above, this blog will be built by communities. The structure, the content, and even the website of this blog was put for public consultation on August 19th, with a bizarrely high number of Twitter users chiming in, many of which were interested PhD students and researchers! Social media has never really been my forte, but in receiving so many responses, I felt that maybe there is something to Twitter which I have overlooked, the power of community! I decided to open the floor again, and see the nature of blogging that these interested individuals would want to receive. I created a poll, and published it via a tweet using the same hashtags and tags as before in the hope that the 20,000+ that had seen the previous tweet would share their views with me. Whilst the numbers were not quite the same, the responses were still helpful.
So that’s that. Well, that’s this blog.People are wanting me to provide them with a broad mix of topics. The plan is to publish roughly two articles a week, one as an interview and one as a commentary piece. This will be hit and miss as I will never force anything, but there is plenty lined up! The rest of this month’s content is following on the same theme, why I started this blog. By reviewing what happened to the leisure sector over the past three months, I will explore the unique situation the sector finds itself in and those that are working tirelessly to protect it. In doing so, the format of this blog will become clear. Personally, I find that this wraps up each month as a neatly packed together issue.
Firstly Mark Tweedie, CEO of Community Leisure UK, will provide some context to the issues facing the sector and what is being done nationally to prevent community owned leisure centres from going bust! I’ll then touch on my own research and professional background by highlighting a campaign I was involved with in my hometown of Peterborough. An interview with the former Mayor of Peterborough who joined me with campaigning efforts, John Peach, will follow. This will be complemented by a commentary piece including a small research project I undertook to understand the leisure desires of residents in this City and an interview with another local campaigner and journalist Charlotte Moore, before having a meeting with the council.
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